Pregnancy Loss and Birth Trauma Therapy
It wasn’t supposed to be like this
Maybe you had a miscarriage. Maybe you have had more than one. Maybe you had to end a wanted pregnancy for medical reasons. Maybe you were so excited to be pregnant and feel totally crushed. Maybe you feel guilty, even though you know it isn’t your fault. Maybe you feel furious.
Maybe you are pregnant again and feel terrified. Maybe you are pregnant again and feel totally numb and disconnected from your pregnancy. Maybe your relationship with your partner has changed since your loss, and it’s unclear how the two of you will reconnect.
Maybe you had a difficult or life-threatening birth experience. Maybe things didn’t go as planned– maybe far from it. Maybe you weren’t treated the way you should have been during your labor. You might be mourning the birth story you wanted. You might be having flashbacks or big emotional swings recalling your birth experience, even though you want to focus on connecting with your baby and feel you should be happy and grateful to have “made it.”
You might feel alone, like no one understands, or like your story makes people uncomfortable. You may feel you can’t trust yourself, your body, or even your most deeply held beliefs about the world.
Therapy can help.
Therapy with me starts by making space for as honest an expression of your thoughts and feelings as possible, including thoughts that seem impossible to say out loud socially and feelings you might not even know are there unless someone asks. You can tell me your story as many times as you need to– the story of what happened, and the story of what should have happened. Together, we will write the next chapters.
Your goal may be:
To make room for your feelings in all their complexity, and to grieve all of the many losses associated to miscarriage, recurrent pregnancy loss, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, termination for medical reasons, or stillbirth.
To learn to better cope with post-traumatic stress symptoms while pregnant or parenting a newborn.
To repair your sense of self and return to feeling whole again, whether or not you ultimately carry a pregnancy to term.
To feel comfortable and confident advocating for yourself with family, friends, and medical providers.
To calm down more easily and get more curious about strong feelings without letting them carry you away.
To stop avoiding or downplaying your fears and needs in service of other people’s expectations.
To figure out how to express what’s going on inside to the important people in your life.
For you and your partner to understand each other’s grief processes and to discover ways to honor your experiences together, and perhaps decide collaboratively on next steps toward growing your family.
I am a licensed clinical social worker with eight years of post-graduate experience in a variety of settings with parents of children under five, pregnant people, couples, PhD and MBA students, and other adults in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. I am Perinatal Mental Health Certified and use an integrative, trauma-informed and attachment-based approach; I am a climate aware, LGBTQ+ affirming, and abortion-affirming provider. I have lived experience with miscarriage, termination for medical reasons, second trimester loss, and molar pregnancy.