The Pathways Programme

Our aim in this group programme is to provide participants with opportunities to think about themselves as a person: as a mother, a partner, a daughter, a friend and as someone who makes a contribution to the world. The way we see ourselves influences all our interactions with the world, so understanding and re-evaluating the beliefs and values that guide us in our different daily encounters is an important step in getting better after becoming anxious or depressed.

Whatever a person’s genetic predisposition, feeling anxious or flat develops into a state of anxiety or depression when the way things happen in our lives differs from our ideas of who we are or how we should be in particular relationships, and we feel hopeless or helpless about change. Having a baby is a time of great significance in a woman’s life, and in her partner’s life as well. Most mothers are desperately anxious to make this a happy time for everybody and to find themselves depressed or anxious is devastating.

We believe that it is not only possible to get better, but also to minimise the chance of further problems with postnatal depression or anxiety with future pregnancies. There are lots of pathways to wellness, and we will cover many of them, but we believe the most important thing is to understand ourselves and our expectations of ourselves better.

The Aims of the Pathways Programme

• Enhance the emotional wellbeing of women and their families;
• Support parents in their relationship with each other and their infant and/children; and
• Increase parenting satisfaction and coping skills.

The Objectives of the Pathways Programme

• Provide women and their partners with support and information about mental health during pregnancy and following childbirth;
• Explore and address factors that may cause and maintain anxiety and depression;
• Share common experiences of postnatal anxiety and depression;
• Develop realistic expectations of being a parent and a partner;
• Gain practical and emotional support from other women;
• Begin an understanding of self;
• Explore change; the associated emotions and barriers;
• Identify the effects that anxiety and depression can have on the family and partner, and the importance of fathers;
• Explore the effect that anxiety and depression can have on communication and learn strategies to enhance communication between couples, and between parents and infants’ and
• Develop plans for the future.

The Pathways Programme Session Outlines