In Formby and Online via Zoom
Face to Face Counselling in Formby
Support for people who are in the trenches of new parenthood
Do you feel worried or overwhelmed most of the time?
Do memories of your difficult birth keeping popping into your mind?
Maybe you feel low-level rage on a daily basis now that you're a parent?
Are you wondering who on earth you are now?
The postnatal period is an absolute rollercoaster.
While social media and well-meaning friends and family will tell you that this is supposed to be the 'best time of your life',
the reality is that becoming a mother or parent is a huge transition and we might need some support.
About Me
Hello! I'm Ruth. As a psychotherapist and certified postnatal doula, I specialize in working with new parents like you. I understand first-hand how difficult the postnatal period can be because I have lived experience of postnatal anxiety and depression. Counselling turned my parenting journey around; it wasn't always easy but it was definitely worth it. It helped me make my peace with not being the perfect parent. I now know myself really well and have the tools to ground myself when the big feelings threaten to descend.
I am really passionate about helping parents to overcome the stuff that is getting in the way of them being the parents and the people they want to be, even if they're not sure exactly what that looks like yet.
I have a Level 7 Postgraduate Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling (distinction) from Staffordshire University and have experience in working with depression, anxiety, grief & loss and trauma in particular.
I regularly attend CPD courses to keep my knowledge and skills up to date. I have completed additional training in loss and bereavement, baby loss and working with highly sensitive people among other things.
How Can Counselling Help?
Life is often anything but straightforward. However, modern society prizes independence and capability so we are often expected to just get on with things or to ‘grin and bear it’, which can make things worse. How many times have you pasted on a smile as you walk into a baby group when you really want to cry or your anxiety is through the roof? Counselling provides a safe space to be yourself and to explore the good, the bad and the ugly of your experience.
My counselling room is a judgment-free zone where you are allowed to say the things that you can’t say anywhere else. While family and friends might panic or go into 'fix-it' mode when you try to be honest about your experience, my clients tell me that I have a calm, reassuring presence that gives them permission to tell it like it is.
My aim is to help you to develop more self-compassion as you explore who you are now and what you want and need in life. My sessions will empower you to own your experiences and feelings so that you feel able to make decisions and can find the best way forward for you without worrying about what other people think.
My approach to therapy is integrative, which means that I draw on a range of counselling theories and tools. Broadly, I'll ensure that you feel safe in the counselling room so that you can be open and honest. I'll also help you to make sense of your patterns and take into account outside factors (e.g. your family, work or wider society) that might be affecting your mental health so that you can change things that aren't working for you.
People come to me for help with a wide range of issues.
Here are a few of the experiences that can be supported through counselling:
Feelings of stress or anxiety
Intrusive thoughts
Relationship problems or changes
Grief, loss or bereavement
Trauma and post-traumatic stress
Depression
Problems with confidence or self-esteem
Feeling lost
Infertility and trying to conceive
Miscarriage
Find Out Who You Are Now
Parenthood is a transformative time. Lots of clients tell me that they're not sure who they are and that they don't feel like themselves any more. The counselling process will help you work out what is really important to you and who the new version of you might be.
Take the First Step Towards Being the Best Version of You
You don’t have to navigate this journey alone. You are important! Reach out today to book a free 20 minute consultation to see if I could be the therapist for you and start on your path to feeling better. We'll work together to bring balance back into your life so that you can be the parent you want to be.
Contact Me
Appointments currently available on Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about how counselling works, or to arrange an initial appointment. This enables us to discuss the reasons you are thinking of coming to counselling, whether it could be helpful for you and whether I am the right therapist to help.
Alternatively you can reach me by phone at 07516 785213.
All enquires are usually answered within 24 hours, and all contact is strictly confidential and uses secure phone and email services.
My Location
Counselling sessions last 50 minutes and take place either online via Zoom or face-to-face in my counselling room in Formby.
My practice is easily accessible from the surrounding areas of Crosby, Southport, Liverpool and Ormskirk. Parking is available.
Sessions and Fees
Counselling sessions last 50 minutes and take place either online via Zoom or face-to-face in my counselling room in Formby. The investment for initial appointments is £60.
Pay-as-you-go counselling sessions are priced at £65 and usually take place weekly. I also offer bundles of 6 sessions at a cost of £360 (£60/ session) (terms and conditions apply).
Please note that I require at least 24 hours notice for a cancelled session otherwise you will still need to pay for any sessions missed.
Birth Trauma Sessions
I also offer 3 step rewind for birth trauma. This consists of an initial 90 minute session and a follow-up/ consolidation session of around 40 mins the following week. 3 step rewind can take place online or in-person. The investment is £400 in total for the two sessions.
