Postpartum and Mom Therapy in Chicago

Therapy for Moms of Kids & Teens

As children evolve and grow, there always seems to be something new to learn or to respond to in their development! It can be quite challenging to stay “current” on both your child’s needs as well as your own. Mom’s seek therapy over the course of raising young or school aged children and teens for lots of reasons, some including:

1. Behavioral Issues: Kids often act out their thoughts and emotions through their behavior, so moms commonly seek therapy for support on how to navigate any behavioral challenges that their kid(s) may be acting out. Therapy for moms can provide support and guidance and a place for mom to express her own feelings about the challenges.

2. Academic Stress: Kids and perhaps especially teens face a lot of academic pressure. Mom’s make seek support from a therapist around whatever this might bring up for them as well as ideas on how to help their kid(s)/teen cope better with the stress.

3. Life Transitions: All kinds of things can be happening in the world of a family that can affect both mom and child. There might be a divorce or relationship ending which means lots of adjustments for everyone involved. There might be a big (or small) move that happens that shakes things up.

4. Self Care and Balancing Roles: One of the most challenges part of being a mother is creating enough space for yourself to do things that you enjoy that perhaps have nothing to do with your kids. First, moms need to feel like they are worthy of and deserve to have time to themselves, which is commonly an experience that can be worked through in therapy. Therapy for moms can also be a bit of a logistical session, planning out when, where, and how a mom might make space for life outside of the kids.

Therapy for Moms of Adult Children

You may reach the point where your kids are “launched” and simultaneously think “this is great” and “I am so sad/lonely, what do I do now?” Empty nest syndrome is a real thing- and can be a challenging transition point in life. Therapy can help women release day-to-day caregiving responsibilities and find new, satisfying ways to engage with life.

At any point in the journey with adult children, moms can struggle with feeling disconnected or not included as much as they would like. They might have ideas about how they would like to be involved, which may conflict with what their son or daughter has in mind. Therapy can provide moms of adult children a space to express their feelings, release disappointments, and learn ways to nudge the relationship with their adult children towards evolution that feels good to both parties.

It’s also common for moms of adult children to be caring for their own aging parents while simultaneously providing care for grandchildren. This can be a lot to manage! Therapy can help women in these circumstances to determine their values/how they would like to help as well as their limits and communicate their needs and boundaries clearly.

Therapy for Working Moms

It’s undoubtedly tough to balance both a career and being a mom! Even with childcare in place, balancing a career as well as mom life can be like having two full time jobs or more. Therapy for working moms can specifically help you curate and manage your experience in both roles, as well as determine what you need for yourself. While it can feel impossible to do so, when you are able to make time for yourself and your needs, you’ll be able to show up in your career and in your parenting role in more present and intentional ways. We often can’t figure out how to do this or what we need in isolation, which is why having a therapist on your team can be a big help.

Benefits of Engaging in Therapy for Moms

Therapy for moms has many benefits, but we’ve thought of a few of the most common ones to highlight:

• Feeling better in the day-to-day: Moms who attend therapy are often able to work with their therapist directly on things they can adjust in their lives to feel slightly better. Sometimes it’s just simply an emotional release and feeling validated by the therapist. Other times, the therapist may help you integrate small changes to your day that can help improve your mood.

• Stronger relationships: Therapy can help moms address anything that may not be working so well in their relationships with a partner, family, friends, or even their children.

• Personal growth and self-awareness: Moms who engage in therapy often learn some things about themselves in the process which facilitates a broader understanding of themselves and what’s important to them in life.

• Stress reduction: Therapy can help moms identify sources of stress and ways to make slight (or sometimes larger) adjustments to minimize stress.

• Improved self care and relationship with self: Put on your own oxygen mask first! When you have a better relationship with yourself and are doing more things that feel good to you, you’re bound to be in a better place to support your child(ren) and have better relationships with everyone.

What to Expect From Our Mom Therapists

Each of our mom therapists have their own unique ways of working with and helping their mom clients. Some commonalities you will find, however, is that our mom therapists will meet you where you are and help you identify what you might want to work on to feel better. The first two sessions with our mom therapists focus more on asking you questions and getting to know you. From there, the therapist may work with you to come up with some goals for therapy. Sometimes moms pursue therapy at first to get some help with a parenting concern or ways to navigate transitions in motherhood, but then the therapy evolves to focus more on other areas of their life. Our mom therapists can help you as a whole person, not just in your identity or role as a mom, but that can be an important place to start!