Carlotta Bozzetti
Becoming a parent is a major physical and emotional transition, which starts with birth. Perhaps you would like to have a safe space where your birth story, no matter how it unfolded, can be listened to. Maybe you are worried about how you feel, or concerned about specific thoughts or feelings you have towards your baby or young child. This is a space where you can share your worries without judgment.
Most parents are concerned about or have questions about their baby or young child’s sleeping or feeding patterns and would like to better understand babies' and young children’s physiological needs.
Perhaps your experience of parenting is not what you had hoped for. Maybe your baby’s crying, or your young child’s anger outbursts, are stirring up very strong emotions and reactions in you, which you find overwhelming and difficult to control. For some parents, the experience of parenting brings up, consciously or unconsciously, memories from their past which they would like to address.
This space is for you if you would like help making better sense of these experiences and, together, start to understand where they are coming from. When we bring unconscious beliefs into the conscious mind, we start to become aware of our patterns and triggers. And when there is awareness, change and healing is possible.
Therapeutic work with parents who are worried about or struggle to understand their young child's behaviour
Babies and young children communicate very differently from adults. They do not talk about their emotions or worries; instead, they communicate through their behaviour and play. Sometimes you may feel confused or worried about the behaviour your child is displaying, or wonder whether what they do or say is developmentally appropriate. These sessions will help you better connect with and understand what your child is trying to communicate, and we will try to think together about possible reasons.
Usually, the first session is for parent/s only. If further sessions are suggested, we will decide together whether to bring in your child. Sometimes parent/child sessions are recommended, and at other times the child may benefit from individual sessions.
For both emotional support and therapeutic work, I charge £110 per session, and it can be either online or in person in Stoke Newington.
Dr Verity Wilkinson
Clinical Psychologist specialising in perinatal & parent-infant mental health
I am an HCPC-registered Senior Clinical Psychologist with over 15 years of experience working within NHS psychological services. I specialise in supporting families, babies and young children, with over a decade of experience working in perinatal and parent-infant mental health.
Alongside my NHS role as a senior clinician within a Parent Infant Psychology Service, I offer private psychological therapy for families during pregnancy and the early years of parenting. I work with individuals, couples and families, and have particular expertise in supporting parents alongside their babies. I also provide supervision, consultation, and training to other health professionals and have extensive experience supporting Trauma-Informed Practice within CAMHS, early years, and community settings.
You might want to see me if:
Many parents I work with are finding the transition into parenthood more difficult than they expected. You may want support to explore difficult thoughts and feelings about yourself as a parent, your relationship with your baby or child, or the changes becoming a parent has brought to your sense of identity, relationships, work and wider family life.
Parenthood can also bring up complex feelings about your own early experiences and relationships, and many parents want a safe space to reflect on how these experiences shape family life. You may be struggling with grief around your fertility journey; worries during pregnancy; birth trauma; feeding difficulties; or the emotional impact of sleep deprivation, overwhelm, and changes in your body after having a baby.
I also work with parents navigating the emotional challenges of toddlerhood and early childhood, including the difficult feelings that toddler rages and developmental changes can sometimes bring up.
A central part of my work is helping parents strengthen confidence, connection and enjoyment within the early parent-infant relationship.
Postnatal services - Psychological support in early parenthood
The transition into parenthood can be joyful, overwhelming, lonely, exhausting and emotionally confusing — often all at once. Many parents are surprised by how different life after birth feels from what they had imagined, and can find themselves struggling with difficult thoughts and feelings they did not expect.
You may be feeling low, emotionally overwhelmed, highly anxious about your baby’s health or wellbeing, or disconnected from yourself after becoming a parent. Perhaps your birth experience felt frightening or out of your control, or you are struggling with difficult emotions linked to feeding experiences or changes in your relationship with your body after birth. For many women, these experiences can feed into a painful sense that they are somehow failing at motherhood.
Some parents find themselves worrying that they are not feeling the “overwhelming rush of love” or connection with their baby that they expected, and carry enormous shame, guilt or fear about what this might mean.
Many mothers I work with describe feeling that they have lost connection with who they were before becoming a parent. The transition into motherhood can bring profound changes to identity, confidence and relationships. Parents are often surprised by the intensity of grief, resentment, loneliness or uncertainty that can accompany these changes.
Parenthood can also place huge strain on couple relationships. Sleep deprivation, unequal caring responsibilities, changes in intimacy and differing expectations around parenting can leave couples feeling distant, stuck or misunderstood by each other.
As babies grow, new emotional challenges can also emerge for parents. Sleep difficulties, separations and toddler rages can bring up powerful feelings — including anxiety, guilt, anger and grief — and can sometimes stir up difficult experiences from our own childhood relationships. You may feel determined not to repeat certain experiences for your child, but feel unsure what this looks like in practice, or find yourself reacting in ways that do not feel aligned with the kind of parent you want to be.
I offer a warm, compassionate and reflective space where these experiences can be explored without judgement. My approach is relational and attachment-informed, with a focus on supporting both parental emotional wellbeing and the developing parent-infant relationship. Together we can think about how to strengthen confidence, connection and enjoyment in family life and in your relationship with your baby, whilst making sense of the emotional impact of becoming a parent.
Appointments are available online or in person in North London. Sessions are 50 minutes and cost £140.