Fiona Rogerson - Trauma and Perinatal Counsellor & Birth Educator, Perth

Fiona Rogerson - Trauma and Perinatal Counsellor & Birth Educator, Perth Specialist counselling and EMDR for birth trauma, perinatal trauma, PTSD & cPTSD. Perth + Aus-wide.

When these patterns show up, most women assume it means something is wrong with them.But what they’re really showing me ...
11/12/2025

When these patterns show up, most women assume it means something is wrong with them.

But what they’re really showing me is where safety was missing, and how their nervous system adapted to survive that.

Self-blame? It’s not a personality flaw. It’s often the brain’s attempt to create order in a moment that felt disorganising or unsafe. If you were at fault, then maybe next time you could prevent it... that belief feels more tolerable than accepting how unsupported or powerless you felt.

Emotional disconnection? It’s a common sign that your system had to numb or freeze to get through something overwhelming, and that response got stuck.

Hyper-awareness? Difficulty trusting? Unnameable grief? They’re clues. They tell us where things were too much, too fast, or not enough, and where your system is still trying to regain a sense of safety, even if the birth is long past.

In trauma recovery work, we don’t pathologise these patterns. We follow them. We get curious. We work to update the parts of your system that are still stuck in survival mode, so that trust, presence and self-compassion can slowly return.

You are not too much. You are not failing. You are responding in a way that makes complete sense.

So many mums are carrying far more than anyone realises, and most of it sits in the moments no one else would think twic...
08/12/2025

So many mums are carrying far more than anyone realises, and most of it sits in the moments no one else would think twice about.

Can you relate?

What if the way you’ve been coping isn’t the problem, just a sign of what you’ve had to survive?After a traumatic birth,...
04/12/2025

What if the way you’ve been coping isn’t the problem, just a sign of what you’ve had to survive?

After a traumatic birth, it’s so common to fall into patterns like pushing through, minimising, avoiding, blaming yourself, or wondering why it still affects you months or years later.

These aren’t failures. They’re adaptations. They make sense when we understand what trauma actually is... a survival response, not a mindset.

And when your system starts to feel safer, those same patterns can become the signals that it’s finally time to process what happened.

If you're seeing the signs that it's time to work through what happened to you so that can leave it behind, we can help, so please reach out. It's what we do every single day x

Have you felt that shift too?Many couples feel a change in their relationship after a traumatic or difficult birth. You ...
02/12/2025

Have you felt that shift too?

Many couples feel a change in their relationship after a traumatic or difficult birth. You still love your partner, but something feels off. Conversations feel harder. The closeness has changed. And you don’t know how to get back to each other.

When you’ve been through birth trauma or a hard postnatal experience, your nervous system can stay in survival mode long after it's 'over'... overwhelmed, guarded, shut down. That tension doesn’t just stay inside you. It shows up in the relationship too.

You might feel more irritable or distant. You might not want physical touch, or feel resentment you can't quite explain. He might be spending more time out of the house, zoning out, avoiding hard conversations, or acting like nothing’s changed, when everything has.

It can start to feel like you're carrying all of it. The trauma. The baby. The recovery. And now, the emotional gap between you.

But these behaviours are often nervous system responses, for BOTH of you. If the birth felt frightening or disempowering for either of you, your bodies might still be protecting you in the only ways they know how. Withdrawal, irritability, emotional shutdown. They’re not signs of a failing relationship, they’re signs you haven’t yet felt safe enough to process what happened.

In couples counselling that is both perinatal and trauma-responsive, we work with exactly this. We make sense of what’s shifted, why it happened, and how to find each other again. Not by forcing connection, but by restoring safety.

If any of this resonates send me a DM and I can point you to some resources that will help.

November life…1. A lot of working from home. No complaints!2. My first visit to Newcastle… LOVE!3. Plenary session for t...
02/12/2025

November life…

1. A lot of working from home. No complaints!
2. My first visit to Newcastle… LOVE!
3. Plenary session for the CAPEA Conference (plus hosted a workshop the day before). Despite absolutely sh****ng myself for days before, I had the BEST time!
4. Something super exciting in the works, working with Dr Catherine Bell (author of The Birth Map).
5. This boy *sigh*. Riv’s behaviour is slowly getting worse, namely his reactivity, so we’ve enlisted the help of a dog behaviourist to work with him (and us) 1:1. The joys of rescue pups. It’s exhausting work.
6. And this sweet boy. Lenny has been with us for 2 months now and is still terrified of everything. I wish I knew what life was like for him before we rescued him.
7. Bring Your Child To Work Day of sorts. He was supposed to be unwell but wasn’t really acting like it.
8. My tree is up! Pet barrier in place, with glass ornaments up top. We had to do this for the kids only a few years back! I swear these dogs are like having toddlers at home again 😂
9. Prioritising date nights as the silly season descends ♥️
10. Our first Wildcats game! The boys LOVED it!
11. Weekend getaway with Vinnie (my van). He makes it so so easy to just pack up and go. We need to do it more often.

Bring on EOY!

