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ACT focuses on changing your relationship to thoughts and emotions.

Pregnancy and postpartum often involve uncertainty that cannot be fully controlled.

Psychological flexibility is strongly linked to emotional resilience in motherhood.

ACT helps mothers stay connected to their values even during difficult moments.

Acceptance and commitment therapy helps mothers navigate anxiety, uncertainty, and overwhelm with greater flexibility and self-compassion.

When women reach out for therapy during pregnancy or after the birth of a child, they are often exhausted. Some are consumed by anxiety that seems impossible to quiet. Others are struggling with intrusive thoughts, grief, perfectionism, panic, or the relentless feeling that they are somehow falling short. Almost all of them want relief, and understandably so.

Relief matters. But one of the things I often explain early in treatment is that my goal is not simply to help someone get rid of uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. While symptom reduction is certainly important, my experience has been that motherhood does not always cooperate with our desire to feel calm, certain, and in control. Pregnancy and postpartum are periods of tremendous change, and much of that change unfolds beyond our ability to predict or manage perfectly.

This is one of the reasons I am drawn to acceptance and commitment therapy. Although ACT can be applied to many concerns, I have found it particularly helpful for women navigating pregnancy and early motherhood because it acknowledges something many mothers already know deep down: Uncertainty is unavoidable.

There are the obvious uncertainties—the health of a pregnancy, labor and delivery, feeding decisions, sleep, and returning to work. But there are also deeper uncertainties. Will I be a good mother? Will I lose........

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