Birth trauma therapist in San Francisco
I am posting this message to help a dear friend of mine. My friend is currently pregnant with her second child and is suffering from intense anxiety about going through the birthing process again. Her first birth was incredibly traumatic and she has still unresolved feelings from that experience. I would like to help her find a therapist specially based in San Francisco that specializes in birth trauma for mums.
Does anyone have any recommendations for such a therapist in San Francisco?
Thank you for you help!
Apr 27, 2019
Parent Replies
My heart goes out to your friend. I worked through some birth trauma with a fantastic somatic therapist based in Berkeley, Natashia Fuksman. I recently had my second child, and it was an incredibly healing experience. If Berkeley is not an option for your friend, perhaps Natashia would be able to refer her to someone in SF. I would also be happy to ask her if your friend does not feel comfortable reaching out.
EMDR therapy with Wendy Sue Horn. I went to her for this exact issue and was "cured" really quickly. Wendy Sue is wonderful and totally gets it, and EMDR as a modality is very well suited for this sort of thing. Wendy Sue can explain how it works and also do plenty of talk therapy to help.
Rachel Yellin, based in SF, specializes in birth and pregnancy and her modality is depth hypnosis therapy. I don't have experience with her as a therapist but I did take her hypnobirthing childbirth education class. She talked a lot about helping women recover from earlier birth trauma through depth hypnosis sessions.
I think that anxiety from birth trauma is a perfectly legitimate reason to do a planned C section. Nine months of anxiety definitely is not good for her and is probably not good for the baby either. Something like 30% of US births are by C section. It's a common and safe procedure, and I don't think that PTSD is any less valid a reason for it than physical reasons. Even if she doesn't follow through with it, it may relieve your friend's anxiety to seriously consider it as an option.
I highly recommend Yeshi Neumann, a CNM in San Francisco who offers counseling and group sessions for women to heal from traumatic or difficult birth experiences. I had a traumatic birth with my first child and attended a 3-hour group session with Yeshi that was incredibly helpful, insightful, and transformative. I believe it helped me prepare for my second birth, a successful VBAC. I highly recommend contacting Yeshi. http://www.mindfulfamilycircles.com/healing-counsel.html