When you’ve spent months telling yourself “it wasn’t that bad”, it can feel unsettling that your body isn’t convinced.Th...
30/11/2025

When you’ve spent months telling yourself “it wasn’t that bad”, it can feel unsettling that your body isn’t convinced.

This is something we see often here, women caught between what they were told about their birth, and what their nervous system keeps insisting is unresolved.

Trying to move on can feel like the reasonable thing to do. Especially if everyone else seems to think what happened was normal. But when we override our body’s response in order to match the story we think we should believe, we lose access to the part of us that most needs us.

Your nervous system doesn’t work in logic or comparison. It works in sensation, in threat detection, in survival.

And when no one helps you process what your body went through, even if your birth was medically straightforward, it’s common to feel stuck in vigilance, flashbacks, shame, or that nagging sense that something’s off.

This is where EMDR therapy can help. It supports the brain AND body in reprocessing difficult and traumatic experiences so that the nervous system no longer responds as if the event is still happening. It’s not about erasing what happened, but helping your body know it’s over. It’s not your memory that keeps the trauma alive. It’s your system still waiting for resolution.

If your body is telling you that its time to address what happened, shoot me a DM, we'd love to support you.

It’s not that you can’t cope. Or that you're a bad mum. Or any of the other negative self-talk labels you're giving your...
25/11/2025

It’s not that you can’t cope. Or that you're a bad mum. Or any of the other negative self-talk labels you're giving yourself.

It’s that your nervous system is still carrying things you were never given the space or support to process.

That moment your baby cries and your chest tightens.
The way your whole body goes on edge when they won’t let go of you.
The sudden urge to shut down, or shout, or escape.
It’s not about bad parenting, or failure as a mum. And it’s not about not trying hard enough.

What I see so often in women navigating this, is that their triggers make sense when we look at what their body has been through. Birth experiences where they felt invisible, powerless, or terrified. Postnatal days where they had to push through, numb out, or put everyone else first.

None of that disappears just because time has passed.

And now, even totally normal moments... a cry, a meltdown, a need... can feel like a threat to your system. Because our nervous system remembers.

Trauma doesn’t always look dramatic from the outside. But inside, it changes how safe you feel in your body, in your home, even in your role as a parent.

But this ISN'T permanent. With the right support, your system can learn what safety feels like again. You can respond instead of react. And those everyday moments can feel easier, softer, more manageable.

If you suspect trauma, especially birth trauma, may be shaping your reactions, head to the link in my bio to book a session. This isn't how it needs to stay.

Ever wondered why certain moments in parenting trigger you so much more than others?Sometimes the hardest parts of paren...
22/11/2025

Ever wondered why certain moments in parenting trigger you so much more than others?

Sometimes the hardest parts of parenting aren’t about how much we care.
They’re shaped by what our nervous system learnt a long time ago.

What we lived through as children, especially the things we had no language for, often become the patterns we carry into adulthood
Not because we chose them, but because they helped us survive

Those early experiences can quietly shape how we
• react when stress builds
• set limits or struggle to hold them
• comfort our children or feel unsafe doing so
• connect, even when we want to
• speak to ourselves in hard moments

This isn’t about blame
It’s about understanding

When we can see the thread between then and now, we open up a different way forward
Awareness makes room for choice
Choice makes room for healing
And healing is how the cycle starts to shift, not just for us, but for the ones who come after us

If you’re noticing that your own childhood experiences are influencing how you show up as a parent, support is available. We help parents make sense of those patterns and begin to rewrite them with intention. Send me a DM and we can chat about options.

It’s the question that feels like a punch to the gut.When are you going to have another baby?A simple sentence that open...
19/11/2025

It’s the question that feels like a punch to the gut.

When are you going to have another baby?
A simple sentence that opens the floodgates to fear, shame, and self-doubt. What they don’t see is the quiet war you’re still fighting inside. The panic that rises at the thought of doing it all again. The grief in your body that hasn’t yet found peace. The ache of a story that didn’t go how you hoped, that left you changed in ways you can’t quite explain.

You’re not just saying no to another baby.
You’re saying no to risking the deep rupture you barely survived.
No to reliving the medical trauma, the helplessness, the not-being-heard.
No to pretending everything is fine when your nervous system still isn’t.

And that makes sense.
Because healing from birth trauma isn’t linear. And it’s not just physical.

It’s emotional. It’s cellular. It’s about rebuilding trust in yourself, your body, your care.
And when the world keeps asking when you’ll do it again, it can feel like your pain is being erased.

Here’s what I want you to know:
You don’t owe anyone a timeline.
You don’t have to explain why your body or your heart isn’t ready.
And you get to grieve the birth you had, while also honouring what you need now.

What helps?
Space to process, without pressure.
Support that doesn’t pathologise your fear.
A birth debrief that lets your story breathe.
Specialist perinatal and birth counselling that sees all of you, not just your role as a mother, but your lived experience as a person.

There is a version of you on the other side of survival.
She is not broken. She is wise. She is learning to trust herself again.

