Not feeling the joy you expected is one of the most common and least talked about experiences in the postpartum period. It is often a symptom of postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, or unresolved birth trauma.

It does not mean you are a bad mother. It means you need support.

You love your child. You know you do.

But the feeling everyone promised — the overwhelming joy, the instant rightness of it — has not arrived the way you expected. Or it arrived briefly and then quietly disappeared.

Now you watch other mothers at the Balboa Park playground and wonder what is wrong with you.

Call us (858) 289-0671 or Book your free 15-minute consultation.

Nothing is wrong with you.

What you are likely experiencing has a clinical explanation. Common reasons mothers stop enjoying motherhood include:

• Postpartum Depression — which does not always look like sadness. It often looks like flatness, disconnection, going-through-the-motions, or simply feeling nothing when you expect to feel everything.
• Postpartum Anxiety — which keeps you so focused on what could go wrong that you cannot be present for what is going right.
• Unprocessed Birth Trauma — which creates a psychological distance between you and the early parenting experience, clouding bonding and presence.
• Chronic Exhaustion and Isolation — which deplete the emotional reserves required to feel anything beyond survival.

Any one of these is enough. Many mothers are carrying all four.

Karem Smith, LMFT at EMDR Healing Therapy in San Diego provides a nonjudgmental, warm space where you can say exactly what you wrote in the search bar — and be met with compassion and a real plan, not platitudes.

Serving mothers across San Diego in Pacific Beach, North Park, Mission Valley, Hillcrest, and via telehealth across California.

You deserve to enjoy this.

Call us (858) 289-0671 or Book your free 15-minute consultation.