The Postpartum Stress Center

04/25/2026

TW: "Therapists who specialize in the treatment of perinatal depression and anxiety are both challenged and honored to accompany a postpartum woman as she teeters on this precipice between her struggle to get through the day and her intermittent wish to give up.

Sometimes, releasing her grip and plunging into the abyss sounds tempting to her and su***de can feel like a better option than suffering.

𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡.

Surely, responding to that misguided lure is by far our most urgent call to action, but day to day, our job is to convince her that the journey back to her 𝑆𝑒𝑙𝑓 is well worth the unimaginable effort.

She wants to go '𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑒'. We wants to feel safe. She wants to be well and be far from anything, anyone, and any place that pathologizes her current state.

She wants to return to her previous self.
Before the baby.
Or, with the baby,
or, without the baby.

She’s not sure what she wants."

04/25/2026

Resources for support -
For you and your provider/therapist/partner -

📕GOOD MOMS Have Scary Thoughts
📙Dropping the Baby and Other Scary Thoughts

04/24/2026

The Art of Holding Perinatal Women in Distress™
For perinatal therapists in pursuit of clinical excellence

✨Train with us.✨

Elevate your clinical expertise and experience.
www.postpartumstress.com

04/23/2026

What are YOUR go to resources to help you feel better? 😉

04/22/2026

🌸Karen R can help you feel like yourself again.
🌸If you don't like the way you are feeling, we are here.
www.postpartumstress.com

04/20/2026

🦋This training is a special date, being offered on a THURSDAY and FRIDAY for those who cannot make a Saturday training date.
🦋Space is limited

For perinatal therapists in search of clinical excellence
www.postpartumstress.com/registration

04/19/2026

I’ve come to believe that who you are shows up early.
Not fully formed, not refined
but there you are.

And in this work, that matters.
Who you bring into the room is part of how healing happens.
How you listen. How you stay. How you make room for someone else’s story - and their suffering.

It’s not just what you know.
It’s who you are.
And then, we don't overwrite that.
We shape it.

Through expert training in reflective capacity, emotional attunement, and the disciplined cultivation of clinical presence.

This is The Art of Holding.

"𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔,
𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒅𝒐𝒎 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘
𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆."
— Karen Kleiman

04/19/2026

You may be experiencing symptoms: intrusive thoughts, anxiety, sadness, exhaustion - and still be functioning in meaningful ways without realizing it.

Distress does not erase your abilities, your judgment, or your capacity to care for yourself or others.

People often equate feeling unwell with being incapable. BUT when symptoms are present, they are not the full story of who you are or what you can do.

Do not underestimate your resilience. Hard days can narrow your perspective and make your strengths harder to access or trust.

But your capacity to endure, adapt, and move through difficulty is often greater than it feels in the moment. Progress is not the absence of struggle - it is moving forward, even while the struggle is there.

04/16/2026

🦋🌒 IYKYK
Clients are talking about how hard things feel.
Anxiety abounds. Despair is setting in.

When I dig in to find words of comfort amidst immeasurable and understandable hopelessness, I think of my mother.

When the world feels dark and unmanageable, my mother reminds me to find the joy, an instruction that always feels incompatible with the weight of enduring suffering.
When I would protest that this felt dismissive, that I should instead, suffer alongside the Universe, she replied:

“𝐴𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑓𝑖 𝑃𝑖𝑟 𝑉𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑡 𝐼𝑛𝑎𝑦𝑎𝑡 𝐾ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑:
‘𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒎𝒐𝒔. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒋𝒐𝒚, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇-𝒑𝒊𝒕𝒚.’

𝐾𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛, she continued, 𝑤𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑡, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑤𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝑖𝑡. 𝑆𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙, 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑐𝑘. 𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒, 𝑤𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑗𝑜𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑢𝑠, 𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤, 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑒𝑟ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠, 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓-𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑦.”

It is can be intuitive to sink into self-pity when the world feels dark and menacing.
It feels “natural” to identify with the pain of the cosmos when the shadow of life events overwhelm any joy that is within reach.
It can feel normal to succumb to defeat.
And still, in the words of my mother, it remains our holiest of tasks, to not surrender to that temptation.
Instead, we must honor the privilege of our life by finding the joy, no matter how hard, no matter how faint, and capture those bits of relief -
feel it, experience it, appreciate it, share it.
Because without joyfulness to offset the darkness, we lose our footing.
Those of us who are fortunate enough, focused and motivated enough to try –
We must find the joy.
Look for it. Scan your mind. Access your most sincere intention and desire for respite.
Find the butterfly.
Hold on to it.
Do your best to share it.
When we do that
we make the world around us just a little lighter.
And our soul lifts.

______________

And then, there's this:

"We live on a fragile planet in the vacuum and the void of space… And our purpose on the planet as humans is to find joy, to find the joy in lifting each other up, by creating solutions together instead of destroying."
— 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗝𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗺𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗻, 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗔𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝗜 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁.

04/14/2026