Pasadena, CA · Online Therapy Throughout California
“Motherhood changes everything—including who you are.”
Becoming a mother is one of the most significant transitions a woman can experience. It reshapes your identity, your relationships, your sense of time, your body, and your inner world in ways that are rarely acknowledged with the honesty they deserve. This is where motherhood and identity therapy play a significant role.
Society tends to celebrate the joy of new motherhood while leaving little space for the grief, anxiety, exhaustion, and quiet confusion that can live alongside it. If you have found yourself wondering where you went—or struggling in ways you feel you shouldn’t be—you are not alone, and you are not failing.
This is a space where all of it is welcome.
Is Motherhood and Identity Therapy Right for You?
You may benefit from this work if you are:
- Experiencing postpartum anxiety, depression, or intrusive thoughts
- Feeling disconnected from yourself or emotionally numb
- Processing a birth experience that felt frightening, traumatic, or out of your control
- Carrying grief from pregnancy loss, infertility, or reproductive trauma
- Struggling with the feeling that you have lost yourself in the role of mother
- Navigating the guilt and pressure of returning to work—or stepping away from a career
- Feeling overwhelmed by the emotional load of motherhood, even when things “look fine” on the outside
- Pregnant and experiencing anxiety, ambivalence, or fear about what’s ahead
Many mothers come to therapy feeling they should be coping better. In our work together, we move away from self-criticism and toward understanding, compassion, and meaningful change.
Areas of Focus
Maternal Mental Health
Support for postpartum depression, anxiety, and perinatal mood disorders
Postpartum depression and anxiety are far more common than many people realize—and far more varied in how they appear. You may have expected to feel an immediate sense of joy after having your baby and instead found yourself feeling tearful, numb, irritable, or afraid. These experiences do not mean you are a bad mother. They mean your mind and body need support.
Whether your symptoms began during pregnancy or emerged in the weeks and months following birth, evidence-based therapy can help. We will work to reduce shame, build practical coping strategies, and address the deeper emotional patterns that may be contributing to how you feel.
| This may include: Perinatal and postpartum depression Postpartum anxiety and intrusive thoughts Postpartum OCD, rage, or emotional dysregulation Bonding concerns and mother-infant relationship support Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) |
Birth Trauma and Reproductive Trauma
Healing from experiences that left a mark
Not every birth story unfolds the way we hope. Some are frightening, medically complicated, or leave mothers feeling powerless or dismissed. If your birth experience has stayed with you—showing up in your body, in nightmares, in hypervigilance, or in a quiet dread you can’t quite name—that is a real response to a real experience.
Reproductive trauma can also include miscarriage, stillbirth, infertility, and pregnancy termination. These are often invisible losses—grieved privately while the world moves on—and you may have felt pressure to move past them before you were ready.
Therapy offers a safe, unhurried space to process what happened, make meaning of your experience, and begin to heal at your own pace.
Identity Shifts and Self-Loss
Reconnecting with who you are beyond the roles you carry
Matrescence—the developmental process of becoming a mother—is as profound and identity-altering as adolescence. Yet we rarely talk about it that way. Your sense of self, your relationships, your sense of purpose, and even how you experience your body can all feel unfamiliar after having children.
You might find yourself wondering: Who am I now? Will I ever feel like myself again? Is it possible to love my children deeply and still grieve the life and the self I had before?
The answer to all of those questions is yes. Therapy can help you explore and integrate who you are becoming—not by going back to who you were, but by building a more grounded, authentic sense of self that holds all of it.
Returning to Work and Balancing Career with Motherhood
Navigating the pressure, the guilt, and the emotional load
Whether you are returning to a demanding career after maternity leave, navigating a shift to part-time work, stepping away from a career you worked hard to build, or trying to hold it all together without anything slipping—the mental and emotional weight can be immense.
Many mothers carry a persistent guilt regardless of what they choose: guilt for working, guilt for not working, guilt for wanting more, or guilt for wanting something different. Therapy offers a space to untangle the expectations—cultural, familial, and self-imposed—and to make choices from a grounded, values-aligned place rather than from fear or obligation.
My Approach
As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, my work integrates solution-focused, cognitive-based, and psychodynamic approaches within a calm, trauma-informed therapeutic space. This means our sessions can be both practical—when you need concrete strategies for managing anxiety or navigating daily overwhelm—and reflective, when deeper emotional patterns call for more careful exploration.
I work at a pace that feels steady and grounding rather than overwhelming. Throughout our work together, I prioritize emotional safety, nervous system regulation, and your readiness for change. Therapy here is not about fixing you. It is about deepening self-understanding, building internal resources, and creating sustainable change that feels aligned with who you are.
| A note on reaching out: Asking for support is not a sign of weakness—especially for women who are used to doing it all. Tending to your mental and emotional health is not a luxury. It is one of the most meaningful things you can do for yourself and for your family. |
Begin Motherhood and Identity Therapy in Pasadena
If you are a mother at any stage of the journey—navigating postpartum challenges, processing trauma, or simply trying to reconnect with yourself—I invite you to reach out. You do not have to be in crisis to benefit from therapy, and you do not have to keep doing this alone.
I offer in-person therapy in Pasadena and secure online therapy throughout California, so you can choose what feels most supportive and convenient for your life.
To get started, schedule a free 15-minute consultation. We will talk about what brings you in, answer any questions you have about the process, and explore whether working together feels like the right fit.
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