A Little More Room for the Hard Things
Wellness does not always look like a new routine, better habits, or finally checking something off your list.
Sometimes it looks like acknowledging that something has been weighing on you. Having a conversation you have been avoiding. Finding words for an experience you are still trying to understand. Or simply having a space where you do not have to have everything figured out.
This month at Hearth, we are making a little more room for some of those conversations, from feeding and postpartum experiences to fertility, faith, identity, anxiety, and the many transitions that can shape our mental health.
National Breastfeeding Month: There Can Be A Lot of Feelings Around Feeding
Breastfeeding is often talked about in terms of nutrition, bonding, and physical health. What gets discussed less is the emotional experience that can come with it.
For some parents, breastfeeding may be a meaningful part of the postpartum experience. For others, it can bring frustration, anxiety, physical challenges, grief over plans that changed, outside opinions, or pressure to have a certain experience.
There can also be complicated feelings when the experience you imagined before having your baby does not match the one you are actually having.
During National Breastfeeding Month, we want to make room for all of those experiences.
Maternal mental health support is not about telling parents how they should feed their baby. It is about supporting the person navigating pregnancy, birth, postpartum life, identity changes, and everything that can come with becoming a parent.
At Hearth, our maternal and perinatal therapists support clients through pregnancy, postpartum adjustment, fertility challenges, birth experiences, anxiety, grief, identity shifts, and the emotional realities of early parenthood.
Welcome to Hearth, Iman!
We are excited to welcome
Iman Mohamed, MSW, LCSW-A to the Hearth team.
Iman works with adolescents, adults, and families, with experience supporting clients through anxiety, depression, trauma, eating disorders, life transitions, identity-related concerns, relationships, stress, and burnout. She has a particular interest in working with BIPOC and immigrant communities and provides therapy in English, Arabic, and Somali.
For many clients, feeling understood in therapy goes beyond finding the right words.
We are glad to offer a space where you do not have to second-guess what you are saying, search for the “right” way to explain what you are feeling, or worry that parts of your experience will be misunderstood.
When your therapist understands not just what you are saying, but what you mean, you can spend less energy explaining yourself and more time feeling heard, exploring what is happening, and doing the work that brought you to therapy in the first place.
Iman brings a culturally responsive, strengths-based, trauma-informed approach to her work, and we are so glad to have her as part of the Hearth team.
Some Reasons for Therapy Are Harder to Name
Anxiety, depression, grief, and relationships may be some of the first things we associate with therapy. Sometimes, though, what we are carrying does not fit quite so neatly into one category.
Karen Capehart, MA, LCMHC-A and Izabella Munoz, MS, LCMHC-A both support clients through some of these harder-to-name experiences, including religious or church community hurt and the complicated emotions that can come with questioning faith, belonging, relationships, values, or parts of your identity.
Karen also works with clients navigating eco-anxiety, life transitions, identity exploration, self-esteem and body image, family dynamics, anxiety, and stress. Eco-anxiety, for example, can bring very real feelings of worry, grief, anger, or helplessness about the future, while a major life transition can leave you feeling unsettled even when the change itself is something you wanted.
Whether you are rethinking beliefs you have carried for years, navigating a changing sense of self, or simply trying to understand why something feels so heavy, therapy can offer a place to explore it without needing to minimize it, explain it away, or already know what comes next.
When 50 Minutes Does Not Feel Like Enough
Have you ever felt like you are finally getting somewhere in therapy...and then the session ends?
For some people working through a specific trauma, the traditional weekly therapy format may not provide enough time and space to go deeper without having to stop, reset, and wait another week.
EMDR Intensives offer longer, dedicated sessions that allow more time to focus on a specific trauma or experience. The process still includes preparation, thoughtful pacing, breaks, and follow-up, but gives you more uninterrupted time to do the work.
Marina Cline, LCMHC-S, LMHC, PMH-C is currently accepting a limited number of clients for EMDR Intensives on a case-by-case basis in North Carolina and New York.
If you have been considering EMDR or feel like you need more time and space to work through something specific, an Intensive may be worth exploring.
Infertility can be an incredibly personal and isolating experience.
There can be grief, uncertainty, changing expectations, complicated relationships with your body, and emotions that are difficult to explain to people who have not experienced it themselves.
Beginning September 14, Hearth will offer a six-week Infertility Support Group, creating a dedicated space to connect with others navigating some of the complexities of infertility.
Over the six weeks, participants will have an opportunity to share their stories in a supportive and validating space, process difficult aspects of labor, delivery, or medical experiences, and explore meaningful ways to honor and remember their baby.
The group will also explore how grief can evolve over time and the ways loss can impact identity, relationships, and daily life.
Starts September 14 | Six weeks
Looking for Support?
Whether you're looking for Individual Therapy, Couples Counseling, EMDR Therapy, Adolescent Therapy, or one of our support groups, we're here to support you. If you've been thinking about reaching out, we'd love to help you take that next step. Schedule An Appointment Or Learn More About Our Services At Hearth Counseling & Consulting.
