You're a new mother who has been so excited for this phase of your life. You've anticipated the birth of your child and have planned a beautiful life to share with them. But you had a traumatic experience during your pregnancy, during your birth, or both. You're now struggling to cope with the aftermath and find it difficult to connect with yourself, your partner, and your baby.
Being a new mother is beautiful and challenging without the added weight of medical trauma. It can be difficult to know how to navigate these experiences and find a way back to feeling empowered. You want to connect with your baby like you imagined, reconnect with your partner, and get to know yourself in new ways. In this blog, we will provide insight into how online therapy for women in New York can help with post-birth trauma.
The Impact of Medical Trauma on New Motherhood
Medical trauma can profoundly influence your journey into motherhood. You may find an increase in anxiety, particularly surrounding your own health and the safety of your baby. Traumatic experiences often cause an elevation in cortisol levels, the body's primary stress hormone. Repeated traumatic events can even increase the risk for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). For example, repeated medical interventions that impact mother-child bonding can lead to depression.
With each passing day, your fear and uncertainty may increase. Making you doubt your motherly instincts. These fears are valid and not to be dismissed. They are genuine and valid, and other new mothers can relate to them. However, there is a stigma around talking about these experiences. Which can make it harder to feel comfortable sharing your feelings and seeking the help you need.
Understanding Your Feelings Through Online Therapy for Women
Online Therapy for Women in New York can provide a safe space for you as a new mother to work through the emotional trauma of childbirth, pregnancy, and postpartum struggles. Therapy, specifically therapy for medical trauma in NY, can help in managing these emotional challenges. It can assist in lowering your heightened cortisol levels. Which can help you transition from a state of constant alertness and anxiety to a more restful, peaceful state. This is often referred to as the parasympathetic state.
This state is essential for your emotional well-being and can create an environment favorable to bonding with your baby. With professional help, you can navigate your emotions in a healthy way, reclaim your inner strength, and step into motherhood with confidence. Parenthood can bring such joy and fulfillment. But at the same time, it can bring such challenges such as postpartum anxiety, difficult emotions surrounding birth trauma, or difficulty bonding with a baby. It also comes with a new identity shift. Through online therapy, you can work through the fear and confusion of these experiences and reclaim your motherhood experience.
How Can Online Therapy Help?
Online therapy for women in New York can offer support as you process the emotions that come with medical trauma. Your therapist will work with you on navigating your new identity, work through any fears and feelings of guilt, and provide you with techniques to help manage your emotions when they become overwhelming. In therapy, you can practice attachment exercises with your baby or even mindfulness exercises to help ground you in your home.
The emotions you may be feeling surrounding your birth and beginning to parenthood may not be linear and may often feel contradicting. It is okay to have moments of happiness, joy, excitement, and peace but also fear, guilt, and anxiety. We can hold space for these dialectical or opposing emotions in therapy. As you work through the aftermath of medical trauma, you will be able to build resiliency and strength to transition into your new motherhood journey.
Online Therapy Has Many Benefits
Online therapy for women in New York is beneficial for new mothers who are struggling with medical trauma. Through online therapy, you can access the care and support needed to heal from past experiences as well as provide a stable and secure environment for your baby. It provides an opportunity to connect with a therapist from the safety of your home. When you begin to heal your own medical trauma, it allows you to be more grounded and present in your day-to-day life. This can lead to stronger attachment bonds with your baby and those around you.
Online therapy for women in New York can also offer increased accessibility. You no longer have to worry about looking into childcare and transportation, or long wait times for sessions. It is a convenient way of getting help from the safety of your home. This can be beneficial if you are experiencing medical trauma or even PTSD symptoms like flashbacks or nightmares. It can be an opportunity to talk with an experienced medical trauma therapist about your experiences and provide the resources to get back on track.
Therapy that is Tailored to Your Needs
When you've experienced medical trauma, you need a therapist who understands the complexities of your situation. Plus, a therapist can provide you with the tailored care that will help you in your healing journey. A trauma-informed cognitive behavior therapy approach to online therapy for women in New York provides a supportive, empathic space where you are welcome to express your emotions. It facilitates an environment of exploration into the traumatic experience and helps build insight into how it is impacting your life today.
Whereas mindfulness can be beneficial when you are feeling overwhelmed by your emotions. It can help in the present moment or during a flashback. By engaging in mindfulness, it will calm your nervous system and increase your capacity to tolerate difficult emotions. At the same time, it can also offer psychodynamic processing of experience to help you understand your current thoughts and behaviors in a more meaningful way. This type of therapy is particularly beneficial for those who have experienced medical trauma in their motherhood journey. This way you can begin reclaiming your story and build the confidence and resilience needed to move forward.
