Thank you.
All we required was that they had recovered and had been recovered for more than a year. Then we asked them a few questions just about their openness to different treatment approaches. What we wanted, when we were selecting people who were going to work with mothers who were struggling, was openness to everyone's experiences and different treatment choices, so that those participants could feel good about that.
One of the singular joys of my career has been working with these peers. They are remarkable women—remarkably strong, bright and committed.
One thing we found—when they were trained and when they delivered the therapy and supervised each other in delivering the therapy to make the program sort of self-sufficient—is that they found that engaging in the helping work helped them solidify and complete their own journey and recovery from depression. Some people were worried that they would get worse, but treating or helping others actually led them to feeling stronger and more recovered.