Postpartum Anxiety Treatment in Alpharetta, GA
The best way to find out if this approach is for you is to schedule a 15 minute consultation. Depending on your clinician’s availability, this consult may be held over the phone, via video, or in-person.
Meet the Postpartum Anxiety Specialist
What is Postpartum Anxiety?
Postpartum anxiety is a perinatal mood disorder that causes persistent, excessive worry during or after pregnancy. It can develop anytime in the first year after birth, and it goes well beyond the normal adjustment stress that most new parents experience. If you find yourself unable to quiet the worry even when everything is objectively fine, postpartum anxiety may be what’s driving it.
Common Symptoms of Postpartum Anxiety
Postpartum anxiety shows up differently from person to person, but common signs include:
- Constant worry about your baby’s safety, health, or well-being that feels impossible to control
- Racing thoughts or an inability to “turn off” your mind, especially at night
- Physical symptoms like a racing heart, chest tightness, shortness of breath, nausea, or dizziness
- Restlessness, irritability, or feeling on edge throughout the day
- Difficulty sleeping even when your baby is sleeping
- A need to check on your baby repeatedly, even when you know they are safe
- Avoiding certain situations or activities out of fear that something bad will happen
- Panic attacks that come on suddenly and feel overwhelming
Postpartum anxiety is more common in parents who have a history of anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). But it can also develop in people with no prior mental health history. Hormonal shifts, sleep deprivation, and the enormous responsibility of caring for a newborn all contribute to the conditions that allow postpartum anxiety to take hold.
It’s also important to know that postpartum anxiety doesn’t only affect mothers. Fathers and non-birthing partners can experience postpartum mood and anxiety disorders too, and they deserve the same quality of support.
How Postpartum Anxiety Affects Daily Life
Postpartum anxiety doesn’t just make you worried. It can change the way you experience every part of early parenthood. Moments that are supposed to feel joyful, like holding your baby, watching them sleep, or taking them out of the house for the first time, can instead feel loaded with dread.
You may find yourself mentally scanning for danger in every situation. You might avoid leaving the house because it feels safer to stay where you can control the environment. Or you might go through the motions of your daily routine while internally cycling through worst-case scenarios that you can’t turn off.
The isolation that often comes with postpartum anxiety can make everything worse. You may feel like you’re the only one struggling, especially when the people around you expect you to be happy. You might hesitate to talk about what you’re going through because you’re afraid of being judged, dismissed, or told that “all new parents feel this way.”
If any of this sounds familiar, you’re not alone, and what you’re experiencing is not something you need to push through on your own. Postpartum anxiety therapy can help you understand what’s happening, develop coping strategies that actually work, and start to feel like yourself again.
Postpartum Intrusive Thoughts and the OCD Overlap
One of the most frightening and least talked-about symptoms of postpartum anxiety is intrusive thoughts. These are unwanted, disturbing thoughts or mental images that appear suddenly and often involve harm coming to your baby. You might picture dropping your baby, or have a flash of an image involving an accident or danger that makes you feel sick to your stomach.
These thoughts do not mean you are a danger to your child. Postpartum intrusive thoughts are a symptom of anxiety, not an indication of intent. The fact that these thoughts disturb you is actually a sign that they are inconsistent with who you are and what you want. People who act on harmful impulses do not experience the kind of distress that intrusive thoughts cause.
When It Looks Like OCD
For some parents, postpartum anxiety crosses into what clinicians call postpartum OCD. This happens when intrusive thoughts become paired with compulsive behaviors designed to reduce the anxiety they create. You might find yourself:
- Repeatedly checking that your baby is breathing, even though you just checked moments ago
- Avoiding being alone with your baby because the intrusive thoughts feel too intense
- Seeking constant reassurance from your partner, family members, or even Google that your baby is okay
- Performing mental rituals like counting, praying, or reviewing events to “undo” the thought
If this pattern sounds familiar, specialized treatment can help. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the gold-standard therapy for OCD-related symptoms, and our therapists are trained to apply it within the specific context of postpartum mental health. You can also learn more about how we treat anxiety disorders with OCD features on our anxiety counseling page.
