PARENTAL & PERINATAL MENTAL HEALTH
The transition into parenthood begins long before a child arrives.
For many people, it begins the moment they start imagining a family, considering pregnancy, exploring fertility options, or questioning what parenthood may mean for their identity, relationships, and future. This stage of life can hold excitement, anticipation, and hope. It can also bring anxiety, grief, uncertainty, overwhelm, and profound emotional change.
We provide depth-oriented, affirming parental and perinatal therapy for individuals and couples in Brooklyn and across New York State, navigating conception, pregnancy, fertility challenges, pregnancy loss, postpartum experiences, and early parenthood. Our work supports people across many family structures, including queer, nontraditional, and expanding families.
In-Person in Brooklyn & Virtual Across New York State
perinatal mental health support
The perinatal period includes pregnancy through the first year postpartum, though for many people the emotional transition extends well beyond that timeline. During this stage, mood and anxiety changes can emerge in ways that feel confusing, frightening, or difficult to explain.
We provide specialized therapy for perinatal anxiety and depression, supporting clients experiencing:
Persistent worry or panic
Intrusive thoughts
Emotional overwhelm or numbness
Sleep disruption connected to anxiety
Feelings of guilt, shame, or inadequacy
Irritability or emotional reactivity
Difficulty bonding or feeling present
Fear around childbirth or parenting
resurgence of trauma or OCD symptoms
Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs) are not personal failures. They are deeply human responses shaped by hormonal shifts, nervous system activation, identity changes, relational stress, sleep deprivation, and life transitions.
We integrate evidence-based treatment with relational, depth-oriented therapy that honors both symptom relief and the deeper emotional realities beneath these experiences. In addition to symptom relief, we will explore identity transformation, attachment history, relationship dynamics, and the unconscious expectations that surface when someone becomes a parent.
Therapy is available for birthing people, non-birthing partners, and couples.
Therapy for Parents in Brooklyn
Parenthood can intensify old patterns and emotional wounds in unexpected ways.
Many people notice that becoming a parent brings up experiences connected to their own childhood, attachment history, caregiving dynamics, or unresolved grief. As providers of therapy for parents in Brooklyn, we approach this work with curiosity and compassion rather than judgment.
Therapy can help parents:
Navigate identity changes after becoming a parent
Process relationship strain or communication difficulties
Understand emotional triggers and nervous system responses
Explore fears around caregiving or attachment
Create healthier relational patterns within the family system
Make space for both joy and grief during parenthood
This work is not about becoming a “perfect” parent.
It is about building awareness, support, and emotional flexibility during one of the most transformative periods of adult life.
our areas of specialty
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When labor and delivery do not go as expected or planned, the experience can feel disorienting, overwhelming, or even traumatic. Experiences such as emergency interventions, unexpected complications, NICU stays, or feeling dismissed during labor can leave lasting emotional impact.
Birthing trauma often lives in both the body and your relationship. We help individuals and couples process their birthing experience and aftermath, in order to minimize the impact on mood and parental bonding, as well as on intimacy, trust, and communication in the relationship.
We also support non-birthing partners who may carry fear, helplessness, or secondary trauma related to the birth experience.
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Loss in the perinatal period is frequently minimized and misunderstood. We provide therapy for miscarriage, stillbirth, termination for medical reasons, voluntary termination of pregnancy, neonatal loss, and infant loss.
Grief at this stage can include shame, anger at one’s body, isolation, relationship strain, and fear about future pregnancy. Therapy offers a place where the loss is fully acknowledged and mourned without comparison or minimization.
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Pregnancy following a previous loss often brings heightened anxiety, hypervigilance, and emotional ambivalence. Hope and fear frequently coexist. We help individuals and couples navigate this complex emotional terrain with steadiness and care.
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Parenting continues to evolve long after the first year. We support parents navigating identity shifts, invisible labor, gender role tension, sleep deprivation, returning to work, and parenting disagreements.
