Compassionate Support for Your Transition to Parenting
Maybe you pictured yourself glowing, and didn’t expect to be crying in the bathroom at 3am instead. Maybe the baby is finally asleep but you can’t be, your mind running through everything that could go wrong. Or maybe it’s the opposite: you feel strangely flat when you expected to feel overwhelmed with love.
The gap between what you expected to feel and what you actually feel has become distressing and overwhelming, all on it’s own.
Whether you’re pregnant, postpartum, navigating a birth that didn’t go the way you hoped, or settling into life with a new baby, this territory is more disorienting than most people prepare you for. My background in midwifery means I sat with this territory long before I ever sat with it as a therapist.
A Background in Midwifery
Before training as a social worker, I worked in midwifery. That background shapes everything about how I understand and work with perinatal clients.
Approaches That Fit
I draw on Internal Family Systems, CBT, and Compassion Focused Therapy. These approaches are particularly well suited to postpartum distress. They help you get curious about what’s happening rather than fighting it or pushing through.
In London and Across Ontario
In-person sessions at 305–111 Waterloo Street in London, Ontario, and virtual sessions available across Ontario. I can usually see new and expecting parents within 1 to 3 days.
What This Might Look Like For You
- Crying in the bathroom so the baby doesn’t hear, or crying for no reason you can name
- Lying awake running through worst-case scenarios while everyone else sleeps
- Holding your baby and feeling strangely far away from the moment
- Intrusive images or thoughts about something happening to your baby
- A birth that keeps replaying, or a birth you can’t bring yourself to talk about
- Grief that shows up when you don’t expect it. At a baby shower, in a pregnancy announcement, at the grocery store.
- Snapping at your partner over something small, then feeling guilty about it
- A persistent feeling that you’re “not doing it right,” even when everyone tells you that you are
How I Can Help
Working With Your Body, Not Just Your Thoughts
My approach is somatic and parts-based. We pay attention to what’s actually happening in your body: maybe tightness, bracing, or exhaustion. Then we work with the different parts of your experience with curiosity instead of judgment.
For Birth Trauma Specifically
If part of what you’re carrying is the birth itself, I use Flash Technique and the Rewind Technique. These let your nervous system process what happened without requiring you to retell it in detail.
Support is Available Now
If you’re in the thick of it right now, please reach out. A free 15-minute consultation is the easiest first step. There’s no commitment, no pressure.
Sliding Scale Options
I aim to make therapy accessible, especially for new parents. Don’t hesitate to ask about sliding scale options.
Virtual Sessions
Available across Ontario, for whenever leaving the house with a newborn isn’t realistic
In-Person Care
At my London office, scheduled around what’s actually feasible with a new baby.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. You don’t need a formal diagnosis to reach out. If the transition to parenthood feels harder than you expected — whether you’re pregnant, postpartum, or somewhere in between — that’s reason enough to get support.
Yes. The transition to parenthood affects everyone in the family. Partners can experience their own anxiety, depression, or adjustment difficulties, and those experiences deserve support too.
There’s no waiting period. Many people reach out in the early weeks postpartum when things feel most intense. If you’re in the thick of it right now, that’s exactly when support can help most. I can usually see new and expecting parents within 1 to 3 days.
A healthy outcome does not determine whether an experience was traumatic or distressing. Birth trauma or distress is about what you lived through emotionally, regardless of the outcome. Feeling scared, unheard, out of control, or unsupported can all contribute to distressing feelings after giving birth.
Just as adolescence is the process of becoming an adult, matrescence is the developmental transition of becoming a mother. It’s a physiological shift in how your body functions. And it can be an emotionally and physiologically stressful as adolescence. Therapy helps you understand what’s shifting, make sense of any grief or disorientation, and find yourself on the other side without having to pretend you’re fine.
IFS therapy for postpartum distress works by getting curious about the parts of you that are struggling. New parents may feel as though the different parts of themselves are experiencing the transition differently. They may have a part that feels intense joy, a part that feels anger, and a part that feels grief or identify loss. Rather than treating the negative feelings as problems to eliminate, we understand what is happening inside and why that feeling is present. That shift tends to create more lasting relief than coping strategies alone.
Yes. Virtual sessions are available to anyone in Ontario. In-person sessions are available in London, Ontario at 305–111 Waterloo Street.