Its important as a Parent, MAN and FATHER to look after your Mental Health, please take a read... 

I am Genovieve passionate through personal and professional experience eager to reach out and provide support and psychoeducation (the missing jigsaw, in some men’s upbringing), to combat mental health issues within the family dynamics. Did you know… men and women express their psychological stress in very different ways and are much less likely to get help for their problems from health services Ref (Robertson et al, 2015).

In becoming a parent 1 in 5 women and 1 in 10 men are likely to be affected with mental health issues in the first year on onwards if not addressed early; should parents not receive support or treatment it will not only impact your intimate relationship, it will have a tremendous impact on your babies/children and their attachment/bonding schemas and cause them mental health concerns. Children who are born into circumstances of families (fathers) with mental health issues, are more at risk of emotional or behavioural difficulties, whether or not their mother is affected by perinatal mental problems REF (Ramchandani et al, 2008; Ramchandani et al, 2005).

So in general, society has very little research in place in this area of postnatal depression in dads; there is one previous study that focused specifically on dads with depression Ref (Edhborg et al, 2015). This research that has been done says that it’s “vague and difficult to detect” (Hammarlund et al, 2015) so this is obviously an area desperately in need of exploration, to help make changes in society. I have had personal experience of this and as a mother of two sons I have a yearning to make sure they are the best parents, they can be, despite their own personal upbringing, and my client/therapeutic work I love working passionately with male clients we bond and get down to serious repair using Integrative #Psychotherapy ‘#EMDR’ and #Somatic #TraumaTherapy. I am on a mission to make a small dent in the figures of the wonderful males who would benefit with understanding ‘paternal stress’ ‘#anxiety’ ‘#mental stress’.

Do you feel as a man, like the spare tyre, unclear of where you fit in as a parent?  Unconfident, apprehensive as to how or what is expected of you in being/becoming a father? And when it comes, to allowing those issues to surface how do you go about indicating, demonstrating, acknowledging that you don’t have the inkling or the foggiest of what to do about it?

Research indicates that 20% of women progress to have a mental health issue during pregnancy peri- postnatal even over a year after birth Ref (Bauer et al, 2014), men have been entwined with a lack of understanding of the psychological and physiological changes that occur for women, how difficult it has been to support your partner, how hard have you found it, to know what best to do in the moment of despair? It builds and builds and eventually the volcano erupts, when you least expect it. For women they get the acknowledgement, care, support, look to resolve peri/postnatal mental health issues right? And you guys… What about you, you deserve and should care enough to at least know that #MentalHealthIssues simply do not go away, you matter; #menmatter #fathersandchildren #familiesmatter. Research proposes that men stereotypically depend on on women for parenting knowledge, so imagine the development of parenting by fathers that could benefit from direct programs and health care support just as women, to engage, be provided with skills and confidence to lift and eliminate mental health conditions within the home/family?

If you’re reading this and would like more advice or support I can certainly direct you to good sources of further information or help personally should you need professional interventions - #executiveclinicalcoaching #businessclinicalcoach. #MentalHealthPsychotherapy  

Call Me   #GenovieveFeasey