As part of my honorary research fellowship, I recently received ethical approval for a research project on the use of psychotherapy for perinatal mental illness. This is an expansion of my doctoral research.

The project aims to fill a substantial gap in transactional analysis (TA) research regarding the acceptability and efficacy of this type of psychotherapy.

I am looking for psychotherapists from anywhere in Europe and, if possible, the wider world, working in private practice who see clients in the perinatal area. This includes clients with any type of fertility difficulty or those going through fertility and assisted conception methods. It also includes those experiencing pregnancy, birth and pre- or post-birth mental health conditions.

The types of psychotherapy can include individual, couples, group and family psychotherapy, delivered either in person or online. The participant inclusion criteria for clients is broad and includes women, men and parents (including foster, adoptive, trans, parents who prefer to self-describe and stepparents).

The research will be a mixed-methods study using both routine clinical outcome measures and qualitative interviews.

If you are a TA psychotherapist who works in this area, or even if you only see irregular clients with these types of difficulties, I would love to hear from you. Your future clients could become part of this project, helping TA gain much more research evidence.

Contact me via my public profile on the ITAA platform (login or free account registration required).