Course Notes

The Perinatal Support Group Facilitator Training is 21 hours in how to lead a thriving support group to serve new mothers and families to encourage perinatal emotional health.

You'll learn to:

• Support mothers across the spectrum of perinatal mood disorders
• Create safety for sharing authentic experiences of motherhood
• Gain expertise in leading and sustaining support groups and confidence in discussing mood disorders with women and professionals who serve them 
• Explore cultural messages and myths about motherhood
• Lead a culturally competent support group that welcomes diverse mothers
• Encourage group participants inherent strength and resilience
• Motivate personal and social change by linking socio-political factors to maternal depression

Recommended Textbooks:

• The War in Moms: On Life in a Family Unfriendly Nation, Sharon Lerner, Wiley, 2010
• One Mom's Journey to Motherhood, Ivy Shih Leung, Abbot Press 2012
• Of Woman Born, Motherhood as Experience and Institution, Adrienne Rich, Norton, 1986
• This Isn't What I Expected, Overcoming Postpartum Depression, Karen Kleinman & Valerie Raskin, Bantam, 1994

Instructors

Annette Cycon, LICSW, is MotherWoman’s Founder and Director of Training. Her clinical career specializes in child and family therapy, group therapy, women’s issues and trauma. She designed and facilitated support groups for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and has been facilitating women’s groups for over 25 years. She is certified by Postpartum Support International and widely respected for her curriculum development and training expertise. Cycon designed, with Ms. Friedman, the MotherWoman Support Group Model, the MotherWoman Support Group Facilitator Training, training manuals and curricula, and additional trainings for medical, mental health and social service professionals on perinatal mood disorders. She is a lead facilitator of a MotherWoman Perinatal Support Group and supervises MotherWoman Group Facilitators. She leads MotherWoman’s International Support Group Facilitator Program in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, where she has trained local leaders in Spanish to run MotherWoman groups.

Liz Friedman, MFA, is MotherWoman’s Program Director and Founder of the Postpartum Support Initiative. Ms. Friedman is certified by Postpartum Support International and is the PSI Coordinator for Western Massachusetts. In 2010, she won the TEDWomen contest for her work with MotherWoman. With Ms. Cycon, she has designed specialized trainings for professionals on perinatal mood disorders as well as the MotherWoman Support Group Model and the MotherWoman Support Group Facilitator Training. Ms Friedman was appointed by MA Governor Patrick to sit on the Governor’s State Commission on Postpartum Depression. She is receiving national acclaim for developing MotherWoman’s Community-Based Perinatal Support Model. She is also the co-investigator on research with psychiatrist Dr, Nancy Byatt of University of MA Medical School on Barriers to Care. 

Cycon & Friedman have presented at conferences throughout the state of Massachusetts as well as, Washington DC, Seattle, WA, Teaneck N J and Pittsburg PA. For a full description of their training experience, please review their attached CVs.

Location

All courses are held at Bastyr University unless otherwise noted.  Directions

Contact us for lodging information: 425-602-3075.

Contact Us :
Call us at (425) 602-3361