Integrating Maternal Mental Health and Wellness into Counselor Training and Supervision

This presentation will explore the significance of maternal mental health for individual, couple, infant, family, and community wellbeing. The peripartum period, which includes pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum timeframe, is a time of great adjustment and change for women, their partners, and families that warrants greater attention in counselor preparation. With a focus on wellness and prevention, the presenters will share ways to use strengths-based, feminist, multicultural, and post-traumatic growth perspectives in teaching students about maternal mental health. The presenters will share ways counseling supervisors can help students conceptualize and treat maternal mood disorders such as peripartum depression. Specific strategies to integrate maternal mental health into the curriculum will be discussed.