Perinatal Mental Health Certificate
Address a Critical Need with Collaboration and Accessibility
Our Perinatal Mental Health Certificate doesn't just enhance your résumé—it empowers you to be a lifeline to families during their most vulnerable moments. Counselors, marriage and family therapists, nurses, and allied health professionals have worked together in cross-disciplinary collaboration. This one-year certificate offers classes online and synchronously to meet you where you are.
This certificate is supported by PMH-C prepared counseling faculty, nursing faculty, and community partner lecturers from a wide range of health disciplines.
Program Overview
Perinatal mental health is a unique discipline, addressing the needs of pregnant and birthing people and their families. Perinatal mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, affect approximately one in five birthing people. Crisis situations unique to the perinatal period, such as birth trauma, postpartum psychosis, and infant loss, require trained clinicians who specialize in supporting clients through this challenging time.
The perinatal mental health certificate prepares providers to work with pregnant people and new parents by empowering students with the skills to assess, diagnose, and treat a wide range of perinatal mental health conditions. Students in this certificate will also study ethics, social justice, culture, and advocacy within the realm of reproductive healthcare. By completing this certificate, students will be equipped to work in a variety of care settings and to effect change in healthcare systems.
Additional Information
This program is 9 semester credits and takes about 12 months to complete.
Complete the following courses:
COUN-6932: Advanced Perinatal Psychotherapy
COUN-6930: Perinatal Mental Health
COUN-6931: Reproductive Justice, Advocacy, and Integrated Care
- Gain an understanding of perinatal mood disorders, including assessment, case conceptualization, and treatment plans.
- Gain an understanding of systems perspectives of new families (caregivers, healthcare providers, extended family); students will understand the clinician's role in the system.
- Gain knowledge of the ways in which medical changes associated with gestations and birth affect parenting, personal wellness, health, and advocacy needs.
- Gain knowledge of the ways in which pregnancies and parenting affect lifespan development, identity, and ADDRESSING features (lifespan).
- Gain knowledge of self-as-counselor when working with peripartum clients, including the role of one's own identities and countertransference.
Faculty Spotlights
Shanel Robinson, PhD
Adjunct Faculty
Kevin Kusy, PhD
Teaching Faculty
Sadé M. Dunn EdD, NCC, LCPC, LPC
Adjunct Faculty
Markie Twist, PhD, LMHC, LMFT, CSE, CSE-S, RegCOSRT
Teaching Faculty
Admissions
Complete the online admissions application , including:
- A personal statement that responds to:
- Their interest in perinatal mental health (approximately two paragraphs)
- An experience navigating multiple perspectives in a workplace or classroom
- How will this certificate shape their personal and professional identity or future career
- Two reference/recommendation letters addressing:
- Readiness for graduate-level writing and critical thinking
- Strengths and/or areas for growth in professional disposition (qualities, attitudes, behaviors, ethics)
- Suitability for engaging with social justice, advocacy, and the intersections of reproductive care laws and ethics
- Submit official transcripts from all colleges or universities where you earned a degree or certificate (A cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher is preferred)
- email transcripts to [email protected] or mail to:
Office of Admissions
Antioch University New England
40 Avon Street
Keene, NH 03431-3516
5. There are additional requirements for International applicants and applicants without a Bachelor's degree
6. Master’s and Certificate Programs do not require the GRE or any other standardized test for admissions. We consider all of your application materials and evaluate your academic potential in a variety of ways.
Optional: If you do not feel as if your academic transcript(s) reflect your current ability to be successful as a graduate student, please be sure to highlight a plan for being successful in this program.
All application materials submitted become part of an applicant’s file and cannot be returned. LEARN MORE
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