{"id":120312,"date":"2025-08-13T15:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/?p=120312"},"modified":"2025-08-13T15:00:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:00:47","slug":"dr-lindsey-brown-mccormick-filling-the-gaps-in-birth-trauma-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-lindsey-brown-mccormick-filling-the-gaps-in-birth-trauma-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Lindsey Brown McCormick: Filling the Gaps in Birth Trauma Care"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY ISABEL NELSON<\/p>\n

The average person goes through life seeking to avoid trauma, but some brave folks confront it head-on. Lindsey Brown McCormick, Ph.D., is one such person. Dr. McCormick, associate professor in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at The Chicago School, is leading her students through courses that delve into some of life\u2019s most fundamental traumas.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Kentucky, Dr. McCormick\u2019s route to The Chicago School took a winding road through undergraduate women and gender studies classes, sex therapy, and work at a rape crisis center during her graduate program. Though her therapeutic focus evolved through her own lived experiences, her passion for teaching was ever-present.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Dr. McCormick underwent two major changes: accepting a full-time position at The Chicago School and giving birth to her first child. Suddenly, Dr. McCormick was in the position of having firsthand knowledge of a traumatic birth, a subject she hadn\u2019t studied in graduate school<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really hit me that I\u2019d worked and specialized in women\u2019s mental health for so long, but I didn\u2019t know anything about postpartum depression or postpartum anxiety,\u201d Dr. McCormick says. \u201cI\u2019d never learned. It was never formally taught.\u201d<\/p>\n

She set out to change that for her own students. Says Dr. McCormick, \u201cIt really lit a fire under me to get trained in perinatal mental health, to not only get trained but to shift my clinical focus into perinatal mental health from that point and focus on the traumatic birthing experiences and reproductive trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chicago School was an ideal place to do that. Dr. McCormick was assisted in rewriting the lifespan development course for the online counsellor education program. In doing so, she\u2019s ensuring that students in years to come can assist with typically underrepresented aspects of mental health.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. McCormick, the overlap with other therapies that can help women and assigned-female-at-birth persons postpartum (e.g., lactation counselling, infant mental health, child attachment style development) can also prevent long-term problems for whole families.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much of what really fascinates me about perinatal mental health is the impact that it has, not just on the person that gave birth but the other children in the home and partners,\u201d Dr. McCormick says. \u201cIt has this trickle-down effect that can be lifelong and potentially even lead to generational trauma if left untreated. It\u2019s one of the most common complications that birthing folks have during pregnancy, and it\u2019s very preventable.\u201d<\/p>\n

After her journey to reach this clinical focus, Dr. McCormick feels rewarded seeing her students finding their own path and the groups they want to serve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI teach a lot of fieldwork, and I love providing clinical supervision and teaching fieldwork classes and cohorts,\u201d Dr. McCormick says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of growth and change that can happen during those classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

It can feel overwhelming for students to determine their own focus, especially if it\u2019s their first time doing fieldwork and experiencing direct service. But in a world still recovering from a pandemic, with more people than ever hoping to access mental health care online and in person, it\u2019s critical that the students explore and discover where their passion lies. The next generation of birthing parents may depend on it.<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ISABEL NELSON The average person goes through life seeking to avoid trauma, but some brave folks confront it head-on. Lindsey Brown McCormick, Ph.D., is one such person. Dr. McCormick, associate professor in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at The Chicago School, is leading her students through courses that delve into some of life\u2019s most fundamental traumas. Born and raised in Kentucky, Dr. McCormick\u2019s route to The Chicago School took a winding road through undergraduate women and gender studies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":120314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1062],"class_list":["post-120312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDr. Lindsey Brown McCormick: Filling Gaps in Birth Trauma Care<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Perinatal mental health affects entire families, yet it\u2019s often overlooked. 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