Women's Mental
Health & Identity
Competence isn't the same as wellbeing.
Many of the women I work with are genuinely good at taking care of other people, and often enjoy doing so. But they are also exhausted by this specific type of labor and love in ways they cannot always explain, and wouldn't necessarily admit.
A lot of the patterns underneath that exhaustion made sense once. They were adaptive — in a family of origin, in an earlier relationship, in a phase of life that called for a different version of self. What brings women into this work is more often a mismatch rather than a crisis: the person they became to manage one chapter of life, meeting the different demands of another.
The work isn't about "doing less" or pulling away from the people you love. Rather, it's about understanding what's sustainable and exploring what it would feel like to be present in your life rather than just managing it.
I work with women navigating a wide range of experiences: anxiety and depression that's been managed rather than addressed; relationship patterns that keep repeating across different contexts; the exhaustion of being the person everyone else relies on; and the identity shifts inherent in major transitions — becoming a parent, losing a role that defined you, a relationship ending or changing shape.
A lot of this work is relational and exploratory. We'll look at where your patterns come from, what they've protected you from, and what renegotiating those patterns might look like. I draw on modern psychodynamic approaches, CBT, and ACT for building practical skills, and EMDR where past experiences are still running the show in the present.
You don't have to be in crisis for this kind of work. You just have to be tired of living at the surface of your own life.
What you can expect:
Understand the patterns underneath the exhaustion, rather than just managing symptoms
Relational, exploratory work that goes beyond what you present on the outside
A space to renegotiate who you are across different chapters of your life
FAQ
1. Is this therapy specifically for women?
Yes — not because men don't face similar pressures, but because the specific intersection of cultural expectations, relational dynamics, and biological transitions that shape women's mental health calls for a focused approach. The women I work with aren't looking for generic therapy repackaged with different language. They're looking for someone who understands the territory.
2. I'm functioning well. Do I really need therapy?
Functioning well and being well aren't the same thing — and a lot of the women I work with have been managing the gap between those two things for a long time. Therapy isn't reserved for crisis. It's for anyone who's tired of the distance between how their life looks and how it feels.
3. What if I'm going through a major life transition and not sure what I need?
That uncertainty is often the right place to start. Major transitions — becoming a parent, a relationship ending or changing, a career shift, an identity that no longer fits — tend to surface things that were manageable before and aren't anymore. You don't need to arrive with a clear presenting problem. The transition itself is enough.
4. Why do relationship patterns keep showing up no matter what I do?
Because most patterns didn't start in your current relationships — they started earlier, in contexts where they made sense and served a purpose. Understanding where a pattern came from, what it's been protecting you from, and what it costs you now is different from just trying to behave differently. The behavior usually follows the understanding, not the other way around.
5. I give a lot to other people. Is therapy just going to tell me to give less?
No. The goal isn't to become less generous or less present for the people you love. It's to understand what's sustainable, what's genuinely chosen versus habitual, and what it would feel like to show up to your relationships from a place of fullness rather than depletion. Most people find that the relationships get better, not smaller.
Additional Resources
A few places to learn more between sessions, or if you're not ready to reach out yet.
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Mental Health America: Articles and resources on navigating career, caregiving, and identity across life stages
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NIMH - Women and Mental Health: Federal research summary on how mental health conditions present differently in women