Postpartum therapy in Denver

The baby is fine. You're not sure you are.

Most of the women I see don't lead with the word depressed. They say they're fine, then describe not sleeping even when the baby sleeps, crying in the car, or feeling like their old self moved out and nobody new moved in yet. If some version of that is you, you're in the right place.

About one in seven women develops a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder. Most never get treatment, because asking for help is hard in this season. Treatment works. This is the focus of my practice, and the work I care about most.

Postpartum anxiety and depression

Anxiety is the more common picture, and the less recognized one: a mind that runs worst-case scenarios on a loop, a body that stays braced long after everyone is safe. Depression can look like sadness. It can also look like numbness, irritability, or going through the motions of a life you can't feel.

Neither means you're a bad mother. It means something is going on that has a name and can be treated.

Mom rage

Nobody warns you about the anger. Rage at a partner sleeping through the night, at the sound of the swing, at one more person touching you. It's one of the most common postpartum experiences and one of the least talked about, and it's usually anxiety or depletion wearing a louder costume.

In session we work on what fuels it, rather than teaching you to swallow it.

Intrusive thoughts and postpartum OCD

Intrusive thoughts are one of the most common and least talked about parts of new motherhood: sudden, unwanted thoughts or images that feel completely out of step with who you are. They're distressing precisely because they go against what you care about most. Having them doesn't mean anything about who you are as a mother.

When those thoughts start driving rituals, constant checking, or avoidance, that can be postpartum OCD, and it responds well to treatment. You can say the scary thought out loud here. I've heard it before.

When bonding doesn't come easily

Sometimes the rush of love arrives late, or quietly, or not yet. If you look at your baby and feel mostly tired, or guilty, or nothing, that secret is heavier than it needs to be. Attachment is built over thousands of small moments, not delivered in one. Therapy can clear what's blocking yours.

Who you are now

There's a word for what you're in: matrescence, the developmental transition into motherhood. Like adolescence, it reorganizes your body, your brain, your relationships, and your sense of who you are. Also like adolescence, it's disorienting even when nothing is clinically wrong.

Grieving the woman you were is not a betrayal of your child. It's part of becoming the one who's here now.

Birth trauma and loss

Some births leave more than a scar: an emergency, a NICU stay, feeling unheard in a room where everything was happening to you. I'm trained in EMDR, a structured therapy for processing memories that won't file themselves away, and it's one approach we may use for birth trauma. You can read more about how I use EMDR and DBT together.

If you're carrying a miscarriage or another loss, we can work with that grief too, at whatever pace it demands.

Is this the right fit?

I work with adult women, individually. Come here if you want a therapist who specializes in this season rather than one who sees it occasionally. I'm not the right person for couples counseling, and if medication is part of what you need, I'll say so plainly and help you find a prescriber to work alongside us.

If you're in crisis right now, don't wait for an intake: call or text 988. Colorado's line answers in Spanish too.