Dr. Cassidy Freitas, LMFT

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Dr. Cassidy Freitas, LMFT

Dr. Cassidy Freitas | Holding Space for Parents Welcome! I'm Dr. Cassidy, a licensed therapist based in San Diego offering teletherapy in California.

I'm passionate about supporting parents from pregnancy, postpartum and beyond. I host the top rated podcast Holding Space and offer digital courses and workshops for expecting and postpartum parents. In addition to my work with parents, I founded Modern Therapist Academy and offer personalized coaching for therapists in private practice.

11/15/2025

If you’ve ever thought regulation means staying perfectly calm all the time…you’re not alone. But the truth is, nervous system regulation doesn’t mean suppressing your emotions...it means knowing how to come back to yourself when (not if) you get thrown off center.

Especially in parenting, regulation is often messy. It might look like:
•Taking a pause before reacting.
•Naming your limit with a deep breath.
•Making a repair after a hard moment.
•Offering yourself a little softness instead of shame.

These skills aren’t just for our kids. They’re for us, too. The more we understand our stress responses and what soothes us, the more access we have to the parent we want to be. Not perfect, but present.

Want more support? Episode 145 of the Holding Space Podcast explores what reactivity is really telling us and how to respond with compassion.

🎧 Listen wherever you stream, or comment “REGULATE” and I’ll DM you the episode link!

11/11/2025

We often say “I’m just tired” and sometimes, that’s exactly what it is.

But other times, that tiredness is carrying something deeper:

+ A need that hasn’t been named
+ An emotion that hasn’t been processed
+ A moment of margin that hasn’t been made

This isn’t about overanalyzing every low-energy day, but it is about checking in with curiosity instead of criticism.

✨ What is your “tired” trying to tell you?
✨ Is there something you’re grateful for...and something you’re longing for?
✨ Who can you invite into that process?

11/06/2025

I wish I’d felt more prepared for my first postpartum, and not have all the learning happen in hindsight. Now, I want to feel more supported and aware for this next big hormonal, emotional, relational transition.

The symptoms show up in your mind, your mood, your body, your marriage, your parenting. And it can feel so destabilizing if you weren’t prepared, like postpartum all over again.

But preparation doesn’t mean control. It means naming what’s real, surrounding yourself with the right support, and creating rhythms that help you feel more connected to your body, your needs, and your people.

This recent episode on Holding Space episode was a personal one. I share how I’m preparing for perimenopause so far, what’s helping me, and what I wish more people were talking about.

💬 Comment PREPARE if you want me to DM you the episode link!

11/04/2025

The feeding journey can be so layered.
Love and grief. Pride and guilt. Joy and resentment.
Sometimes all at once.

Maybe you felt peace while pumping, and pain while nursing.

Maybe you never felt a bond at the bottle or the breast, and that scared you.

Maybe you grieved what you hoped feeding would be, and still feel unsure whether that grief is allowed.

These are the stories that often get left out of the conversation.

Whether your feeding journey was long, short, complicated, empowering, triggering, or something in between, it deserves to be named, held, and honored.

+ You can be grateful and still need support.
+ You can love your baby and still carry pain around how they were fed.
+ You’re not alone.

If this resonates, I recently shared a Holding Space Podcast episode with exploring the ways trauma, nervous system responses, and medical gaslighting can shape the breastfeeding experience, and what healing and body trust can look like in the aftermath.

💬 Comment “FEEDING” and I’ll DM you the link to the episode.

10/31/2025

Parenting through fall has a different rhythm.
The light shifts. The air changes. Routines wobble. We’re adjusting backpacks, bedtimes, expectations, and sometimes… identities.

And in the background, our nervous systems are still catching up.

This time of year often brings more doing, but what if it also offered an invitation to undo?

+ To let go of what’s no longer serving you
+ To rest without guilt
+ To be with the mess of transition
+ To trust that growth is happening, even when it’s quiet

You don’t have to do this perfectly. You just have to keep coming home to yourself.

✨ What is this season teaching you in parenting? What do you look forward to the most in the fall season as a parent and what do you look forward to the least?

10/29/2025

The truth is… parenting will humble you.

Not just in the messy moments, but in the quiet ones too...when you realize you’re holding yourself to impossible standards.

Let this be your gentle reminder:
Growth and grace can exist together.

You can be learning, healing, and still have moments you’re not proud of. You can want to do better and also honor how far you’ve come. You don’t have to earn rest. You don’t have to be perfect to be worthy of love, especially your own. 💛

Which one of these truths did you need to hear today?
Comment below or send this to a friend who could use the reminder.

10/26/2025

Parenting often means carrying roles that no one sees...feeling like it’s our job to be our child’s “therapist,” the nutritionist, the educator, the sleep strategist, the household coordinator. This invisible labor doesn’t just take time and energy, it impacts our nervous system.

