Making sense of a stressful journey - workshop handout

Are you recovering from a traumatic birth? Are you unclear about decisions that were made that were not part of your ‘plan’? Has your child experienced medical difficulties that you’re finding hard to process?

This downloadable handout explores the whole area of trauma related to a difficult birth, medical interventions or diagnosis for your child at any stage. The handout will cover the following areas:

• What is a trauma/stress response in the body and why does it happen?
• How can we understand the feelings/symptoms that we experienced at the time in more detail?
• How can we understand the impact of this trauma on ourselves as a parent and on our relationships?
• What can we do we remain in the ‘green zone’ (a place of calm) despite the fact that we may still face challenging situations with our child.

About Claire:

I’m Dr. Claire Conlon and I am a Senior Clinical Psychologist with over 10 years of experience from both the UK and Ireland. I fell in love with psychology whilst working in Great Ormond Street Hospital over 10 years ago and have not looked back since. I studied psychology as an Undergraduate, before completing a Masters in Psychology and obtaining a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.

When providing support for parents and children, I draw on attachment theory, developmental psychology, infant mental health, mindful parenting, behavioural support, and cognitive behavioural therapy. I also provide much-needed support for parents around coping with being a parent and the added pressure of additional stress, trauma or parenting a child with physical, medical, neurobiological or additional needs.