A Client’s Perspective: Thoughts from your Therapist Palm Desert

A former client recently reconnected to share with me how thankful she was that we were able to work together in her postpartum season. With her permission, I am sharing parts of our conversation in this blog.

“Reach out now, make a relationship with a therapist now so when/if postpartum depression happens, you have already engaged and created a relationship with someone who knows how you were before you had your baby.”

In reflecting on what was helpful for this client, she commented that she did not spend as much time considering what HER experience might be like after becoming a mother, and instead focused on what she thought her BABY would need, particularly things like furniture and clothing and nursery decorations. She said by the time she was willing to accept that something was wrong, that she was struggling in her postpartum time more than the average person, she was already about three months postpartum. Once she could muster enough energy to reach out to her insurance company for a list of providers, a few more weeks had already passed. As she began making the phone calls, almost every practitioner had a wait list of almost three months. “I couldn’t wait that long,” she says, “I was drowning.”

Instead, she reached out to Postpartum Support International who gave her my name as well as a few additional names of therapists who specialize in Maternal Mental Health. We worked together weekly until her symptoms improved enough to where she felt ready to decrease session frequency to every other week, until we ultimately said goodbye together in a planned and scheduled way.

When I asked this former client what she would share with a friend about her experience, she told me she is already telling her friends to interview and get established with a therapist who specializes in Maternal Mental Health whether they are considering a pregnancy or already pregnant. “I tell anyone who will listen, ‘Reach out now, make a relationship with a therapist now so when/if postpartum depression happens, you have already engaged and created a relationship with someone who knows how you were before you had your baby. Work with someone who can help you with your specific mental health situation, start to heal from your own childhood so you can be the parent you want to be to that baby. I didn’t know all that I didn’t know and in hindsight I spent too much time focusing on the things for the baby instead of working on myself and getting a better understanding of what I would need to heal and who I would go to for help. I know that now, and I will be back when I get pregnant again.’”

I found this client’s comments on what she gained from her postpartum therapy to be very insightful and wanted to share them here so that any readers who are wondering if therapy can help them, or questioning if it’s worth the time and financial commitment, might gain some perspective from this client’s situation. You are not alone and with the proper treatment, you will get better.

Therapist Palm Desert Lauren Fox, LCSW.

I hope this blog on a client’s perspective was helpful for you. If you are wanting more support for yourself in your motherhood journey, reach out to me! We can schedule a 15 minute phone consultation to discuss what is happening for you and explore if more individualized mental health support could be beneficial for you. I would be happy to help get you connected. Feel free to call me at 805-930-9355 for a free 15 minute phone consultation. If you are looking for help with pregnancy, postpartum, pregnancy loss, infertility, birth trauma or hypnotherapy, you can read more about how I can help within this website.

Serving the Coachella Valley and surrounding areas, including: Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, Thousand Palms, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Indio, Bermuda Dunes, Coachella, Thermal, Mecca, Desert Hot Springs, Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree and virtually across the state of California.

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