How Therapy During Postpartum Can Help

One of the most challenging things about postpartum is the isolation a mother feels, especially when she is experiencing postpartum depression or anxiety. Postpartum hormones and sleep deprivation can make you feel completely alone in your experience and feel that you are failing. One of the most powerful things that can change the postpartum experience is to be told that you are not alone. 

Just hearing someone else say, “Yes! I went through that too,” is more than enough to lift the mood and realize that what you are experiencing is not crushing failure but part of the human experience.

There are so many challenges in those first few months, and if you are experiencing them for the first time, it is overwhelming and all-consuming. There’s often an expectation that you will be rocking your newborn, singing them a song, and experiencing “newborn bliss.” And there might be some of that, but there might also be moments that bring lots of tears. 

Tears because the baby wouldn’t latch, and you had to give them a bottle

Tears after a fight with your partner that felt absolutely devastating, and you think your marriage might be over before it ever truly started. 

Tears when you find yourself wondering how something you wanted so badly can feel so incredibly hard.

Postpartum is not a static experience; it constantly shifts as the baby grows. As soon as you think you’re finally getting on your feet, a sleep regression occurs, or the baby starts teething, and you wonder, “How can I keep going like this?” 

Therapy can be the soft place to land 

Therapy can be a space where you don’t have to hold it all together. 

A space where your experience is met with understanding, not judgment. 

Maybe what you need is just someone to hear what you’re going through and say, “Yes, that sounds really hard.”

Maybe you need some tools to take with you to help you regulate in those moments of overwhelm.

Maybe you and your partner need a place to reconnect. To find a place where you can figure out roles and expectations, and to share about the tough moments. 

You do not have to carry it all on your own. 

No matter what your experience is, there is support, and there is understanding. There is a light at the end of the tunnel to improve your well-being and your postpartum experience.

I offer walk-and-talk therapy in the Livermore/Pleasanton area, which is one great way to pair your mental health and your physical recovery.

To find out more, visit the page for perinatal mental health.