Motherhood & Perinatal Therapy in Atlanta

Becoming a mother changes everything — your body, your identity, your relationships, your relationship to time itself. It can be the most love-filled experience of your life and the loneliest. It can be the thing you wanted most and the thing that breaks you open. Both can be true.

You deserve a space to talk about all of it — the joy, the grief, the rage, the love, the exhaustion, the questions you don't know how to ask out loud. That's what perinatal therapy is for.

The Realities of Motherhood No One Talks About

Most of us are not prepared for what motherhood actually asks of us. The cultural narrative tells us we should be fulfilled, blissful, instinctive, and grateful. The reality is often more complicated — and the gap between expectation and experience can be its own kind of grief.

You might be experiencing things like: a profound loss of identity (matrescence), unexpected rage or anxiety, grief for the life you had before, complicated feelings about your body, partnership tension, or the loneliness of mothering in a culture that doesn't support mothers. None of this means you're failing. It means you're human.

What Is Perinatal Therapy?

Perinatal therapy is specialized mental health support for those navigating pregnancy, postpartum, and the broader journey of motherhood. It addresses the unique emotional, psychological, hormonal, relational, and identity-related shifts that come with this season of life. It's not just for those experiencing clinical postpartum depression or anxiety — it's for any mother who needs a space to process, heal, and feel held.

Who Perinatal Therapy Is For

• Those navigating pregnancy and the emotional changes that come with it
• New mothers in the immediate postpartum period
• Mothers in the first year (or beyond) struggling with postpartum mood changes
• Anyone who experienced birth trauma or pregnancy loss
• Mothers working through matrescence — the identity shift of becoming a mother
• Those struggling with mother-baby attachment or feeling disconnected from their baby
• Mothers who feel overwhelmed, angry, anxious, or lost — even years into motherhood

What We Help With

• Postpartum depression and anxiety
• Birth trauma and processing the birth story
• Matrescence — the developmental shift into motherhood
• Pregnancy loss, infant loss, and grief
• Mother-baby attachment concerns
• Identity shifts and the 'who am I now?' question
• Partnership and relational changes after baby
• Rage, resentment, or feelings that feel 'too much' to name
• The complex grief of leaving a former version of yourself behind

How We Approach Perinatal Therapy

Our work is gentle, depth-oriented, and deeply respectful of what mothering asks of you. We draw from IFS, EFT, trauma-informed care, and somatic approaches, with a deep understanding of perinatal mental health, maternal identity, and the cultural realities mothers navigate. You won't be rushed. You won't be told what to feel. You'll be met as a whole person.

Work With a Therapist Trained in Maternal Mental Health

Haylie Ann Yakrus, MS, LPC, NCC has spoken at events on maternal mental health and wellness and brings deep training in trauma-informed and IFS-based care to her perinatal therapy work.