Perinatal Mental Health Therapy
Support for Fertility Challenges, Pregnancy, Postpartum & the Transition to Parenthood
Becoming a parent can be one of the most significant transitions in a person's life. It can bring excitement, connection, and a sense of possibility, but it can also bring grief, uncertainty, anxiety, exhaustion, and changes in how you understand yourself and your relationships.
Whether you're navigating fertility challenges, pregnancy, pregnancy loss, postpartum adjustment, or the early years of parenthood, you deserve a space where your experiences are taken seriously and your needs are not overlooked.
At Integro Psychotherapy, I provide a supportive, nonjudgmental space for birthing and non-birthing parents to explore the emotional complexities of family building and parenthood. My approach recognizes that there is no single way to experience this transition and no expectation that you should feel a particular way simply because you've become a parent.
You deserve care, too.
Why Perinatal Mental Health Matters to Me
I'm drawn to perinatal mental health work because I believe the emotional and physical labor of becoming and being a parent deserves far more recognition, understanding, and support than it often receives.
So much of the work involved in building a family and caring for a child is invisible. There is the physical labor of pregnancy, birth, and recovery; the mental load of anticipating and managing everyone's needs; the emotional labor of caregiving; and the often-unspoken responsibility of holding relationships, routines, and family life together.
This labor can be deeply meaningful, but meaningful doesn't mean it's easy, and it certainly doesn't mean it should go unacknowledged or without better support.
I'm also mindful of the ways women's health and reproductive health concerns have historically been minimized, misunderstood, or inadequately supported. Many people navigating fertility challenges, pregnancy complications, pregnancy loss, postpartum symptoms, or changes in their physical and emotional health have experienced feeling dismissed, misunderstood, or left to figure things out on their own.
Mental health care should be part of the larger conversation about reproductive and maternal health. People deserve to be listened to, believed, informed, and supported throughout these experiences—not only when their symptoms become impossible to ignore.
I want therapy to be a place where you don't have to minimize your suffering, justify your feelings, or prove that you're struggling enough to deserve support.
You can love your child and still miss your old life. You can feel grateful and overwhelmed. You can want to become a parent and feel devastated by the process of getting there. You can experience a wanted pregnancy and still struggle emotionally. You can be deeply connected to your family while feeling lonely within it.
There is room for all of these experiences.
Who I Support
Fertility Challenges & Family Building
Trying to conceive or navigating fertility treatment can be emotionally exhausting, particularly when the process involves uncertainty, waiting, medical appointments, financial stress, or repeated disappointment.
Whether you're navigating infertility, IVF, other assisted reproductive treatments, or uncertainty about whether parenthood is right for you, therapy can offer space to process the emotional impact.
We may explore:
Infertility and difficulty conceiving
IVF and assisted reproductive treatments
Fertility-related anxiety and uncertainty
Relationship strain during family building
Feeling disconnected from friends or family who don't understand
Grief, disappointment, and changing expectations
Decisions about continuing, pausing, or changing your path to parenthood
You don't have to navigate the emotional weight of fertility challenges alone.
Pregnancy Loss & Reproductive Grief
Pregnancy loss can bring a profound sense of grief, even when others don't fully recognize or understand the significance of what you've experienced.
Miscarriage, stillbirth, and other forms of reproductive loss can affect your sense of identity, your relationships, your expectations for the future, and your relationship with your body.
There is no timeline for this grief, and there is no requirement that you experience it in a particular way.
Therapy can provide space to:
Process grief following miscarriage or pregnancy loss
Navigate feelings of guilt, anger, sadness, or isolation
Explore how loss affects your identity and relationships
Cope with pregnancy announcements, milestones, and reminders
Navigate uncertainty about trying to conceive again
Make room for grief that may feel invisible to others
Your loss matters, and your experience deserves recognition and care.
Pregnancy & Prenatal Mental Health
Pregnancy can bring significant emotional and psychological changes, even when it is wanted, planned, or something you've been looking forward to for a long time.
You may find yourself navigating anxiety, intrusive thoughts, uncertainty, changes in your relationship, concerns about birth, or questions about who you will become as a parent.
We may work on:
Pregnancy-related anxiety and intrusive thoughts
Fear of childbirth or medical experiences
Changes in identity and relationships
Concerns about parenting and the future
Pregnancy after infertility or loss
Emotional regulation and coping with uncertainty
You deserve support during pregnancy, not only after the baby arrives.
