Emma Chapman Counselling

06/07/2025

We lost Willow a few weeks ago. The grief from losing a dog is very real. She grew up with my children and was the most loyal friend and companion. The house feels empty without her. I wanted to share one of my favourite pictures of her, she looks positively regal, she was a queen in our house! ❤️

03/06/2025

I’m doing some research about perinatal mental health experiences in the UK, please feel free to share my advert with anybody that you think might be interested.

I’m interested in hearing lots of different voices and perspectives to try to understand the intersectional nature of women’s experiences of poor perinatal mental health in the UK. Please contact me at 1523756@chester.ac.uk if you would like to take part.



[Image description: Research advert. Participants Needed for Perinatal Mental Health Study

The Research:
I'm Emma, a PhD student at The University of Chester doing a study exploring the ways that women talk about and understand their poor perinatal mental health experiences in the UK, and how helpful this is for their recovery.

Can you take part?
You don't need to have had any formal diagnosis of a perinatal mental health condition to take part.
You do need to:
• Be a woman, or trans woman who has experienced poor mental health during your pregnancy and/or in the first year following the birth of your child?
• Consider yourself to have recovered from these experiences for at least 2 years?
• Have lived in the United Kingdom when you experienced poor perinatal mental health?
• Be aged 18+?

What will it involve?
A one-off, online unstructured confidential interview about your experiences of poor perinatal mental health and recovery.

Get in touch:
If you are interested in taking part, please email me, Emma Chapman at
1523756@chester.ac.uk
before August 2025.]

23/04/2025

I remember when I first developed some training for counsellors about the importance of making space for women to accept and even embrace ambivalence in motherhood. The feedback I got shook me, and for a while, shut me up.

People questioned why I was so negative about motherhood? They made assumptions about me as a mother and told me that talking this way about experiences of motherhood would most certainly hurt or harm children (the implication being mine in particular!)

But the research I’ve read (including my own) doesn’t agree. In fact, it suggests that embracing ambivalent feelings in motherhood is not just good for the mother, but for the child too.

It takes people a while to change their minds. People often react to defend what they feel is true because this is a way of defending their life and their choices.

Thank goodness for writers like Rachel Cusk who are not afraid to offend, to be called bad mothers, to speak about the less palatable parts of the maternal experience. I’ll follow her lead in my research.

31/10/2024

I’m really proud of what we do on the MA and it’s nice to celebrate it! ❤️

The University of Chester has been recognised for the high-quality training provided by its Counselling programmes.

The BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) is a sign of quality assurance. It has recently reviewed the University’s accreditation to deliver its MA in Clinical Counselling. The report commented on “the high standard of professional delivery” and added “We are delighted to be able to maintain your accreditation and wish you and your staff well for this academic year”.

Programme Leader, Cemil Egeli, said: "It is wonderful to have this professional validation which is a reminder of the fantastic work being done by the team on the MA in clinical counselling." Find out more 👉 https://bit.ly/3CerFsG

17/09/2024

It feels important while reading about feminist critical discourse analysis, and thinking about how women often perpetuate myths about the wonderful nature of motherhood through the way in which they speak about it, to acknowledge what a privilege it feels to have a day to just work. I never thought I’d miss being able to just get my head down for the day and just work.

The key word there is JUST. Without having to be somewhere to pick the kids up, without organising their clubs or social life, without feeding them, without listening to their worries about their days, their friendships and their studies, without washing their clothes or just planning how to manage all of that tomorrow, and the next day...

I feel tempted to qualify what I’ve said above by saying ‘I do love being a mum really’, but the fact that women feel they need to qualify their ambivalent feelings about motherhood, and usually do, is part of the problem.

So I’m sitting back with a cup of tea savouring my newly found Tuesday freedom. This is a day that has now been put aside by myself and my family to give me the time and space to be lost in something I love, that’s interesting, that’s just about me. And hopefully something that will be useful for others in future.

Image Description: [A photo of my desk with a cup of tea and some articles covered in scribbles about critical discourse analysis.]

28/07/2024

I’m revisiting this book while doing some work on my research. It’s making me wonder how many of us therapists are brave enough to advertise that we work in a non-medicalised way? I know that I fear that I won’t be taken seriously as a therapist, and that this will impact my business, I’m sure others have similar fears.

But I’m increasingly frustrated with the narratives around mental health which fail to acknowledge poverty, overworking, discrimination and other distress caused by the systems that we live with in.

While we continue to buy in to the medical model, we continue to allow these systems not to take responsibility for the distress they cause.

Image Description: [A photo the book ‘people not pathology: freeing therapy from the medical model. Edited by Pete Sanders and Janet Tolan.]

05/07/2024

t’s been quite a day! As a therapist I have a deep held belief that people can change. Surely that means that politics and countries can change too? I’m not sure about you but I’m hoping that there might be time and space to breathe a little bit after a long time in survival for many of us.

I’m excited that my somatic therapy cards for trauma informed therapy arrived today to support clients to move out of survival mode. I’m hopeful that change can happen for all of us.

Image Description: [Somatic therapy exercise cards including cards for box breathing, vocal toning, rocking and the butterfly hug.]

16/06/2024

Father’s Day isn’t always an easy day.

However, I’m so grateful that my teenage girls have the kind of father that chooses to spend his Father’s Day painting pots with them.

Thanks to those Dads that keep on breaking cycles by making these choices and showing up even when times are tough.



Image Description: [A photo of four painted pots, a trinket box, a dinosaur money box, a mug with a dragon on it and a pizza plate.]

12/06/2024

Perhaps I shouldn’t be political, but it’s a massive part of who I am, and integrity is important to me.

Before I became a counsellor I spent years working with what local authorities call ‘vulnerable families’. What they actually meant were poor families. There’s a underclass in the UK who have spent the past 14 years having their needs turned against them. They have been blamed for their poverty, for their poor mental health, for their difficult choices and for their children’s chances in life.

In my experience no parent wants their child to fail, they are doing the best they can. The best they can do isn’t just down to them, it’s about community, society and ultimately our politics.

Mental health is political. We need to do better.

Image Description: [a photo of my window with a poster saying ‘Vote Labour’].

11/05/2024

I really tried to look intelligent this afternoon reading my books, but they mostly sat on my lap while the sun stole the show. Now I’m off to watch the Eurovision, let’s not pretend I’m highbrow! I hope that the sun shone on you today, physically or metaphorically depending on your needs!

Image description: [a photo of my lap with a book called Constructing grounded theory and a few other books and the sun in the background looking golden and beautiful]

27/04/2024

I wasn’t going to celebrate this as it was quite a slog alongside teaching, counselling and starting a PhD so it took me longer than I’d hoped and I was disappointed in myself. But as I look back over the past few years they have been a lot, and I’m giving myself a pat on the back for not giving up. So I’m celebrating my achievements. Well done me!

Image description: [two photos, the first confirming I have a PGCE in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, the second a certificate to say that I have achieved the status of Associate Fellow (AFHEA) with Advance Higher Education]

20/04/2024

Today I’m loving being able to sit in my garden and listen to the birds whilst exploring my new Internal family systems card deck, All Parts Welcome from Such a wonderful resource for me and my clients!

Image description: [two photos, the first of a set of cards depicting different parts from internal family systems theory, the second of my garden with my lovely old and scruffy Westie pottering]