Parent Infant Psychotherapy

Our sessions are online or in person and last for 50 minutes.  Families generally have between 6-8 sessions. Once you have completed a course of therapy you may request further support right up to when your baby is age 2. Lisa our clinical lead can help you with any questions or queries you may have. 

We want to help your family to flourish and payment for services need not be a barrier as we can offer you free sessions if you meet certain criteria. To see if we can do this, you’ll be asked to complete a Request for DorPIP services form which will assess if you can access our other services for free as well. 

You may not find all the questions are relevant to the service you’ve requested however please complete the form as fully as possible as this will give us a good overview of what is currently going on for you and your family.  

The sessions take place online using the Microsoft Teams app. However, your counsellor may be able to offer face-to-face sessions at an agreed location, at their discretion.

Our sessions are all about helping you and your baby feel connected and understood. Your baby is an important part of this process, so they’ll always be welcome in the room, even if we’re just meeting with you. We’ll talk about what’s on your mind and how you’re feeling, but always with a focus on your relationship with your little one. We’re not a counselling or couple therapy service — our role is to support you and your baby together.

If you would like your partner/baby’s other parent to attend the sessions we ask that they also complete their own form so we can see what your family is like from both perspectives. 

We can also offer counselling sessions to both of you individually.  

It differs because, although it’s a type of family therapy, it specialises in the time period from conception to aged two – which is pre-verbal on the part of the child. In our therapy, we act as the bridge between infant and parent – putting ourselves in the position of viewing the parents as the infant might – meaning that we can then act as the voice for the child.

We will be able to help you discover any unconscious emotional blocks or past trauma that may be affecting your feelings.

We don’t report ‘thoughts’ and realise that disturbing thoughts are very common. There’s also a big difference between thoughts and action. If you said something that was of real concern, we would work with you to ensure you had the best possible support and we are bound by local safeguarding regulations (Safeguarding Children’s Board)

Giving birth can often trigger intense memories from your own childhood. Perhaps you didn't have a good experience of being parented, or traumatic things happened? The realisation that your own experience of being parented was lacking can be a shock and affect the way you feel about how you'll be as a parent now. We can help you process these thoughts and emotions.

Yes, birth trauma is a type of PTSD and we can help you process this experience - which you were probably not in control of. We will do this in a sensitive way so as to not re-trigger the trauma, showing you techniques to help your brain understand that you are no longer in danger.

Yes, all of our councellors and parent-infant psychotherapists are fully qualifed and have three year’s post-qualifying experience and a specialism working with families. All of our therapists are registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

We accept self-referrals via email. It’s a confidential service and emails are handled by an appropriately trained member of the team. After the initial email, We conduct a telephone assessment and then an appointment can be arranged with a therapist.  We also take referrals from health professionals such as health visitors, midwives, GPs and other psychotherapists as well as family outreach workers, social workers and speech therapists.

We aim to have no waiting lists – because babies can’t wait.