Following the sessions, clients talk about feeling a great sense of release and that their birth experience is firmly in the past.
Birth or Breastfeeding Debrief Sessions
These sessions are perfect if you don't feel like you need ongoing counselling but would like a space to unpack your feelings around your birth or a difficult breastfeeding journey. Perhaps things happened very quickly in the birth and you haven't had the time and space to process what happened. Maybe you are having difficult feelings around your birth or breastfeeding experience but don't feel like you can talk to family and friends about it; a lot of people can be met with unhelpful comments such as "you and the baby are healthy; that's all that matters" when they try. It is possible to be grateful for a healthy baby AND to still have difficult feelings that you need to process.
Investment: £111 per 90 minute session (face-to-face or online)
Partner Package
This package is perfect for you and your partner to look at one particular thing that you would like to work on individually. It could be that you both need space to unpack a difficult birth. It could be that you haven't had time to catch your breath since becoming parents and that you need a safe space to reflect on the changes to your life. It could be that your relationship has felt strained since your baby arrived and you would like some space to understand what is going on for you.
2x 50 minute sessions per partner to be used in a 1 month period
Sessions can be face-to-face or online
Investment: £250
Frequently Asked Questions
The length of counselling work will vary from person to person and will depend on what you would like to work on. Before we begin any work, we will agree on the initial number of sessions we’ll undertake, and at the end of that number we’ll review our progress. As long as we both agree further therapy will be of benefit to you, sessions can continue.
Counselling is usually shorter term and focuses on understanding and moving forward with one issue; the minimum number of sessions that I usually recommend is 6. Psychotherapy is usually longer term as we would be working on deeper-seated issues so the number of sessions can be open-ended.
I also offer the time-limited 3 step rewind technique for birth trauma, which takes place over two sessions one week apart.
3 step rewind is a gentle technique based on NLP (neuro linguistic programming). It helps you to release difficult thoughts or feelings that you might still be having about your birth weeks, months or even years later. After the sessions, you will still remember the birth but it will feel firmly in the past. Previous clients have talked about feeling like a weight has been lifted off their shoulders or feeling a sense of peace and acceptance around what happened.
You wouldn’t need to tell me your birth story if you don’t want to but you would need to be able to go back to what happened in your mind so this is not for you if the experience is still very recent and raw.
The first session is an opportunity to explore how the birth is affecting you in the present and how you would like this to be different. We then embed this through the rewind technique, which is a combination of deep relaxation and visualisation. The second session is a consolidation session to reinforce the gains made in the previous session.
The investment is £400 in total for both sessions.
Where possible, it is usually better for the work if you are able to attend your sessions alone. This is because babies can (understandably!) be distracting and you may not feel that you can say certain things or really open up about your experience of motherhood with your baby in the room.
However, I understand that there may be times when clients need to bring their babies with them in order to attend the sessions. If you would like to bring your baby, we would discuss the pros and cons of doing this in a free 20 minute discovery call before agreeing to work together. Babies are only able to attend until they are crawling for health and safety reasons.
Everything that is said in the counselling room is private and confidential. I take this very seriously as an important part of counselling and psychotherapy is feeling able to say the things that you can’t say to anybody else.
However, there may be times that I need to break confidentiality for legal reasons, for example, I would need to break confidentiality if you disclose anything related to drug trafficking or terrorism. I would also need to break confidentiality for safeguarding reasons if there was a situation where you or others were at risk of harm. I go through all the exceptions to the confidentiality agreement really carefully as part of the contracting process in our first session so that all my clients are clear about when I would need to break confidentiality.
My aim is to offer a first appointment - known as an initial assessment – as soon as possible after you get in touch. We would then agree on a set number of counselling sessions to take place at the same time every week. If you are unable to attend during any of the slots that are currently available, I can put you on the waiting list for a convenient time and would give you an idea of how long the waiting list currently is.
No, this is optional. The 20 minute call or Zoom is a great way for you to get a sense of whether we might be a good fit to work together without making a financial investment. However, if you know that you just want to get started, I can book you straight in for an initial 50 minute session either in person or online. You can book this through making an enquiry through my website or by emailing me direct: info@formbypostnatalcounselling.com
Absolutely! Having children is a monumental shift for the whole family but dads/ partners can often get forgotten about by midwives, health visitors and even other family members. Around 9% of dads/ partners experience postnatal anxiety or depression but the actual figure is likely to be much higher than this because so many of this group don't feel able to seek support and so are not counted in the statistics.