Pregnancy therapy
When pregnancy brings more anxiety than joy, you deserve support that goes deeper than surface solutions
Pregnancy therapy at Thriving California addresses the profound emotional transformation that extends far beyond physical changes. If you're experiencing pregnancy anxiety, relationship challenges, or feeling emotionally overwhelmed as you prepare for parenthood, our doctoral-level clinicians are here to help.
Pregnancy therapy with our specialized team is available to expectant parents throughout Napa, Lafayette, Thousand Oaks, and all of California via telehealth. We provide depth-oriented support that helps you understand and navigate this pivotal life transition with greater clarity, connection, and confidence.
Understanding Pregnancy Anxiety and Emotional Challenges
While society often portrays pregnancy as a time of pure joy, the reality is far more complex. Many expectant parents experience:
Constant worry about baby's health and development
Fear of labor and delivery, especially for first-time parents
Relationship strain as dynamics shift and communication patterns change
Identity questions about who you'll become as a parent
Unresolved past experiences that surface during pregnancy
Ambivalence about the life changes ahead
These feelings don't mean something is wrong with you. Rather, they reflect the magnitude of the psychological transition you're navigating. Pregnancy therapy provides a judgment-free space to explore these emotions and understand the deeper patterns contributing to your distress.
Our Approach to Pregnancy Therapy
At Thriving California, we take a depth-oriented approach that recognizes becoming a parent is one of life's most significant psychological transitions. Rather than simply managing symptoms, our psychodynamic therapy and relational therapy approaches help you understand the underlying patterns, conflicts, and histories shaping your pregnancy experience.
Exploring the Roots of Your Experience
Our therapists help you understand how current emotional experiences often connect to earlier relationships and life experiences. During pregnancy, these connections can become particularly vivid. You might notice that fears about being a parent echo concerns from your own childhood, or that anxiety about birth relates to deeper questions about control, safety, or trust.
This exploratory process allows you to develop greater self-awareness and insight. Understanding the roots of your anxiety or ambivalence often naturally reduces their intensity and helps you respond with more compassion and wisdom.
The Power of the Therapeutic Relationship
In relational therapy, the connection between you and your therapist becomes a powerful vehicle for healing and growth. Our clinicians work to establish a strong therapeutic relationship where you feel truly seen, understood, and accepted—a space where all emotions are welcome and you don't need to perform positivity or hide your fears.
This relational holding can be particularly valuable during pregnancy when you may feel pressure to maintain a certain emotional presentation for partners, family members, or friends.
Holding Space for Complexity
Pregnancy naturally brings ambivalence—you can simultaneously feel excited and terrified, grateful and resentful, connected and distant. Rather than treating these contradictions as problems to solve, we help you tolerate and explore this complexity. This capacity to hold multiple truths at once is excellent preparation for parenthood, which is filled with contradictory emotions and competing demands.
Couples Therapy During Pregnancy
Pregnancy affects relationships in profound ways. Many couples notice that pregnancy amplifies existing relationship patterns while introducing new dynamics. You and your partner might process the pregnancy at different paces, struggle with communication about parenting expectations, or feel your emotional intimacy diminishing despite this supposedly shared experience.
Our approach to couples therapy, informed by Gottman principles, helps partners:
Strengthen communication so you can articulate needs, fears, and expectations in ways your partner can truly hear
Understand reactive patterns and recognize where strong emotional responses originate
Build connection despite the stress and change that pregnancy brings
Navigate differences in how you approach pregnancy and parenting with curiosity and respect
We work with couples to reflect back dynamics that may be keeping you stuck and help you communicate effectively as you prepare to become parents together. Most couples at our practice complete their treatment goals within a year or so, establishing relational patterns that continue supporting your partnership long after therapy ends.
Internal Family Systems Therapy for Expectant Parents
Some expectant parents find Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy particularly helpful during pregnancy. This approach recognizes that we all have different "parts" of ourselves with potentially conflicting feelings or needs. Perhaps one part feels excited about becoming a parent while another part feels terrified, or one part wants to focus on preparing for the baby while another part resists the upcoming changes.
IFS therapy helps you develop a compassionate relationship with all of these parts rather than fighting against or suppressing the uncomfortable ones. This internal acceptance and integration can significantly reduce anxiety and help you move through pregnancy with greater internal harmony.
Specialized Support for Parents of Young Children
If you already have young children and are pregnant again, you're navigating additional complexity. You might worry about how your existing child will adjust to a sibling, feel guilty about disrupting your current family dynamic, or struggle with exhaustion as you manage pregnancy demands while caring for young children.
Our therapists have specialized expertise working with parents of young children, understanding the particular pressures and joys of this life stage. We help you navigate the emotional complexity of expanding your family while continuing to meet the needs of your existing children.
What to Expect in Therapy
Getting Started
Most expectant parents begin by booking a free 20-minute consultation through our Calendly system. During this conversation, we learn about what you're looking for and determine whether we're a good fit for your needs. There's no pressure to commit—we want to understand your concerns, answer questions about our approach, and discuss logistics like session times and fees.
If we're not the best fit, we're happy to provide referrals. If we are a good match, we'll schedule your first session. Some expectant parents prefer to skip the consultation and start therapy directly, which is completely fine. Our intake paperwork is intentionally brief and straightforward.