What Postpartum Anxiety Therapy Includes
Postpartum anxiety treatment at Kellen Mental Health is tailored to your specific symptoms, your circumstances, and what stage of the postpartum period you’re in. Therapy is not about being told to “relax” or “enjoy this time.” It’s about getting real, practical support that helps you function and feel better.
What to Expect
In therapy, your postpartum anxiety therapist will work with you to:
- Understand the specific triggers and thought patterns that are driving your anxiety
- Build coping strategies for managing worry, panic, and physical anxiety symptoms
- Address intrusive thoughts using evidence-based approaches like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or ERP
- Process the gap between what you expected parenthood to feel like and what it actually feels like
- Coordinate with your OB, midwife, or psychiatrist if medication management is part of your care plan
Our perinatal therapists have specialized training in maternal and parental mental health. They understand the unique pressures of the postpartum period and won’t minimize what you’re going through. For a full overview of our perinatal services, including prenatal counseling, postpartum depression support, and pregnancy loss counseling, visit our perinatal counseling page.
A Note on Safety
If you are experiencing thoughts of harming yourself or your baby that feel like urges rather than unwanted intrusions, or if you are having difficulty distinguishing between intrusive thoughts and impulses, please contact your healthcare provider, go to your nearest emergency room, or call the Postpartum Support International helpline at 1-800-944-4773. You can also text “HELP” to 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
There is no shame in reaching out for immediate help. Getting support quickly is the most important thing you can do for yourself and your baby.
How Can You Cope with Postpartum Anxiety?
Postpartum Anxiety can be difficult to live with. It can make it hard to do your daily tasks and even leave your home. Postpartum anxiety is not uncommon, but it can feel like there is no one or nothing that understands because everyone has different experiences. It really helps to talk about what you are experiencing because this will lift the weight off of you.
Reach out to family, friends, doctors or even other mothers who have had similar experiences, don’t be afraid that you are the only one who feels this way. This will help you become more confident in yourself and your abilities which will greatly decrease the effects of postpartum anxiety. There is always someone out there to talk to, you just have to reach out.
Here are some things to try if you’re suffering from postpartum worry:
- Connect with other mothers who understand
- Receive personalized care from a licensed provider
- Develop coping skills like meditation and deep breathing exercises
Postpartum anxiety is not uncommon, but it can feel like there is no one or nothing that understands. It’s so important to talk about what you are experiencing because this will lift the weight off of you and help reduce your postpartum worry. Reach out to family, friends, doctors, or even other mothers who have had similar experiences- don’t be afraid that you are the only one who feels this way!
There’s always someone out there ready to listen and offer support. Whether it’s a licensed provider from KMH with maternal mental health expertise or another mother suffering through something similar, know that you’re never alone in your struggles.
Counseling with a licensed maternal mental health care provider from KMH can help you through this difficult time. Our providers specialize in maternal mental health and can provide the individualized treatment you need.
Counseling with KMH can help you:
- Overcome feelings of isolation
- Live the life you want for yourself and your family
- Feel like a better mom because you’re taking care of yourself too
Choose Kellen Mental Health for Postpartum Anxiety Counseling in Alpharetta
You became a parent, and that changed everything, including your mental health. If postpartum anxiety is making it hard to function, to sleep, to enjoy your baby, or to feel like yourself, therapy can help you get to a better place.
At Kellen Mental Health, our postpartum anxiety therapists in Alpharetta specialize in perinatal mental health. You don’t have to be in crisis to reach out. If something feels off, that’s reason enough. We offer in-person sessions at our Alpharetta office and virtual counseling throughout Georgia.
Counseling
Individual Counseling Session Rates
Sessions are available in 45- or 60-minute formats and can be conducted either in person or via video. While 60-minute sessions are recommended—especially for the first appointment—they are not required unless deemed necessary by the clinician.
Initially, appointments are typically scheduled weekly or every other week. As symptoms improve and progress toward goals becomes more consistent, sessions can be spaced out to every 3–4 weeks.
45 minute appointments: $160 – $180 per session
60 minute appointments: $215 – $240 per session
Individual counseling rate varies per clinician. Please see clinician bios for more information regarding specialties and rates.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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If you need to cancel or change your appointment, we ask you to inform your provider at least 24 hours in advance of your scheduled session start time. Your full…