The Digital Dilemma: Social Media +PMADs

Social Media and Perinatal Mental Health for Clinicians Presenter: Noah Suzuki, LPC, Perinatal Mental Health Counselor, The Postpartum Stress Center, and Director of Programming, The Karen Kleiman Training Center. Course Description: This training explores the complex relationship between new mothers and social media, highlighting how overuse can amplify perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs). Through clinical insights and practical strategies, therapists will learn to identify the emotional drivers behind compulsive scrolling and how online comparison culture can exacerbate shame, perfectionism, and distress. The session emphasizes the therapeutic concept of "holding" in a digitally distorted world, teaching participants how to create safe, validating spaces for new mothers navigating digital overwhelm. Attendees will leave with concrete tools to support healthier boundaries and restore clients' connection to internal cues over external validation. This pertains to NBCC content areas: Counseling Theory/Practice and the Counseling Relationship and Assessment. Learning Objectives: 1. Identify how isolation, identity loss, and sleep deprivation influence new mothers' engagement with social media. 2. Describe the psychological impact of comparison and curated content on clients experiencing PMADs, particularly PPD and OCD. 3. Apply therapeutic strategies to explore the emotional underpinnings of digital behavior and gently interrupt patterns of distress. 4. Implement specific interventions—including digital boundaries and values-based reflection—to help clients reclaim agency and self-compassion in the postpartum period. In addition, participants will: 1. Be invited to discuss relevant cases and receive in-depth consultation. 2. Be able to discuss the challenges inherent in this work in the age of Social Media, the concerns they have about it and the opportunity to process this discomfort. 2 CE hrs The Postpartum Stress Center, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7461. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Postpartum Stress Center, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.