Mental health concern Perinatal mental health
Postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum OCD, and birth trauma are common after having a baby, and they can be treated. Saalvio offers online postpartum therapy in Ontario with registered clinicians trained in CBT, EMDR, and ERP.
Perinatal mental health therapy in Canada covers anything that happens during pregnancy and in the year after the baby comes. The two most common conditions are postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety. Postpartum depression (PPD) affects roughly 1 in 10 new mothers in Canada, according to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Many partners and non-birthing parents go through this too, even though it gets talked about less.
Postpartum depression is not the same as the "baby blues." The baby blues last a few days, come with tears, and pass on their own. Postpartum depression stays longer. It hits harder. It does not go away without mental health support. It can start any time in the first year, not only right after birth.
Postpartum anxiety is just as common as postpartum depression. People miss it a lot, because new parents are expected to worry. This is a worry that never stops. It can bring scary, intrusive thoughts about the baby getting hurt. Having these thoughts is a sign of anxiety. It is not a sign that you would ever hurt your baby.
Postpartum psychosis is rare. It is a medical emergency. It is a break from reality, usually in the first few weeks after birth. If this is happening to you or someone in your life, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency department. See the crisis section above.
Clinical words can feel cold. Here are some of the moments real parents have described in our sessions.
You love the baby. You also cannot stop crying. You feel guilty about both at once.
You go from calm to terrified about the baby in five seconds. You check that they are breathing, again and again.
You have scary pictures in your head of the baby getting hurt. The pictures scare you. You think they mean you are dangerous. They do not. They mean you have postpartum anxiety, and it is treatable.
You feel alone in a house full of people. Guests come, hold the baby, and leave. You smile the whole time. Inside, you are not okay.
You do not remember the last time you felt like yourself. You wonder if you ever will again.
You are doing everything a good parent does, and you still feel like you are failing.
If any of this sounds like you, you are not broken, and you are not alone. Reaching out is what good parents do.
Each of these can show up during pregnancy or any time in the first year after birth.
Postpartum depression can look like a heavy, constant low mood. It can mean losing interest in things you used to enjoy, feeling worn out in a way that sleep does not fix, trouble bonding with the baby, or feeling hopeless. Sometimes it brings thoughts of self-harm. If that is happening to you, please tell a clinician, and if you are in danger right now, use the crisis information above. Saalvio offers postpartum depression therapy in Ontario, delivered online by our registered clinical team.
Postpartum anxiety can look like a racing heart, trouble sleeping even when the baby sleeps, tight muscles, and a mind that will not slow down. It often comes with intrusive thoughts about harm coming to the baby. Postpartum anxiety therapy helps you learn how to work with that worry instead of being run by it.
Postpartum OCD pairs two things: scary intrusive thoughts (often about hurting the baby, even by accident) and compulsions, which are things you do to try to make the fear go away, like checking or avoiding bath time. The thoughts are not a sign you are a danger to your baby. They are a sign of postpartum OCD, and postpartum OCD therapy in Ontario, using a method called ERP, works well for most people.
A hard, frightening, or violating birth can leave you with symptoms like flashbacks, avoidance, and feeling on edge all the time. This is sometimes called birth trauma. It often goes unnoticed, because everyone is focused on whether the baby is healthy. Postpartum PTSD therapy in Ontario gives you a place to process what happened to you, not just what happened to your baby.
Postpartum psychosis is not something therapy treats on its own. It needs urgent medical care. It can bring hallucinations, delusions, confusion, or moods that shift fast. If you think this is happening, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency department right away.
If you are pregnant or in the year after birth, and what you read above sounds like more than a rough patch, please reach out. Getting support earlier usually makes the road back easier.
If you are having thoughts of harming the baby, and those thoughts scare you, tell a clinician. These thoughts are very common in postpartum anxiety and postpartum OCD. Telling someone will not get your baby taken away. It will get you the right kind of help.
If you think you may be experiencing postpartum psychosis, or someone in your life is, go to your nearest emergency department or call 911 now. See the crisis section at the top of this page.
If you are a partner or non-birthing parent and you are struggling too, you deserve support. Research on non-birthing parents in Canada is still growing, but it already tells us this is more common than most people expect.
A self-assessment can help you notice patterns and put your experience into words. It is not a diagnosis. Bring what you notice to a registered clinician, and they can help you understand what is going on and what might help.
Saalvio offers online maternal mental health therapy delivered by a CRPO-registered postpartum therapist or an OCSWSSW-registered postpartum therapist on our clinical team. Sessions happen over secure video, so virtual postpartum counselling can happen from your own couch, at 2 p.m. or in the middle of a 2 a.m. feed, without a drive, a waiting room, or a babysitter.
This is online PPD treatment built around the reality of a new baby:
Sessions can be scheduled around feeds and naps.
Your therapist will never expect you to be put together for an appointment.
Some parents bring the baby into the session. That is welcome here.
Before you book anything, you can message any therapist on our team and ask what you need to ask. Is she a good fit for what you are going through? Has she worked with postpartum OCD before? Does she speak your language? There is no cost and no commitment to messaging. If you are unsure where to begin, you can also learn how to find a therapist who is the right fit for your needs.
