Perinatal and Trauma Therapy in Chesapeake, VA

Yes! Although I'm based in Chesapeake, using a secure telehealth platform means I can provide therapy for adult women across the State of Virginia. Virtual sessions make it easier to get support during pregnancy, postpartum, or the demands of everyday motherhood without adding one more thing to your plate.

I work with women navigating pregnancy anxiety, postpartum anxiety or depression, birth trauma, and the fear that creeps in around pregnancy or motherhood before it even begins. I also support birth workers carrying trauma from what they've witnessed on the job.

A lot of my clients come to me feeling on edge all the time, like their body never got the memo that the danger passed. Others feel shut down, going through the motions of motherhood without really feeling any of it. Wherever you're starting from, our work is about helping your body feel safe again, helping your emotions make sense instead of overwhelming you, and helping you actually be present in your own life instead of just getting through it.

A lot of women come to me after therapy that helped them understand what happened, but didn't actually change how they feel day to day. You can know exactly why you're anxious and still feel your chest tighten every time your phone buzzes. That's the gap this approach is built for.

We don't just talk through your thoughts. We pay attention to your body, the racing heart, the shallow breathing, the urge to brace, because trauma doesn't just live in your head. It lives in your nervous system. That's often why insight alone isn't enough to make you feel different, and it's why we work with both.

Traditional talk therapy is mostly a conversation. You talk, I listen, we make sense of it together. Body-based therapy does that too, but it also pays attention to what's happening underneath the conversation, your breathing, your posture, the way your body tenses before you even realize you're anxious.

In pregnancy and motherhood especially, your body can react to something in the present the exact same way it reacted to something years ago, even when your mind knows you're safe now. That's not a flaw in you. It's just how trauma gets stored. Body-based therapy works with that directly, instead of only working with the story you tell about it.

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It's an approach that helps you process distressing experiences so the memory stops feeling like it's happening to you right now. I describe it to clients as the difference between reliving something and remembering it. When it's clinically appropriate, I use EMDR to help take the emotional charge out of trauma connected to pregnancy, birth, or other painful experiences.

CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It helps you notice the thread between what you're thinking, how you're feeling, and what you end up doing, so you can interrupt the patterns that keep anxiety spinning. In our work, CBT is often one piece of the plan rather than the whole thing, especially when what you're carrying is showing up in your body just as much as your mind.

ACT stands for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Where CBT often works by challenging unhelpful thoughts, ACT works by changing your relationship to those thoughts so they stop running the show. It also focuses on helping you act on what actually matters to you, even while fear or uncertainty are still in the room.

Yes. I offer faith-honoring counseling that makes room for your mind, your body, and your spirit. For a lot of women, faith is a real anchor, and if that's true for you, we can bring it into our work in a grounded, honest way, no pressure attached. And if you're not in a place right now where faith feels accessible or you're not ready to return to it, that's okay too. We work with wherever you are, on your timing, not anyone else's.

You don't need that figured out before you reach out. Most of the women I work with are dealing with more than one thing at once, birth trauma tangled up with postpartum anxiety, or a fear of pregnancy sitting on top of an older trauma history. During your consultation and intake, we'll talk through what's actually going on and figure out together where to start.

Sessions run about 50 minutes and happen virtually, shaped around your goals, your history, and what you have capacity for that day. We move at whatever pace feels safe, not the pace a textbook says we should. 

Depending on what you need, I might draw from EMDR, somatic therapy, mindfulness, CBT, ACT, or solution-focused techniques to help you process what you've been through and come out the other side feeling more like yourself.

I'll also tell you now, I'm a fairly funny person, and I use that on purpose. Humor shows up in session when it fits, partly because it's just how I connect, and partly because it takes the pressure off a room that can otherwise feel heavy. And while our time together matters, what you do between sessions is where a lot of the real change actually takes root.