My Approach

Building emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and real-time coping skills.

DBT focuses on balancing two powerful concepts: acceptance of where you are right now, and change toward building a healthier emotional life. Perinatal transitions often bring intense emotional waves, such as rage, deep sadness, or sensory overload. DBT offers concrete "toolkits" to help you ride those waves safely.

Practical Skills & Examples:

• TIPP Skills for Crisis Moments: Quick physical interventions (like ice packs/temperature shifts or controlled breathing) to lower your heart rate during extreme overwhelm or coraje.

• Radical Acceptance / Aceptación Radical: Practicing acceptance of difficult realities without fighting them, reducing the extra suffering caused by resistance:

  • “I accept that my birth didn’t go as planned, and that it’s okay to feel sadness while I adjust to this new reality.”

  • “Acepto que mi parto no salió como lo planeé, y que está bien sentir tristeza mientras me adapto a esta nueva realidad."

• Interpersonal Effectiveness & Boundaries / Límites Saludables: Clear communication scripts to express your needs to family members or partners without guilt:

  • “I really appreciate that you want to visit, but today we need some time alone as a family to rest.”

  • "Agradezco mucho que quieran visitar, pero hoy necesitamos tiempo a solas como familia para descansar."

How it helps in Perinatal Care:

DBT provides immediate grounding when emotional intensity feels unmanageable, giving you tools to navigate stress, boundary-setting with la familia, and relationship shifts with confidence.

Connecting with your body and soothing your nervous system.

The perinatal experience is inherently bodily; from hormonal changes and pregnancy discomfort to birth recovery and physical exhaustion. Somatic practices recognize that stress, anxiety, and trauma are stored in the body, not just the mind.

Practical Skills & Examples:

• Nervous System Regulation & Grounding / Regulación del Sistema Nervioso: Using diaphragmatic breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, or physical grounding (e.g., feeling your feet flat on the floor, hand over your heart) to send signals of safety to your brain.

• Somatic Tracking: Noticing physical sensations of anxiety (a tight chest, clenched jaw, or un nudo en la garganta) with curiosity rather than panic, allowing your body to release stored tension.

• Body Reconnection / Reconexión con el Cuerpo: Gently rebuilding trust with your physical body after medical procedures, difficult births, or fertility challenges.

How it helps in Perinatal Care:

Somatic work helps calm physical panic, eases birth trauma, and helps you feel safely rooted back in your body after months or years of intense physical changes.