Accepting new patients in-person or virtually across Virginia.

Harlan Therapy
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A ceramic vase of dried stems casting a soft shadow, therapy for matrescence and identity shift in Virginia

Specialty

Matrescence and Identity Shift

Matrescence is the developmental shift into motherhood. If you built a strong professional identity first, it can feel disorienting.

You spent years becoming someone: a physician, an attorney, an executive, a therapist. Then you became a mother, and the person you built no longer fits the same way.

What This Shift Can Bring Up

  • 01

    Grief for parts of your former life or self, alongside genuine love for your child

  • 02

    Resentment that surprises you, followed by guilt about the resentment

  • 03

    A sense of having lost your edge, your sharpness, your sense of competence

  • 04

    Difficulty answering the question of who you are now, outside of your roles

You can love your child and still grieve who you were.

How I Work

Internal Family Systems is especially suited to this work. It lets us talk to the part of you that misses your old life and the part of you that's fully in this new one, without forcing you to choose. Somatic work helps with the physical exhaustion that often comes with this shift.

Who I See

Professional women in the first years of motherhood who feel unrecognizable to themselves and want language and support for the change, not reassurance that it will pass.

Talk Through This Shift

Book a free consultation to see if this is the right support.

Tell Me What Is Going On

A few lines is enough. Please keep clinical details out of the form, and we will talk properly when I reach you.

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