TALKWORKS Wellbeing for Parenthood workshops

TALKWORKS are running 'Wellbeing for Parenthood' workshops for anyone who is pregnant or has a child under the age of two. The service welcomes partners to come along too, either as a support or to learn ways of managing their own wellbeing.

This week is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, which raises the importance of mental health difficulties during pregnancy and after having a baby. These dedicated workshops are helping parents to build resilience and increase wellbeing in pregnancy and parenthood.

Becky Powell, Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner at TALKWORKS said: "We normalise the difficulties that parents can face during pregnancy and in the first two years, and the impact that COVID has had this last year. We then introduce cognitive behavioural therapy and look at tools to help manage depression and anxiety in this period of time. We focus on managing worry, setting goals, establishing routine, building positive communication and sleep. The workshop is really nice to be alongside other parents that are also experiencing very similar difficulties, it is really reassuring that you are not alone."

The workshops can be directly accessed without needing an assessment from TALKWORKS, find out more about the Wellbeing for Parenthood workshop or contact the service on 0300 555 3344.

Priority service for pregnant women and new parents

TALKWORKS also offer a priority service for women in the perinatal period. Becky said: "We aim to see a woman for assessment within two weeks of referral and then prioritise further treatment sessions. We offer 1:1 work at step 2, which is mostly remote over the phone or online via SilverCloud which has a specific perinatal module and gives mum’s more flexibility about when they access the content, these options can be really helpful and flexible when trying to plan this into day to day life with a baby. In our 1:1 work we would focus on a specific tool to help to manage anxiety or depression in the perinatal period. We work collaboratively to develop goals which may help to decide which strategy will be most helpful to focus on."

TALKWORKS can also assess and offer treatment for birth trauma, or trauma that is triggered or presents in the perinatal period.

Nicola Haycock, High Intensity Therapist with TALKWORKS said: "We continue to prioritise women who might need to be stepped up for high intensity therapy, this is again 1:1 therapy which is offered remotely via telephone on over a video platform which makes accessing therapy much easier to juggle with demands of being a parent. We also assess and offer treatments for maternal OCD, Tokophobia (fear of giving birth) and birth trauma, or trauma that is triggered or presents in the perinatal period."

Find out more about parental support available from TALKWORKS.