Ways to Take Care of Yourself After Medical Trauma
After you experience medical trauma as a new mother, it can seem difficult to figure out what you need when it comes to taking care of yourself. There are many exercises and resources that can assist you in connecting with your body and mind. This way you can work to create a more balanced state of being.
Connect Your Mind and Body
Somatic exercises can be beneficial in creating more mind-body connections. This can be affected after experiencing birth trauma. These exercises help to ground yourself and focus on the present moment. They allow you to connect with your physical body after experiencing trauma. Giving your parasympathetic nervous system time to calm down and help ground you.
Another way to help connect your mind and body is pelvic physical therapy. This kind of therapy can assist in pain relief and provide you with exercises to help support your musculoskeletal system. It helps create a stronger connection between the muscles in the pelvic floor area and how they affect the body's other systems, such as breathing or movement. For example, at Solstice Physiotherapy or Beyond Basics Physical Therapy, you will find knowledgeable and experienced physical therapists who can help you achieve the goals most beneficial for your wellness.
Just Breathe
Breathing exercises can be really beneficial in helping to decrease postpartum anxiety. This is because it activates your parasympathetic state rather than the fight/flight/freeze sympathetic response. You can try deep belly breathing, box breathing, and paced respiration to focus on your breath and help slow down your body. This can make it easier to cope with difficult emotions that come after medical trauma.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness practices and breathing exercises can also help activate your parasympathetic nervous system. This helps to decrease your anxiety levels and decrease your heart rate. It can offer time to reflect on difficult feelings and talk through any postpartum worries. By using mindfulness techniques, it can help you become more aware of your emotions.
It also allows you to process them in a safe environment. This way you can work on understanding where those emotions are coming from and how they might be connected to your medical response. When you are in a calmer state of being, it can be easier to find moments of peace and find time to bond with your baby. These moments after practicing somatic exercises can be less stressful. as they decrease cortisol levels.
Trauma-Informed Therapy
Trauma-informed cognitive behavior therapy can also be beneficial in decreasing postpartum anxiety or depression. It provides an opportunity to understand how your trauma is impacting you and how to re-frame negative thoughts or behaviors. This helps you become empowered in managing your own well-being and foster positive coping skills for the future.
Another place to find trauma-informed care is with a reproductive psychiatrist. These specialists are trained in the specific needs of women. They can provide a combination of medication management, talk therapy, or other treatments to help you manage your postpartum anxiety.
Becoming a new mother can be a difficult transition and medical trauma can make this journey even more challenging. It is important to find the resources that will be most beneficial for you in your healing journey. Whether it’s online therapy, pelvic physical therapy, or reproductive psychiatry, taking action and finding the right support for yourself is a powerful step toward reclaiming your story.
Stop Surviving and Start Thriving with Online Therapy for Women in New York
When you're ready to take that next step towards reclaiming your story after medical trauma, online therapy can provide a safe and supportive space. It allows for flexible scheduling and the ability to connect with a therapist from anywhere. This way, you can start the healing process without leaving the comfort of your own home. At Greater Washington DC and New York City CBT Counseling for Women, I specialize in providing online therapy to help you move from surviving to thriving. By engaging in a therapeutic relationship, I can help you understand your emotions and develop skills to increase your emotional intelligence. This helps build the confidence and resilience needed for you to take ownership of your story. I not only specialize in helping women through medical trauma, birth trauma, and complex trauma but issues that can arise during the transition to motherhood such as postpartum depression and anxiety. Together we can work through this and help you start thriving again. By working with a medical trauma therapist in Washington, DC who also is a therapist for women in Washington, DC you can begin your journey to healing. Follow the steps below to get started on your journey to healing.
Get to know me here.
Fill out our convenient online mental health services contact form.
Begin Thriving, Not Just Surviving!
Other Mental Health Services Offered at Greater Washington DC and New York City CBT Counseling for Women
You are a new mother and it can be overwhelming to take all the steps needed to help you heal. Having a therapist for women in Washington, DC, or New York City to help you feel validated, heard, and understood can be beneficial. Hi, I'm Kelsey Bates! I specialize in women’s health, which means I offer several mental health services geared toward helping women cope with medical trauma. At Greater Washington DC and New York City CBT Counseling for Women, I offer an array of therapeutic services for anxiety, depression, and PTSD in both Individual and Group counseling settings. I also specialize in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy in addition to CBT.