Therapy Groups

Long before I ever worked up the courage to join a new mothers group, I remember receiving a few notes early on from mothers who had recently been down the same road. Some of these notes had advice, some just offered a few words of empathy. One friend used a sign-off that I will never forget: “If I could bottle sleep in a jar and send it to you, I would.” In those early days without a formalized group, those emails gave me a taste of that bolstering universality that I later understood to be an essential aspect of a group dynamic.

 

Within months of receiving those early emails, I began to write my own to any friend or acquaintance I heard had given birth. I sent far more than any sleepy mother could possibly read on her phone while nursing, but I longed to commune, to feel the sense of empowerment that comes from mutual aid...so I identified people who knew even less than I did, and offered them the fullness of my [highly limited] experience.

 

A hallmark of a group dynamic is a sense of increased self-esteem in a group member when they see others that have the same problem and are still likable. In the years since my first experience with a group, the most poignant moments have most often come when another group member reveals something about themselves that I had always seen as shameful in myself. Whether it is resentment of my children, the desperate desire to escape, losing my temper, or being utterly uninterested in playing dinosaurs again…to hear a frustration or complaint come out of someone else’s mouth—particular when I think of that person as a “good” parent, or a “good” person, allows for a moment of unique and profoundly necessary self-compassion and grace.

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Groups include:

Expectant Parents

New Parents

LGBTQIA Parents

Second Time Parents/Sibling Prep

Parents of Toddlers

Perinatal Loss Support

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email me if you are interested in joining, starting, or collaborating!