Why I Only Do Perinatal Mental Health
Why I Only Do Perinatal Mental Health —
And What That Means for You.
When people find my practice, they sometimes ask whether I also work with general anxiety, or couples, or teenagers, or any of the other presentations that fill most therapy caseloads. And the answer is no — I work exclusively with perinatal mental health. Pregnancy, postpartum, pregnancy loss. That's it.
I made this choice deliberately, and I think it matters — especially for you.
Specialization isn't about limiting what I do. It's about going as deep as possible in the area where women are most underserved — and where the right support makes the most difference.
Why I chose to specialize
When I started my career as a therapist, I saw what most clinicians see: a broad range of presentations, a wide variety of needs, a practice that covered a lot of ground. And I was good at it. But something kept pulling me toward perinatal work — a combination of personal experience with what this season of life can be like, a genuine frustration with how undertreated it was, and a recognition that the women who needed the most specialized help were the ones getting the most generic support.
Women with perinatal OCD were being misdiagnosed with depression and given the wrong treatment. Women with postpartum anxiety were told they were "just nervous new moms." Women who had experienced TFMR were handed pamphlets and sent home. The gap between what was available and what these women actually needed was enormous.
So I made a decision: this is where I would put everything. Not as one specialty among many, but as the only thing I do. I completed advanced training with Postpartum Support International, earned the PMH-C certification, and kept going — workshops in perinatal OCD, birth trauma, pregnancy and infant loss, TFMR. I've been in this space exclusively ever since.
What specialization actually means
for your treatment.
We skip months of explanation
When you work with a general therapist, you spend a lot of early sessions explaining the context — what perinatal anxiety is, why it's different from regular anxiety, what intrusive thoughts mean, why pregnancy loss grief is so complicated. With me, none of that is necessary. I already know. We can start from where you actually are.
Nothing you say will surprise me
I've sat with women carrying thoughts they were certain would horrify any therapist. I've heard the TFMR stories that couldn't be told anywhere else. I've worked with the grief that doesn't have a name. None of it shocks me, because I've been in this space long enough to know exactly how perinatal mental health shows up — in all its complicated, sometimes terrifying forms.
The treatment is actually calibrated for you
Perinatal anxiety responds to different approaches than general anxiety. Perinatal OCD requires a therapist who understands ERP and is trained to apply it in a perinatal context. Pregnancy loss grief is not the same as other grief. The specialization means the treatment is actually designed for what you're dealing with — not adapted from a general protocol and hoped for the best.
I stay current on what works
Because perinatal mental health is all I do, it's also all I keep learning about. I stay current on research, attend trainings, and remain connected to the perinatal mental health community. That means you're getting care informed by the most current evidence — not a therapist who took a perinatal workshop five years ago and occasionally applies it.
What this means if you're trying to
find the right therapist.
If you're searching for support for perinatal anxiety, postpartum OCD, or pregnancy loss, the most important question to ask any therapist is: how much of your practice is perinatal? If the answer is "some of it" or "I'm comfortable with postpartum issues," that's worth exploring further. The difference between a generalist who occasionally sees postpartum clients and a specialist who sees nothing else is significant.
Look for the PMH-C credential — it's the gold-standard certification in perinatal mental health and requires specific training and examination. Look for someone who has completed PSI's advanced trainings. And look for someone whose website and language suggests they actually live in this world, not just visit it occasionally.
If I'm not geographically available to you — I see clients virtually in Texas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio — PSI's provider directory at postpartum.net is the best place to find a qualified perinatal specialist in your area.
The short version
I do perinatal mental health exclusively because I believe the women navigating pregnancy, postpartum, and pregnancy loss deserve a therapist who has gone all the way in — not one foot in this space and one foot somewhere else.
When you reach out, you'll be talking to someone for whom this is everything. Not a side specialty. Not one area among many. This is the work, and I've built my entire practice around doing it as well as it can be done.
Ready to work with a specialist?
A free 15-minute consultation is the first step. No paperwork, no pressure — just a real conversation.