About the Program
Most likely, you are thinking about this program as you’re feeling:
Exhausted (sleeping doesn’t seem like enough)
Really worn out as a parent
Like you're looking after your child(ren) on autopilot (doing what you’re supposed to do, but not much more).
Like you're struggling to show your child(ren) how much you love them
Like you can’t take much more as a parent
Like you’re not the parent you want to be or were
Worried about the impact this is having on your relationship with your child(ren)
Worried about the impact on your unborn child if you are currently pregnant with older children. Or angry you don’t have the energy to enjoy your pregnancy given your current feelings about parenting your other children.
Worried about how you can continue like this
You think you might be heading towards or are already burned out as a parent
You want to feel more energetic, more connected to your child(ren) and like you’re doing a good job!
You want a happy and healthy life for your child(ren) now and in the long run
When the daily stress of parenting becomes chronic it can turn into parental burnout, an intense exhaustion that leads parents to feel detached from their children and unsure of their parenting abilities.
Research has identified three core components of parental burnout:
1. Physical and emotional exhaustion that does not improve with extra sleep,
2. Feeling emotionally distanced from your child(ren) and,
3. Feeling incompetent in your role as parent.
You can assess your levels of burnout with the Parental Burnout Assessment here.
How does the program work?
This 12-week program aims to help you understand the three components of burnout and provides activities to help you feel better. Some of the activities will require self-reflection and some will be more action-oriented, suggesting you try a particular strategy. These are designed to be short and simple and not too onerous.
We understand that you are busy and exhausted. Therefore, we have tried to make the program delivery as flexible as possible. It should take you no more than 10-15 minutes each week to read some information delivered via email. You can then decide which of the suggested activities you pick up during the week as they are suggested via SMS. Of course, the more you put into trying the activities, the more you are likely to get out of the program.
Over 12 weeks, we will cover the three core components of burnout with a new section each month.
Section1 (Weeks 1-4) – Physical and emotional exhaustion
Section 2 (Weeks 5-8) – Feeling Emotional disconnected from your children
Section 3 (Weeks 9-12) – Feeling incompetent as a parent
To start each week you will receive an email about a specific topic.
During that week you will then receive 3 SMS prompts with suggested reflections or activities that are related. These SMSes will be 2 days apart to give you time to try each out.
Each weekly email will contain a link that you can use to skip ahead to the next week’s content if you’re not finding that week relevant or useful for you.
Your Instructor
Frances Bilbao
Frances Bilbao is the founder of Mums Matter Psychology and a registered Clinical Psychologist with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). She is a full member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) where she is the National Convenor of the Perinatal and Infant Psychology Interest group and Fellow of the College of Clinical Psychologists. She implemented and managed the Perinatal Emotional Health Program at Sunshine Hospital where she worked with women during the antenatal and postnatal periods. She has also worked with St John of God's Raphael House (Perinatal Mental Health), the Post and Antenatal Depression Association (PaNDA) and in private practice. Frances has delivered group therapy for pregnant women participating in the Royal Women’s Hospital/University of Melbourne program – Building Early Attachment and Resilience. Frances has authored and presented at various Perinatal Mental Health and Maternal & Child Health conferences, works on projects in the health sector and has a passion for community development.
She has completed the University of Sydney continuing development program: Perinatal Mental Health and undertaken perinatal specific training with the Royal Women's Hospital, Royal Children's Hospital, Parent and Infant Research Institute, Centre for Perinatal Psychology, Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE) and the University of Exeter. She is an accredited Circle of Security Parent Educator and Bringing Baby Home (Gottman Institute) workshop facilitator. She is trained in the Newborn Behavioural Observation (NBO) system. She is a registered Supervisor for training Psychologists and oversees the training of Masters students, interns and Clinical Registrars.