You are doing the most important work of your life.
You don’t have to do it alone.
Hi, I’m Annie.
I provide therapy for families, like mine, in the thick of it, in this beautiful, messy season of life.
I’m also a mom, deep in the practice of raising two young children.
I’ve been there, I am there, and if I haven’t lived it myself, I’ve worked with families who have. I had and healed from a traumatic first birth. I completed my clinical training while pregnant, and have struggled through exhaustion and identity shifts. My experience is not just professional–it’s embodied. The only real difference between me and the woman sitting across from me is that I have a specialized clinical training and a background in psychology that gives me tools to help us both make sense of it.
Taking it one step at a time, bird by bird
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Taking it one step at a time, bird by bird 〰️
Bird by Bird Family Therapy exists for women who are navigating pregnancy, the postpartum period, early motherhood, and the identity earthquakes that come with them.
We also serve individuals and couples facing major life transitions, and families healing from trauma.
If you’re finding this season more turbulent or overwhelming than you ever expected,
Bird by Bird is here to help.
Pregnancy and postpartum change your brain — literally. And that’s actually good news.
I see the perinatal window as a time not just of risk, but of possibility.
The science is in. Neuroplasticity makes lasting change more accessible during the perinatal period than almost any other time in adult life. With this practice I recognize that this is not just a hard season, it is a generative one.
I work with the whole thread.
Nearly everyone I work with finds that becoming a parent brings up their own childhood, reopens old wounds, and uncovers their own patterns, in ways they didn’t expect. That gives us a powerful opportunity for healing and growth.
My CPP (Child Parent Psychotherapy) training and infant-parent expertise means working at the intersection of mother and child, present and past, to open new pathways for healing, recovery, and strength.
You are the best mother for your baby. Period.
Coming to therapy is not an admission that something is wrong with you. It is vital support through one of the hardest and most intensive roles a person will experience, and it offers a path to feel more like yourself again.
There are so many reasons we may doubt ourselves in early motherhood…
but together we can unpack the expectations you may hold for yourself, the unique challenges of parenthood, and anything else that may be holding you back, to help you find your footing.
About the name Bird by Bird…
Bird by Bird Family Therapy takes its name from the 1994 book by Anne Lamott, a modern classic—beloved not just as a guide to writing, but as a philosophy for showing up honestly to hard, overwhelming things. One small step at a time. No perfectionism. Messy first drafts welcome.
In the story, Lamott listens to her Dad as he helps her brother with a report about the birds of North America. Her brother has had time to write the report, but on the night before it’s due, he confesses that he still hasn’t done it and is completely overwhelmed. That’s when her dad says the words that stick with her, ultimately providing the name for the book she writes many years later – and my therapy practice.
“Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
Pregnancy, postpartum, and early motherhood are inherently overwhelming. But in the spirit of Bird by Bird, we go at your pace, one step at a time.
How can I help?
Not everyone needs in same thing in therapy. Here are a few ways we can work together.
Perinatal Mental Health (this might be for you if you’re pregnant, postpartum, experienced birth trauma, have or had a baby in the NICU, or are struggling with the transition to parenthood)
Individual therapy (this might be for you if you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, and facing life transitions)
Couples therapy (this might be for you if you and your partner are struggling with transitions in your relationship, including the transition to parenthood, or other relationship challenges)
Trauma-focused work (this might be for you if you’ve experienced trauma and are ready to address it and begin the path to healing)
Child Parent Psychotherapy and Early Childhood Psychotherapy (this might be for you if you or your infant or toddler faced hardship or difficult experiences and need support in moving through it together and bonding in the process.)
Group Therapy (my recurring group series, titled Integrating Your Birth Story, might be for you if you’d like support in processing your birth experience.)
Telehealth throughout California and In-person in Santa Barbara, CA
Healing doesn’t happen all at once. Neither does motherhood. It is a becoming. We grow into it.
Bird by Bird is a promise: We break it down. We go slowly. We do not expect perfection. We take it one bird at a time.
Want to talk?
Reach out below. I’m here whenever you’re ready.