Counseling for Moms
in Denver
Are you a mom who struggles with feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and burnt out?
Lately you’ve been feeling spread so thin, like you can't give your full attention to anything in your life. You feel guilty because your kids, partner and job are all wanting “more” of you, but it doesn’t feel like you have any more to give. You can’t remember the last time you opened a book, went to an exercise class or had dinner with friends. You’re wondering how you even got here - once upon a time, you were happy! You were a professional! You were confident! Now, you feel so disconnected from that person. Even when you have a few moments of free time, you don’t know how to spend it, feeling too burnt out to do anything but scroll on your phone.
All you want is to feel like yourself again, and to find time to just be “you”, instead of a mom and wife.
But even when you have time to yourself, you can’t figure out how to relax. Maybe it even feels “selfish” to take time for yourself when there’s so much you could be doing for your kids, or work, or the house.
You don’t have to live like this. Counseling for moms can help.
Motherhood and Mental Health
Moms in today’s world face so many pressures - to do it all, be it all, never break a sweat and never stop smiling. You are surrounded by images of perfectly curated birthday parties and dazzling holiday photo shoots, wondering “what’s wrong with me?” “Why doesn’t this feel easy like it does for everyone else?” The reality is, motherhood is a life-altering experience and incredible journey filled with intense highs and lows, and sometimes the lows feel much more intense than the highs. The images you see online or anecdotes you hear from fellow moms often only tell one side of the story. Moms face so many challenges, including loss of identity, exhaustion, mom guilt, burnout and perfectionism. Becoming parents inevitably puts a strain on your relationship with your partner, which further erodes your support system. Moms often struggle to prioritize their own needs or ask for help, instead sacrificing sleep, showers and self-care. If you’re telling yourself, “feeling overwhelmed, burnt out and grumpy all the time isn’t a reason to start therapy - that’s just being a mom!” it’s time to get more curious about why you feel like your needs don’t matter. You may think that everyone else around you is better off if you put yourself last, but when moms are unhappy, it affects the whole family. The U.S. government is even aware of this problem - the surgeon general’s report in 2024 identified that parents in this country are in crisis. 48% of parents reported that their day to day stress is completely overwhelming compared to 26% of other adults. It’s time to do something about this. Therapy can help you learn how to manage your stress and find yourself again.
Mom burnout can look like:
Feeling a loss of identity, like you don’t know who you are anymore
Persistent feelings of exhaustion and fatigue
Feeling unfulfilled
Irritability and grumpiness
General feelings of unhappiness, or being unable to enjoy things you used to love
Anxiety and worry
Feeling pressure to be the “perfect” mom
Feeling lonely and disconnected, including from your kids
Finding yourself complaining a lot to others in your life
Beating yourself up or frequently feeling like a failure
Feeling like a “bad” mom, partner, coworker, etc.
Strained relationship with your partner
Feeling like you need a break from your life, or regretting having children
People-pleasing and struggling to set boundaries
Feeling scatterbrained and forgetful
Difficulty focusing
Feeling like you can’t ask for help
Counseling for Moms Can Help
It’s not your fault that you feel this way - moms in today's world are expected to do it all, which is just not possible. I help parents reclaim their lives and feel like themselves again. You will learn to feel confident as a parent, be kinder to yourself and make time for what is important to you. In therapy together, we will:
Help you develop stress management tools and make time for a self-care routine to calm down your nervous system and reconnect to your identity outside of parenthood
Assist you in identifying your natural strengths that can be drawn from in parenting
Help you to process experiences and memories from your own childhood that may be surfacing on your parenting journey, and understand how these experiences may shape your values, challenges and strengths as a mother
Teach communication techniques that can help you and your partner better manage the impact of parenting stress on your relationship
Validate and help you find acceptance for your unique experience of parenthood
Feel more grounded in how you respond to stressful and chaotic moments through mindfulness-based strategies including cultivating present-moment awareness, self-compassion and acceptance
Teach interpersonal and communication tools so that you can feel comfortable asserting yourself, setting boundaries and speaking up for your needs
Suggest relevant books, articles and tools that can help you to get a deeper understanding of your experience and make progress in between sessions
Through counseling for moms, you will find a space to pause, breathe and let go of the weight you carry for everyone else in your life. You will learn to allow yourself to be human, cut yourself some slack and find joy in the small moments. Therapy will help you break free from mom guilt, get out of your head and find balance between your identity as a mother and identity as a woman.
You don’t have to live with constant feelings of overwhelm, exhaustion and burnout. Therapy will allow you to finally feel seen and heard. For once, YOU get to be taken care of!
Counseling for Moms FAQs
-
A good place to start is trying to set aside a few moments for yourself each day - whether that’s after the kids go to bed, before everyone wakes up in the morning or during naptime. Resist the temptation to do chores or catch up on work, and allow yourself to take a few minutes that are just about doing something you enjoy. Learn more about ways to decompress by talking to a therapist for moms!
-
The mental load of motherhood is the mental and emotional impact of the constant “to-do” lists that moms tend to keep track of for everyone in the household - managing everyone’s schedules, keeping track of supplies, chores, etc. This also includes providing emotional support to family members and managing family dynamics. When moms don’t communicate and seek support around managing the mental load, stress, burnout and resentment can result.
-
Toxic positivity in relation to motherhood refers to the practice of only focusing on the positive aspects of parenting and feeling pressure to present a “perfect” picture of happiness, even when family members are struggling or facing challenges. Toxic positivity can cause moms to bury their emotions, struggle with feelings of inadequacy and experience feelings of shame that prevent them from seeking help.
-
Cognitive behavioral therapies and therapies that focus on mindfulness-based practices, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy are shown to be especially helpful for managing mom burnout. Psychodynamic therapy can also be helpful for better understanding your narrative around motherhood and where certain expectations that you put on yourself originated from.
-
Moms become overstimulated when their senses become overloaded with too much input - this can come from being constantly touched and prodded or responding to cries, complaints and demands for help. Moms who are overstimulated might snap more easily, have a hard time focusing, experience unpredictable emotional outbursts or feel “touched out” and need space from family members.
My Denver-based therapy practice specializes in helping high-achieving women overcome their anxiety and perfectionism. To start your counseling journey, follow these simple steps
Step 1
Contact Victoria
Step 2
Meet with Victoria, an anxiety therapist for an intake session
Step 3
Get started on your journey towards taking anxiety out of the driver’s seat and start living your life!
