Mum-Me

ABOUT MUM-ME THERAPY..

Mum-Me is a course of therapy but we work with more of a focus for each of the sessions.  Sarah was moved to develop this programme following her research study looking into the experience of women becoming mothers.  During the course of her research, Sarah was struck by a number of issues:

• The huge shift and feeling of transition that women are trying to navigate in motherhood, which impacts their sense of self and identity in a deeply significant way. This shift is perhaps greater than ever before as women’s roles have evolved so that the gap between ‘pre-mum-me’ and ‘mum-me’ can feel harder to bridge.  Other factors contribute to this such as the way in which modern mums, for a variety of reasons often have less family and social support around them to help with the process of adjustment.

• Research supports the notion that as our children progress through different life stages, as parents we are catapulted into new phases of transition too. As they adapt, we also need to adapt and this can at times feel very hard, triggering difficult feelings.  Commonly, when preschoolers begin primary school, during the challenges of raising teenagers or when children go off to university as young adults, a period of talking therapy to help support through these transitions can be extremely helpful.

• These very significant life transitions are often playing out whilst our parental expectations of ourselves are much higher; sometimes transported from the workplace and from wider cultural messages received through powerful multimedia messages. Women are often faced with an impossible gap between idealised expectations and the reality of their experience.

• The women who took part in the study seemed to experience huge benefits in having the opportunity to talk. This was something that almost felt contrary to their sense of what they ‘should’ be doing as they felt that their focus should be on their children – as if it were indulgent to focus on themselves. Spending some time thinking about what they were feeling, with the focus on them as a ‘ME’ as well as a ‘MUM’ helped them to understand themselves better and make more of a sense of their experience. This seemed to empower them in a way that actually strengthened their resources.

In an initial consultation, Sarah will introduce a number of themes to be explored and together we will tailor the programme to suit individual needs. Typically some of the topics might include an exploration of:

• Expectations of Self;
• Labor and birth;
• Sexual identity and body image;
• Relationship and the couple;
• Family dynamics;
• Social identity;
• Conflict, Loss and Guilt;
• Career;
• Time and Space;
• Change and Transition.
• Confidence and Self esteem.

Mum-Me typically involves 12-16 sessions.  Some clients decide to continue with longer-term work following the programme.