Dads Mental Health and Wellbeing
Online Mental Health Support and Therapy for fathers
by Jaime G. Miralles
(Online Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner and Psychotherapist)
Dads Mental Health and Wellbeing is central for you and your loved ones present and future wellbeing.
Life events, life changes and increase uncertainty are known to increase distress and impact on our wellbeing and mental health.
Being about to become a father for the first time, or being already a dad, it is stressful, and anxiety producing.
Although, now a days men are being more opened about their mental health, there is still a lack of support for Dad’s to be, whether this is for naturally conceiving parents, adoption parents or parents through surrogacy.
As an Online CBT, EMDR therapist and Metal Health and Wellbeing Consultant, I work with people from all walks of life, and there are many elements that may impacting their mental health and wellbeing.
Perhaps, you are experiencing pressures from social expectations, roles of individuals and roles within communities. These can be very impactful in relation to your mood, as you may be feeling you are not good enough, as a father or partner.
Maybe, you had very difficult or traumatic episode, or episodes, when you were about to become a father and these were not recognised. This may now be impacting on some intrusive thoughts, or believes, that are leading to change in your behaviour and impacting on your physical sensations and your emotions.
Alternatively, you were experiencing from overwhelming anxiety, and this has become more and more impactful in your day to day, and the relationship with your child.
Or, you may be finding difficult to communicate and express to your children, family, friends and loved ones about your difficulties, which may be increasing the difficulties you experience.
Furthermore, there are many expectations about miles stones, roles in relationships, earnings, and many other areas that affects everyone mental health. Sometimes experiencing believes of not being good enough, or not being able to be the person you “ought” to be. These may have a big impact on how we are perceiving some of the changes that come along with having children, and may not have been at the forefront of your consciousness before.
How can CBT or psychotherapy help Dads' wellbeing and mental health?
Fathers sometimes may experience difficulties with their mental health or wellbeing, as their core believes may be activated by other people’s expectations or interactions from their children.
Also, dad’s may be trying to support their partners in a difficult time. The role of carers has been widely recognised and there have been more and more support for carers that there was before. It is pinnacle to “look after the carer so they can care”. This apply for caring of adults and children, and this is where online therapy for Dads can improve wellbeing and mental health.
Online therapy for Dads can take many forms. There are some areas we could work on:
- Understanding what is playing a part on the difficulties.
- Communication: expressing emotions, wishes and saying yes and no to requests.
- Managing emotions: skills to reduce stress, anxiety.
- Identifying thinking patterns and developing strategies to accept thoughts and emotions that follow.
- Memory work: working on events and episodes of stress that have an impact in the present.
- Strength base exploration: identifying times when you have dealt with difficulties and how you overcome these.
- Compassionate work towards self and others.
- Imagery work: to prepare for difficult events.
How does support for Dads wellbeing look like?
We work on 3 phases:
Sharing: we take 1 to 3 sessions to understand what elements may be playing a part in difficulties. And what would you like to work on, how would you want to take from the work we are about to do.
You can read on setting goals and values on this link.
Learning:
This phase varies substantially from person to person. I refer to it as learning as you may learn skills, your may learn about yourself, or you may learn about how your past is impacting the view of others and the world.
This may take the form of memory work, imagery, skills, practical in between session activities, and other tailormade interventions.
Likewise, we are all different, and length of therapy may be different to all of us. Some people need single weekly sessions, other more often or less often. This is all tailored to you.
Equally, some fathers benefit from CBT, or ERP, or EMDR, or ACT or Coaching, we are here to identify this together.
Be your best self:
We continue sharing and learning throughout your journey to overcome difficulties, and learn from you experiences. So, you can be your best self, by working through your values to achieve your goals.
How long does it take to work on Dads mental health?
Becoming your best self, or having an ongoing wellbeing and balanced mental health, it’s something that happens over a period of time, and it is perfectly normal to be soothing that need working on regularly long after therapy.
Some people decide to take work on a specific area or do a specific piece of work, for example managing anxiety or communicating with their children effectively, and then they may take a break from the sessions and work on this for few months or longer, and return to therapy later to do another piece of work.
Other people may wish, or need, to have a longer intervention, and explore various areas or events. Some psychological interventions or support, such as DBT or Cognitive Behavioural (therapy) Coaching (CBC), may involve 1 to 1 session, and some phone support or coaching.
Understandably, this is something that will suit each individual and will meet their unique needs and strengths.
If you are a father looking for mental health support, do not hesitate to contact me for a free 15 minutes consultation. by emailing [email protected] or using the contact form.
