Perinatal Therapy
Pregnancy doesn't always feel the way we were told it would.
The perinatal period (pregnancy and the first year postpartum) is one of the most profound transitions a body and a life can move through. Therapy here isn't a luxury. It's the support that lets you stay yourself while everything changes.
I work with people through every kind of pregnancy: anticipated, after years of trying, after loss, after a tough first time, alongside complicated medical decisions, and through the quiet weight of not feeling how you "should."
You might recognize
If any of this feels familiar.
"The anxiety I felt before is so much louder now."
"I had a loss before, and I can't fully let myself love this one yet."
"I'm exhausted by people's questions and opinions about my body."
"Something about this pregnancy is bringing up my own childhood."
"My partner doesn't understand why I'm not glowing."
"I'm scared of birth and I don't know who to tell."
What perinatal therapy covers.
The clinical name is perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs), and they affect about 1 in 5 pregnant people; many more if you count the experiences that don't clear a diagnostic threshold but still narrow daily life. We work with:
- Anxiety during pregnancy: racing thoughts, scanning for problems, body checking, fear of bad news
- Depression during pregnancy: flatness, dread, loss of pleasure, intrusive sadness
- Pregnancy after loss: the layered grief, the careful joy, the milestones loaded with meaning
- Pregnancy after infertility: letting yourself land in a body that was a battleground for so long
- OCD-spectrum thoughts: intrusive images and themes that feel deeply at odds with how you want to feel
- Identity shifts: your work, your body, your relationship, your sense of self all in motion
- Medical complications: bedrest, high-risk pregnancies, NICU prep, scary scans
Why a specialized therapist matters here.
You shouldn't have to translate. A perinatal-trained therapist already knows what an NT scan is, what the 20-week anatomy ultrasound carries, what it means when your OB uses the word "advanced maternal age," what the difference is between a TFMR and a miscarriage. We're not learning on you, and that means more of the session is yours.
How the work goes
What therapy actually looks like here.
We start where you are. For some people that's stabilization: practical work on sleep, panic, intrusive thoughts. For others it's relational: figuring out what's surfacing from your own history of being parented, or how to ask your partner for the kind of support that actually helps.
I'm trained in the Trauma Resiliency Model, which is especially useful when grief or previous trauma comes up, and it almost always does in this season. We work with the nervous system as well as the story.
Sessions are weekly when we can. Telehealth is available for the weeks when leaving the house is a lot.
Ready to talk?
A 15-minute consultation, by phone, costs nothing and tells you almost everything you need to know.