Originally published September 15, 2011.
I am in Seattle from Wednesday to Sunday for Postpartum Support International’s (PSI) Annual Conference. I just attended the first day of Psi’s Perinatal Mood Disorders Training with Birdie Gunyon Meyer, RN, MA, and Pec Indman, EdD, MFT.
So far so great!
So far, the training reinforces the research findings of many factors influence mom’s mental health (and mom’s mental health is central to a healthy family!)
Experiences such as circumstances of the pregnancy, prior pregnancies, pregnancy loss, a woman’s personal experience of birth, relationship status, domestic violence, marital satisfaction, familial supports, and past mental health status all need to be assessed when working with new moms.
AND the energy in the room is just fantastic! It’s wonderful meeting so many professionals specializing in the field of Maternal Mental Health, or what I also call the Emotions of Pregnancy and Birth. I feel so well, NOT ALONE! Just imagine the moms out there who actually do have access to all of these pros in their neighborhoods, using their health insurance.
You don’t need to feel alone! WE ARE BANDING TOGETHER! WE ARE HERE!
PSI’s topic this year is Whole Care for the Whole Family. The roster of topics and speakers is awesome. A sampling of the clinical track, Leslie Butterfield, PhD, speaking about attachment issues of working with families of premature infants, and Ruth Paris, PhD, Ellen Devoe, Abby Ross, and Kathleen Bruder focus on the experience of mothers in the military, the special issues of having a baby born during deployment, and the high occurrence of PMD in this population. There is also a Complementary Care Track this year, and Kelly Foulkrod, MS, LPA, RYT, is speaking about integrating yoga into talk therapy fro PMD. I am presenting about BirthTouch®, shiatsu and acupressure for the childbearing year. Current research shows that depressive symptoms are relieved by brief sessions of touch therapy over a course of eight weeks, making this a promising self-help family tool.
Stay tuned for more info about this significant event in the meta field of mental health, more specifically, maternal mental health, and perinatal mood disorders.
I am charged up! It’s a great lead in to October, which is Mental Health Month!
There is so much work to do! So much education to be done! So many clients to attend to!
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