Post Natal Depression

What is postnatal depression?

Postnatal depression is a type of depression that parents can experience after having a baby. While it mostly affects mothers, it can also affect partners and fathers too.

 

If you think you’re suffering from postnatal depression, it’s important to seek help as soon as possible because the symptoms can have a significant impact on you and your baby. With the right treatment, most people are able to make a full recovery.

What are the symptoms of postnatal depression?

  • Persistent feeling of sadness or low mood
  • Loss of interest in the world around you and no longer enjoying things
  • Lack of energy and feeling tired all the time
  • Feeling that you are unable to look after your baby
  • Problems concentrating and making decisions
  • Loss of appetite or increased appetite
  • Feelings of guilt, hopelessness and self-blame
  • Difficulty bonding with your baby with a feeling of indifference and no sense of enjoyment in his or her company
  • Frightening thoughts such as wishing to hurt your baby. These can be very scary and disturbing but they are rarely acted upon
  • Thinking about self-harm and suicide
consultation taking notes

Treatment for postnatal depression

Therapy is usually recommended for postnatal depression. However, if your symptoms of depression are severe, it might also be helpful to consider antidepressant medication. If you think that you or a loved one is suffering from postnatal depression, please get advice from your GP.

 

Following your initial assessment, we will match you with a psychologist we believe can best support your needs. Your psychologist is likely to work closely with your GP and family to ensure that you have the most appropriate care package to meet both your needs and the needs of your baby.

Frequently asked questions

Having a baby can be a challenging experience and it can sometimes bring up experiences and memories from our early life. But just because you are struggling with becoming a parent doesn’t necessarily mean that you have postnatal depression.

 

Some of the most common signs of postnatal depression are: difficulties sleeping, lack of energy, feeling low in mood and tearful a lot of the time… Likewise, it is important that you seek help if you are noticing that you don’t feel attached to your baby in the way that you expected to before they were born and if you are no longer finding enjoyment in the things that once gave you pleasure.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) and Schema Therapy are generally the most effective treatments for postnatal depression.

Becoming a parent can be an unsettling time – both because of the changes to your life but also because of the different vulnerabilities it can trigger, depending on your own history. If you are struggling with any aspect of becoming a parent, seeking therapy can be incredibly helpful. Therapy will help you connect with your early experiences and empower you so that you can engage in parenting in a more meaningful and fulfilling way.

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Dr Elena Touroni

Dr Elena Touroni is a skilled and experienced consultant psychologist with a track record of delivering high-quality services for individuals with all common emotional difficulties and those with a diagnosis of personality disorder. She is experienced in service design and delivery, the management of multi-disciplinary teams, organisational consultancy, and development and delivery of both national and bespoke training to providers in the statutory and non-statutory sector.


Having obtained a first degree in Psychology (BSc) at the American College of Greece, she completed her doctoral training at the University of Surrey. Dr Touroni is highly experienced in the assessment and treatment of depression, anxiety, substance misuse, personality disorder, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, adjustment disorder and relationship difficulties. She works with both individuals and couples and can offer therapy in English and Greek.


Dr Touroni has held a variety of clinical and managerial positions including as Head of Service in the NHS. Further she has held academic positions for the University of Surrey and the Institute of Mental Health lecturing on specialist postgraduate Masters and Doctorate programmes.


She is trained in several specialist therapeutic approaches such as schema therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based approaches and Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT). As well as holding a variety of NHS positions, Dr. Touroni is the co-founder of a private practice in Central London that has been a provider of psychological therapy for all common emotional difficulties including personality disorder since 2002. She is the founder and one of two directors of The Chelsea Psychology Clinic.