Dr Dawn Kingston

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Calgary, AB
Dr Dawn Kingston

https://www.drdawnmentalhealth4women.com/research-studies I’m Dr. Dawn Kingston and I’m on a mission to help women live their best lives. I want to change this.

Dr. Dawn Kingston & The HOPE Team
Helping Women Overcome Mental Heathcare Barriers
🌼HOPE: Free selfguided therapy
📖Book: Your Brain on Pregnancy
🐑Farm in off hrs
⬇️Join a research study! My work centers on helping pregnant women take care of their mental and emotional well-being. Healthy families depend upon healthy mothers, and my goal is to help mothers be at their very best. I have two grown sons of my own, and I know firsthand that I can only support them well when I am healthy myself. As an associate professor at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and holder of the Lois Hole Hospital for Women Cross-Provincial Chair in Perinatal Mental Health, I’m able to help pregnant women build strong emotional health and become the parent they want to be. I’ve been doing research on prenatal mental health for the past 10 years. I became seriously interested in women’s mental health during pregnancy when I was a nurse caring for sick infants in a neonatal intensive care unit. I realized that the medical field was focused on physical pregnancy problems, but some new research was linking prenatal stress, anxiety and depression to preterm birth and other health problems in children whose mothers suffered with prenatal anxiety or depression. A decade later, we now know that mental health problems are among the most common health problems in pregnancy. Unfortunately, help for emotional and mental health during pregnancy is often unavailable when and where women need it and they end up feeling alone and desperate. My goal is to share information and answers to questions that I constantly hear from women, their families and their prenatal care providers and provide bottom line, practical solutions that you can use to support your emotional health. Everything I offer will be based on our best evidence for how to prevent and treat emotional health problems in pregnancy. One last thing. The material I provide is meant to help you find the help you need to restore or maintain you mental and emotional health. As with all online health information, you should share it with your own provider before beginning any course of treatment. Warmly,
Dr. K

03/17/2026

If you’ve never had an EEG scan before (and even if you have!), questions can come up, and that’s very reasonable. Concerns may circle around time commitment and potential risks and discomforts.

⏲️For the purposes of this study, we ask that participants allocate 45minutes for the EEG portion of the scan, although the actual scan may be as quick as 20minutes.

🔵As for potential risks or discomforts, rest easy knowing that EEGs have been used for many years and is considered a safe procedure. The test causes no discomfort. The electrodes record brain activity. They don’t produce any sensation. There is also no risk of getting an electric shock.

If you have other questions, please reach out - our research coordinator would be happy to help!

⭐️How to Join?⭐️

Joining is easy!

✉️Simple email us at hope@ucalgary.ca, or click the ‘Join Us’ button on our EEG web page to access an email template written for you to join.

Many thanks to our sponsors: Alberta Health Services, Women & Children’s Health Research Institute, Calgary Health Foundation, Lois Hole Hospital for Women, Covenant Health and the University of Calgary.

This study has received approval from the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board at the University of Calgary REB54-0104.

03/10/2026

Welcome to a mini series on why we are running the EEG study!

The most common treatment women receive for mental health challenges is medication.

And while medication can help, recent studies reveal that only 18% of women receive relief from medication. What many women do experience are side effects, but unfortunately without relief (or relief after trial and error).

The HOPE team is researching ways to understand women’s brains and how women’s health can be better supported with precise treatments. One of the ways we are doing this is through the EEG study.

💗By participating, you will be helping pave the way for future non-invasive therapies that could support women’s mental health and well-being, something my mother - and perhaps yours - never had.

⭐️We would love for you to join us! Message if you have questions!⭐️

Many thanks to our sponsors: Alberta Health Services, Women & Children’s Health Research Institute, Calgary Health Foundation, Lois Hole Hospital for Women, Covenant Health and the University of Calgary.

This study has received approval from the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board at the University of Calgary REB54-0104.

03/03/2026

Your lived experiences and brain has the amazing power to improve mental health care and well-being for women across Canada.

💗By participating, you’ll be helping pave the way for future non-invasive therapies that could support women’s mental health and well-being.

Making a difference is easy - simply by completing a survey and sharing an EEG scan with our research team and you can help build a future for better, more personalized mental health care.

⭐️How to Join?⭐️

Joining is easy!

✉️Simple email us at hope@ucalgary.ca, or click the ‘Join Us’ button on our EEG web page to access an email template written for you to join.

Many thanks to our sponsors: Alberta Health Services, Women & Children’s Health Research Institute, Calgary Health Foundation, Lois Hole Hospital for Women, Covenant Health and the University of Calgary.

This study has received approval from the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board at the University of Calgary REB54-0104.

02/26/2026

No matter where you are on your mental health journey, you are not alone.

One of the main reasons that motivated us to create the HOPE Platform is to help women overcome the barrier of access when it comes to getting mental health support.

“We believe self-management taps into a woman’s sense of control over her life, empowering her to make the decisions that are in her best interest,” says Dr Dawn Kingston, head of the HOPE team.

“Often women are so busy juggling the many aspects of their life that they don’t have time or the financial resources to follow up with traditional therapy or doctor’s appointments and they prefer being able to take steps on their own.”

Our digital HOPE Platform, now newly refreshed with easier navigation, allows women to access therapy and educational resources anytime, anywhere to improve their mental health.

Try it for yourself!

