Psychology Publications for a general audience

When Motherhood isn't a joy.
by André Picard
From Saturday's Globe and Mail, Published on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009 5:08PM EDT

.Julie Cugalj had a storybook pregnancy: She was one of those mothers-to-be who glowed. “It was the most blissful nine months of my life,” she says.

The delivery itself, on Halloween night of 2004, was also a breeze, only four hours from beginning to end.

But the new mother had trouble breastfeeding her son, Alex. She was suddenly and profoundly exhausted, and wanted to sleep day and night. Her appetite vanished, along with her confidence.

“I could feel myself tumbling down the slope, but I couldn't reverse it,” Ms. Cugalj says. “You come to a crisis point very quickly. You lose your sense of self-worth.”

In retrospect, the 32-year-old Gatineau, Que., mother suffered classic symptoms of postpartum depression but, like many, she put on her happy mom face and struggled with the demons of depression behind closed doors.

Valerie Whiffen, a Vancouver-based psychologist, says internalizing and hiding the problem is a common reaction ....

For the full article click here

A Secret Sadness: The Hidden Relationship Patterns that Make Women Depressed.
I wrote this book for women who experience depression and for the people who love them. I summarize the research on women's depression, with an emphasis on the known link between interpersonal problems and depression. I illustrate the research using three case studies taken from my private practice and I provide an overview of women's treatment options.

Publisher's Weekly (2006) wrote:

Whiffen's fine introduction to depression places the disease in the context of women's interpersonal relationships, simply and methodically underscoring the correlation between a woman's formative connections with her parents, her romantic relationships as an adult and her emotional well-being and sense of self. For many patients, "feeling depressed is better than admitting a truth about a relationship with someone important that would lead to profound feelings of sadness," theorizes the author, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Ottawa. She examines various stages of development to illuminate how parenting styles and early life attachments affect a child's ability to cope with stress or conflict in intimate relationships later in life. Throughout, Whiffen enhances the accessible, instructive text with the stories of three of her patients. The volume includes thought-provoking, workbooklike questions at the end of each chapter for readers to consider their own behavior and feelings. Whiffen encourages women suffering from depression to undergo therapy, and information about treatment options, with a brief mention of antidepressants, rounds out the book. Readers are left with an encouraging mantra: "Remember that our lives don't change; we change our lives."

Janice Kennedy, columnist for The Ottawa Citizen (April 29, 2007), described the book as:

"When author/psychologist Valerie Whiffen wrote the book on female sadness, she broke new literary ground on women and relationships."

Click on the book cover picture to learn more about A Secret Sadness.

Myths and mates in childbearing depression.

Whiffen, V.E. (2004). Myths and mates in childbearing depression. Women and Therapy, 27, 151-163.

A summary of the research on postpartum depression and an illustration of how I work with postpartum depressed women.

Click on the picture for a pdf copy of this article.

Mood disturbance across the lifespan.

Whiffen, V. E., & Demidenko, N. (2006). Mood disturbance across the lifespan. In J. Worrell & C. Goodheart (Eds.), The Handbook of Girls' and Women's Psychological Health. New York: Oxford University Press.

A summary of the research on girls' and women's depression.

Click on the picture for a pdf copy of this article.

For a complete list of my publications please click on the picture