Binding: Hardback Pages: 300pp Published by: Routledge Publication Date: July 24, 2008 ISBN: 978-0-415-98996-1 Price: $39.95

Visit www.postpartumtherapy.net for more information about this book.

This book provides a comprehensive look at effective therapy for postpartum depression. Using a blend of professional objectivity, evidence-based research, and personal, straight-forward suggestions gathered from years of experience, this book brings the reader into the private world of therapy with the postpartum woman. Based on Psychodynamic and Cognitive-Behavioral theories, and on D.W. Winnicott’s “good-enough mother” and the “holding environment” in particular, the book is written by a therapist who has specialized in the treatment of postpartum depression for over 20 years. Therapy and the Postpartum Woman will serve as a companion tool for clinicians and the women they treat.

Therapy and the Postpartum Woman is an essential resource for clinicians who work with postpartum women and the clients they serve. Emanating from years of outstanding work with postpartum women and those who treat them, Kleiman's compassionate and knowledgeable guide offers a best practice clinical blueprint imbued with a respectful understanding of presenting issues. Postpartum mothers and those who love them will learn what questions to ask of caregivers and what educational and clinical experience to seek when choosing a therapist. By offering perinatal professionals and the women they serve an intimate view of the postpartum therapeutic experience, Kleiman's Therapy and the Postpartum Woman creates a stellar benchmark for treatment quality and more efficacious outcomes.

–Susan Stone, MSW
President, Postpartum Support, International

Table of Contents

I. The Framework: Women, Babies and Therapy.
Masquerade: Clinical Profile
Everything Gets in the Way: Resistance.
Don’t Call it Therapy: Reframing
Anatomy of a PPD Therapist
The Holding Environment
Making a Diagnosis
The Voice of Depression
Therapeutic Models for Women at Risk
Perfectly Postpartum

II. The Tools: Doing What Works
Initial Assessment: The Phone Call
First Things First
Screening: Are we asking the right questions?
Assessment: Listening to symptoms
Collaboration 
Sharing the Session
Medication: Clinician’s Perspective
Medication: Client’s Perspective
Alternative Therapies

III. The Work: Clinical Challenges
Scary Thoughts
Help-Resistant Complainer
A Good Girl
Breastfeeding to Death
Countertransference: When is yours, mine?
Sleeplessness
The Married State
Bonding
Suicidal Thoughts
Psychosis
Motherself
Prevention?
Burnout, Boundaries and Other Pitfalls

IV. The Healing
The Umbilical Factor
The Bracelet
Therapy Exposed
Finding the Power to Heal
Recovery Revealed
The Search for Meaning
The Quintessential Mother

Appendix

PPSC ASSESSMENT TOOLS
-Postpartum Pact
-PPSC Suicide Assessment for a Positive EPDS Screen
-PPSC Symptom List
-Postpartum Depression Assessment During Pregnancy
-Initial Session Instruction Pad
-PPSC Phone Assessment

-Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)

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