Specialized perinatal therapy rooted in lived experience and deep kindness
For mothers and those who care for others, who need care, too.
Warm, holistic, collaborative support for mothers, gestational parents, caregivers, and perinatal care providers. Through pregnancy, fertility struggles, loss, the postpartum years, and beyond.
Especially when anxiety shows up as a busy mind and a buzzing body, and you're not quite feeling like yourself.
Virtual perinatal and postpartum therapy for clients located in Washington State during sessions
Seasonal perinatal process circles in Poulsbo, Bainbridge Island, Silverdale, Bremerton, and across Kitsap County: short series with themes that shift with what I'm hearing local moms need
Maiden to Mother: Matrescence Mini Retreats in Kitsap County and Seattle
Consulting for perinatal care providers across Washington, where the personal and professional meet
You're drained. Oversaturated. Touched out.
You love your people fiercely, and you also can't remember the last time you finished a thought, a meal, or a cup of coffee while it was hot. Most days you're scattered in a hundred directions and depleted before lunch. You're holding everyone else together and quietly wondering who's holding you.
Here's the reality: the needs never stop, including yours. What you get to choose is what you do with them.
Come as you are. Frazzled counts. You don't have to smile through it or explain it away. You deserve a place to land, and a few people who get it.
Support isn't a luxury. It's part of how mothers and caregivers were always meant to be held.
Why this space exists
For every mama and caregiver who's lost track of themselves between the diapers and the dishes.
I created Thresholds because I know what it’s like to feel a little lost in this season. To catch your reflection and not quite recognize yourself. To love your little ones wildly and still grieve who you used to be. Joy, exhaustion, and confusion, often in the same breath.
This space is for you if…
You scroll past the highlight reels and wonder if you're doing it wrong.
You're “supposed to” cherish every moment, but you quietly miss the old you.
You lie awake replaying the day, or can't sleep for the worry.
You feel alone and are craving support that's validating and empowering.
You're not alone, and you don't have to hold it all by yourself.
Let this be a soft landing: a place to explore the messy, tender, transformative season of becoming a parent, together.
Welcome! I’m Michelle
A mom in the trenches and a certified perinatal therapist.
I'm a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) with a Perinatal Mental Health Certification (PMH-C) and advanced training through Postpartum Support International. I'm also a mom of two young kids, so I know the mixed feelings of motherhood firsthand.
I've been on both sides of connection: deeply supported, and pulling teeth (yes, even asking my hair stylist) to find support after moving to a smaller county. That's why I do this work.
My approach
Warm, collaborative, and actually useful.
Therapy with me isn't me nodding along while you talk into the void. It's warm and collaborative, and it's also focused. We'll get curious together and name what's really going on.
I bring integrative, holistic, trauma-informed care, a relational and somatic lens, honesty, and a good dose of humor. You bring yourself, however frazzled. We'll figure out the rest together.
I don't offer advice or homework. I help you hear yourself think, and hear the echoes of your more grounded self: the part of you that holds what matters most, more deeply and steadily than the call of the next nap.
“Part of our work is learning to parent yourself with even a fraction of the patience and gentleness you give your kids. That’s often where things start to shift.”
(And no, I'm not always the calm, patient mom I picture in my head, either. None of us are. We're all works in progress: you, me, and the little ones. The idea still holds.)
“Safety is not the absence of threat, it is the presence of connection.”
Therapy in the postpartum season
An intentional hour to sift through the swirl.
Therapy postpartum is an intentional time and space where we collaborate: sifting through the swirl inside you, finding your sea legs beneath you, and getting clear on the next step in front of you.
It's also an hour you get to chisel out just for you, with your partner, a grandparent, a friend, or a sitter covering the kids so you can actually be here.
Not postpartum right now? If you're trying to conceive or adopt, are pregnant, grieving a loss, or caring for others in another way, this hour is for you, too!
Why we start with a 4-session trial
In my experience, moms and caregivers are resourceful and scrappy when something makes a difference. The catch: we don't know what will make a difference until we risk trying it, and then notice the effects in the moment, and in the minutes, days, and weeks after.
The trial gives us both a chance to decide whether this feels enough like something that could increasingly meet a need for you in this season.
In our fourth session, we'll reflect together on what you're drawn toward for support. If it's not me, I'd love to help you get connected with options that fit better. It won't hurt my feelings. I'm not for everybody in every season.
Clinical expertise
Where I can help
Intentional, personalized, holistic support for the seasons that change us most.
01
Perinatal & parenthood support
From fertility challenges and pregnancy loss to perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, a traumatic birth or medical complications, parenting a child with additional support needs, and the identity shifts of early parenting and when postpartum supports end. This is the heart of my work.
Fertility & loss · PMADs · Birth trauma · Matrescence · Early parenting
02
Emotional wellness & life transitions
Anxiety, overthinking, depression, and burnout, especially when big changes pile up: a new baby, a move, going back to work, or a family that looks different than you pictured.
