Louisa Kitchin

Registered Psychologist

Louisa is a registered psychologist with a particular interest in perinatal mental health, grief and loss, pregnancy after loss, and the psychological and relational changes that can arise through conception, fertility, pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood. She offers individual therapy to expectant and new parents experiencing:

• Grief and loss

• Antenatal/postnatal anxiety and depression

• Anxiety in pregnancy after previous loss or fertility difficulties

• Birth trauma and medical experiences that feel difficult to process

• Adjustment to parenthood, role transitions, and changes in sense of self

• Relationship strain, changing family dynamics, and new pressures around dependence, communication, and care

• The resurfacing of difficult feelings, beliefs, or childhood and family-of-origin experiences during the transition to parenthood

Louisa has a particular interest in supporting people through grief and loss across the perinatal period, recognising it can take many forms, including fertility difficulties, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, termination, stillbirth, the death of a baby, and losses connected to identity, relationships, or hoped-for futures during pregnancy or early parenthood.

She also works with people navigating pregnancy and parenting after loss. A new pregnancy can bring relief, hope, fear, grief, and uncertainty at the same time. Previous experiences of loss, medical trauma, fertility treatment, or frightening symptoms can make scans, appointments, bodily changes, and preparing for birth feel emotionally complex. Therapy can provide space to understand and remain connected with the baby you lost, process what has happened, make sense of anxiety and grief, and support connection with a current or hoped-for baby.

Louisa works from a relational psychodynamic and attachment-informed approach, while also drawing on interpersonal, grief and loss, trauma-informed, and mindfulness-based approaches depending on each person’s needs and context. Therapy may involve making sense of and working through anxiety, depression, identity changes, relational and attachment difficulties, and earlier experiences stirred up during pregnancy, loss, birth, or early parenthood. It may also support you to process grief and trauma at your pace, manage anxiety and uncertainty, and make more room for connection, reflection, and choice in how you respond to yourself and others.

Louisa recognises the courage it takes to engage in therapy and aims to offer a thoughtful, steady, and collaborative space to explore difficulties, disappointments, hopes, and uncertainties. She offers both longer-term therapy for deeper exploration and understanding, and shorter-term therapy for more focused concerns.

Babies are always welcome in sessions.

To learn more about Louisa, visit www.louisakpsychology.com.au

See Louisa at MIWM or via Telehealth consultation on Tuesday’s and Friday’s. To book an appointment please call MIWM on (03) 8652 7222.