I see you, covered in spit up and feeling tired to your bones. Trying to keep your cool with a screaming baby
β¦ and maybe a toddler who just peed on the floor, too.
Shushing and bouncing is now ingrained into your DNA and you canβt take a shower without hearing those phantom cries. You canβt remember the last time you had a full conversation with your partner or completed your to-do list.
This is not what you pictured.
Weβre going for confident, calm, & connected! β¨
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Becoming a mother is a huge, complicated life transition. Like any big life transition, the changes can bring along with them a lot of stress. However, if it feels like your worried thoughts are taking over and causing you pain and distress, might be experiencing postpartum anxiety. Counseling can help you learn different ways of thinking, reacting, and behaving - increasing your ability to tolerate uncomfortable emotions and your ability to be in the present moment and be at peace. Counseling for postpartum anxiety can give you tools to heal and feel grounded and find calm as a mother.
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If your birth didnβt go as planned or expected, if there was a medical emergency, or if you didnβt feel heard or supported during the birth of your child, you might view your birth as traumatic. If you are suffering after a traumatic birth, therapy for birth trauma can help heal the emotional effects of your birth experience. Therapy for birth trauma can help you understand how the birth affected you and begin the healing process so you can move forward feeling connected with a sense of control, peace, and safety.
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Whether itβs your first pregnancy or youβve been a mom for years, itβs my privilege to help you make sense and meaning out of your role as a mother. Everyone needs and deserves support during pregnancy and parenthood. Your mental health matters and counseling for moms can help. Therapy for moms is an opportunity for you to find calm and clarity in the early days, months, and years of motherhood. Everyoneβs experience is unique, but you are not alone.
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Postpartum depression is the most common of the perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. It is a complex mix of psychological, emotional, and physical changes that cause despair and sadness and can significantly impact your ability to live your day-to-day life. Counseling for postpartum depression can help you feel joy, confidence, and connection as a mother. Together we can find better ways to cope with your feelings, solve problems, set realistic goals, and respond to situations in a positive way.
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Postpartum Anxiety
Becoming a mother is a huge, complicated life transition. Like any big life transition, the changes can bring along with them a lot of stress.
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Traumatic Birth
If you are suffering after a traumatic birth, therapy for birth trauma can help heal the emotional effects of your birth experience.
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NICU Moms
Everyone needs and deserves support during this tough time. Your mental health matters and counseling for NICU moms can help.
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Postpartum Depression
The most common of all. Counseling for postpartum depression can help you feel joy, confidence, and connection as a mother.
β½ Instagram lied - itβs not all sleepy cuddles in a beautifully decorated (and very tidy) nursery and babywearing on the beach. It all looks pretty easy from afar - but get a little closerβ¦
β¦ what comes into focus is a leaking and sore mom surrounded by piles of dishes and dirty laundry, making decisions around her babyβs eating, sleep, and childcare (and then second guessing all those decisions!). Sheβs snapping at her partner (basically roommate at this point) and feeling unsure - soooo in love with her baby, but maybe missing her old life and her old self.
The tasks that mothers face and the emotions they experience can feel overwhelming, especially on limited sleep or without adequate support. I totally understand and I'm here to help.
I help mothers like you focus on identifying, defining, and using your values to guide you through the noise and chaos of early motherhood. I love being able to hold space for moms in the postpartum and early parenting period and provide safety and calm, empowering you to feel confident, calm, and connected so you can thrive as a mom and be the parent youβve always wanted to be.
If you are ready to start blooming in motherhood, schedule an intro call with me today.
YOUR therapist in Long Beach, California Postpartum and early parenting can be so disorienting. Iβm here to help you find some solid ground so you can bloom in motherhood.
Hi! Iβm Molly.
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Motherhood is challenging. AND it can also be an opportunity for growth, healing, self-exploration, developing an authentic sense of self, and learning new skills. I view my role as a therapist for moms as being a supportive partner and a compassionate guide and witness to your unique experience. In postpartum therapy, I provide judgement-free support to help you emotionally process the huge transitions that becoming a mother brings, offering an environment where you can express and process difficult emotions. You know yourself best - my goal is to walk with you as you grow and come back to yourself, integrating your new identity as a mom into who you are. We work together as a team to help you feel confident and supported as a mom. Youβll develop and build up the skills and social supports you need to cope, and be empowered to discover ways to make mental and emotional health a priority - caring for yourself while caring for others. Whether itβs your first pregnancy or youβve been a mother for years, itβs my privilege to help you make sense and meaning out of your role as a mother.
