Postpartum Therapy and Counseling for Moms in California and Colorado
You deserve support, too.
Motherhood can be beautiful, exhausting, overwhelming, and life-changing—all at once. Pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period bring profound changes to your body, relationships, identity, and emotional well-being. Even when motherhood is something you've deeply wanted, the transition can feel harder than you expected.
You may feel anxious, unlike yourself, overwhelmed by the demands of caring for a baby, or unsure how to navigate the changes happening within your thoughts. You might be struggling to process your birth experience, adjusting to a new family dynamic, or wondering why this season feels so difficult.
At Wild Peace Counseling, I provide compassionate, individualized therapy for women navigating pregnancy, postpartum mental health, and the transition into motherhood. Whether you're preparing for your first baby, adjusting to life with another child, processing a difficult birth, or trying to reconnect with yourself, you deserve a space where your experiences are understood without judgment.
Michaela Luck
Hi, I’m Michaela, a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC #23926) providing online therapy for christian women in Los Gatos, San Jose, and across the Bay Area. I’m also licensed as a Professional Counselor in Colorado.
For over ten years, I’ve worked with women who are capable, caring, and quietly exhausted: the ones everyone else leans on, who rarely get a turn to be supported. My approach is warm and direct. You’ll find a space where you can slow down and be heard, along with practical tools you can use between sessions.
I draw on Accelerated Resolution Therapy, Internal Family Systems-informed work, somatic therapy, and CBT to help with anxiety, trauma, postpartum struggles, and life transitions. If your faith matters to you, I’m glad to include it in our work. If it doesn’t, that’s completely fine too.
You don’t have to have it all together to start. I offer a free 15-minute consultation so we can see if we’re a good fit.
Signs You May Benefit From Postpartum Therapy
Every mother's experience is different. You don't need to be in crisis or have a formal diagnosis to seek support.
You may benefit from postpartum counseling if you are experiencing:
Persistent anxiety, worry, or feeling constantly on edge
Intrusive thoughts or frightening mental images that cause distress
Sadness, guilt, shame, irritability, or emotional numbness
Difficulty adjusting to your new identity or role as a mother
Feeling disconnected from yourself, your baby, or your partner
Overwhelm related to the demands and responsibilities of motherhood
Perfectionism, people-pleasing, or pressure to be a “good” mom
Difficulties navigating boundaries and expectations with family
Distressing memories or emotions related to childbirth
Anxiety about pregnancy, birth, or caring for your baby
Difficulty balancing motherhood with your own needs and relationships
You don't have to wait until things become unbearable to reach out. Support is available even when you're simply struggling to find your footing in a new season.
Navigating the Transition to Motherhood
Becoming a mother can change how you see yourself, your relationships, and the world around you. Alongside the joy and connection, you may experience grief for your former life, uncertainty about your identity, or pressure to meet expectations of what motherhood should look like.
The postpartum period isn't just about caring for a new baby. It's also about adjusting to a new version of yourself.
You may be learning how to balance your needs with your baby's needs, navigating changes in your relationship, managing anxiety, or trying to understand emotions that feel unfamiliar. You might love your baby deeply while still missing parts of your life before motherhood.
These experiences don't make you a bad mother. They make you human.
Postpartum therapy offers a supportive space to explore these changes, understand your emotional responses, and develop greater confidence and self-compassion as you navigate motherhood.
Pregnancy and Prenatal Anxiety
Pregnancy can bring excitement alongside uncertainty, fear, and vulnerability. You may be worried about childbirth, your baby's health, becoming a parent, or how your life and relationships will change.
Therapy can help you process these concerns, develop coping strategies, and feel more grounded as you prepare for the transition ahead. If you've experienced previous trauma or a difficult pregnancy, we can also explore how those experiences may be influencing your current fears.
Postpartum Anxiety and DepressionLos Gatos, CA
The postpartum period can bring emotional challenges that are difficult to explain to others. You may feel consumed by worry, struggle to relax, experience unwanted intrusive thoughts, or feel sad and disconnected even when you want to feel happy.
Postpartum anxiety and depression can affect mothers in different ways and can occur alongside one another. Therapy can help you understand your symptoms, develop practical coping tools, and identify appropriate additional support when needed.
You deserve care that takes your emotional well-being seriously.
Birth Trauma Therapy
Your birth experience may have been different from what you expected, hoped for, or felt prepared to navigate. You may be struggling with frightening memories, grief, anger, a sense of lost control, or difficulty making sense of what happened.
Birth trauma can affect how you feel about yourself, your body, future pregnancies, and early motherhood.
Trauma-informed therapy can provide a space to process your experience at your own pace, understand your emotional responses, and work toward a greater sense of safety and integration.
