One OT's Lived Experience Journey with Perinatal OCD with Guest Jen Anderson-Frost in support of Maternal Mental Health Week PART 2
⚠️ CONTENT NOTE This episode includes open discussion of perinatal OCD, intrusive thoughts about harm to self and children. Everyone in Jen's story remained safe. If this content isn't right for you today, Episode 55, a more ACT-focused conversation with Jen, may be a better fit: Listen Here
What happens when an occupational therapist, someone who has worked in mental health, supported others through crisis, and carries all the professional knowledge of how care is supposed to work, becomes the one who needs that care?
In this episode of The BRAVE OT Podcast, Jen Anderson-Frost and I join you for Part 2 of our conversation to share the deeply personal story behind their work and lived experience perinatal mental health. This is a rare, honest, and at times difficult account of navigating perinatal OCD as an OT and a new parent, through a high-risk pregnancy, profound grief, intrusive thoughts, and a long road to recovery. Jen also shares what they're building now: the Intuitive Perinatal Collective, a membership offering neurodivergent and queer-affirming perinatal mental health support, with a Crowdfunder currently live to support low-income families.
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In This Episode, We Discuss:
- What Jen's perinatal OCD actually looked and felt like, including the shame, the hiding, and the compulsions that happened entirely internally
- How a traumatic pregnancy, a terminal diagnosis in the family, a trauma history, and a newborn's medical needs converged into a perfect storm
- Why being an OT and mental health professional made it harder, not easier, to accept help
- The moment the word "ego-dystonic" changed everything and why it was also a double-edged sword
- How ACT concepts like defusion, experiential avoidance, and values-based living showed up in Jen's recovery (even before they named them as ACT)
- The role of medication, mental health nursing, trauma timelines, and ERP in a complex, layered recovery
- Why nervous system considerations matter deeply in exposure therapy and what Jen wishes had been different
- Inference-based CBT (ICBT) as a neurodivergent-affirming approach to OCD they're currently exploring
- How the Intuitive Perinatal Collective was born from lived experience, passion, and the gaps Jen witnessed firsthand
- A call to action for Maternal Mental Health Week in the UK and the Crowdfunder supporting low-income families
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About Jen Anderson-Frost (she/they) is an occupational therapist and intuitive living coach based in the UK. Drawing on both professional training and lived experience as a queer, neurodivergent parent and perinatal OCD survivor, Jen supports queer and neurodivergent parents with perinatal mental health challenges and burnout. Jen also works as a pediatric OT supporting neurodivergent children and families, and hosts the Intuitive Living with OT Intuition Podcast.
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Support Jen's Crowdfunder 🌱 Jen has launched a Crowdfunder for the Intuitive Perinatal Collective, a membership offering preventative and in-the-moment perinatal mental health support for neurodivergent and LGBTQIA+ parents, carers, and surrogates. This crowdfunder specifically aims to support low-income families in accessing the membership and optional one-to-one support. If you can pledge, wonderful. If you can share, that matters just as much.
👉 Support the Intuitive Perinatal Collective: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-intuitive-perinatal-collective
Connect With Jen Anderson-Frost
🔗 Linktree (all links)
🎙️ Intuitive Living with OT Intuition Podcast
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About The BRAVE OT Podcast: The BRAVE OT Podcast features occupational therapists doing innovative, courageous, and meaningful work — and navigating the very real challenges of trailblazing along the way. Hosted by Carlyn Neek, OT, coach, and educator, from Calgary, Alberta. 🌐 balanceworks.online