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As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and therapist, I help new moms, postpartum women, and moms who want to find meaning and courage in the emotions, big decisions, transitions, and new experiences that come with motherhood. Itβs a wild ride- and itβs impossible to predict how big changes like pregnancy, fertility challenges, becoming a parent, pregnancy loss, adoption, or returning to work as a parent will impact your relationships or how you feel about yourself and your identity. Everyoneβs experience is unique, but you are not alone. I love seeing the growth and healing that happens when moms have support in calming the anxiety and chaos that can come with being a mom so they can focus on being present with joy.
I specialize in perinatal mental health (momβs mental health in the time from pregnancy through the first years of a childβs life) and have advanced training through Postpartum Support International. My own journey into motherhood and my experience of birth trauma and postpartum anxiety led me to learning about perinatal mental health and working with mothers, so I know how crucial strong support and good self-care are in the postpartum and early parenting stages. Thatβs why our work together includes getting clear about who you are and what you want - identifying your values, and integrating life and self-changes to get you there, while also improving your relationships and social support along the way. Iβm honored to do this work.
The relationship between therapist and client is an essential part of therapy, and goodness of fit (the compatibility between therapist and client) is vital. As a perinatal mental health therapist for moms, I want you to experience safety and connection, empathy and encouragement, and joy and curiosity. In our time together, my priority is to establish a safe, warm environment of acceptance and understanding in order to create and foster true connection - connection that encourages you and invites you into curiosity and joy. Together weβll discover how embracing your strengths and your values can move you forward.
You can read more about me here.
Therapy for moms to go from feeling overwhelmed to confident, joyfully calm, and able to enjoy being the parent youβve always wanted to be.
GET MY FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER:This made me think of you.
On Fridays, Iβm in your inbox with all the things I saw, heard, and read this week that made me think of you, the mom who is in it right now. π
Moms like you want to know:
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Identity shifts, role changes, emotional and physical changes, and new pressures. Things like:
Decisions about feeding your baby and all the time and emotion that goes along with that.
Ambivalence - feeling conflicted and experiencing contradictory emotions at the same time, like wanting to spend precious moments with your baby and also craving space and time to yourself.
Decisions about work and childcare.
Finding time and energy for self-care while caring for a baby.
The mental load of motherhood and intrusive thoughts and worries about your baby. The major responsibility of caring for your baby, including keeping them safe, comes with a major mental load, which can put your brain into overdrive and produce scary thoughts and feelings of anxiety.
Changes in your relationship with your partner, like fighting or feeling distant, or difficulty connecting or communicating.
Loss of independence and learning to live a full life around the demands and schedule of a new child.
Expectations about what your birth would be like, feeding your baby, what kind of support you have, and what being a mother would be like. When we have a picture in our head of an ideal, it can be difficult when reality doesnβt match our expectations.
Guilt, shame, and being a βGood Momβ. Mothers face so much pressure - both from outside and from inside. We want to be the best mothers we can be - and we can easily compare ourselves to others or to some deeply held beliefs about what a mother βshouldβ be or do.
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Moms come to therapy for many reasons - here are a few of the goals that I can help you with as a therapist for moms:
Improve your ability to understand and regulate your emotions - going from irritable, angry, and annoyed to mindful and present
Help you balance the demands of work, family, and finding personal time by creating sustainable self-care practices
Creating boundaries to protect your time and your peace
Strengthening coping skills to manage stress and anxiety so you can live and parent with more confidence and joy
Hold space to allow you to make thoughtful decisions out of intention, in line with your values, rather than reacting out of stress or responding to othersβ expectations
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Moms take on a lot of responsibility. Therapy is a place for you to process emotions, share difficult feelings, explore major decisions and changes, and identify values and desires for you and your family.
When we are nurtured and supported as mothers, we do better, our children do better, and our families thrive. Motherhood is no joke, and putting your needs last can cause repressed emotion, resentment, and tension - putting mental and physical health at risk. A mom who constantly feels like sheβs unable to cope with the demands of motherhood is more likely to experience physical and mental health problems. The impact of not having adequate support is massive. You deserve support. Consider this your invitation into health and self-love as a mother.