E11: Beyond Birth: Unpacking Maternal Mental Health with Gayane Aramyan, LMFT

Explicit content warning

09/26/23 • 36 min

Continuing on our Maternal Mental Health Series, we are honored to speak with Gayane Aramyan, LMFT. Gayane is a mother and licensed marriage and family therapist practicing out of Sherman Oaks, California (she also treats patients virtually!) and has been featured in Huffington Post and The LA Times. We sat down for a candid conversation about adequately preparing for postpartum (it’s more than registering for the DockATot!), practicing self-compassion as a mother, identifying and understanding postpartum depression and anxiety, and how to know when you should talk to someone about your mental health. Our goal is to create a safe space in which we break the stigma surrounding maternal mental health and while medication is sometimes the ultimate treatment, self-awareness in tandem with therapy can often aid many women who are unknowingly suffering. If you have a maternal mental health topic you want covered on our show, please send us an email: [email protected]. We would love to hear from you! Links: 1. https://www.therapywithgayane.com/ 2. Therapy with Gayane Instagram 3. The Fourth Trimester: A Postpartum Guide to Healing Your Body, Balancing Your Emotions, and Restoring Your Vitality by Kimberly Ann Johnson For more authentic and honest motherhood conversation, subscribe to Mighty as a Mother: Apple Podcasts | Spotify Podcasts | Google Podcasts Join in on the conversation and follow along with us on Instagram: ⁠@mightyasamotherpodcast⁠!

Previous Episode

E10: Understanding Maternal Mental Health with Jessica Hines, M.A., M.F.T.

Our first episode of our new Maternal Mental Health series is for you if you've ever felt like OMG why did NO ONE tell me how hard this was going to be. We sit down with fellow mom and licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Jessie Hines to discuss everything from why the "6 week postpartum check-up" is simply not enough, how prevalent anxiety and depression are inside motherhood, and ways in which we can prioritize our own mental well-being before caring for others (kids included!). This has been by far our most requested topic and we are so happy to create this safe space to talk hard things with you.

If you've struggled saying goodbye to the life you left behind while simultaneously loving your kids, felt overwhelming waves of "mom guilt," or suffered with shame in silence, this is the episode for you, mama 💗

Jessie helps us normalize the conversation around some really raw, difficult topics, including:

❤️ How sometimes motherhood can feel boring, stifling, suffocating, and/or mundane

❤️ It's okay to mourn the woman you were before you became a mother

❤️ Why following "influencer moms" who get paid to show their seemingly perfect lives might not be helping your mental health

❤️ Why we weren't meant to mother alone, and how to build your village

❤️ Normalizing mothers to be humans who DESERVE to feel big emotions just like we teach our children

Links:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/parenting/mothers-not-martyrs.html
National Maternal Mental Health Hotline: 1-833-TLC-MAMA
https://www.aha.org/news/blog/2022-04-07-making-maternal-mental-health-priority
https://www.whattoexpect.com/news/first-year/gen-z-millennials-perfect-parent
MAAM Village episode
https://www.motheruntitled.com/

For more authentic and honest motherhood conversation, subscribe to Mighty as a Mother:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify Podcasts | Google Podcasts

Join in on the conversation and follow along with us on Instagram: ⁠@mightyasamotherpodcast⁠!

Next Episode

E12: Loving Your Kids Without Losing Yourself with Dr. Morgan Cutlip

We had so much fun sitting down with Dr. Morgan Cutlip to talk all things maternal mental health. A highly sought-after relationship expert with a PhD in psychology, Dr. Morgan knows firsthand what it feels like to lose yourself in motherhood and she's determined to help the next generation of mothers. Through her work, she has helped hundreds of thousands of people learn how to form and maintain healthy relationships and has been featured on Good Morning America, Teen Vogue, The New York Times, Women's Health Magazine, and more. Her new book, Love Your Kids Without Losing Yourself, is available now (spoiler alert - it’s great!). Morgan is not only relatable and approachable, but she’s downright hilarious. As a wife and mom of two, she understands firsthand the challenges many of us encounter as we learn how to mother while not losing every single piece of who we were before we became mothers. In this episode, you will learn: ♥️ How regular check-ins with ourselves help us mamas stay in a healthy mindset ♥️ Why we can control our intention around parenting but we cannot control how our children will interpret our parenting ♥️ How changing our relationship with traditional mothering belief systems can change our experience in motherhood for the better ♥️ What the starvation principle is and why we shouldn’t wait until our marriage is starving to schedule that date night We hope you love today's episode as part of our ongoing maternal mental health series. If you have a topic you want covered on our show, please send us an email: [email protected]. We would love to hear from you! Links: Dr. Morgan Cutlip website Dr. Morgan Cutlip Instagram Love Your Kids Without Losing Yourself book For more authentic and honest motherhood conversation, subscribe to Mighty as a Mother: Apple Podcasts | Spotify Podcasts | Google Podcasts Join in on the conversation and follow along with us on Instagram: ⁠@mightyasamotherpodcast⁠!