We also work with parents of medically complex children and children with developmental or ability differences. Parenting often reactivates earlier experiences from one’s own childhood. In therapy, we gently explore these intergenerational patterns and support more intentional ways of relating.
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Infertility and reproductive challenges can quietly affect self-esteem, sexuality, connection with your partner, and identity. Repeated treatment cycles, medical interventions, and uncertainty are stressful and exhausting emotionally and physically.
We support individuals and couples navigating fertility diagnoses, assisted reproductive technology, and decision-making about continuing or ending treatment. This work often touches deeper themes of control, legacy, gender identity, partnership roles, and grief for the imagined child.
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Preconception counseling offers couples a structured space to explore parenting before a child arrives. Similar to premarital counseling, this work focuses on alignment and preparedness.
Common areas of exploration include parenting values, division of labor, mental health history, financial expectations, extended family boundaries, and how each partner was parented. This can be offered as a short-term framework or integrated into ongoing therapy.
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Pregnancy can often cause shifts in identity, sexuality, career ambition, and partnership. We work with first-time parents, parents expecting additional children, non-birthing partners adjusting to role shifts, and couples renegotiating intimacy and shared responsibility.
Therapy provides space to speak what feels difficult to articulate and to strengthen connection during a period of transition.
QUEER FAMILY BUILDING & affirming care
Building a family as an LGBTQIA+ person or partnership often involves emotional, relational, legal, financial, and medical complexities that many heterosexual couples do not encounter in the same way.
We provide affirming perinatal therapy for queer individuals, couples, and family systems navigating:
IVF or IUI
Donor conception
Surrogacy
Adoption or fostering
Reciprocal IVF
Co-parenting structures
Pregnancy and parenting as a trans or gender-diverse person
Questions around genetics, belonging, identity, and recognition can arise throughout this process. Therapy creates space to explore these experiences thoughtfully, not only logistically, but emotionally and relationally as well.
You should not have to educate your therapist about queer parenthood to receive meaningful support.
we can help you with
navigating the planning phase
The period before conception often carries its own emotional intensity. Many queer couples spend months or years researching options, consulting medical and legal professionals, and navigating financial realities before conception ever occurs. If you are beginning to explore these paths, you may find it helpful to read more about the emotional and relational aspects of the process in our blog post on family planning for queer couples in NYC, including IVF, IUI, adoption, and surrogacy.
During this stage of planning, people may encounter excitement alongside anxiety, grief about biological limitations, or pressure to make decisions that feel permanent. We help clients move through this phase with greater clarity and emotional support. Therapy can help couples align around shared values, communicate about expectations, and process the stress that often accompanies this level of planning.
Let’s sort through
gender, identity, & pregnancy
Pregnancy does not always align neatly with cultural expectations around gender.
For trans men, nonbinary individuals, and gender-diverse people, pregnancy and early parenthood may involve experiences that feel both meaningful and emotionally complex. Medical systems are not always equipped to support these experiences with the care and nuance they deserve.
Our practice offers affirming support for gender-diverse individuals navigating pregnancy, fertility decisions, postpartum experiences, and parenting.
Therapy can become a space to explore:
Body changes and dysphoria
Identity shifts during pregnancy
Fear around medical systems
Family or social dynamics
The intersection of gender and parenthood
This work is grounded in respect, collaboration, and the understanding that there is no singular way to experience parenthood.
We can prepare for
navigating social and family dynamics
Queer family building can also bring unique social dynamics. Some families receive deep support from their communities, while others encounter misunderstanding or lack of recognition. Couples may need to think about how to introduce their family structure to schools, healthcare providers, extended family members, and their children over time.
Therapy can help individuals and couples navigate these conversations while maintaining a strong sense of family identity and shared purpose.
We’re here for you
Pregnancy After Loss, Infertility, or Reproductive Challenges
The path toward parenthood is not always linear.
For many individuals and couples, family building includes fertility treatments, pregnancy loss, difficult medical experiences, unsuccessful cycles, or uncertainty around whether parenthood will happen at all. These experiences can carry immense emotional weight while also feeling deeply isolating.