Your experience matters, even if others don't fully understand why it affected you so deeply.
Motherhood, Identity, and Life Transitions
Motherhood can bring questions about who you are now, what matters to you, and how to make room for yourself while caring for your family.
You may feel pulled between competing responsibilities, miss your independence, or struggle with the expectation that you should be able to handle everything. You may also find that becoming a mother brings up unresolved childhood experiences or changes the way you understand your own family.
Therapy can help you explore these changes with curiosity, strengthen your sense of identity, and develop a more sustainable relationship with yourself and your responsibilities.
Support for Moms of Multiple Children
Adding another child can be a meaningful transition, but it can also stretch your emotional and physical capacity in unexpected ways. You may be navigating sibling dynamics, divided attention, exhaustion, changes in your partnership, or guilt about not being able to give everyone what they need at once.
Therapy can help you make space for your own needs, process the complexities of this transition, and develop realistic expectations for yourself and your family.
You deserve support whether you're a first-time mom or raising several children.
My Approach to Postpartum Therapy
At Wild Peace Counseling, I believe therapy should be a place where you feel heard, supported, and understood—not another place where you feel pressure to get everything right.
My approach is compassionate, collaborative, and trauma-informed. Together, we'll explore what you're experiencing, identify patterns that may be contributing to your distress, and develop practical tools that support your emotional well-being.
Depending on your needs and goals, therapy may incorporate:
Somatic Therapy: Build awareness of your body's responses to stress and explore grounding and regulation practices that may help you feel more connected and present.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART): Use a structured therapeutic approach to work with distressing memories and emotional responses when appropriate.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Explore unhelpful thought patterns, perfectionism, guilt, and anxious thinking while developing more supportive ways of responding to yourself.
IFS-Informed Techniques: Approach different parts of yourself with curiosity and compassion, including the parts that feel overwhelmed, protective, critical, or afraid.
Our work may also include psychoeducation, emotional regulation, boundaries, communication skills, and strategies for navigating the everyday demands of motherhood.
You don't need to know exactly what you need before starting therapy. We'll work together to identify your goals and determine what feels most helpful.
What to Expect
Beginning therapy can feel like one more thing to fit into an already full season of life. My goal is to create a supportive space where you can slow down, reflect, and focus on your own well-being.
In our work together, we may:
Understand your current experience. Explore what feels difficult, what has changed, and what support you need right now.
Make sense of your emotions. Learn how stress, past experiences, expectations, and major life changes may be affecting you.
Develop practical tools. Practice coping strategies, emotional regulation, communication, and boundaries.
Process difficult experiences. When appropriate, work through birth trauma, past wounds, or distressing memories at a pace that feels manageable.
Reconnect with yourself. Build self-compassion, clarify your values, and identify ways to care for yourself while caring for your family.
There is no perfect way to navigate postpartum life, and healing doesn't follow a single timeline. Therapy is an opportunity to receive support that is centered on you.
You Can Be a Good Mom and Still Need Support
Motherhood often comes with unspoken expectations: that you should feel grateful, know what to do, put your children first, and manage the demands of family life without struggling.
But you are a person beyond your role as a mother. Your needs, feelings, relationships, and identity matter, too.
You can love your children and feel overwhelmed. You can be grateful for your family and grieve parts of your former life. You can want to be present with your children while also needing time and space to care for yourself.
Seeking therapy isn't a sign that you're failing at motherhood. It's a way of caring for your own well-being, which matters in its own right.
You deserve a space where you don't have to hold everything together.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes. Online therapy is available to eligible clients in California and Colorado, subject to applicable licensing requirements.
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If anxiety, stress, or past experiences are affecting your sleep, relationships, or mood, therapy can help. The free consultation is a low-pressure way to find out.
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Of course! If you need to bring your baby along that is definitely okay. They may cry, coo or grunt and that is definitely okay too!
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Yes. Trauma-informed therapy can help you explore distressing memories, process difficult emotions, and understand how your birth experience may be affecting your current well-being. Treatment is individualized to your needs and readiness.
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Many mothers experience significant emotional and identity changes during pregnancy and postpartum life. Struggling doesn't mean you're doing something wrong. Persistent or intense distress deserves attention and support.
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Yes. Therapy can help you understand anxious thoughts, identify triggers, develop coping strategies, and work toward feeling more grounded. If symptoms are significantly affecting your daily life, a coordinated approach with your medical provider may also be beneficial.
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Absolutely. The transition to motherhood doesn't end after the newborn stage. You may experience emotional challenges months or years later, especially as your family grows or your responsibilities change. You can seek support whenever you need it.
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Not in California, I'm private pay. See my Fees page for details.