Postpartum Mental Health & New Parenthood
The transition into parenthood can be disorienting. Even when you feel connected to your baby, you may also experience exhaustion, anxiety, grief, resentment, loneliness, or a sense that you've lost parts of yourself.
The postpartum period is often discussed in terms of physical recovery and caring for a newborn, but the emotional adjustment can be much more complicated—and can continue well beyond the early weeks.
I support birthing and non-birthing parents navigating:
Postpartum depression and anxiety
Postpartum OCD and intrusive thoughts
Birth trauma and difficult birth experiences
Identity changes and adjustment to parenthood
Sleep deprivation, overwhelm, and emotional exhaustion
Changes in intimacy and relationship dynamics
Feeling disconnected, isolated, or unlike yourself
Guilt, shame, and pressure to be a perfect parent
You can love your child and still struggle with parenthood. You can be a capable, loving parent and need more support than you're currently receiving.
You do not have to wait until things become unbearable to ask for help.
Non-Birthing Parents & Partners
Perinatal mental health support should include the entire family system. Non-birthing parents and partners can also experience anxiety, depression, grief, relationship changes, and significant emotional adjustment throughout pregnancy and postpartum.
You may be trying to support your partner while navigating your own fears, responsibilities, and changing identity. You may feel unsure where you fit into the experience or believe that your needs should come second.
Your experience matters, too.
Therapy can provide space to explore your emotional adjustment, relationship dynamics, caregiving responsibilities, and the challenges of becoming a parent together.
The Invisible Labor of Parenthood
One of the things I want to make room for in therapy is the work that often goes unseen.
Parenthood can involve an enormous amount of planning, anticipating, remembering, organizing, advocating, coordinating, and emotionally supporting others. This mental and emotional load can become especially difficult when responsibilities feel unequal or when the people around you don't recognize how much you're carrying.
For many birthing parents, this is layered on top of physical recovery, hormonal changes, changes in sleep, and the expectations placed on them to return to their previous responsibilities and identities.
You may feel pressure to be grateful, patient, nurturing, productive, and emotionally available while simultaneously trying to understand your own needs.
In therapy, we can explore:
The mental and emotional load of caregiving
Unequal responsibilities and relationship dynamics
Difficulty asking for or accepting help
Boundaries with family members and others
Resentment, guilt, and emotional exhaustion
Changes in identity, independence, and self-worth
The pressure to meet unrealistic expectations of parenthood
You deserve relationships and support systems where your needs are considered, too.
My Approach to Perinatal Therapy
My approach is warm, collaborative, integrative, and tailored to your experiences. I draw from my clinical training and additional perinatal mental health training through Postpartum Support International (PSI).
I recognize that pregnancy, fertility, birth, loss, and parenthood are not isolated experiences. They are shaped by your personal history, family dynamics, relationships, cultural expectations, access to care, and the support systems available to you.
Depending on your needs, our work may include:
Exploring how your family-of-origin experiences influence your expectations of parenthood and caregiving
Identifying patterns of perfectionism, self-criticism, and unrealistic expectations
Developing tools for anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and emotional regulation
Processing grief, loss, and difficult or traumatic experiences
Navigating communication, intimacy, and changing relationship dynamics
Strengthening boundaries and identifying ways to ask for meaningful support
Reconnecting with your identity, values, and sense of self
I believe therapy should make room for both compassion and change. You don't need another person telling you what you should be feeling or how you should be parenting. My role is to help you better understand your experience, recognize what you need, and identify ways to feel more supported.
You Deserve Support, Too
Whether you're trying to conceive, processing a loss, preparing for a baby, adjusting to parenthood, or struggling with an experience you haven't felt comfortable sharing, you deserve a space where your feelings are taken seriously.
You don't have to be in crisis. You don't have to have all the right words. And you don't have to minimize what you're going through because someone else might consider it part of being a parent.
You are a person outside of your role as a parent, too. Your mental health, relationships, identity, and well-being matter.
I offer virtual individual and couples therapy for adults throughout New York State.
If you're interested in exploring whether therapy might be helpful, I offer a free 15-minute consultation to discuss what you're experiencing, answer your questions, and see whether working together feels like a good fit.