Healing after birth trauma doesn’t always look like what people expect.It’s not about pretending it never happened. Or b...
14/11/2025

Healing after birth trauma doesn’t always look like what people expect.

It’s not about pretending it never happened. Or being grateful that you and baby are okay. Or rushing into positivity before your body has even had time to process what it went through. The truth is, birth trauma healing is often invisible to the outside world, and deeply personal. It’s about what shifts inside you, not how you appear to be coping.

It might look like finally being able to tell your story without tears. Feeling more present with your baby instead of trapped in guilt or fear. It might mean advocating for yourself at your next appointment, even if your voice shakes. Or catching a trigger in the moment and gently choosing something different. Sometimes, healing looks like letting go of the story that you were too sensitive.

And sometimes, it simply looks like recognising that what happened to you mattered.

There is no timeline. No right way. No neat before-and-after moment. But what there can be is support. Understanding. And slow, steady safety, rebuilt one piece at a time.

If you’re ready, we’re here to help show you what healing looks like. Head to the link in my bio to book in directly.

Avoiding your triggers can feel like self-protection, but it isn’t the same as healing.When something reminds you of you...
11/11/2025

Avoiding your triggers can feel like self-protection, but it isn’t the same as healing.

When something reminds you of your birth or another traumatic experience, your nervous system moves quickly to keep you safe. It might look like shutting down, changing the subject, cancelling an appointment, or avoiding anything that feels too close. For a while, that helps you cope. But over time, it can keep you stuck in the same loop of fear and tension.

Healing starts when you have enough safety and support to face what comes up, piece by piece. It’s not about forcing yourself into situations that overwhelm you. It’s about learning how to notice the trigger, pause, and understand what it’s trying to tell you. In therapy we use gentle grounding and body-based strategies to help you stay present while your brain and body relearn that you’re safe now.

As you build this tolerance, you begin to move through the pain rather than around it. The pattern starts to shift, and the story changes. That’s when you find yourself responding instead of reacting, trusting yourself again, and feeling more in control.

Healing isn’t about avoiding the hard moments. It’s about meeting them with care, and finding a way to a different ending.

Save this post for the days you need the reminder.

Birth trauma isn’t just about what happened in the delivery room. It’s about how it felt. The fear, the loss of control,...
10/11/2025

Birth trauma isn’t just about what happened in the delivery room. It’s about how it felt. The fear, the loss of control, the moments where no one seemed to notice you needed help.

And it doesn’t just disappear once you’re home with your baby. It can show up quietly in ways that catch you off guard. You might find yourself second guessing every medical decision because you don’t trust anyone to really have your best interests at heart. Or maybe you feel a wave of sadness when your partner leaves for work, like they get to escape while you’re still trying to make sense of everything.

Sometimes it looks like avoiding family visits because being around people feels too much, or wondering if you’ll ever be able to trust your body again. For some, it’s wanting another baby but feeling terrified at the thought of giving birth again. For others, it’s feeling tense when their scar is touched or reminded of a birth that didn’t feel like a choice.

These are all real experiences. They’re not overreactions or signs that you’re doing something wrong. They’re your body’s way of saying, “I’m not finished processing what happened.”

In therapy, we slow things down. We explore what happened, where safety or choice went missing, and how that still shows up in your body now. Together we build practical grounding and regulation tools you can use when things feel too much, like during feeds, appointments or sleepless nights. With EMDR therapy, we can work through the moments that still carry weight, helping your brain and body refile those memories so they no longer trigger the same alarm. You set the pace, you stay in control, and we stop whenever you need.

Healing doesn’t mean erasing your story. It means reclaiming your sense of safety, trusting your body again, and finding steadiness in the moments that once felt overwhelming.

If this feels familiar, it might be time to take that next step. Book a session through the link in my bio and we’ll start from where you are.

Address

6/640 Beeliar Drive, Success
Perth, WA
6164

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+61402017425

Website

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Who is Fiona Rogerson?

Thank you for being here. My work has developed from a culmination of my own personal experiences of birth and motherhood (which included secondary infertility, IVF, pregnancy loss, instrumental birth, postnatal depression and breastfeeding struggles, but ultimately beautiful positive birth) together with what I witnessed to be similar experiences of other mothers through my initial work as a professional pregnancy and birth photographer which first began in 2009, together with my work as a birth/postnatal doula and antenatal educator. What I found to be a crucial but missing element for the parents I worked with, and for myself as well, was genuine, professional support that could help them navigate perhaps the most intense phase of their life... their perinatal period.

Through my counselling I provide a safe, supportive space for mothers and fathers to feel validated and fully heard, unravel and identify confusing and troubling thoughts and emotions, find clarity among their feelings, and discover strategies and tools to move forward toward achieving fulfillment and happiness. I provide confidential support in all areas of perinatal difficulties for women and men, including birth trauma and debriefing, pre and postnatal anxiety, low-self-esteem, loss of identity, fertility, unplanned pregnancy, and grief and loss.

Dare to walk a different path. I will light your way.