Pregnancy & Postpartum Support
Perhaps you’ve recently brought home a new baby and are just feeling a little out of sorts. This is a time when many benefit from the compassionate understanding of someone who’s been where you are.
The days following the birth of a baby are some of the most transformative in any parents’ life—particularly for the birthing parent. There will be a flurry of people surrounding you and your baby, all with their own input about what is best for the little being you’ve brought into the world. Amidst all that commotion, all the care and concern for your baby—is you. You, whose life has fully changed in a single moment. And while you are doing everything you can to learn about what this new, delightful, mysterious creature needs, I aim to focus my attention on what you need.
I am passionate about working with new parents partially because of my own ‘matrescence’ experience, which included a colicky baby, feeding difficulties, sleep difficulties, and the profound loneliness that can come with all of those things. Through accessing my own supports, I learned to rebuild and appreciate the power of the transformation that occurs during this time period. While parenting can be difficult and isolating, it can also show you the beauty of your own agency, boundaries, and compassion for the world around you.
*For SIGNIFICANT relief for birth trauma, please visit my A.R.T. page to learn about my weekend intensives.
My process
Depending on where you are at, we may just start with a gentle exploration of what it has meant to become a parent. What the birth was like, or what pregnancy was like, or what it’s like now, now that everything is different. I offer a warm and curious exploration of this season, as well as more trauma-specific interventions, as needed.
From there, I offer curiosity into repeated patterns, into family systems, relational style, and other areas that may have shaped you. I believe that understanding our stories and the stories of our families can have significant impact on recovery and growth. I lean heavily on Relational Therapy, which teaches that healing occurs most effectively within compassionate, nonjudgmental, honest relationship. I also integrate Narrative Therapy (the story of your life and how you tell it matters), Somatic Therapy (acknowledging the wisdom your body holds and the story it’s trying to tell), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (changing our patterns means looking at our thought processes). I am trained in Accelerated Resolution Therapy, which is the primary modality I use to address trauma. I have also received extensive training in sex therapy through the Northwest Institute on Intimacy, and am a Certified Body Trust Provider through the Center for Body Trust.
Wherever you are at in your journey, I can be a consistent, calm, genuine presence in sorting through who you are—and who you’d like to become.