ABSTRACT
Self-awareness is key. It is one's ultimate professional tool. It does not come without a price, and the burden associated with heightened self-awareness can emerge as anxiety, self-doubt, compassion fatigue, and burn-out. The mistake many new perinatal therapists make is offering the glass of water too soon, too abruptly, too insistently, or too vehemently. The postpartum client feels too parched to realize that water will even help. Dehydration feels like a permanent state of being. The therapeutic alliance can be optimized when connecting from a more logical, problem-solving orientation rather than strictly addressing the emotional component. Many men attempt to manage their symptoms independently, which makes coming to therapy a huge deal for a majority of them. Convincing men to seek help when they are depressed can be particularly challenging. Holding a male client in distress is fundamentally the same, tapping into the identical holding points of grounding, current state, the expert, design, presence, and safeguarding.
