Postpartum Therapeutic Coaching

Through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, people who give birth are consistently told what kind of experience we ought to be having: We should or should not be wary of eating or doing certain things; we should be having a spiritual experience; we should be having a medical experience; we should be this or that kind of parent; our babies are too attached to them or not attached enough, and so on.

Pregnancy, birth, and postpartum are periods in which our bodies are devoted to growing and nurturing another human being, our minds are cluttered with possibilities, hopes, attachments, and anxieties, our hormones are fluctuating, and different people—from doctors to doulas to in-laws—are telling us how we ought to move through this experience. It can be beautiful, it can be confusing, it can be enraging, terrifying, heart-opening, and exhausting. One thing, though, is certain: The experience of growing, birthing, and learning to parent another human being will press on tender places we did not even know we had. All of our stuff gets stirred up. If we are partnered, our relationship changes in unexpected ways. Any attachment wounds, trauma, or unresolved nervous system distress presses itself up from the fertile soil of the birth experience and flowers during postpartum. 

But even though this is a rich time for growth and healing, it is also a raw, tender time. During the first year after giving birth, it is more important for most of us to find ways to care sustainably for ourselves and our new family constellations—to gather and implement resources for coping and making it through week by week—rather than doing a deep dive into past trauma and core wounds. That is where postpartum coaching comes in. Through a predetermined number of sessions, you and I will cocreate a program that supports you during the postpartum period as you prepare for doing more in-depth work—if you choose to—once your physical body, mind, and nervous system are more grounded and less tender. 

Programs range from one to seven sessions and incorporate, among other things, holistic self-care; coping strategies for depression, anxiety, and rage; family systems dynamics to support your relationships with your partner and/or older children during this time; inner child healing; and shadow integration. The difference between coaching and therapy in this context is that in coaching, we are focused more on outcomes—your successfully making it through this period with strong, loving relationships with yourself and your family—than on developing deep insight into past experiences. 

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