The Elpitha Course is a 2 day hands-on training event designed to equip health care professionals and volunteers working with mothers and families, with the skills and materials needed to run a 6 week Elpitha Support Group for mothers suffering with post natal depression. The Elpitha Handbook contains the course materials and forms the basis of the course. You can download the Handbook from the link on the right, and find further information and resources for support group facilitators in our Facilitators area. 

While we would recommend attending one of our courses in order to learn how to best deliver an Elpitha Support Group, our aim is to reduce the barriers to offering post natal support to mothers, and the Elpitha Handbook is intended to deliver the core resources and information needed to help you run a support group. We cannot emphasise enough how important it is that the support group programme is delivered in it's entirety. If the detailed process, as explained within the Elpitha Handbook, is not adhered to in relation to the running of the course pre, during and post delivery, then the benefits to those attending will be significantly reduced.

The Elpitha Course is based on compassionate Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and will take you through the key principals of this approach, our experiences working with mums suffering from depression, as well as each of the sessions delivered in a 6 week Elpitha Support Group. During the 2 days, we cover each of the sessions in a living, vibrant way, enabling you understand the experience as a client, while we act as the facilitators. We will weave in the theory of compassionate Cognitive Behavioural Therpay (CBT) within each session, and explore together the challenges that running such a group represents.

The format is adapted from  Milgrom J, Martin P, Negri L, (2006) and the 6 core sessions are: 

Session 1: 

‘Welcome’; Supporting each other; Pregnancy, Birth and now; What is postnatal depression? What can help.

Session 2: 

‘Time for Mom’; Feelings, behaviour, thinking; The depressive spiral; Pleasant activities and mood.

Session 3: 

‘Stressbusters’; High stress times; Recognising early warning signs of tension; Coping with tension; Relaxation (Body scan and mindfulness of breathing); Portable stress busters.

Session 4: 

‘Being firm but kind’; Assertiveness skills; Communication styles (passive, assertive, indirect, aggressive); Self-esteem.

Session 5: 

‘Being ourselves’; Being kind to ourselves; Our survival bucket; Our positives (use of positive data log).

Session 6: 

‘Looking back, moving forward’