Anxiety · Overthinking · Depression · Burnout · Big life changes
03
Trauma healing & resilience
Old wounds, grief, and a nervous system stuck on high alert. We go at a pace that feels safe, focused on healing rather than reliving.
Past trauma · Grief · Nervous system regulation · Resilience
04
Identity, self-compassion & growth
Interrupting shame spirals, trading the inner critic for self-compassion, building sustainable habits, and clarifying your values so you can live and parent on purpose.
Shame · Self-compassion · Values · Sustainable habits
Offerings
Support for this season, in the shape you need.
Individual Psychotherapy
Virtual, relational psychotherapy anywhere in Washington, for moms, gestational parents, and caregivers who are considering, pursuing, grieving, or juggling parenthood, or working with those who do.
Perinatal Process Circles
Small, facilitated circles for local moms and caregivers, from backyard Mugs w/ Moms evenings to Baby and Me touch-points, shaped by what the community needs. Connection built gradually, one hat at a time.
Matrescence Mini Retreats
An afternoon of meditation, gentle movement, journaling, and community to honor who you're becoming. Leave a little more like yourself.
Consultations for Providers
For the circles of care around growing families. Co-facilitate a workshop or series through the Empowerment Pod, get consultation for your perinatal work, or find support through your own leave and return.
Perinatal & postpartum therapy
What is perinatal therapy, anyway?
It's therapy built for mothers and gestational parents (and their partners) in the season of becoming a parent: trying to conceive, pregnancy, loss, birth, postpartum, and the early years. It's not generic talk therapy with a baby in the background. It's care that understands exactly how much is changing, all at once.
Together, we might explore:
Recognizing perinatal mood and anxiety symptoms
Preparing to tend to yourself through the hardest hours
Identity shifts and “who am I now?”
Anxiety, surprising thoughts, and overthinking
Processing a birth that still feels heavy
Bonding and attachment with your baby
Changes in your partnership and family
Grief, loss, and mixed feelings
Know the signs
What is a PMAD?
PMAD stands for perinatal mood and anxiety disorder. It's an umbrella term for the mental health conditions that can show up during pregnancy and in the year or more after birth, including depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and postpartum psychosis.
PMADs can happen to anyone, with or without a history of mental health struggles. They're common, they're not your fault, and with the right support, they're treatable. They're also real health conditions that deserve real attention, not a “just tired” shrug.
I'm a generalist across the full range of PMADs, with a special focus on perinatal anxiety. My heart is with mothers and caregivers who lean more anxious, and who remember when their capacity felt more in line with what they imagined for themselves. Attuned, caring, and effective caregivers often run vigilant. That vigilance can still be a superpower when it's well cared for and well rested. Together, we'll honor and use what's helpful in it, and regulate what no longer serves you.
1 in 5
moms and dads report depression and/or anxiety symptoms in the first year postpartum, and that's likely an undercount.
If you're seeing or hearing things others don't, feel confused or paranoid, or have thoughts of harming yourself or your baby, this is a medical emergency.
Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. You can also call or text 988.
Is this you?
You may benefit from this work if you…
✓ Feel depleted, scattered, or oversaturated, and are quietly burning out
✓ Feel it in your body: panic, racing heart, dissociation, or being touched out and overstimulated
✓ Feel rage that scares you, or guilt that won't let up
✓ Miss who you were, and don't yet know who you're becoming
✓ Notice PMAD symptoms, or just feel “off” and can't name why
✓ Can't turn off the worry, the what-ifs, or the overthinking
✓ Feel numb, flat, teary, or disconnected from the joy you expected
✓ Feel old trauma stirring since pregnancy or birth
✓ Notice yourself reaching for ways of coping you don't love, ones that echo your family of origin or how you were mothered, and want to gently tease out the trauma and burden while keeping the wisdom and care to carry forward
Inside the room
What happens in a perinatal session?
No two sessions are the same, but here's the general shape, so you know what to expect.
01:
Ground.
We start with a few breaths or a simple grounding practice to help your nervous system settle.
02:
Check in.
“What, if anything, did you notice during that grounding?” We tune in to you, body and mind, and review any symptoms.
03:
Focus.
“What's alive in you today as you come?” We name what matters most and work toward the goals you choose.
04:
Process.
Making sense of what comes up, with mindful, somatic, and relational work that fits your real life.
05:
Connect.
If you need more support, like medication or a lactation consultant, I'll help you find it.
Parenthood and trauma
When becoming a mother or parent stirs up old wounds
Pregnancy and early parenthood can wake up things you thought were long settled. Shifting hormones, broken sleep, and round-the-clock caregiving can activate old trauma responses, especially if you've always been the one on high alert.
Together we can notice your triggers, gently interrupt the reactions you learned to survive, and build skills to help your nervous system feel safer. It's how the hard things you inherited don't have to be the things you pass on.
