Integrative Perinatal Counselling

This book presents "the Becoming Model", an integrative perinatal counselling model that provides a practical clinical framework to therapists working with those for whom the question of becoming a parent seems central. Becoming a parent changes your identity, household, worldviews, relationships, priorities and previous life goals. Based on the notion that one does not become a mother or a father overnight, rather that it is a process of "becoming", this model provides a roadmap for therapists (psychoanalytic, behavioural, humanistic, integrative and others) looking to understand and explore their client's experience of this transitional journey through talk-therapy. It defines the unique field of perinatal counselling, highlights major clinical considerations, presents clinical observations by drawing from real-life cases and provides the therapist with one-stop-information guides on each theme (ten) and sub-theme (40) by drawing from existing research i.e. evidence-based practice. Arguably one of the few counselling models specific to the perinatal period, this user-friendly guide, which is applicable to any modality, is designed to support psychotherapists, counsellors, nurses, midwives, and other mental health professionals working therapeutically with those who are going through the pre- or peri-natal period, or those who have experienced perinatal loss.