Services
Your life might look good on paper and it’s not as if you’re having a crisis but……..
You bottle up thoughts and feelings like anger, resentment, boredom, unhappiness and a desire to escape and feel guilty for thinking and feeling these things.
You wonder why you feel so exhausted and that you can barely cope with everyday life like getting your kids to school, going to work, doing the laundry and cooking.
You feel selfish and guilty when you do something for yourself instead of for your family.
You have a strong ‘inner-critic’ that judges you harshly and tells you that you should do more, that you need to work harder at being a better mum and that you should be able to cope.
You feel inadequate compared to other mums who seem to cope with ease and no matter how hard you try you never feel like you are doing enough.
You have been getting irritable and tearful lately which feels unusual for you.
You worry about messing up your children and constantly question if you are doing enough, doing it right and have made the right choices.
You are tired of the constant over-thinking and feelings of guilt, failure and overwhelm.
If any or all of these sounds familiar, you are not alone and I can help you.
You are not a machine.
You are a human being.
Along the way from early childhood to now you have likely been sold a story that says Mothers are expected to do it all effortlessly and perfectly without complaint and without needing anything for themselves.
This story sets mothers up to fail and to constantly feel like they are never enough.
I am not here to help you better manage unrealistic expectations and become a ‘perfect mother’. Rather, I’ll help you to let go of the expectations that you do not need to meet and to connect with what is important to you so that you can actually enjoy being a mother and live a life alongside motherhood.
Therapy with me is a conversation between us where the focus is on you.
This can feel pretty awkward at first as you are probably uncomfortable with being the centre of attention and you might worry that you won’t know what to say or that you’ll talk too much or if your problems are bad enough to be here. Usually what happens as we get to know each other clients feel more comfortable and relax into the process of therapy.
You are not ‘just a mum’
you are a whole person.
Nothing is off limits for us to talk about. We might talk about your relationship with your partner, parents and friends, your childhood, your worries about your children, the pull between wanting to care for your children and wanting something for yourself, the everyday practical challenges of motherhood and questioning who you are since becoming a mother.
I have worked with many clients but I have never worked with you before.
You are a unique person with your own life story and perspectives. As your therapist I draw from my professional training and experience to support you but there is no one size fits all.
Sometimes we’ll get curious together about the complexities of being a woman and a mother in today’s world and how this relates to you. Sometimes we’ll sit with your emotions and experiences that need space to be felt and witnessed with compassion. Sometimes we’ll look at where you have agency and choice to make realistic changes within the context of your life
New perspectives and possibilities start to emerge from our conversations as you start to understand yourself and the world around you, stuck emotions start to shift and you start to connect with your power and wisdom.
My hope for you is that you will develop a relationship with yourself based on compassion and respect so that you no longer need to prove your worth and feel that you are enough by trying to achieve the impossible.
From this place you can re-claim your motherhood experience which honours you as a woman and a mother and creates space for you to thrive and feel joy alongside the inevitable challenges of life and raising children.
Am I the therapist for you?
I do my best work with clients who appreciate having a space to share what is going on for them and how they are feeling, who want to understand themselves and who are open to finding new ways to navigate motherhood.
I am unlikely to be the right therapist for you if you are looking for immediate answers and quick fixes.
How to Begin
Contact me to inquire about an initial session where we can meet to see if we are a good fit.