Motherhood and Mental Illness A Relational Treatment Approach

Motherhood and Mental Illness offers an in-depth, comprehensive relational psychotherapeutic framework to provide effective treatment for those experiencing maternal mental illness. This book addresses a current deficit in mental health resources and treatment and is designed to be an accessible, practical guide into the types and manifests of disorders and the diagnosis, treatment and management of maternal mental illness. It gives a solid understanding of the nature and complexity of maternal mental illness and offers clear guidance on how to provide treatment for successful recovery. Then, using a relational approach, the book offers useful therapeutic interventions grounded in clinical experience and research, which are elucidated with case examples. Covering the most common presentations and the confounders (alcohol, single parenting, drug abuse, self-medication) this is a guide of how to plan treatment, common mistakes that can occur, myths that prevail, and ethical dilemmas. The book will be suitable for psychotherapists and counsellors of any modality as well as any healthcare professionals who have frontline contact with women.

PART I Hear Us Speak 1. Transitions 2. A Silent Problem 3. Historical Aspects of Maternal Mental Illness 4. Pre-conception, Common Conditions & Confounders 5. Maternal Trauma 6. Postpartum Psychosis 7. Narratives of Maternal Mental Illness 8. Barriers to Treatment PART II Listening Beyond Words 9. A Relational Approach 10.Ethical Dilemmas in Motherhood 11. Treating the Cause of Maternal Mental Illness 12. Affect Regulation 13. The Therapeutic Role 14. Using Creativity and Creative Methods in Psychotherapy 15. Neurodivergence and Motherhood 16. Couples Work 17. Conventional Treatment of Maternal Mental Illness 18. A Lifetime Reduction in Mental Illness

Emma Haynes, PhD, is a Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst and UKCP-registered psychotherapist who has dedicated her professional life to researching and treating maternal mental illness and developmental trauma. She is a lecturer in psychotherapy at Metanoia Institute, London.