The journey towards motherhood marks a period of significant changes, accompanied by excitement, gratitude, expectations, but often also by fear, anxiety, and apprehension.
At the Embryo+ Medical Clinic of Dr. Maria Simou, we aim to provide comprehensive support to pregnant women and their partners throughout the pregnancy journey, facilitating their path towards parenthood and bonding with their baby. We prioritize the psychology of pregnancy and childbirth, which during this period involves making important decisions and stabilizing often fragile emotional balance. Our colleague, Alexandra Palli, is a psychologist, a graduate of the University of Mainz in Germany and a Ph.D. holder in Psychology from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA), who will accompany you on this journey.
Dr. Palli has extensive experience in perinatal psychology and supporting women and couples. She has undergone further training in psychotherapies at universities in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy. Specializing in psychoeducation, a therapeutic method that helps individuals educate and inform themselves on maternity issues concurrently with psychological support. Through numerous collaborations, she has actively engaged in women’s issues, bearing scientific responsibility and planning prevention, education, and therapy interventions.
She supports women who desire and seek maternity in every possible way. She assists them in managing assisted reproductive technology, challenges, and anxieties encountered throughout pregnancy, managing their fears, processing their experiences, thoughts, and emotions, understanding themselves and the changes they undergo, harmonizing with their mental reality, and ultimately achieving greater psychological well-being and enjoying the joy of pregnancy during the journey towards motherhood.
She discusses with pregnant women and mothers about pregnancy and the postnatal period, the psychological impacts of these phases. She responds to the psychological needs that arise in parents of premature infants. She contributes to the early detection of potential perinatal mental difficulties, such as postpartum depression, and intervenes promptly to minimize the effects. She supports the mother and her partner by discussing issues of intimacy and emotional stability during pregnancy, improving their communication, and deepening their connection. Relationships with other individuals in the close environment are also often central topics in sessions. In therapeutic sessions, she works with couples concerned about the loss of their baby during pregnancy or childbirth, addressing problems or complications of pregnancy, emotional management of loss, perinatal grief, and instilling hope for the future.
Collaboration at the clinic concludes with issues of preparation and highlighting the importance of the father in both the baby’s and mother’s life and, overall, empowering them in their future parental role and developing emotionally healthy children.
Sessions with her can also be conducted remotely, facilitating the pregnant woman and the new mother.
She conducts sessions in both German and English languages.