THERAPY FOR BIRTH TRAUMA
When your birth experience still feels with you.
You may know that the birth is over. You may know that you and your baby are safe. But sometimes your body, emotions, or mind haven't quite caught up.
If you find yourself replaying what happened, feeling anxious about another pregnancy, avoiding reminders, or carrying feelings of fear, anger, grief, or helplessness, you don't have to process it alone.
IN-PERSON IN WEST CHESTER, PA · VIRTUAL IN PA · DE · NJ · FL
YOU'RE NOT IMAGINING IT
You can know it's over and still feel like you're there.
Birth trauma doesn't always look the way people expect.
Maybe you replay certain moments over and over. Maybe medical appointments now make your stomach drop. Maybe you feel angry about how you were treated, guilty about what you wish you'd done differently, or afraid to consider ever giving birth again.
Or maybe, medically speaking, everything was "fine" -- but you weren't.
Your experience doesn't have to look traumatic to someone else for it to have affected you.
You might be experiencing:
Replaying parts of your birth
Feeling panicked or overwhelmed by reminders
Avoiding conversations or medical care
Feeling angry, betrayed, helpless, or dismissed
Feeling disconnected from your birth experience
Feeling anxious about another pregnancy or birth
BOTH THINGS CAN BE TRUE
You can love your baby and still feel traumatized by your birth.
You can be grateful your baby is healthy
and still grieve what happened to you.
You can appreciate your medical team
and still feel hurt by aspects of your care.
You can know everyone did their best
and still wish your experience had been different.
You don't have to choose between gratitude and grief.
You don't have to prove that your experience was "bad enough."
Both things can be true.
WHAT WE WORK ON
Healing isn't just about what happened during the birth.
Birth trauma can affect much more than the memory itself. Together, we can explore the ways your experience continues to show up in your life now.
01
The memories that won't let go
Replaying specific moments, images, sounds, conversations, or medical events.
04
Future pregnancy & birth
Fear of becoming pregnant again, anxiety around medical care, or uncertainty about whether you could go through another birth.
02
Fear and anxiety
Feeling on edge, panicked, hypervigilant, or overwhelmed by reminders.
05
Guilt, anger, & grief
Processing feelings about what happened, what you wish had been different, or what you feel you lost.
03
Your relationship with your body
Feeling disconnected from your body or struggling with changes following pregnancy, birth, or medical intervention.
06
Relationships & motherhood
Understanding how the experience has affected your partner, relationship, confidence, identity, or transition into motherhood.
You don't have to forget what happened.
The goal is for it to stop feeling like it's happening now.
EMDR FOR BIRTH TRAUMA
When talking about it isn't enough.
Sometimes you can tell the story of your birth perfectly and still feel the same fear, sadness, anger, or physical reaction when you remember it.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a trauma-focused therapy that can help your brain and body process distressing experiences so they no longer feel as emotionally or physically present.
For birth trauma, EMDR may be used to process a specific birth memory, a series of difficult medical experiences, or the beliefs and sensations that have remained connected to what happened.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL THE WHOLE STORY
You don't have to recount the whole story to begin the healing process.
You don't have to tell the whole story of what happened. You don't have to walk into your first session knowing where to begin. You don't have to share every detail.
Therapy is collaborative. We'll start where you are, understand what you're experiencing now, and move at a pace that feels manageable.
A place to feel safe.
A place to make sense of what happened.
A place to begin to move forward.
This might be the right time to reach out if...
You keep thinking about your birth even though months - or years - have passed.
You're afriaid of another pregnancy.
Medical care makes you anxious.
You find yourself wondering whether you should have done something differently.
You feel like everyone else has moved on, but you haven't.
You simply have a feeling that something about your birth experience hasn't been fully processed.
