Co-Create Art Therapy & Reproductive Mental Health
  • Home
  • Services
  • About
  • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • News
  • Services
  • Home
  • Services
  • About
  • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • News
  • Services
Search

The Art of "Mommy Brain"

5/15/2022

0 Comments

 
The term “mommy brain" is used jokingly and sometimes critically to describe the mental “mush” that results from the day to day stress of being a primary caregiver in today’s world.
Picture
To me, it’s a frequent “tip of the tongue” feeling during conversation that falls somewhere along the spectrum of postpartum sleep deprivation and COVID brain fog. The juggling act of balancing a career, the mental load of daily domestication, the unique stressors of pandemic parenting of littles, the full time job of nursing an infant in the midst of a national formula shortage, the existential angst about the future of women’s reproductive rights… all involve just enough cognitive exertion to render us speechless at times, grasping for the right words to capture just exactly how we're feeling at the end of a given day. Emojis help.



Studies have shown that there are indeed physiological forces at play that contribute to this communication deficit–that the language processing center of the brain where verbal recall happens is underutilized after the birth of a new baby, while the social-emotional brain centers are lit up like New Years in Las Vegas. Creating, sustaining, protecting, and consistently attuning to a nonverbal, fully dependent creature involves a kind of hypervigilance that occupies most of a mother’s headspace.

​
Here is where the value of mark-making and an expressive creative process come in, as a fundamental means of giving form to, organizing, deconstructing, containing, or releasing an otherwise indescribable inner experience. More than just an outlet or hobby, but as a lifeline, keeping us connected to ourselves, so that we can continue taking care of everything and everybody else. #theartofmommybrain #neuroscience #arttherapy #cocreatearttherapy #maternalmentalhealth

Sharon Itkoff Nacache
0 Comments

Maternal Mental Health Month

5/2/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture

​May is Maternal Mental Health month. ​​According to leading institutions on maternal mental health, Seleni Institute, Postpartum Support International, and The Postpartum Stress Center:

*Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (a.k.a. PMADs), are one of the most common medical complications related to child-bearing, affecting roughly 1 in 5 new mothers (w/ much higher rates in low income communities.)

*Suicide is 1 of 3 leading causes of maternal death (along with gestational diabetes and preeclampsia) conditions that are routinely checked for, diagnosed, and treated. However, PMADs are widely unrecognized and under-diagnosed due to lack of public awareness or routine screenings, as well as deep-rooted stigmas around mental illness.
Singer, songwriter, and mother of 3 Alanis Morissette has become a pop culture spokesperson for PMAD survivors. She shares, “When I was in the thick of it, some people would say, ‘Oh, she just needs to go for a walk. Or, ‘She just needs some sleep! But news flash: It’s so multilayered. It’s biochemical, it’s neurochemical, it’s circumstantial, it’s environmental. It’s not just one thing, it's not a quick fix."

Thankfully, after therapy, medication, and sublimating her suffering into her creative work and producing two subsequent albums,” Morrissette shares, “I feel like I have myself back,” she said. “I didn’t have access to her for so long."


#arttherapyheals #NoParentAlone #IGotBetter #LiveintheLight #PMADs #Postpartum #Pregnancy #PostpartumDepression #PostpartumAnxiety #PostpartumPsychosis #PostpartumPTSD #PostpartumOCD #Moms #NewMoms #Motherhood #MaternalMentalHealth #MaternalMentalHealthMatters

Art by Paula Kuka of Common Wild
​Post by Sharon Itkoff Nacache

0 Comments
    Picture

    Blog Posts

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

All Website Content © Sharon Itkoff Nacache 2025

  • Home
  • Services
  • About
  • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • News
  • Services