Becoming a parent is often described as a joyful time—but what if your experience has felt anything but joyful?
If you’re a new parent in California navigating the lingering effects of a difficult pregnancy, birth, or postpartum experience, you’re not alone—and you’re not broken. Perinatal trauma is more common than many people realize, and it deserves compassionate, effective support.
As a licensed therapist specializing in reproductive mental health, I offer online therapy throughout California and have done so for over a decade. Lately, I’ve been blown away by the additional benefits my clients have seen since starting to use a powerful brain-based modality called Brainspotting. This approach can help you process and release trauma stored deep in the body and mind—even when it feels too overwhelming to talk about.
What Is Perinatal Trauma?
Perinatal trauma refers to distressing experiences during the period before, during, or shortly after birth. These might include:
- A high-risk or complicated pregnancy
- A traumatic birth experience
- Unexpected interventions (C-section, NICU stay, separation from baby)
- Perinatal loss, miscarriage, or stillbirth
- Feeling unsupported by medical staff or loved ones
- Postpartum anxiety or depression
- Emotional overwhelm or feeling disconnected from your baby or yourself
You may feel like you should be grateful or happy, but instead feel guilt, grief, fear, or numbness. This disconnect can be confusing and isolating. You might not have words for what happened—but your body remembers.
How Brainspotting Helps Heal Perinatal Trauma
Brainspotting is a brain-body psychotherapy, like EMDR or Somatic Experiencing, that allows your nervous system to process unhealed trauma at a deep level. It uses eye position and somatic awareness to access where the trauma is stored in the brain and body.
In Brainspotting, we gently focus on a “brainspot”—a visual spot that correlates with the area in the brain holding onto unprocessed emotional or physical pain. With compassionate guidance, you’re invited to notice what comes up emotionally or physically, without needing to analyze or retell the traumatic experience in detail.
This makes Brainspotting ideal for perinatal trauma, where:
- Words might be hard to find
- The trauma may feel preverbal or body-based
- You’re holding on to emotions that don’t make logical sense, but feel very real
Clients often say it feels like a “release,” a softening, or a lifting of emotional weight they didn’t realize they were carrying.
As a therapist, I especially appreciate how flexible the modality is and how I can follow YOUR lead versus follow a particular protocol.
Brainspotting is easy to combine with “top down” approaches like CBT, or alternate with clinical hypnosis.
The Benefits of Online Therapy for New Parents
Being a new parent is hard enough without trying to commute to appointments. I offer telehealth therapy throughout California, making it easier to access support from the comfort of your home—during nap time, while feeding your baby, or even from your car if that’s your quiet place.
Telehealth is:
- Flexible for your schedule
- Convenient for parents with newborns or young children
- Private and secure
- Just as effective as in-person sessions for Brainspotting
What to Expect in a Brainspotting Session
Whether you’re feeling stuck, anxious, sad, or just not yourself—you’re welcome to bring that into our virtual session.
In our work together, we’ll:
- Gently explore what’s going on for you now
- Identify body-based or emotional signals of unprocessed trauma
- Use Brainspotting to access and release what’s been held beneath the surface
- Support your nervous system in returning to a more regulated, grounded place
You don’t have to go through this alone—or keep it all bottled up. Your healing matters.
You’re Not Broken—You’re Human
Perinatal trauma doesn’t mean you’re a bad parent or doing something wrong. It means something painful happened, and your body and mind are still trying to make sense of it.
With Brainspotting and the right support, healing is absolutely possible. You can feel more like yourself again. You can reconnect with your baby and your own inner strength.
Looking for perinatal trauma therapy online in California?
I’m here to help. Click below to schedule a free 15-minute consultation and see if Brainspotting therapy is right for you.
Schedule a free consult by texting me at 619-289-7818
Learn more about my approach
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