02/24/2026

The HOPE Platform was designed in response to a need to fill in the gaps for timely and accessible mental healthcare.

While not designed to replace therapy with a professional, it nonetheless is a valuable tool to support the work done in therapy and deepen understanding of certain concepts, such as attachment theory and changing thoughts and behaviours.

⭐️As a support to accompany therapy, it was designed to fill in gaps such as:

✅Wait-times for therapy
✅To support work and growth in-between therapy sessions
✅To offer support to individuals in rural areas with little access to counselling options

⭐️ As a support to those starting out on self-care for their mental health journey:

➡️In our research we have found 3 out of 4 women want to self-manage their mental health.

➡️HOPE provides a great starting point to assess personal mental health and get support.

Access HOPE’s resources anywhere - from the comfort of home at your computer to travelling with it in your pocket on mobile.

⭐️Thanks to our sponsors, HOPE is available free to all:
Alberta Women’s Health, Women and Children’s Health Research Institute, Spark Calgary, Lois Hole Hospital for Women, Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation, University of Calgary, Canadian Institute of Health Research, Max Bell Foundation.

02/20/2026

Pregnancy can bring on a lot of change:

Physical change for one, but also the emotional realization that your life is changing in a big way. This can cause anxiety, that can become overwhelming if left unchecked.
⁠
It’s important not to simply ignore the anxiety and hope it goes away. Our research has shown that addressing anxiety early on pregnancy helps reduces the chances of severity of anxiety postpartum.

Here are four wellbeing tips today: What would you add?

1. ROUTINE

Remember that even though your body is changing and your taste buds may respond differently to your favourite foods, that creating routine with the things you have control over can help. ⁠

2. SLEEP

There’s a myth that any sleep lost from sleepless nights prior to baby can be made up for in postpartum. This isn’t really true. Our research has shown that getting enough, quality sleep can help in a major way to guard against anxiety. So sleep when you can and don’t feel guilty about taking a nap.

3. JOURNALING

Are your thoughts spinning out of control? Sometimes, the simple act of writing can help. It doesn’t have to be a diary entry with properly structured sentences if that’s not your thing. Even a list can help, or try some free form writing where you leave your writing unedited and you don’t think too much about it.

4. REACH OUT FOR SUPPORT

If you’ve been experiencing high stress and anxiety for 2+ weeks and you’re struggling to take it down a notch to something manageable, please ask for help from your healthcare provider.

Need support now? Check out the HOPE Platform and the book ‘Your Brain on Pregnancy’ to understand symptoms and learn methods to cope.

02/12/2026

Spread the love with a friend or treat yourself with these Valentine’s Day gift ideas ♥️

💌A handwritten message on a locally made card
🌲Go for a nature walk
📽Movie night or favourite show
🩵Try out the HOPE Platform for yourself or share with a friend
🖍Colouring emotions
🫧Natural body care products (farmers markets are great for these!)
☕️Coffee date
🕮A copy of the book ‘Your Brain on Pregnancy’
🍩Freshly baked pastries or bread
🎭Support the arts and attend a local show
🍹Favourite drink - wine, cider, coffee, tea, soda
🛋A low-key night at home

What would you like to give or receive?

02/10/2026

Conflict and arguments can go much deeper than anger, irritability and frustration.

It can impact a person’s nervous system, rewiring the brain and nervous system in real time.

Yet the benefits of supportive, trusted social relationships are strong and undeniable, making it worth it to try to build and find.

While reaching out can be challenging, the comfort found in deep connection and co-regulation with a trusted other can be extremely valuable.

However, if you’ve been in unsafe relationships (as a child or adult), getting to a point of reaching out to build supportive relationships can be very emotionally challenging. Where do you start if you feel shut down much of the time?

One way to start slowly self-regulating can be by practicing what you need to hear from trusted friends and family.

For example, you might say:

“What I need right now is...”
“What would make me feel better in this moment is...”
“It would help me most if....”

This Valentine’s Week, how can you choose to connect meaningfully with a trusted other? Or can you choose to practice speaking kindly to yourself?

02/05/2026

Join a groundbreaking research study to decode how women’s brains respond to life, hormones, and mental health.

By getting a simple, safe EEG scan, you will be helping to build a future where your daughter, niece, granddaughter, friend —and all women—have better, more personalized mental health care.

📍Where is the study taking place?

- Alberta

❓What’s involved?

- A single questionnaire
- One EEG scan (if you already have a medical EEG lined up, you can consent to have your clinic share it with our research team or volunteer to have an EEG with one of our research staff at Foothills Women’s Mental Health Centre in Calgary or the Dale Sheard Centre at the Lois Hole Hospital for Women in Edmonton).

✉️ How can I join?

- Joining is easy! Email us at hope@ucalgary.ca

That’s it!

We hope to have you join us in making a difference for women’s mental healthcare in Canada!

02/03/2026

Getting a good night’s sleep is one of the best preventive strategies available to pregnant women. It can help prevent postpartum depression as well as birth complications such as low birth weight. Don’t be afraid to discuss this with your doctor. It may seem minor, but sleep has a huge impact on you and your baby.

Curious about sleep during pregnancy? Check out the blog for articles on sleep quality for mental and physical wellbeing during the perinatal period.

Address

Calgary, AB

Website

http://www.hopementalhealth4women.com/, https://www.drdawnmentalhealth4women.com/

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