Therapy offers space to process:
Infertility and reproductive grief
Pregnancy after loss
Medical trauma connected to fertility or pregnancy
Decision fatigue during fertility treatment
Ambiguous grief and uncertainty
Emotional strain within partnerships
We understand that grief and hope often coexist in this process. Both deserve room to be acknowledged.
join our
queer family building support group
Planning to become a parent can be an exciting and deeply meaningful process, but it can also bring uncertainty, complex emotions, and complicated decisions. This 12-week therapy group offers a supportive space for LGBTQIA+ individuals and couples to connect with others navigating the same life stage from relatable positionality.
Together, we will explore the emotional, relational, and identity shifts that can arise during family building, including topics such as queer parenthood, navigating heteronormative systems, family of origin, decision fatigue, grief, and building supportive community.
This support group is open to LGBTQIA+ folks at any stage of the family-building journey, including those pursuing IVF or IUI, surrogacy, adoption, fostering, pregnancy, or those returning to the process after perinatal loss. Individuals and couples are welcome, including couples where one or more partners identify as LGBTQIA+.
Unlike many therapy groups, participants will have the option to stay connected after the group ends, creating the opportunity to build lasting community with other LGBTQIA+ families.
DETAILS
12-week closed group
Open to individuals & couples
Date & Time TBD
Group Leader: Emily Cappell-Schultze, LMSW
Group Supervisor: Dr. Corinne Lykins
Contact us to learn more or reserve a spot.
Parenthood Changes More Than Daily Life
Becoming a parent is not only a practical transition, it is also a psychological and relational one.
Pregnancy, fertility journeys, and early parenthood often surface deeper emotional experiences connected to identity, attachment, partnership, family history, and expectations about caregiving. Even experiences that are deeply wanted can feel emotionally complicated.
You may find yourself feeling:
Excited and overwhelmed at the same time
More emotionally reactive or anxious than usual
Disconnected from your body or identity
Grief around how life or relationships are changing
Fearful about the future or your ability to parent
Lonely, despite being surrounded by support
These experiences are more common than many people realize.
Therapy offers space to process them without shame or pressure to present parenthood as exclusively joyful.
a relational & depth-oriented approach
Our therapists work from a relational psychodynamic framework while integrating trauma-informed and evidence-based approaches for perinatal mental health.
We are interested not only in symptoms, but in the deeper emotional landscape beneath them.
This includes exploring:
Attachment history
Relationship dynamics
Family of origin experiences
Internalized expectations about parenting
Identity transformation during parenthood
The goal is not simply symptom management.
It is helping clients feel more connected to themselves, their relationships, and their evolving sense of identity during this transition.
Navigating Parenting in New York City
Pregnancy and parenting in New York City can come with unique pressures.
Many individuals and couples are balancing demanding careers, high living costs, limited nearby support systems, and the logistical complexities of childcare, fertility treatment, or medical care.
At the same time, the pace of the city often leaves little room to slow down emotionally. Therapy can become a space that moves differently. A space to pause, reflect, process, and feel supported while navigating these major transitions.
Whether you are seeking therapy for your perinatal support, help through fertility challenges, or support as a current parent, you do not have to carry these experiences alone.
Support for the Transition into Parenthood
Parenthood changes many things, including how you relate to yourself. Therapy offers space to stay connected to your emotional world while navigating the realities of pregnancy, fertility, loss, postpartum experiences, and caregiving.
Whether you are in the planning stages of building a family, struggling through fertility challenges, navigating pregnancy after loss, or adjusting to life with a new child, support can make this transition feel less isolating.
You do not have to move through it alone.
beginning therapy
You do not need to wait until things feel unbearable before seeking support.
Many clients begin perinatal or parental therapy simply because they want a space to think, process, and navigate change with more intention and support.
Early sessions focus on understanding your current experiences, relationships, emotional patterns, and goals for therapy. From there, the work unfolds collaboratively and at a pace that feels manageable.