Therapy for Perinatal and Postpartum
Anxiety and OCD
Support for the worries you didn’t expect and the parent you’re becoming.
Becoming a parent can bring joy, meaning, and connection.
It can also bring worry that feels constant, exhausting, and hard to explain.
Many people with perinatal or postpartum anxiety and OCD find themselves stuck in cycles of overthinking, checking, reassurance-seeking, or imagining worst-case scenarios they wish they could shut off.
You might feel consumed by questions like What if I miss something?, What if I do something wrong?, or What if something terrible happens because I didn’t prevent it? You may notice intrusive, unwanted thoughts that feel disturbing or out of character, followed by an urgent need to neutralize them through checking, mental review, avoidance, or asking others for reassurance. Sleep can feel restless. Your body may stay on high alert. And instead of feeling present with your baby, you may feel trapped in your mind.
Perinatal and postpartum anxiety and OCD are common and treatable.
These experiences are not a reflection of your character, your intentions, or your ability as a parent. They are patterns of anxiety that can be understood — and gently untangled — with the right support.
How Therapy Can Help
Therapy for perinatal and postpartum anxiety and OCD focuses on helping you understand how anxiety operates, why intrusive thoughts feel so convincing, and how to respond in ways that reduce fear rather than reinforce it. Treatment is practical, collaborative, and paced with compassion for the realities of pregnancy, postpartum recovery, hormonal shifts, and sleep deprivation.
We use evidence-based approaches that support lasting change, including:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT helps you identify anxiety-driven thought patterns and the behaviors that keep them going. You’ll learn tools to respond differently to worry, self-doubt, and mental spirals, even in the middle of busy parenting moments.
Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT)
Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT) is a specialized approach for OCD that focuses less on challenging the content of intrusive thoughts and more on understanding how doubt takes hold in the first place.
Rather than asking, “Is this thought true or realistic?”, I-CBT helps you notice when anxiety pulls you into imagined possibilities that feel convincing but are not rooted in the present moment. This approach is especially helpful for perinatal and postpartum OCD, where thoughts often feel morally distressing, identity-shaking, or deeply misaligned with your values.
I-CBT supports you in:
Recognizing when OCD is creating doubt rather than responding to real danger
Disengaging from mental checking, reassurance, and over-analysis
Reconnecting with your lived experience, instincts, and values
Responding to intrusive thoughts with clarity rather than fear
Many clients find I-CBT to be a gentler and more intuitive way to loosen OCD’s grip, especially when intrusive thoughts feel emotionally intense.
What We Will Do
Together, we’ll work on:
Understanding Your Anxiety Patterns.
Identifying how anxiety and OCD show up in daily parenting life — whether during feeding, sleep routines, leaving the house, or moments of quiet.
Reducing Compulsions and Safety Behaviors.
Gradually decreasing checking, avoidance, mental review, or reassurance-seeking in a way that feels manageable and supportive.
Building Tolerance for Uncertainty.
Learning how to live alongside uncertainty without letting it control your decisions, your energy, or your connection with your baby.
Rebuilding Trust in Yourself.
Strengthening confidence in your judgment, your values, and your ability to respond — even when anxiety is loud.
Feeling More Present and Connected.
The goal is not to eliminate all worry, but to help anxiety take up less space so you can feel more grounded, engaged, and connected in your life and relationships.
Strength grows in the moments when you think you can't go on but you keep going anyway.
You Deserve Support
Perinatal and postpartum anxiety and OCD respond well to therapy. With the right support, many people notice that intrusive thoughts feel less distressing, compulsions decrease, and daily life feels more manageable.
You don’t have to wait until things feel unbearable to seek help. Support can begin now — and you don’t have to navigate this season alone.
Schedule a consultation. Start the conversation. You deserve support, relief, and a version of motherhood that does not feel like a never-ending emergency.