Strong moms struggle too.
We're just good at hiding it.
You've been the one everyone leans on.
Who do you lean on?
Therapy for the high-achieving mom who is finally exhausted by her own strength.
A space for BIPOC moms in the Bay Area and California who are done doing it alone.
Virtual therapy for women and moms in California.
Because I've seen what " being fine" and hiding it, actually looks like.
It looks like leading meetings and putting out fires at work. Then closing your office door and taking a moment to cry your eyes out. Having eyedrops to cover-up red vessels, and blaming your "congestion" on allergies.
It looks like still taking all the supplements. Still making the acupuncture appointments. Still showing up to every scan, every lab draw, every follow-up — not because anyone asked you to, but because if anything goes wrong, you need to know you did everything you could.
It looks like someone saying "just relax" — and you smiling and nodding while internally screaming (I see you, we've been doing this all our lives. Smiling through sadness and pain, nothing new).
It looks like checking on your mom while your baby is napping. And feeling guilty that you're not doing either one well enough.
Internal thoughts might sound like...
I should be happy. I've always wanted to be a mom.
You shouldn't be complaining. After all that you been through... you're finally going to have a baby.
I should have done more
This is what I wanted but I didn't think it would be like this.
Hi, I'm Cynthia!
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, specializing in perinatal mental health, and I help one kind of woman: the high-achieving mom who has always been the strong one.
I work specifically with later-in-life BIPOC moms in the Bay Area and California. Women who were taught early that achievement wasn't optional and that it was how you honored what came before you. Women who built careers, held their families together, and now find themselves shaken by a motherhood they thought they were prepared for.
I know this because I've lived it. The medical complications. Trying to feel like myself again without knowing how to get there. The loneliness of falling apart internally, while everyone tells you how well you're doing.
You don't have to explain the heaviness here. I already understand it.
This is the heaviness I'm talking about
You might be sitting with:
-
A NICU stay you never really processed — the isolette, the machines, the beeping, the fear of holding your fragile baby
-
Fertility treatments and years of trying that left you exhausted and holding your breath before the baby even arrived
-
Going back to work and being expected to perform like the woman you were before
-
Aging parents whose needs are growing at the same time your baby’s
-
Grief of a pregnancy that didn’t go as planned or the loss nobody around you fully understands
-
The guilt of coming home without your baby — and feeling guilty about being able to rest at night when they are in the NICU.
-
A partner who tries but doesn’t quite get it.
A mother who says, “Well, we just did it.”
-
Expectations that say “be strong,” “pray about it,” “other people have it worse.” Cultural expectations that leave no room for how you feel.
If you read the list above and felt something tighten or release... trust that. You’re in the right place.
How We Work Together
You've already tried the books, the apps, the breathing exercises. You don't need more coping skills. You need a therapist who knows her shit and can hold all of who you are.
We move through three phases: Remember. Realign. Reclaim.
Remember
We get to know all of you. The stories behind your reactions. The patterns running underneath. What was handed down to you, culturally, generationally, ancestrally and how it's been shaping the way you mother, partner, and work.
I bring all of you into the room and reflect it back gently with honesty, so you can meet yourself with curiosity instead of resentment and judgment.
Realign
This is where we get clinical and go deeper at the same time. We look at what's happening inside your body — the sleep deprivation, the mood shifts, the nervous system dysregulation. We get curious and observe your thoughts, your automatic reactions, the habits running on autopilot.
And then we start to realign. You take what you're learning about yourself and begin redistributing your energy with intention. You decide where you go the extra mile and where you don't. Or even obliterate.
Sometimes that's saving the mileage for making milk. Sometimes it's for you. Sometimes it's just to move a little bit slower.
Not because you're tired. Because you're choosing.
Reclaim
This is where the work becomes who you are.
What you didn't know you needed starts to feel like home.
The pause before saying yes. The voice that asks for help. The slower pace. The boundary that used to feel like guilt and now feels like care. You're not performing it. You're not effortful about it. You're living it.
You step into the woman you've been creating all along — with everything you now know, everything you've reclaimed, and a body that finally trusts itself.
This is what coming home to yourself actually feels like. The constant revisiting, examining, and reshaping to what makes sense at this very moment.
You are the driver. You know your story, your life, the people you love the most, more than anyone.
I hold the map you envisioned. Sometimes I'll point out a road you didn't know was there. Sometimes I'll highlight a detour, to see if it's something you want to touch on or be mindful of before we get to your destination. I bring all of my tools. You bring all of you.
This individualized support gets you home to yourself, so you can be the person you want to be, for people you want to show up for.
Questions you might be sitting with
I’m not in crisis — and I’ve tried therapy before and it didn’t really help. Is this actually for someone like me?
Yes. Most of the women I work with aren’t in crisis — they're norm is overachieving and exhausted (under the radar). And if therapy felt too surface-level before, this is different. We don’t stay at the coping skills level and finding a surface level solution. We go underneath the overwhelm into the beliefs and patterns keeping you where you are. This is depth work for women who know something isn’t working but haven’t found a space that could hold and unfold the full picture.
I’m not sure if what I’m feeling is “bad enough” for therapy. Is it?
I hear this all the time — and honestly? It breaks me. Because the women asking this question are usually the ones who have been carrying more that they've needed to, for the longest time, with the least support. If you’re wondering whether it’s bad enough, you’re probably afraid that others will see you break. Or mistake needing support for weakness. You don’t need to wait until things fall apart to find the support you need. You just need to be curious and together we can figure out if therapy is what is needed at this time..
What is perinatal mental health therapy?
Perinatal mental health therapy is specialized support for women during pregnancy, postpartum, and the early years of motherhood. But the way I practice it, it's more than managing symptoms. We look at the anxiety, the mood shifts, the grief, the identity changes, and the invisible load. And we go underneath all of that — to the beliefs, the conditioning, the cultural scripts keeping you stuck. The goal is to help you come home to yourself as a mother and a woman.
Do you work with women going through fertility treatments or pregnancy loss?
Yes. I work with women across the full reproductive experience — from fertility challenges and pregnancy loss through postpartum and beyond. I’ve lived some of this myself and also have professional training in perinatal mental health. Grief, hope, and uncertainty often live side by side during this time, and I hold space for all of it.
How long does therapy typically last?
I wish I could give you a number, but it really depends on what you're working through, and the pacing that's right for you based on my clinical training and the attunement we build together.
Once you start to find your footing, we space sessions out — giving you room to practice reclaiming and integrating. Moms often come back when they need a tune-up, or if another life event happens and needs support with navigation.
What does a session cost?
Sessions are $250 for a 60 min session. I choose to not take insurance so that I am accountable to you. Our time together is about what you need, not what a company will pay for. I will provide you with a superbill at the end of the month in which you will submit to your insurance and obtain partial reimbursement.
Hey Mama, you've been so far from yourself for so long, you might not even remember what it feels like to be home in your own body.
That's what this work is. Coming home to yourself. Building safety inside you and around you. So you can mother, love, and lead from a place that's actually sustainable.