Healthy Nests Transition to Parenthood Program: A Phenomenological Analysis of Participant Experiences

Abstract

The transition to parenthood is often a time of excitement and pleasure for couples, yet it can also be a time of great stress. Couple distress is associated with significant negative outcomes for parents and children. The Healthy Nests (HN) intervention is a three-meeting, strength focused couples intervention for first-time parents designed to decrease maladaptive relationship conflict and increase couple well-being. We conducted qualitative interviews with ten couples from each condition (n = 20) about their experiences with the HN project. Four categories, twelve themes, and three subthemes were identified across the intervention and control group couple participants. The categories that emerged for the intervention group include: (a) we are partners AND parents and (b) we experienced significant changes. Some subthemes included (a) increased affection and (b) normalized stressors. Implications for practice, research, and training are discussed.

The embodied experience of vulnerability of first-time parents: An existential-phenomenological study of the shared experiences between first-time parent couples.

“…Therapists have long understood that expressions of vulnerability that are met with care and understanding can give rise to the foundations of trust and hope that are necessary for security and healing. The emotion-focused therapy models of the Gottman approach (Shapiro et al, 2011) and the emphasis on greater communication, attachment, and intimacy (Dalgleish et al, 2015; Scheinkman & Fishbane, 2004) for couples are pivotal for the formation of what Brown et al (2015) describe as the “healthy nest.” These early moments of transition into new identities are, in fact, some of the most transformative and vulnerable periods of life. These early moments are, as “mindful parenting” authors describe, the integral process of developing an “emotional attunement” that is so crucial for the development of secure attachment with our children (Siegel & Hartzell, 2014, p. 293).…”

“…Research using brief psychosocial and psychoeducational couples interventions, many inspired by the widely used Gottman approach of Bringing Baby Home (Shapiro, Nahm, Gottman, & Content, 2011), suggests that couples experience increased communication, increased affection, and increased awareness of their partner’s perspective when they are able to focus on and explore the couple relationship itself rather than only on their individual experiences of parenting (Brown, Linville, Todahl, & Page, 2015). Brown et al’s (2015) mixed-method study built on the idea that establishing strong, emotionally focused communication for new parents, through a three-session intervention called Healthy Nests, allowed for reduced relational conflict and had positive effects on marital satisfaction. In the past two decades, many types of couple therapy interventions, such as emotion-focused couples therapy, have been based on deconstructing the emotional origins and cyclical constituents of each individual’s vulnerabilities in order to foster greater communication, attachment, and intimacy (Dalgleish et al, 2015; Scheinkman & Fishbane, 2004).…”