Saalvio does not bill your insurer directly. You pay at the time of your session and get a detailed receipt with your therapist's name, college, and registration number. You can also learn more about the cost of therapy in Ontario when considering your options.
Our clinical team draws from a small set of well-studied approaches, matched to what you are going through. You can read more about how we choose an approach on our page on evidence-based therapy approaches.
A well-tested therapy that helps you see how your thoughts, feelings, and actions are connected, so you can change patterns that hurt you.
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) focuses on developing psychological flexibility through values-based action, so that difficult thoughts and feelings no longer determine what you do with your life.
Exposure and Response Prevention therapy pairs gradual exposure to OCD triggers with the deliberate practice of not doing the compulsion afterward, until the urge loses its grip.
A structured therapy that helps your brain finish processing a hard memory. It uses guided eye movements, or a similar back-and-forth motion, to help your mind do the work it could not finish at the time.
A fair question, especially when you are deciding whether to trust a screen with something this important. The short answer is that postpartum telehealth therapy in Ontario uses the same registered clinicians and the same approaches as in-person care, just over secure video instead of in an office.
A note on the Saalvio postpartum therapy app: some new parents use that phrase, so we want to be exact about what it means. The Saalvio mobile mental health app is a self-help tool. It has mood tracking, guided practices, and Thrive AI, our CBT-chatbot companion for the moments between sessions. The app is not therapy, and Thrive AI is not a clinician. Actual therapy happens in your booked sessions with a registered therapist.
Saalvio's clinical team is registered in Ontario and works with clients across the province, entirely online. If you are looking for therapy for new moms in Ontario our therapists are trained to work with the exhaustion, the identity shift, and the loneliness that can come with early parenthood, not only the clinical symptoms.
Partners and non-birthing parents carry real weight after a baby arrives too, even when nobody asks how they are doing. Right now, Saalvio's clinical team works with individuals, not couples. Postpartum couples therapy is not yet part of our roster, so we want to be honest about that rather than advertise something we cannot deliver. If you are looking specifically for couples-focused support, tell us, and we will try to point you toward someone we trust.
Some new parents are also grieving. A loss earlier in pregnancy, a hard diagnosis for the baby, a birth that did not go the way you hoped, or grief that has nothing to do with the baby at all but arrived at the same time. Postpartum grief therapy in Ontario is available through our clinical team, and you do not need to explain or justify your grief to ask for support with it.
Several clinicians on our team have specific training and experience with postpartum mental health. The right match depends on more than technique, so we encourage you to read the profiles and choose the voice that feels closest to what you need. Every clinician is a CRPO and OCSWSSW-registered, and your first meeting with them is a free 30-minute consultation. You can switch therapists at any time if the fit is not right.
CBT and interpersonal therapy are named as first-line treatments for postpartum depression by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and by the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Both are well studied, and their effect sizes are similar to medication for mild to moderate depression.
A 2020 review by Stephens and colleagues looked at 26 randomized trials of talk therapy for postpartum depression and found consistently large effects. Evidence for ERP in postpartum OCD is still growing, but early results suggest it often works faster than ERP for OCD that began earlier in life.
No. Scary, intrusive thoughts about the baby are a well-known symptom of postpartum anxiety and postpartum OCD, not a sign that you would act on them. Telling a registered clinician about these thoughts is the fastest way to get the right kind of help.
This fear stops a lot of parents from asking for help, and it is understandable. Naming intrusive thoughts to a trained clinician leads to the right treatment for postpartum anxiety or postpartum OCD. It does not, on its own, put your custody of your baby at risk.
The baby blues usually clear within about two weeks. If low mood, worry, or exhaustion is still here after that, or if it is getting worse, it may be postpartum depression or postpartum anxiety, and it is worth a conversation with a therapist, even if your doctor has already reassured you.
Some medications are considered compatible with breastfeeding, and this is a decision to make with your doctor or a psychiatrist, who can weigh the options with you. Saalvio's therapists do not prescribe medication, but we can support you alongside whatever your prescriber recommends.
Yes. Partners and non-birthing parents can message a Saalvio therapist and book their own free 30-minute consultation. Support is offered to each person individually right now, since postpartum couples therapy is not yet part of our roster.
Sessions happen over secure video, so you can join from wherever you already are. Feeding, rocking, or holding the baby during a session is completely welcome. Your therapist expects real life to show up on the call.
Postpartum depression is a persistent low mood that can start any time in the first year after birth. It brings loss of interest in things you used to enjoy, deep tiredness beyond normal new-parent exhaustion, trouble bonding, and sometimes hopelessness. It is different from the baby blues because it lasts longer and does not lift on its own.
Postpartum psychosis is rare and is a medical emergency, unlike postpartum depression or anxiety. It involves a break from reality, often within the first few weeks after birth, and may include hallucinations, confusion, or delusions. If you think this is happening, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency department right away.
Many of these often show up together. Reading more than one page can help you make sense of what is going on, and there is no harm in starting with the one that feels closest.
Book your free 30-minute consultation with one of our therapists, or join the waitlist if you live outside Ontario. There is no obligation to continue after it.
Saalvio psychotherapy is live in Ontario today. Other provinces are coming soon.
