The Cedar House Support Group is for mothers experiencing prenatal and postnatal depression. We offer support to mothers by holding free weekly group therapy sessions. The groups provide a safe, supportive and confidential environment where mothers can get together with others who may be feeling similar to themselves and are facilitated by our specialist postnatal depression counsellor, Liz Wise. Liz has extensive experience in facilitating groups, providing counselling and has personal experience of the illness.
We have been running groups in Surrey since 2004 and now also facilitate groups in South London. Each group provides creche facilities and a partners/family evening is held each term to offer extended support. This helps their recovery by normalising feelings and reducing the sense of isolation that postnatal depression can bring.
Having a baby is usually a positive experience, society expects parents to feel happy and fulfilled as we welcome a new life into our world. Yet parents have a major readjustment to deal with; the loss of independence, changes in financial status and sometimes changes in relationships. Although we may feel prepared for these changes, having a baby can still be a shock for many parents.
It is perfectly normal to feel emotional, vulnerable and sensitive after your baby is born. Some mothers may feel confused about their feelings - that they should be feeling overjoyed and instantly in love with their baby. This is not always the case; there are understandable reasons for perhaps feeling not like that. For example you may have had a difficult labour and/or birth, which can leave you feeling exhausted and possibly unfulfilled of prior expectations you had.
Don’t forget we are not taught how to be mothers; it is something we need to learn for ourselves and at this time of our lives we sometimes need to be mothered and nurtured ourselves.
We are running our face to face groups in Surrey and London and will still continue to have an online group once a month for those who are unable to get to our face to face meetings.
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For further details please contact Liz Wise on....
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lwise@talktalk.net | 07773 283556
The Cedar House Support Group Full Service Review
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The Cedar House Support Group is for women who are experiencing postnatal depression and offers weekly support groups facilitated by Liz Wise. Liz is a trained counsellor specialising in PND counselling, with many years’ experience and personal experience of the illness herself. The groups provide a safe and supportive environment where mothers can get together with others who may be feeling similar to themselves and provides a relaxed, informal and totally confidential environment in which to talk.
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The Cedar House Support Group was set up through funding from a client of Liz’s, through her counselling service, who was receiving treatment for PND. The charity has been running groups in London and Surrey, where there is need alongside appropriate facilities, for 15 years. Groups are delivered weekly during term time and a free creche facility is always offered.
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Feedback is gathered from the mothers attending the groups through feedback forms at the end of each term and feedback is positive; the charity has also experienced no serious incidents. The data and feedback collected is not analysed or reviewed, resulting in a lack of robust evidence of the success of the service delivered or to expand on to make recommendations to / for maternal mental health services.
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We have been awarded funding to carry out a full service review and are taking this opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness, impact and success of the service delivered by The Cedar House Support Group. We believe our service model is particularly successful, in improving mothers mental health and in being a cost effective and easily replicable model.
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One of the methods we intend to use is to survey mums who have experienced post natal depression but NOT been through our particular service or any other group talking therapy. This will be via a short questionnaire, to be completed online and will be completely confidential.
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If you are willing to take part or have any questions about the survey, please email Ruth Brownlow at chairchsg@gmail.com. We intend to send out the survey in early spring 2020.
We appreciate revisiting the experience of having post natal depression, however lightly, can bring back thoughts and feelings that may be difficult to deal with. We wish to make aware anyone wishing to assist with this survey that Liz Wise will be available to talk in confidence, about any issues that may arise.
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Yours,
Ruth Brownlow
Trustee of The Cedar House Support Group
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