And it’s not just that these roles exist...it’s that this era of parenting tells us we should be able to fill them all. Modern parents are swimming in advice, blogs, podcasts, and social media accounts that highlight the “right” ways to handle feeding, sleep, education, emotional development, and behavior. On one hand, more information means more tools and awareness than ever before! On the other hand, it creates a pressure cooker: a sense that if we miss a strategy, or don’t do it perfectly, our child will suffer.

This is the culture of intensive parenting - where being “good” at parenting doesn’t just mean loving and caring for your kids. It often feels like being on-call to meet every need, anticipate every challenge, optimize everything, and manage every outcome. That’s an impossible standard, and yet so many of us internalize it.

When we’re constantly switching between roles, fueled by the weight of “shoulds” and “musts,” our brains and bodies don’t get chances to rest. The result? Heightened reactivity, quicker overwhelm, and feeling like even small sounds, requests, or messes can tip us over the edge.

If you’ve felt this, you’re not failing...you’re human.

Your nervous system is working overtime, and it makes sense that it needs care, support, and space to recharge.

Which of these roles feels the loudest in your season right now? Can you relate to this feeling?

If you missed it, check out episode 145 of Holding Space: “Why Am I So Reactive?” or comment “Space” and I’ll send it over to you!

10/22/2025

Before becoming a parent (and therapist), I thought stress was just about being “busy.”

But parenthood showed me something different. That stress is also about the invisible load we carry and how much our nervous system can hold.

The constant decision-making.
The noise.
The worry.
The roles we never trained for.

Stress isn’t proof you’re failing... it’s your body signaling, “I need care.”

When we start to see stress as a message instead of a weakness, we can respond with compassion and support instead of guilt and shame.

What’s one thing you wish you had known about stress before becoming a parent?

10/20/2025

Millennial parents are navigating parenting in a world that looks and feels different than it did a generation ago.’

More information.
More visibility.
More emotional awareness.
And sometimes, more pressure.

Supporting today’s parents means helping them:
+ Understand their triggers
+ Communicate needs in partnership
+ Heal after birth trauma or loss
+ Reclaim parts of their identity
+ Respond thoughtfully in moments of stress
+ Set boundaries with more clarity and less guilt

Our therapists walk alongside parents who are learning to hold space for their kids, their relationships, and themselves.

Want to connect with a therapist who understands the real-life complexity of parenting today? Send us an email at the link in bio and we’ll connect you with the right fit!

10/17/2025

Postpartum taught me something I’ll never forget: when we aren’t prepared for a major transition, the silence around it can make us feel like we’re the problem.

Perimenopause is another one of those transitions. More than a chapter, it’s a whole season...one many of us weren’t taught to expect, let alone prepare for. Just like postpartum, the changes can stir up identity shifts, resurface old emotional patterns, and rattle even the strongest of support systems.

You might notice your brain feels different, your body changes overnight, or your patience runs thinner than it used to. There’s a reason behind it all, and you don’t have to carry it alone.

In this week’s episode of Holding Space Podcast, I share what perimenopause really looks like, how it connects to mental health, parenting, and partnership, and the tools that can support you through it—lessons I wish I’d had postpartum.

✨ Comment PREP and I’ll send you the link to Episode 148: Preparing for Perimenopause: Lessons from Postpartum.

Which slide hit home for you? Drop a 💛 if this left you feeling seen.

10/16/2025

Breastfeeding is often presented as a natural, beautiful bonding experience.

But for many of us…it was complicated. Tender. Overwhelming. Even traumatic.
I thought it was “just hormones.”

But in hindsight, those tears, that tension, the dread before a feed?

They were my nervous system asking for help.
They were stress responses, not personal failures.

If breastfeeding brought up more than you expected, if you ever froze or fawned through the early days, or felt dismissed by medical providers...you’re not alone. And you’re not broken.

Recently on the Holding Space Podcast, I sat down with to talk about the intersection of trauma, nervous system regulation, and the breastfeeding experience.

We talked about:
— What it means to freeze or fawn as a new parent
— Why some of us felt numb or disconnected during feeds
— How to rebuild trust in your body after trauma or gaslighting
— What real support looks like when you’re struggling with feeding

💬 Comment FEEDING and I’ll DM you the link to the episode.

You deserve support that holds the whole of your experience. 💛

10/06/2025

Anger is often louder than the need underneath it.
When something your partner does, or doesn’t do, sparks frustration, it’s easy to move straight into blame, shutdown, or sarcasm. But what if you paused first to listen?

Just long enough to ask: “What is this anger trying to tell me I need?”

Maybe it’s telling you:
•I need more partnership.
•I need to feel heard.
•I need to feel like we’re in this together.
•I need to feel safe when I share something hard.

Anger isn’t the enemy, it’s a clue. A margin moment in your relationship might begin with giving yourself permission to pause before reacting, and then finding a softer, clearer way to express what’s really beneath the surface - what really needs to be seen.

Margin doesn’t mean avoiding the hard stuff.
It means creating just enough space to approach it differently.

Address

San Diego, CA

Website

http://www.drcassidymft.com/

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