Postpartum and Birth Trauma Therapy for Dads and Couples in Fort Collins, Colorado
1 in 10
dads suffer from postpartum depression
Does this sound like you?
“It’s isolating feeling like everyone assumes postpartum struggles are only for moms.”
"I’m stuck between desperately wanting to be close to my family while also feeling crushed by the pressure to continue to provide.”
"I’m not connecting with my baby the way I thought I would, and I miss my partner more than ever.”
"I’m snapping at the people I love. The shame I feel is overwhelming.”
"I’m constantly hyper vigilant and protective of my partner and baby. The lack of sleep is wearing me down.
“Even though my baby is here and healthy, I can’t stop reliving the fear that I felt during delivery.”
"I feel like I should have been able to protect my partner from the trauma of our delivery but instead I felt powerless."
"The images and sensations won’t stop playing through my mind.”
"I never thought I would experience loss. I feel an overwhelming emptiness inside myself and in my home.”
“Sometimes the strongest thing you can do for yourself and your family is to be brave enough to ask for help.”
EMDR
As a postpartum dad or couple, sometimes it’s hard to predict what emotions or challenges may come to the surface as you step into parenthood. You may experience grief, irritability, or patterns you hadn’t previously recognized in yourself. Despite your commitment to self care and dedicated use of coping skills you might engage in unhelpful habits, feel a constant sense of sadness, anxiety, or general internal sense of tension.
Incorporating the use of EMDR into therapy sessions can be pivotal in healing and shifting towards a more freeing way to experience life, especially for postpartum dads, couples, and parents. Put into practice EMDR can soften your protective responses where hyper vigilance is no longer helpful and decrease the level of activation that past pain might continue to create.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a powerful and highly researched treatment modality for trauma and other forms of mental illness that harnesses your nervous system’s natural healing process. EMDR has been shown to effectively reduce depressive symptoms, intrusive thoughts and flashbacks, anxious symptoms, and behavioral patterns that interfere with relationships and quality of life. Together we can safely reprocess and desensitize trauma or experiences that are driving your default emotional states and areas where you are feeling stuck. Postpartum life as a dad, and as a couple is challenging by nature, but it no longer has to feel debilitating.
Together we will be able to help you understand your anxiety, irritability, and sadness and learn how to no longer feel ashamed of it. In therapy you will be able to process a difficult birth or loss without having to be the "strong" one, and learn to reconnect with your partner in a way that feels close, fulfilling, and supportive again.