The Therapeutic Process
We take time in the initial few sessions to truly understand your experience. We don't rush into interventions or prescribe immediate solutions. Instead, we gather information, listen deeply, and begin building the therapeutic relationship that will support your growth.
Once care is established, most expectant parents meet with their therapist weekly, though frequency can be adjusted based on your needs. Each session lasts 50 minutes and provides dedicated time to explore whatever feels most pressing or relevant for you. Your therapist will follow your lead regarding what to focus on—sometimes immediate pregnancy concerns, other times deeper questions about your childhood, relationship patterns, or emotions that have surfaced.
Beyond Symptom Management: Preparing for Parenthood
Pregnancy therapy isn't just about feeling better during these nine months—it's about developing the psychological flexibility, self-awareness, and relational capacity that will serve you throughout parenthood. Through therapy, you develop the ability to reflect on your own experience rather than simply react to it, understand intergenerational patterns you want to continue or interrupt, and strengthen your relationship foundation before the intense demands of early parenthood arrive.
By addressing pregnancy anxiety, relationship concerns, or unresolved emotional patterns now, you're creating conditions for healthier attachment and more secure family relationships after your baby arrives.
Accessible Support Throughout California
Whether you're located near our practice in Napa, Lafayette, or Thousand Oaks, or anywhere throughout California, our team offers accessible support during your pregnancy. We provide comprehensive telehealth services that allow you to attend sessions from the comfort and privacy of your home.
Take the Next Step
If you're experiencing pregnancy anxiety, struggling in your relationship, or simply feeling unprepared for the emotional demands of becoming a parent, we invite you to reach out. Our doctoral-level clinicians bring both extensive training and authentic presence to the therapeutic relationship, creating space for the kind of deep work that leads to lasting change.
You don't have to navigate this journey alone. To learn more about our approach, discuss fees and scheduling, or to book your free 20-minute consultation, visit us at www.thrivingca.com.
Located in:
Napa, CA
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Pregnancy therapy is specialized mental health support for expectant parents navigating the emotional complexities of pregnancy. Our approach uses psychodynamic therapy and relational therapy to help you understand pregnancy anxiety, relationship challenges, identity shifts, and unresolved patterns that may surface during this transformative time. Rather than just managing symptoms, we help you develop deeper self-awareness and emotional resilience that will serve you throughout parenthood.
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We offer pregnancy therapy for both individuals and couples. Many expectant parents work with us individually to process their own anxiety and prepare emotionally for parenthood, while couples come to therapy to strengthen their relationship, improve communication, and address dynamics that pregnancy has amplified. Our approach, informed by Gottman principles, helps partners understand each other more deeply and build a stronger foundation before the baby arrives.
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Pregnancy therapy recognizes that expecting a child initiates a profound psychological transition that goes beyond everyday stress. Our clinicians understand the specific emotional landscape of pregnancy, including how it can surface family-of-origin patterns, trigger identity questions, and shift relationship dynamics. We also understand the physical and hormonal realities of pregnancy and how they intersect with emotional wellbeing. This specialized focus allows us to provide more targeted and effective support during this unique life stage.
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At Thriving California, we primarily use psychodynamic therapy and relational therapy approaches for pregnancy work. These depth-oriented methods help you explore the underlying patterns and histories shaping your pregnancy experience. For some expectant parents, we also use Internal Family Systems therapy to help navigate conflicting feelings about becoming a parent. Our approach is personalized to your specific needs rather than following a one-size-fits-all protocol.
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The duration of pregnancy therapy varies based on your individual needs and goals. Many expectant parents work with us throughout their pregnancy and sometimes into the postpartum period, typically meeting weekly. For couples, most complete their treatment goals within a year or so. We hold goals in mind while maintaining flexibility, as what you initially come in for and what you really want to work on often shifts as therapy progresses.
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We offer comprehensive telehealth services throughout California, which means you can attend therapy sessions from the comfort and privacy of your home. This is particularly helpful during pregnancy when travel can be challenging. Whether you're in Napa, Lafayette, Thousand Oaks, or anywhere else in California, you can access our pregnancy therapy services via secure video sessions.
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We work with out-of-network benefits only. This means we can provide documentation for you to submit to your insurance company for potential reimbursement, but we are not in-network providers. We encourage you to reach out to discuss fees and explore what your out-of-network benefits might cover.
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In your first session, we focus on getting to know you and understanding your experience. We gather information about what's bringing you to therapy, learn about your background and current situation, and begin building the therapeutic relationship. There's no lengthy assessment process or extensive paperwork. We use the initial few sessions to determine if we're a good fit and to understand what feels most important for you to address in therapy.
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Absolutely. Individual pregnancy therapy can be incredibly valuable even if your partner isn't ready for couples work. Working on your own emotional wellbeing, understanding your patterns and reactions, and developing greater self-awareness often naturally improves your relationship dynamics. Many expectant parents find that changes they make in individual therapy positively affect their partnership, and sometimes partners become more interested in couples therapy after seeing the benefits of individual work.
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Getting started is straightforward. Most expectant parents book a free 20-minute consultation through our Calendly system where we learn about what you're looking for and determine if we're a good fit. During this conversation, we discuss logistics like session times and fees, and answer any questions you have about our approach. If you prefer to skip the consultation, you can book directly into a first session. Visit www.thrivingca.com to schedule your consultation or reach out with any questions.