Two years ago in a Dublin yoga studio.....

Why perinatal mental health is so central to our clinical psychology practice

Two years ago this week on 11th March 2023, in a beautiful yoga studio in Dublin city centre, a group of 10 women gathered together. We spent a morning together exploring motherhood - how we transition into it, what this means for our psychological, emotional, and physical selves, and how we can care for ourselves as people in the midst of all of this.

Nine of the women in that group - including one of the facilitators - were expectant mothers at the time of our meeting.

We spoke and shared and made meaning together.

This was our first ever Cradle workshop. Our first ever Cradle anything really!

We had begun developing our service in earnest just a couple of months earlier, with the explicit aim of supporting expectant mothers around the transition to parenthood. We were two clinical psychologists, both still working within the public health sector but with an eagerness to do something different. We chose to offer our first workshop in person, in a tranquil and beautiful setting, with an intimate group. We worked for hours upon hours to develop content that was evidence-based, practically useful, and emotionally validating.

The workshop felt more special and meaningful than we ever could have imagined!

And it allowed us to build our Cradle services from that very important and significant place - the transition to parenthood.

Because we knew, and we still know, that the perinatal period is filled with change, adjustment, uncertainty, and heightened emotion – including anxiety

We also knew and still know that there is a lot of information for soon-to-be and new parents to take in.

We strongly believed and still believe that a space is needed during the perinatal period for reflection, understanding and learning.

We all come to parenthood with our own life experiences:

•Our own childhood experiences

•Our own experiences of being parented

•Our own experiences of the journey to pregnancy

•Our own experiences of the healthcare system

•Our own life demands and stressors

•Our own internal models of emotional regulation

And in our workshop we made space for all of those things, as well as lots of practical information and support.

We are so proud of our emotional preparation for parenthood workshops.

And we are so proud to be at a place with our service that we can now offer a version of this workshop for free, available and accessible for all expectant and new parents.

If you are an expectant or new parent, or if you have any expectant or new parents in your life, please join us or extend the invitation for our upcoming free workshop on 5th April at 10am.

Register here: Select tickets – Preparing Psychologically for Parenthood: An Essential FREE Workshop – Zoom

And visit our website cradlepsychology.com for more information about all of our services.