Perinatal and pregnancy counselling services for Perth and regional WA families
Clearing the way to speak the unspoken
About Growing Parents
The challenges we face as modern mums are many and more complex than ever. At Growing Parents, we also see how pregnant parents don’t get the support they need—and aren’t even sure where to start looking for the kind that will best suit them.
Growing Parents was founded by Dr Katie Carter, whose own path to motherhood came with surprises—ones she now honours, but at the time sent her spinning into self-doubt which called her to find and deeply integrate a whole new understanding of herself. This also meant revisiting and healing her past hurts.
Her endeavours following childhood fuelled a desire to right the world’s wrongs through social work and human rights. Dr Katie’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Social Work, a master’s degree in Human Rights, and a PhD in Trauma Integration.
She uses a range of evidence-informed approaches including:
Cognitive behavioural therapies (CBT)
Mindfulness based interventions including Mindful Birth
Attachment therapies, including the well-known Circle of Security
Gottman therapeutic interventions for couples
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Narrative Therapy
Emotionally Focussed Therapy
About Dr Katie Carter
Perinatal, Parenting & Pregnancy Counsellor
Hi, I’m Katie, welcome to Growing Parents.
It might reassure you to know that it’s a rare mum who’s completely at ease with the upheaval early motherhood can bring.
And yet, ‘messy’ is something most of us try not to be. We like to think we have everything under control, and when it all goes belly-up, self-doubt sets in, sometimes building to immense internal pressure and self-invalidation about our ability to parent.
Parenting perfection is one of the most damaging (yet persistent) myths of parenthood. Through my own life’s journey and education, I came to know that my skill and calling was to help pregnant women and parents break down these myths so they’re free to walk the parenthood path with the ease and pleasure they deserve.
My work is relational, attachment-based, and trauma informed.
Underlying my work is a real interest in re-authoring our relationships to parenthood, which offers a radical approach to reconceptualising our personal life experiences.
I work on creating safety, trust and a sense of collaboration for the people I work with. From here I notice that growth and change can really flourish. I work with other allied health practitioners, and if needed, will refer on to others more experienced or trained in a specific area.
So whether you’re dealing with relationship stress, a difficult past, an unstable living situation, chronic illness, or an array of challenges spanning all of these areas, I can support you on your motherly journey.
A little more about me
From the age of eight, I knew I wanted to be involved in social justice and human rights. This was an attempt to understand the issues I clearly saw in the world around me, and to begin to understand myself more fully. I began by studying social work straight out of high school—an unusual pursuit for someone of that age.
I was involved in everything you could imagine related to social justice—youth groups, protesting, programs for young people—all of which mirrored my life at different stages. I became a social worker, completed a PhD in trauma integration, and my master's in human rights is centred around women's issues and gender.
The thing I am most proud of is that I've learnt (and continue to learn) how to be kind to myself as a mother and as a person. It was not an easy process but is truly worth the effort.
My own healing is what I bring to working with people, along with a knowing that being open to receiving the parenting you may have missed yourself is the most powerful way to engage in this work.
I’m also an accredited member of the Australia Association of Social Workers, an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker and a Mindful Birth teacher.
