Our Events

The Village Sofa Session – ‘Motherhood Unloaded’

Thursday 29th February, 19.00 – 21.00, Simul Place Earlsfield, SW18 4SR

Expert Speakers

Charlotte Sharpe

Laura Bardell

Charlotte is a registered Psychotherapist, Counsellor, and mum of 2. She works holistically, providing collaborative, client-led therapy for working through life’s challenges, changes, losses, and relationships. Charlotte’s background is in forensic psychology and she has a decade of experience supporting women with their substance use and/or domestic & sexual violence histories. Since qualifying as a therapist and becoming a mother, she has opened her private practice and has a particular interest in perinatal mental health and the mind-body connection. Combining her group work experience with her passion for normalising and reducing the shame around some of the conflicting feelings towards motherhood, Charlotte provides a monthly drop-in group where women are invited to talk about their mental health, the pressures of modern parenthood, and share their experiences of mothering in an attempt to offload the mental load, reduce burnout and find their village.

Laura is the Founder of Mama Nurtured, a postnatal wellbeing business dedicated to nurturing the nurturers. As a postnatal wellbeing expert and postnatal doula, she is passionate about supporting mothers through the fourth trimester and beyond. She offers a spectrum of support including rejuvenating wellbeing workshops, personalised postanal treatments, corporate workshops and dedicated postnatal doula services. Each offering is crafted with kindness and care to address the unique needs of mums at different stages of their journey and offer unwavering support as they navigate the beautiful complexities of motherhood.

Topics Covered

  • The mental load
  • Balancing domestic & childcare responsibilities with partners
  • Intrusive thoughts
  • Overwhelm & burnout
  • Maternal mental health & self care
  • Hormone health & nutritional supplements
  • Emotional stress release techniques

Event Summary

The first in a series of Evening Sofa Sessions brought together two brilliant maternal health & wellbeing practitioners – Charlotte Sharpe, Psychotherapist, and Laura Bardell, Postnatal Doula & wellbeing expert – to share their expertise in conversation with a smaller group of women over a glass of wine.

It was an evening of connection and exchange with all present sharing stories, experiences, and perspectives to help shape and enrich the conversation. Less ‘panel presentation’ and more ‘fireside conversation’ the format allowed for honest and more intimate discussion amongst the group. We talked through topics from the high standards and pressure we feel held to as modern mothers, the challenges of balance at home, returning to work and changing priorities, intrusive thoughts and how to safeguard our mental health, being shown and practicing emotional stress release techniques in the room – who knew a simple hand on the forehead could help to relieve the pressure in moments of high stress!

It was fun, it was informal, and it left us buzzing! We’re excited to bring you more in the series soon!

Suggested resources

If you are concerned about any aspect of your mental or physical health, or experiencing challenges, or keen to learn more – we’ve put together some suggested sources of information & support

Laura and Charlotte have shared some downloadable resources for you all which touch on some of the practices & techniques they mentioned during the session, as well as signposting to some onward resources for support & guidance.

Supporters

A big thank you to all of the businesses that contributed to making our first Motherhood Moment such a memorable occasion!

If you would like to contribute to participate in a future event please contact holly@thevillagehub.co.uk

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