Therapy for Moms: Support for Postpartum and Beyond

Motherhood is often described as a beautiful, transformative experience. And it is. But for many women, especially new moms, it can also come with a quiet weight: exhaustion, overwhelm, self-doubt, and sometimes, a sense of isolation. These feelings can be especially intense in the postpartum period—and they don’t always stop there.

If you're a mom struggling with anxiety, irritability, identity shifts, or simply feeling disconnected from yourself, you’re not alone. Therapy for moms offers a safe space to explore your experience, receive meaningful support, and navigate these challenges with clarity and self-compassion.  In this post, we’ll explore some of the different factors that bring moms to therapy and identify how therapy can help you find healing, stability and support.  

Why Moms Need Therapy

Motherhood is full of paradoxes. You can feel intense love for your child and still grieve your independent self. You can be grateful for your growing family and still feel exhausted by the daily demands. These conflicting feelings are normal, and both can be true at the same time.  But sometimes, the paradoxes make you feel so torn or spread-thin that you wonder if you’re going crazy!  When these feelings start to interfere with your ability to function day-to-day, be present for your family or become totally overwhelming, it’s time to get support.  

As a mom, you spend so much time taking care of everyone in your family’s needs that taking care of yourself often feels like a last priority.  You may tell yourself things like “I can hold it together, I always do” or “we just have a lot going on right now, once things calm down I’ll feel better.”  And then you wait and wait, and that moment never comes - there’s always another trip to plan, another holiday to host, another work deadline to meet.  Before you know it, you realize you’ve been going on like this for years and can’t remember the last time you really felt seen.  Here are some common challenges that bring moms to therapy:

• Postpartum anxiety and depression

• Difficulty adjusting to new roles and responsibilities

• Relationship stress with partners or family members

• Identity loss or confusion

• Burnout and emotional exhaustion

• Perfectionism, self-criticism and self-doubt

These experiences are not a reflection of your ability to parent. They're signs that you’re a normal human being, doing your best in a culture that places incredibly unrealistic expectations on mothers and offers little support.  

Dealing with Postpartum Anxiety

Motherhood starts with the postpartum period - the first year after birthing a child.  All of the normal challenges of motherhood are present during this period - juggling many different responsibilities, negotiating time for your family with time for yourself, and trying to make space for your identity as a woman alongside your identity as a mom - plus the impacts of the sudden drop in pregnancy hormones, physical and emotional recovery from (a sometimes traumatic) childbirth, and dealing with sleepless nights as your newborn gets used to living outside your womb.  All of this combined is a recipe for feeling totally anxious and overwhelmed.  

Postpartum anxiety can look like:

• Persistent worry or fear, especially related to your baby’s health or your own wellbeing

• Struggling to quiet anxious or intrusive thoughts

• Increased irritability or feeling emotionally reactive

• A looming sense of dread or unease, often without a clear cause

• Physical restlessness or the sensation of being constantly “on alert”

• Trouble focusing or frequent mental blanks

• Challenges falling asleep or staying asleep—even when your baby is sleeping—often due to racing thoughts

• Physical symptoms such as muscle tightness, headaches, shortness of breath, stomach upset, or a pounding heart

• Occasional panic attacks or moments of feeling completely overwhelmed

If you’re struggling with postpartum anxiety, you don’t have to go through it alone.  Working with a trained postpartum anxiety therapist can help teach you tools to feel less controlled by your anxious thoughts and feel empowered as you start your motherhood journey.  

Identity and Role Adjustments

Motherhood can totally reshape your sense of identity. Many women find themselves wondering, “Who am I now?” after becoming a mom, especially as the things that made up your sense of self prior to becoming a parent start to feel less important or less available to you.  Your roles and priorities start to expand and shift, often leaving your core self lost in the shuffle. 

Sometimes, your previous identity can feel out of sync with the life you’re living now. Maybe you once found deep fulfillment and validation in your hobbies, but now that you have less time to partake in them you feel yourself struggling with confidence.  Before having a baby, your life may have felt already full.  Now, you’re trying to create room for a whole new world of caretaking and bonding—and it feels like everything is competing for space.

Redefining your identity as a parent takes time, reflection, and patience. Therapy for moms can help you explore these identity shifts in a safe and supportive space.  You can honor the parts of you that have changed, grieve what’s been lost, and begin to reconnect with the parts of yourself that still remain.  

Mom Burnout is Real

Between endless to-do lists, emotional labor, self-sacrifice, and societal pressure to “do it all,” it’s no wonder that so many moms experience burnout. When we feel burnt out we experience a sense of exhaustion, overwhelm, depletion and even detachment that can affect us both emotionally and physically.  If this sounds familiar to you, you may be dealing with mom burnout.   

