Your first few appointments with a psychologist will focus on getting to know one another and form an assessment phase of therapy. Here, the psychologist seeks out the necessary background information from you directly, and possibly your psychiatric report, and formulates a plan on how they feel you can best be managed with psychological techniques. From then on, the duration and frequency of sessions will vary based on both your preference, and the psychological therapy used but, in most cases, sessions will take place once a week for 50 minutes.
A therapeutic relationship is based on mutual trust, respect, learning, and openness - for many, this kind of relationship may be new in and of itself and can be a valuable experience in sharing thoughts and feelings with another person.
There is no one size fits all approach for psychological therapy in the context of women’s mental health and our team of highly experienced clinical and counselling psychologists use a variety of evidence-based treatments, approaches and methods that will address your concerns. Various types of talking therapies, often but not always CBT or its derivatives, can be employed in the treatment of different symptoms, and your psychologist would work alongside you to find a combination of approaches and techniques that feel right for you.
The perinatal period is defined as the duration of one’s pregnancy and up to 12 months of the post-natal period. For perinatal women as well as those who are seen up to three years after the post-natal period, assessment will include gaining information and understanding of your perinatal experience. During the early postnatal period, wherever possible, it is helpful for your baby to be present with you during your therapy sessions, whether online or face to face. This helps new mums to gain access to therapy where child-care may be a barrier.
Your therapist can adapt therapy, session structure, and timings accordingly to help accommodate your baby’s presence with what is most beneficial to enable overall progress from therapy. In some instances, however, it may be more beneficial for you to arrange child-care for some of your sessions. Example of this may be if your child is actively mobile, engaging you so that it becomes difficult for you to focus on your therapy, or the topic content means it is best to be spoken about on your own; your therapist will discuss your preferences with you.
