Maternal Mental Health & Perinatal Therapy

Inclusive pregnancy and postpartum support for birthing parents of all genders

Overview & my Personal EXPERIENCE

The perinatal period, including pregnancy, postpartum, and early parenting, is a time of major transition. While it can bring moments of indescribable bliss and connection, it’s also one of the most vulnerable times for mental health. You might feel like your entire life changed overnight- and the emotional whiplash is disorienting. Many birthing parents experience postpartum depression, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, grief or identity shifts that aren’t often talked about—especially in a culture that idealizes new parenthood while overlooking the full emotional and psychological experience- all while withholding necessary supports such as accessible childcare (can you tell this angers me?).

When I (Allyson) went through the birthing and postpartum experience, I felt like I was thrown into turbulent waters without a map of where to go. Though you lose yourself in many ways in this experience, you will also be tasked with facing parts of yourself you didn’t expect to meet. While this sounds intense (and it is)- it’s also a portal to healing and breaking cycles. For this reason, I LOVE working with new parents. It is unique, special, and so fulfilling to walk alongside folks in the trenches of this journey.

Our Approach

At our practice, we provide affirming, trauma-informed perinatal mental health support for people of all genders, including LGBTQ+ parents, nonbinary and trans birthing people, single parents, and those in blended or chosen families. We recognize how pregnancy and postpartum can intersect with eating disorders, body image distress, and past trauma. Your body has undergone real and often profound changes, and in a society that pushes unrealistic postpartum “bounce back” narratives, this can feel very activating- even if you have been in a place of solid recovery for years. The hormonal changes in the perinatal period can trigger a wide array of mental health issues including Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, OCD, ADHD, Eating Disorders and even Psychotic Disorders. Getting support is a crucial component to surviving this tender season.

So, whether you're navigating postpartum depression or anxiety, struggling with an eating disorder during pregnancy, or feeling disconnected from your body and identity, you deserve a space to be seen and supported. Our approach to perinatal mental health therapy is compassionate, relational, attachment focused, anti-oppressive, and grounded in the desire to walk alongside you in a season of life that seems to uproot everything.

We utilize a blend of Evidence BAsed and Decolonial treatment approaches including:

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

• Exposure Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) for perinatal OCD

• Solution Focused Therapy

• Relational Psychodynamic Therapy

• Feminist Therapy

• Liberation Psychology

• Neurodiversity Affirming Therapy

We support clients in:

• Building self-trust as parents, learning to tune out the noise of external advice and “norms” and trusting your unique intuition instead.

• Coping with the rollercoaster of emotions that can happen in a single hour as a new parent: hormonal changes, maternal rage and parental/mom guilt.

• Identifying creative ways to get your needs and preferences for birthing met in systems that often disregard parents.

• Navigating relationship changes that are inevitable and jarring after becoming a parent (even the strongest relationships will be tested).

• Creating sustainable care practices during this tender chapter of life- we believe mothers need to be mothered, too.

• Navigating decision making around parenting and coping with grief when things do not go as planned.

• Coping with the effects of birth trauma and loss.

• Establishing healthy boundaries with outside supports.

• Breaking cycles from your family of origin that you are committed to protecting your child from.

• Parenting from a feminist perspective.

• Coping with the mental load of parenthood and building egalitarian systems of care work in your home so you do not have to carry it all.

• Parenting with co-occurring mental health diagnosis.

• Parenting as a late identified neurodivergent person.

• Parenting as a queer person.

  ….and more. Please reach out if you would like to learn more about our work. We would love to hear from you!