In-Person in Walnut Creek & On-line in the Bay Area and throughout CA.  

Counseling for Motherhood

Guiding you to find your way (and yourself) as a mother.

white vase in therapist office specializing in motherhood

Motherhood is hard, and requires a village of support.

You may find yourself asking these questions: How could such a little human invoke such big feelings inside of me? Where did the old me go? Am I just a mother, a wife, and a colleague now? How do people juggle all of this and stay sane?  I told myself I was going to parent differently than how I was parented, but I just feel stuck in the same cycle… Why is this so hard? 

Motherhood is challenging! There is so much to think about, so much to do, so much to manage in this season of life. Society teaches us that we are meant to be strong…meant to do it all on our own while being fully devoted to our families, leaving no time for self care. I’m here to tell you that this is not the case. You can be a good mother, a good partner, and prioritize your own needs. 

Let me a part of your village, working together while we focus on:

Adjustment to Motherhood

Adjustment to motherhood with your first, second, or fourth child can feel challenging, overstimulating and exhausting, with many hiccups along its way. It is easy to feel lost, falling into the trap of focusing on everyone but yourself.  We will work together to help you slow down, reconnect with your authentic self, and find ways that true self care can help you regulate  your nervous system and bring joy to your day. We will help you define what you envision for your motherhood journey, working towards helping you feel empowered and confident, leaving sessions with practical and effective coping skills. 

Building Your Tribe

Going through motherhood trying to figure out all the always changing puzzle pieces without a tribe and support system can be crazy-making. As we explore your motherhood journey together, a large part of what we can focus on is what a motherhood tribe looks like in the modern world. We can talk about what resources are available in your community, how to merge your pre-motherhood tribe with your new life stage, and how to cultivate new friendships and expand your tribe to include people that just get it.

Parenting

Whatever parenting stage that you find yourself in, it can feel overwhelming. In our sessions together, I will take the time to listen and understand what stage you are in right now, how it may be impacting your relationship with your partner, and how you are feeling about yourself and your role as a parent. We will talk about your current triggers in parenting, focusing on exploring what your experience as a child was - much of how we parent is informed by how we were parented. We will explore what type of parenting feels right to you, and work towards better understanding how you can achieve a more authentic parenting experience in your home.  

What we’ll work on

Things we can work on in Motherhood Counseling:

  • Defining your authentic self

  • Building coping skills to help regulate your nervous system

  • Focus on real self-care

  • Communication Strategies

  • Boundary Setting

  • Increasing your support system…aka: your tribe

  • Parenting Styles

  • Feelings of guilt or shame

  • Trauma or painful past experiences

Motherhood Counseling and EMDR

Going through the journey of motherhood can trigger ‘small T’ and ‘big T’ traumas from our childhood, our birth stories, and beyond. Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based technique that addresses symptoms related to trauma, and can help individuals feel relief from as early as the first reprocessing session. Experience what it’s like to reduce and oftentimes completely eliminate distress from a traumatic event, helping you move towards becoming the you that you envisioned in this new season of life. 

Learn more about it here.  

Together, let’s discover what thriving in motherhood looks like for you. 

FAQS

Frequently Asked Questions about Motherhood Counseling.

  • We will set a time to chat for 15 minutes to make sure that I am the right therapist for you. Client - therapist fit is an important part of therapy, so I require an initial phone consultation for all new clients.

    In our phone consultation, I will ask some questions to get to know you better, and what brought you to reach out for support. I will explain how I run sessions, what frequency of sessions I believe would be most beneficial for you, and what you can expect for the cost of session (read more about it here). I will also answer any question you may have, it’s important you leave the conversation feeling heard and understood!

    For those clients that I feel like I may not be a good fit for, I am happy to give a referral to one of my excellent colleagues.

  • No! Motherhood as a life transition deserves attention regardless of a diagnosis. No one is perfect, and everyone should have access to support. One advantage of private pay therapy is that you get to dictate if you have access to therapy, when, and how often you want to receive support without the need to have a diagnosis or the jumping through hoops to prove to insurance that your sessions meet ‘medical necessity’ .

    Learn more about the benefits of private pay here.

  • In my practice, I do not have a rigid definition for the term ‘motherhood.’ Instead, I believe motherhood is a continuum from the beginning stages of considering expanding your family to well beyond the years of becoming an ‘empty-nester.’