Perinatal Mental Health & Early Parenthood

Pregnancy and becoming a parent can bring significant changes to how you experience yourself, your relationships and everyday life. While this can be a meaningful time, it can also bring anxiety, uncertainty, low mood and feelings that are difficult to understand or talk about.

You might be finding the transition to motherhood more difficult than you expected, struggling with the demands of caring for a baby, or feeling unlike yourself. Sometimes, becoming a parent can also bring earlier experiences and feelings about your own childhood into sharper focus.

I offer individual therapy for new and expecting parents navigating pregnancy and early parenthood, with a particular interest in the emotional and relational experiences of becoming a mother.

Adjusting to motherhood

The transition to motherhood can bring significant changes to your sense of identity, relationships, priorities and expectations. You might feel overwhelmed by the experience, surprised by the intensity of your emotional responses, or uncertain about how to find your own way through this new stage of life.

There can be many expectations about what motherhood should look like and how you should care for your baby. Advice from family, friends and the wider world can sometimes make it harder to trust your own feelings and instincts, or to find an approach that feels right for you and your baby.

You may also be navigating changes in your relationship with your partner, a different sense of independence, or feeling less connected to parts of yourself that were important before having a baby.

Early experiences, attachment and becoming a parent

Becoming a parent can bring new questions about your own childhood and the relationships you grew up with. You might find yourself thinking about how you were cared for, what you received or missed out on, and what you want your relationship with your child to be like.

Sometimes, experiences that felt settled or distant can become more present once you are caring for a child yourself. You might notice strong emotional reactions, worries about repeating aspects of your own upbringing, or uncertainty about how to respond when your baby needs you.

Therapy can help you explore these experiences and understand how your own history may be shaping the way you experience parenthood and your relationship with your child.

Emotional experiences of pregnancy and early parenthood

Pregnancy and early parenthood can bring or intensify anxiety and depression. You might experience persistent worry, intrusive thoughts, difficulty switching off, low mood, irritability or a sense of emotional flatness.

Sometimes these feelings are connected to the demands and uncertainty of caring for a baby. At other times, they may be harder to understand, particularly when you feel you should be coping or enjoying this stage of life.

Difficult experiences during fertility treatment, pregnancy or birth, including pregnancy loss or birth trauma, can also continue to affect how you experience early parenthood.

Therapy may be helpful if you are experiencing

  • Difficulties adjusting to motherhood or the transition to parenthood

  • Antenatal or postnatal anxiety and depression

  • Persistent worry or emotional overwhelm

  • Changes in identity, relationships or sense of self

  • Guilt, self-criticism or uncertainty about your experience as a mother

  • Earlier experiences or family relationships becoming more present

  • Difficulties feeling connected to yourself, your baby or others

  • The impacts of perinatal loss

How I work with perinatal difficulties

My approach is attachment-informed and draws on interpersonal and psychodynamic perspectives. I am interested in understanding the emotional and relational experiences of pregnancy and early parenthood, including how your own experiences of being cared for may shape how you experience becoming a parent.

Together, we explore what this transition has been like for you, the feelings and relationships it brings into focus, and the changes you are navigating. This may include thinking about your relationship with your baby, the expectations you hold for yourself as a mother, and how you are finding your own way through this new stage of life.

Thinking about beginning therapy?

If you are finding this stage of life difficult, or would like to better understand your emotional experience of becoming a parent, you are welcome to get in touch. The first few sessions give us time to understand what has brought you here and whether working together feels like the right fit.

Begin enquiry

Individual Therapy for Perinatal Mental Health & Early Parenthood in East Melbourne

I offer individual therapy in East Melbourne and via telehealth across Australia for expecting and new parents navigating pregnancy and early parenthood.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • No. You may simply be finding the adjustment / transition to parenthood difficult, or wanting to understand some of the feelings and experiences that have emerged during this time.

  • Yes. I work with women trying to conceive, during pregnancy, and in the postnatal period.

  • Yes. Becoming a parent can bring earlier experiences and relationships into focus. This can include memories, feelings and questions about how you were cared for and the kind of relationship you hope to have with your child.

  • Weekly sessions are typically recommended to support continuity in the work. I am currently offering short- to medium-term therapy.