This is a season for receiving.
“There are seasons of giving, and there are seasons of receiving. [...] This is your season to receive; there will be opportunities later for you to give.”
Motherhood and parenthood ask us to give constantly, but this isn't the time to do more. Showing up just as you are, with whatever vulnerability you can bring, is what makes room to breathe, be nourished, and come back to yourself.
Questions you might have
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Perinatal and parenthood support, anxiety and burnout, trauma healing, and identity and self-compassion, especially for mothers and gestational parents in matrescence. My training and background also root me in family-of-origin work: making meaning of what surfaces from your own upbringing and how you were mothered, as you build your own family and decide what you'll carry forward and where you'll lovingly do things differently.
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Yes. Individual therapy is virtual, on a secure, HIPAA-compliant platform, for anyone located in Washington State.
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Process circles meet in person in Kitsap County. Matrescence Mini Retreats meet in person in Kitsap County or the greater Seattle area.
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I'm a private pay practice, out-of-network with all insurance companies. Through Thrizer, you can check your out-of-network benefits in about a minute, and eligible claims are submitted for you. I also hold a limited number of sliding scale spots, which we revisit together once a year. Just ask about availability.
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Weekly to start, during the 4-session trial. After that, we schedule as you go, at a rhythm that fits your needs and your intentions for therapy.
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It depends on you. Some moms and caregivers come for a season; others stay longer. We'll check in regularly about what's helpful.
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You don't need a crisis or a diagnosis. Wanting to feel more like yourself is reason enough!
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Most circles and retreats are kid-free on purpose. I know arranging childcare can be tricky! But a kid-free room, where your nervous system can step out of vigilant caregiving mode and be "off" for a while, gives you and the whole group real mental, emotional, physical, and sensory space. It's usually worth the effort. If a circle welcomes little ones, it'll say so. Not sure? Please ask!
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A free 20-minute video chat to ask questions, get a feel for me, and talk logistics. No pressure, just clarity.
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Book a free clarity call, and we'll take it from there. See How to Get Started.
Support beyond these pages
Be informed
Find a certified provider
Look for a PMH-C, a perinatal mental health certification. Washington’s chapter of Postpartum Support International (“PSI”), Perinatal Support Washington (“PSW"), keeps a directory of trained providers and gets your connected with qualified providers through the Warm Line.
Get support
Join a free support group
PSI offers free online support groups for many experiences: pregnancy, loss, NICU parents, dads, and more.
You matter
Talk to someone today
National Maternal Mental Health Hotline, 24/7: 1-833-TLC-MAMA (1-833-852-6262).
PSI HelpLine: 1-800-944-4773 (call or text).
What I believe
Room for the little & big, messy, awe-inspiring moments.
More than one thing can be true.
Motherhood and parenthood hold all the joy and all the heartache and struggle, rolled into one, sometimes in the same hour. You don't have to pick a single feeling to be allowed to have it.
Becoming a parent transforms us.
It doesn't just stretch us. It invites us into becoming, sometimes in ways we never asked for. It asks us to revisit our own stories, reclaim our voices, and become again, and again, and again.
Healing happens in connection.
My work is grounded in relationship and co-creation. When you feel seen, safe, and empowered, things start to shift, whether you're in the newborn fog, grieving a loss, moving through an identity shift, or simply longing for more ease.
Most of all, I believe in your wholeness, even when things feel broken.
When you're lost in the dark, sometimes it takes someone outside of you to reflect back the quiet spark that's still there. I'd love to be that for you, for a while.
Welcome. You belong here.
A note from me
Dear mama —
(and every caregiver reading this),
If you've read this far, some part of you is looking for support. I want you to know that reaching out takes courage, and it's also completely ordinary. Mothers and caregivers were never meant to do this alone.
This work grew out of my own becoming. I've had my own journey to and in motherhood, and it holds this truth: becoming a mother, in all its layers and all its ongoing-ness, is not simple. I'll stay in the real-life stuff with you, the loving it and the hating it, in different ways at different times, and all the other layers no one told you about after “Aren't they so cute?!”
I know how lonely it can get when we don't have a safe space to share the feelings we aren't proud of, the ones that scare us, feel ugly, or contradict each other. The difference is that you notice that complexity is there, and you want something for yourself in it. We can work with that. The first step is noticing, and you're already there.
So consider this a “me too,” and a virtual cup of tea held out to you. My hope is that here you'll find pockets of peace, a balm for the places that ache, a rediscovery of what brings you life, and more than anything, that you'll feel a little less alone.
Come as you are: tired, tender, curious, hopeful, or at your wit's end. We'll hold the hurting parts gently and go looking for the joy together. Whatever brings you here, I'd be honored to walk with you as you come to understand yourself more deeply and come home to yourself.
With so much warmth,
