Father, Perinatal Clinical Psychologist Discusses the Role of Fathers in the Wellbeing of Mothers and Families
MMHLA Executive Director, Adrienne Griffen, was recently in conversation with Sheehan David Fisher, PhD—perinatal clinical psychologist, Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at Northwestern University’s The Graduate School, and Associate Professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine.
Dr. Fisher’s research specializes in understanding the unique contributions of mothers and fathers to the family and child health, and his goals are to build health, equality, and strength in the family. Dr. Fisher is also the father to 4-year-old Reina.
Dr. Fisher with his 4-year-old daughter.
Adrienne: I’m curious about your work. What do you do? Why do you do it?
Dr. Fisher: I’m a perinatal clinical psychologist and researcher. I focus on the mental health of mothers and fathers to understand how that impacts child health outcomes and children’s developmental trajectories.
When I was in graduate school, I was debating between going into adult or child psychology, and perinatal mental health has the best of both worlds—understanding how childhood experiences impact someone for the rest of their life. At first, I was focused on the mother’s mental health, but as someone who eventually saw himself as a father, I was really curious about why there wasn’t any data about what my experience might be like. So I was really interested in incorporating the father, looking at mother and father hand-in-hand, looking at how they influence each other, how they transition together, and how together they have an impact on childhood development.
A lot of credit goes to Mr. Moses, my high school psychology teacher, who presented psychology as one of the last frontiers. He asked: how do the mind and brain work? And he made answering those questions seem so exciting. He also made me realize that while much progress has been made, much more still needs to be done to answer those questions.
Mental health has real, direct implications for everyone’s lives. Everyone has a brain, so everyone has mental health, and everyone has their own experiences which impact their mental health. I was curious about understanding that in a scientific way.
Adrienne: What led you to become involved in your work?
Dr. Fisher: Growing up, I saw how family environments could impact people’s mental health just by noticing what was happening with friends and family. I realized that it is not just the individual but a system that is around the person that has an impact, and if we don’t understand the system, we are unfairly putting all the burden on one person to be resilient through all the challenges of life.
I also realized early on in my work that parents are just humans. They are fallible. They need information and support, and they may not even recognize what they are going through.
The more I got into this research, the more I understood that at a deeper level. We as psychologists have a wealth of information, and it puts people at a disadvantage if they don’t have access to it. This information should be available to everyone, not just those who have a mental illness diagnosis.
Everyone would benefit in the transition to parenthood if they were better prepared. In a new job, employees go through an onboarding experience, but when you become a new parent, it is almost like a hazing process. It’s like, “Hey, figure it out on your own. I had to figure it out, now you have to do it,” and we just keep repeating the cycle.
Adrienne: So how are you addressing this in your research?
Dr. Fisher: We just started a study looking at pregnant women who have high ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) scores to do an intervention to prevent postpartum depression given their higher vulnerability. We are working with the National Institute of Mental Health to use the ROSE program to give these pregnant mothers training with the goal to help prevent depression postpartum.
We just wrapped up a grant that focused on empowering fathers to support mothers. It’s important to think about how to incorporate the father or partner as part of the treatment plan to support the mother who is going through this transition so she is not doing it alone. Once again, fathers are not trained in this, so they lack the information and skill set to support the mother. We were looking at how to empower the father/partner to support the mom by giving them tips and training. Fathers and partners really matter for the sustained wellbeing of the mother and the entire family.
Adrienne: I heard news that you recently received a promotion…
Dr. Fisher: I’m really proud to share that I was just promoted to Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in The Graduate School at Northwestern University. I’ll be supporting students throughout their graduate school careers with a focus on equity and diversity, as well as inclusion, retention, and belonging.
Dr. Sheehan Fisher was recently promoted to Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at The Graduate School at Northwestern University. Read Northwestern University’s announcement about Dr. Fisher’s promotion.
Adrienne: How do you balance work/life as a single father? How do you keep all the balls in the air?
Dr. Fisher: Ummmmmm…. (laughter)…. I am very structured so that I can be very present when Reina, my 4-year-old daughter, is not in school. Parenting requires a LOT of organizing!
I get up around 5:30 am and do some work; then I get my daughter ready and off to school; then I do all my face-to-face meetings and work. Right before I pick her up, I go to the gym. Then I’m ready to be with her in the late afternoon and evening, and sometimes I’ll do work after she goes to bed.
At work, I need to have multiple things going on, or I get bored. Having lots of things to juggle keeps me energized. Fortunately, structure has always been part of my life, and it’s the only way that I can get everything done. For example, I use color coding to block out times on my calendar for certain items, such as research, meetings, and activities with my daughter.
I love being with my daughter and love bringing her on vacations and most of my work trips. I just find childcare everywhere we go (except when we went to the International Marce Society conference in London on the day of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, and the daycare closed without telling me, so she attended the first day of the conference with me). It’s important to me that she has different experiences and can see what it is like to be engaged with different parts of the world. I incorporate her into my life so I don’t have to choose one or the other.
About Sheehan D. Fisher, PhD
Sheehan David Fisher, PhD, is a father, a clinical psychologist specializing in fathers and perinatal health, the Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at Northwestern University’s The Graduate School, and he is the Associate Professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine. You can find him on his website, Twitter, and Facebook.
