Wellness Support Options

If you are experiencing mild to moderate anxiety, struggling after a difficult or traumatic birth or have miscarriage or loss, you're not alone and I would love to support you. Please look through my offerings to see how what I offer, could help, and message me for prices.

Struggling after a difficult or traumatic birth experience?

1. Birth Reflections

Are you looking for someone to hold your space while you share your story? To listen with respect, validation, confidentiality and unwavering compassion in a safe and supportive space? Are you looking for someone to go through your maternity notes with to perhaps better understand what happened?  Maybe to help you start thinking about future births? As a birth worker with a Social Work background I will use my listening and counselling skills to offer a non-judgmental opportunity for you to talk. Using a Simpkin and Klaus' tool 'Self Assessment of Maternal Distress After a Difficult Birth', you are invited to talk through as much or as little as you feel comfortable sharing and how it made you feel. The session ends with a grounding guided relaxation which will also be recorded and sent to you.

Venue: Via zoom or in person, Wellington. Duration: Stand alone session. Approximately 2 hours.

 

2. Birth planning after Birth trauma

Are you wanting to get pregnant again but feeling blocked by a previous birth trauma? Is your baby's estimated due date coming up and you're feeling increasingly anxious because of what happened last time? In addition to Birth Reflections, we will go on to identify the parts of your  previous birth that were most challenging, and what you need to be different this time round. This includes strategies of effective communication with your care provider, tools for coping with anxiety, and how to write a birth plan/preferences that put your emotional wellness and mental at the heart.

Venue: Via zoom or in person, Wellington. Duration: Stand alone session. Approximately 2.5 hours.

 

3. 3 Step Rewind

Even though your experience occurred in the past do you feel that it is still very present in your mind and is still affecting you? If you are experiencing debilitating trauma symptoms as  a result of your traumatic birth, 3 Step Rewind can help.

It’s not unusual after any traumatic event for a person to feel out of sorts and in a state of shock.

Reoccurring, unwanted thoughts about the birth that run on a constant replay in the mind can be exhausting and produce anxiety.  Stress, anxiety, hyper vigilance, flashbacks and nightmares can remain, making it harder to enjoy your new baby, and life as a new parent. You may feel that you wish to move on but inexplicably you are unable to put it behind you.

Some parents experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD) after a difficult birth. If, after 3 months of giving birth you find that thinking about, or being reminded of your birth experience, triggers an emotional response that is impacting on your day to day function, (flashbacks, nightmares, hyper vigilance, difficulty sleeping, irritable, anxiety, sadness or avoidance for example), then you may benefit from something more than just talking about your experience.

Some trauma symptoms can be confused with Post Natal Depression (PND).  Anxiety and panic for example are symptoms of both disorders. Trouble sleeping can be present with both trauma and PND. Left untreated it is not uncommon for trauma symptoms to cause depression. Living day to day with trauma symptoms of high anxiety, hyper vigilance, anger, sadness, recurrent thoughts, nightmares and flashbacks can drag a person down into a very low mood and depression.

By treating the trauma symptoms first, a window of opportunity is created to tackle the other symptoms of PND.  This is where the 3 Step Rewind Technique comes in.

3 Step Rewind occurs in 3 stages:

  • Stage 1, session 1. Approximately 90 minutes.
    The purpose of session 1 is to have your story heard (should you want to tell it, you don’t have to if you don’t want to), to understand how it is still impacting on your day to day life now and how you would like to feel if these feelings/ways of responding were lifted. I will take you through a short guided relaxation practice.
  • An  MP3 recording of the relaxation will be provided to practice in the lead up to session 2.
  • Stage 2, session 2. Approximately 60 minutes.
    In this session we use Rewind to re-process the memory of your birth so it no longer holds any emotional charge or anxiety. While deeply relaxed I will support you to play the memory of your birth in 3 ways  - a double dissociated state, dissociated state, and associated state, each time playing it through then rewinding it back to the beginning of the memory. I will then invite you, while still deeply relaxed, to imagine yourself in the future with the feelings you want to experience, so you can experience your future solution state whilst deeply relaxed. You remain in control at all times.
  • Step 3, session 3. Approximately 45 minutes.
    This is an opportunity to check back with you to see that those changes have taken place.  The focus is to build confidence and resilience so that you no longer feel like you are owned by what happened and are able to begin enjoying your life again.
Venue: Via Zoom or in person, Wellington.

 

Experienced baby loss or miscarriage?

1. Supporting Baby Loss and Miscarriage

The loss of your baby, at any length of pregnancy or age is an absolute tragedy. Understandably, perinatal grief and trauma can heavily impact on your mental and emotional health and without proper support, you may feel like you cannot cope.  Whilst grief is a natural expression the loss of your baby, the trauma experienced can be more lasting and can make grief complicated long term.  You are not alone.

Baby loss and miscarriage are tragically common perinatal traumas. Did you know that one in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage and 14 babies die every day before, during or in the weeks after birth?

Perinatal grief and trauma can heavily impact on parents mental and emotional health and without proper support their ability to cope too.

Whilst grief is a natural expression after this kind of devastating loss the trauma experienced can be more lasting and can make grief complicated long term.

Those experiencing early or recurrent miscarriage may struggle to find professional, emotional support.

And for those experiencing baby loss, although there are good peer support groups established through amazing charities like SANDS, we lack NZ wide availability of specialist, perinatal grief and trauma therapy.

I am here for you. To listen, hold space, and support you to navigate the grief and trauma.

Venue: Via Zoom or in person, Wellington.

 

Experiencing mild to moderate anxiety and looking for tools?

1. Anxiety Toolkit and Building Resilience

Coming Soon!