About Jackie

A woman is lifting a young child in an outdoor setting with green pine trees and fallen leaves in the background.

I'm a psychodynamic therapist specializing in perinatal mental health, matrescence, and couples work.

At the beginning of my own matrescence, I found myself searching for language to describe what was happening to me: something that went far beyond the language of mental health diagnoses and symptom criteria, though some of these symptoms were present for me too. What I was searching for language to describe was deeper than that: a profound identity shift, a liquefaction of the self, a disorientation so deep that the old frameworks didn't come close to describing it. When I finally found the word matrescence, everything started to shift. Having language for the experience made it coherent, and making it coherent helped me find my footing.

That experience is why I do this work. I’m passionate about supporting mothers, people contemplating parenthood, and indeed those who are navigating any aspect of this transformative process because I have experienced how rich and wild this time can be, and also how we lack adequate language and supportive containers for this transition.

How I see therapy

I believe therapy is a sacred relationship. It’s not primarily about modalities or interventions (though these matter) but about the relationship, and what happens within it. I don't believe in fixing you. I don't believe you're broken, even if you are suffering. I believe you are already whole, and that much of our suffering happens when we live within systems and a culture that gives us no adequate container to voice and make meaning out of our challenges or guide us through our transitions, and when we lose contact with the healing, steadying light that exists within ourselves.

I practice psychodynamically, which means the relationship is the heart of the work. I draw on depth-oriented, IFS-informed, and Narrative approaches as languages for the deeper work of individuation. I like to weave in active imagination, meditation, and EMDR as vehicles for accessing deeper insight, underneath the level of the intellect, and integrating beyond the level of talk therapy. I see dreams, archetypes, myths, and personal narratives as wise resources. I make space for the numinous, for your specific understanding of meaning, purpose, and awe, and why you are here.

My credentials and experience

I am a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in New Hampshire (#1036) and a Registered Marriage & Family Therapist Associate in Oregon (#R8044). In addition to my MA in Marriage, Couple, & Family Therapy from Lewis & Clark College, I have formal training in perinatal mental health, and am currently in the process of completing my basic training in perinatal EMDR. I have been seeing clients since 2021, when I completed my graduate school internship in community mental health. Matrescence is a cornerstone of my writing, teaching, and research focus, and I develop courses and teach about this concept to therapists and professionals in the birth-care and perinatal world.