Postpartum OCD Therapy in Chicago
Affirming, nonjudgmental care in an inclusive environment in Logan Square and Avondale for intrusive thoughts, related anxiety, and taking care of your needs.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!
The postpartum phase can be overwhelming; therapy can help!
Where to begin with the postpartum period? It can be a roller coaster: joy, tears, confusion, testing reflexes when the first blowout occurs. Adjustments abound. Relationships shift. Day becomes night, night becomes… a potentially anxiety-inducing time of feeding, not sleeping, and checking baby’s breathing. After the meal train ends, isolation and sadness can creep in.
Having a nonjudgmental therapy space to discuss all of these adjustments, feelings, and experiences can be incredibly supportive for both birthing and non-birthing partners.
Therapists at Common Thread Counseling Chicago can help differentiate between a typical baby blues experience and a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder, like depression, anxiety, or OCD.
Postpartum OCD
Postpartum OCD is unwanted (intrusive), distressing thoughts about harm coming to the baby.
A majority of birthing people and their partners have intrusive thoughts.
When the thoughts lead to anxiety, avoidance, and distress, they can interfere with daily functioning and wellbeing.
Intrusive thoughts could center around contamination or harming the baby. These thoughts can be incredibly difficult to talk about because of how disturbing the content is and shame it brings up; a perinatal therapist, like at Common Thread Counseling Chicago is able to recognize an intrusive thought and provide education on this experience instead of judgment.
Postpartum OCD is also very different from postpartum psychosis, in which the person could also be experiencing hallucinations, delusions, and confusion. Postpartum psychosis is a medical emergency, and is not treated through talk therapy and medication management alone.
Our Approach to Therapy for Postpartum
Postpartum therapy can help both parents with mood changes, emotional regulation, and major adjustments.
We incorporate:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): to assist you with identifying and replacing negative thought patterns and behaviors
Interpersonal Therapy (IPT): tools to increase healthy communication and support within your relationships.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): increasing psychological flexibility and acceptance of difficult emotions, values clarification and what really matters to you
Postpartum counseling can assist with processing traumatic experiences using narrative therapy and strengths-based techniques.
We can also discuss the experience of matrescence and parenting challenges throughout the lifespan.
An important part of perinatal therapy can be medication management and being connected with the correct prescriber. If you would like, we can help connect you with a reproductive psychiatrist, who specifically works with people in the perinatal period.
