Pregnancy and new parenthood can hold so much love, while still feeling completely different from what you expected.

Alyssa Autterson, LPC-A, Registered APCC, and EMDR-trained therapist, is a mother of two children herself, so she deeply understands the unique combination of love and overwhelm that comes with new parenthood.

Perhaps you thought becoming a parent would feel more natural. Instead, your mind won’t stop racing with thoughts like:

• is baby breathing?

• is baby eating enough?

• is baby sleeping enough?

• will baby ever stop crying?

• am i a good mother?

Maybe you’re constantly googling or reading social media posts about every little decision, from nursing to pumping to bottle-feeding to non-toxic diapers or sleep training techniques. Perhaps you are wondering why everyone else seems to handle motherhood better.

Perhaps new parenthood has left you feeling disconnected from yourself, or your body, or your baby entirely. You love your baby but are feeling exhausted, irritable, overwhelmed, anxious, sad, or simply not like yourself.

At Aligned Therapy Collective, we provide therapy for perinatal and postpartum anxiety, depression, birth trauma, and the transition to parenthood for women in Austin and vitually throughout Texas & California.

Signs of Perinatal or Postpartum Anxiety

You may be experiencing pregnancy or postpartum anxiety if:

• You constantly worry about what could go wrong.

• You repeatedly check your baby’s breathing, feeding, sleep, or safety.

• You frequently Google symptoms or seek reassurance.

• You experience unwanted or frightening intrusive thoughts.

• You feel unable to relax, even when your baby is safe.

• You struggle to sleep because your mind will not turn off.

• You have difficulty trusting others to care for your baby.

• You feel intensely responsible for preventing anything bad from happening.

For some women, anxiety begins during pregnancy. For others, it becomes much stronger after childbirth.

Signs of Postpartum Depression

Postpartum depression does not always look like constant sadness. It may show up as irritability, numbness, guilt, disconnection, or the feeling that you should be happier than you are.

You may notice:

• Persistent sadness, hopelessness, or emotional flatness.

• Loss of interest in things you normally enjoy.

• Feeling disconnected from yourself, your partner, or your baby.

• Intense guilt or feeling like you are failing as a parent.

• Irritability, anger, resentment, or overwhelm.

• Difficulty concentrating or feeling mentally foggy.

• Missing who you were before becoming a mother.

• Wondering whether you will ever feel like yourself again.

You do not need to wait until things feel unbearable to benefit from therapy.

Intrusive Thoughts & Postpartum Anxiety

• One frightening symptom of postpartum anxiety can be unwanted intrusive thoughts about something happening to your baby.

  These thoughts may lead you to check repeatedly, avoid certain situations, ask for reassurance, research online, or mentally review whether you are a good parent.

  Therapy can help you understand the relationship between anxiety and intrusive thoughts, reduce reassurance-seeking, and build greater tolerance for uncertainty.

Pregnancy & Birth Trauma and the Transition to Motherhood

Sometimes distress begins with the birth itself.

If your pregnancy or delivery felt frightening, medically complicated, out of control, or very different from what you expected, you may replay the experience, avoid reminders, or struggle with anger, grief, fear, or guilt afterward.

Birth trauma therapy can help you process what happened and make sense of the emotional impact of your experience.

Motherhood can also change your relationship with your body, career, marriage, friendships, independence, and identity.

For high-achieving or perfectionistic women, this transition can feel especially disorienting. You may be used to solving problems through preparation, productivity, and control only to discover that parenthood rarely offers certainty.

Therapy can help you build self-trust without requiring yourself to do motherhood perfectly.

How Therapy Can Help

At Aligned Therapy Collective, we use a relational, trauma-informed approach to perinatal and postpartum mental health.

Therapy may help you:

• Manage postpartum anxiety and excessive worry.

• Respond differently to intrusive thoughts and reassurance-seeking.

• Reduce perfectionism and unrealistic expectations of motherhood.

• Process birth trauma or a difficult delivery.

• Navigate depression, guilt, anger, resentment, and grief.

• Adjust to changes in identity after becoming a mother.

• Communicate your needs and set healthier boundaries.

• Strengthen your relationship with your partner.

• Reconnect with yourself outside of motherhood.

Perinatal & Postpartum Therapy in Austin, Texas

Aligned Therapy Collective provides pregnancy anxiety therapy, postpartum anxiety therapy, postpartum depression therapy, and birth trauma therapy in Austin, Texas and virtually throughout Texas.

You may be a good fit for postpartum therapy if you feel anxious, depressed, overwhelmed, disconnected from yourself, consumed by intrusive thoughts, or unsure how to adjust to the demands of pregnancy or new parenthood.

You do not need to know whether what you are experiencing is “bad enough” before reaching out.

Therapy can help you feel more grounded, supported, and like yourself again.