Therapy for Prenatal and Postpartum
Are you pregnant or were recently pregnant and struggling with depression, anxiety, fear, OCD, PTSD from birth or pregnancy trauma, or grief? Let me join you through your prenatal and postnatal journeys as you experience fluctuating hormones and the feelings and emotions that come along for the ride. With specialized training and certification in Perinatal Mental Health from Postpartum Support International, I am here to help you navigate the ups, downs, and sometimes challenging detours throughout your perinatal journey.
I help moms (and dads) process, work through, and find their way to the other side of:
- Fears and anxieties around baby’s well being in utero and the anticipated birth
- Trauma from pregnancy complications or birthing experiences either from previous pregnancies or recent
- Overwhelming postpartum fears and anxieties around baby’s health, safety, and wellbeing in the first few months or even after
- Postpartum depression or rage
- Postpartum OCD
- The deep grief and pain of perinatal grief from losing your baby including miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant loss
We work together through counseling and other therapy and wellness techniques and resources to teach how to manage anxiety, monitor mood, stop the start of a panic attack, deescalate a panic attack, monitor depression symptoms, and offer tips and tricks to manage and control depression.
When to begin therapy.
Whether you’ve recently confirmed those two pink lines, are well into pregnancy, or have already delivered, I help clients throughout all phases and stages. I find moms-to-be especially benefit from therapy early in pregnancy through the more high-risk period of the first trimester then again toward the end of pregnancy as anticipation for delivery grows.
I love joining you on your journey from beginning to end as I keep an eye on and manage your symptoms throughout, preventing stress, fear, and anxiety from getting out of control. Managing these emotions is so important for baby, you, and your relationship with your partner and makes for a more enjoyable experience and environment to welcome baby into.
Stopping medications and fertility treatments.
In addition to processing and managing the many feelings and challenges associated with pregnancy, especially early on in the first trimester, some moms-to-be find they need alternative therapeutic interventions for stability throughout pregnancy for medications they’ve had to stop during pregnancy. If you’ve recently stopped psychotropic medications, therapy is a valuable alternative to begin and maintain in their place as soon as possible.
Moms-to-be recently coming off of fertility treatments also often experience elevated levels of anxiety from the trauma of infertility treatment and their journey to conceive. Elevated fears of losing what they’ve worked so hard for make managing stress and anxiety especially challenging and therapy even more valuable.
Living with loss.
Living with loss is so unimaginable, especially when losing a child. From grief to shame to blame to strengthening relationships through loss, I help individuals and couples find life after loss and reclaim joy and happiness for tomorrow.
Don’t go through your grief journey alone
Here are some tips for processing grief and loss
- Embrace all of your emotions.
- Reach out for help
- Write down your feelings in a journal
- Give yourself grace