Burnout in motherhood can look like:

• Feeling numb or emotionally flat

• Snapping at your kids or loved ones

• Feeling unsure of who you are anymore or disconnected from your identity

• Ongoing physical and emotional fatigue

• A lack of fulfillment or meaning in your daily life

• Frequent irritability or frustration

• Difficulty enjoying things you once loved

• Feeling isolated, even from your own family

• Frequent venting to others and difficulty connecting to the positive

• Longing for escape or experiencing regret about becoming a parent

• Feeling mentally scattered or forgetful

• Trouble focusing or staying on task

• Feeling like asking for help is not an option

Therapy can help you understand where your burnout is coming from, and help you to see yourself as worthy of care.  Oftentimes mom burnout comes from a place of having difficulty speaking up for your needs, maybe because you weren’t raised to feel that they were important.  Maybe the example you had was a seemingly self-sacrificing mother who always put her family’s needs first.  But we all have needs, and when we don’t care for them it’s not helpful for your family or yourself.  Therapy for moms can help empower you to make time for yourself and be the example for your children that you always hoped you would be.  

Perfectionism and Self Doubt in Motherhood

Do you hold yourself to impossibly high standards as a mom? Do you feel like you’re never doing enough, no matter how much you give?

Mothers today are inundated with messages about what it means to be the “perfect mom.” From social media influencers to well-meaning friends and family, the pressure to meet ever-changing standards can feel relentless. Whether it’s about developmental milestones, sleep schedules, feeding choices, or childcare decisions, the sheer volume of opinions can leave you second-guessing your instincts and feeling like you’re always falling short. Mothers are often expected to juggle everything—career, home life, personal well-being, and emotional caregiving—all while looking like they have it together. It’s not just unrealistic—it’s unsustainable. If the standard is “perfect”, you’re never going to feel like you’re measuring up.  

In counseling for motherhood, we work together to unpack these beliefs and build a more compassionate, grounded relationship with yourself. You can learn to show yourself grace for your mistakes, set realistic expectations and model self-love and confidence for your family.  

Therapy for Moms:  What to Expect

If you’ve ever searched for "therapy for moms near me," you know that the options can be overwhelming. What matters most is finding a therapist who truly gets it—someone who sees the whole you, not just the role you’re in.

At Root to Rise Therapy, I offer therapy for moms that is:

• Compassionate: No judgment, just a space to breathe and be heard.

• Integrative: Blending mindfulness, cognitive and psychodynamic practices.

• Empowering: Helping you reconnect with your intuition, values, and strengths.

In our work together, we may:

• Explore self-care strategies and nervous system regulation tools to help you reconnect with your body and identity

• Identify your natural parenting strengths and how to build on them

• Process memories or experiences from your own childhood that influence or create challenges during your current parenting journey

• Identify cognitive tools that can help change your relationship to anxious or intrusive thoughts

• Practice communication skills to support your relationship with your partner and help you work together to navigate parenting stress

• Offer validation and space for your individual experience of motherhood—without judgment

• Teach you skills to help you respond calmly in stressful or chaotic moments, including present-moment awareness, self-compassion, and acceptance

• Empower you to put your needs first through boundary-setting and assertiveness skills

Whether you’re in the thick of the postpartum period or navigating motherhood years in, you deserve support that honors your unique experience and helps you to feel heard, seen and empowered.

Support for Moms at Root to Rise Therapy in Denver, Colorado

As a mom, you may feel like you are constantly being pulled in a million different directions.  Through therapy we will focus on slowing down, building present moment awareness, and rebuilding the inner trust that gets eroded by burnout, perfectionism and caretaking.  

Root to RIse Therapy is a practice where women can reconnect with themselves.  I specialize in working with moms who are navigating anxiety, perfectionism, people-pleasing, and self-doubt. Together, we will explore what it means to show up for yourself, and overcome barriers that have gotten in the way.  Get in touch to learn about how therapy for moms in Denver, Colorado can help you find support and healing on your motherhood journey.  

Other Services at Root to Rise Therapy:

Other mental health services at Root to Rise Therapy include Therapy for Anxiety,  Therapy for Perfectionism, Therapy for People-Pleasing, Cultural Identity Counseling, ADHD Therapy, Counseling for Moms and Postpartum Counseling.   I see clients located inColorado, New York and New Jersey.  Contact me to learn more about how I can help you overcome anxiety and reclaim your life!