SANTOS PSYCHOTHERAPY
Specialist Psychological Support through
Pregnancy, Birth, Postpartum & Motherhood in
West Yorkshire & Online
For parents navigating baby loss, pregnancy after loss, birth trauma, anxiety, overwhelm and emotional challenges of motherhood.
I'm Anjelena Santos, BABCP-accredited Specialist Perinatal Psychotherapist with over 15 years' experience in the NHS and Private Practice.
If your journey to parenthood has left you with intrusive thoughts, chronic tension, unable to stop overthinking and feeling like you're constantly bracing for the worst -
you're in the right place.
Motherhood demands a lot from us but it doesn't have to feel this heavy and relentless
Maybe your pregnancy or birth didn't go the way you'd hoped.
Maybe your feeding journey left you feeling like you'd failed.
Or perhaps since becoming a mum, the need to try to keep everything under control at all times has intensified and no longer feels sustainable. Whatever brought you here...
You're exhausted from carrying so much.
You might be ...
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Replaying your birth or pregnancy over and over
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Experiencing intrusive thoughts or postnatal anxiety
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Constantly on edge, never feeling able to switch off
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Snapping at your children, then being consumed by guilt
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Feeling like you're failing, despite trying so hard
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Struggling to ask for help
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Wondering why you can't seem to cope
You’re not alone in this.
And nothing about this means you’re failing
For many of the parents I work with, birth trauma or the transition into motherhood becomes the tipping point. But often, the patterns go further back.
Many have spent years being the capable one. The one who pushes through. The one who holds everything together and puts everyone else's needs first. These ways of coping once made sense but motherhood is now stretching you beyond your limits and while you love your baby deeply, it's still making you wonder: Is this it for me now?
If trying harder was the answer - you'd probably already be feeling better by now
My aim is for us to make sense of what's happened and understand why your mind and body respond the way they do. To guide you in working with your nervous system and as it learns that it doesn't have to stay in survival mode all the time, you begin to create more space.
Space to pause. To choose how you want to respond, rather than reacting from moment to moment.
From there, we can strengthen your ability to trust your own judgement without constantly looking outside yourself for reassurance. To make space for your own needs too, to be able to give yourself permission to rest. And to grow into a life—and a way of parenting, with more connection, joy, fun and the confidence that you can cope, even when life feels messy, unpredictable and doesn't go to plan.
