Palmetto Psychology Clinic
(628) 285-1745 Book an appointment
A mother sits laughing while her young child hugs her from behind, in a bright kitchen.

Currently accepting new clients across California

Therapy for the part of motherhood no one warned you about.

Palmetto Psychology Clinic is an online practice built entirely around pregnancy and postpartum. Every clinician here is supervised or licensed by the California Board of Psychology, and we can see you anywhere in California — whenever the baby is asleep.

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Founded by

Three clinical psychologists

Our psychologists hold

A Psy.D. or Ph.D.

Licensed by

The California Board of Psychology

Sessions

Online, statewide

If any of this sounds familiar,
you're in the right place.

You've googled things at 3 a.m. that you would never say out loud.

You love your baby completely and you still want to disappear for a week.

Scary thoughts arrive out of nowhere, and what frightens you most is what they might mean about you.

You keep waiting for it to feel the way everyone promised it would feel.

You're doing everything right, and you still feel like you're failing at this.

You're not pregnant yet or you're grieving a loss, and no one seems to understand why you're still not okay.

None of these means you are a bad mother. These experiences are all so common during postpartum — and having them does not mean you aren't cut out for this. We're here to help, and nothing you say will surprise us.

Talk to a psychologist who gets it →

Nine focus areas · all perinatal

What we help with

Every one of these is a reason people come to us. Not one of them is too small or too strange to bring to a first session.

Pregnancy & postpartum mental health

The whole span — from deciding whether and when to try for your first baby through the toddler years.

New motherhood & identity

You're becoming someone new. We'll help you find your footing without leaving who you were behind.

Fertility challenges & pregnancy loss

Grief that may feel invisible to the world. We will help you feel seen.

Postpartum anxiety

The checking, the racing thoughts, the feeling that something terrible is about to happen.

Postpartum depression

Not just sadness. Numbness, rage, dread, and the exhaustion that sleep doesn't fix.

Intrusive thoughts & perinatal OCD

The thoughts that terrify you most. They're more common than anyone tells you, and they respond to treatment.

Birth trauma

A difficult or distressing birth can have a lasting emotional impact. If you're struggling with what happened, your experience matters.

Body image & disordered eating

Motherhood changed your body. It may have changed your relationship with it, too.

Relationships & couples

You became parents. Now you’re figuring out how to be partners again.
Not sure which one fits? That's what the free consult is for. →

Why this practice and not another one

What makes Palmetto different

There are a lot of good therapists in California. Here's what you get here that you won't get everywhere.

This is all we do.

Palmetto isn't a general practice with a perinatal specialty tucked in the corner. Every client we see is somewhere on the road between trying to conceive and finding their footing as a parent. That focus changes things. You won't spend your first three sessions explaining what a fourth trimester is, why your OB's reassurance didn't help, or what it's actually like to be awake at 4 a.m. with a baby who won't latch. We already know. We can start with what's happening to you.

Our psychologists hold additional certifications or have completed advanced trainings in perinatal mental health.

You'll be working with a psychologist.

Every psychologist at Palmetto holds a doctorate — a Psy.D. or Ph.D. in clinical psychology — and is licensed by the California Board of Psychology. We also offer lower-fee therapy with four doctoral trainees, each supervised weekly by a licensed clinical psychologist. That means five to seven years of graduate training, a full-time clinical internship, supervised postdoctoral hours, and a national licensing exam.

Practically, it means your therapist is trained not just to support you but to assess — to tell the difference between postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety presenting as irritability, between intrusive thoughts that signal OCD and intrusive thoughts that signal something else, between a hard adjustment and something that needs a psychiatric consult this week. Getting that distinction right early is often the difference between six months of treatment and two years of it.

You can start now.

One of the hardest things about struggling with a perinatal mental health disorder is the timing. The window when you most need help is exactly the window when you have the least capacity to fight for it — and the standard answer in California is a six-week wait for an intake, if someone calls you back at all.

We built Palmetto so that wouldn't be the answer here — we maintain immediate availability, so we're always accepting new clients, right now. Sessions are online, so there's no drive, no parking garage, and no getting a newborn into a car seat to go tell a stranger you're not okay.

Book an appointment Meet the psychologists →

Book directly with the clinician you choose

How booking works

You choose the clinician, and you choose whether to start with a free call or go straight to a first session.

  1. Pick who you want to see.

    Every clinician has their own booking link, so you are not routed through a queue. If you would rather we matched you, book with Anni and she will find the right fit.

  2. Choose a free call, or book the first session.

    A free 20-minute phone consultation if you want to get a feel for someone first, or go straight to a first session if you are ready to get started.

  3. A short questionnaire, then you're booked.

    A few basic questions before the appointment is confirmed. Sessions are by video, from wherever you are. Babies are welcome on screen. So are pajamas.

The consultation is free and nothing is charged until a session is scheduled.

Seven licensed psychologists · four doctoral trainees

The people you'd actually be talking to

All practicing across California, and every one of them chose this work on purpose.

Kelly Showen, Psy.D., licensed psychologist at Palmetto Psychology.

Kelly Showen, Psy.D.

Licensed Clinical Psychologist · PSY35288
Perinatal mental health · Anxiety & Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Waitlist

Four student therapists, at $95 a session

Meghan Brown, M.S., Kaety Kohlhorst, Ariana Esfahani, M.S. and Ayala Tzadikario see clients under weekly supervision by Julia Birt, Caroline Dickens, Meghan Goulet and Megan Turner-Cabrera.

See all clinicians →

Every license number above is public — you can check any of them at the California Board of Psychology. Trained at the PAU–Stanford Psy.D. Consortium, the Stanford Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the UC San Diego/VA San Diego Consortium, and VA programs in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Pittsburgh and Las Vegas.

Sometimes the thing you need most is other mothers.

Our groups are led by our psychologists and doctoral trainees — not peer-facilitated — and built around a specific experience: Return, for going back to work, and The Parenthood Question, for deciding whether to have a child. Small, online, and full of people who will not be shocked by anything you say.

Each group prices its own series — the figure is on every group page.

See current groups and start dates →

Questions people ask before they book

Is what I’m feeling bad enough for therapy?

This is the most common question we get, and it’s usually asked by someone who has been struggling for months. There’s no severity threshold. If it’s affecting your life, your relationships, or your ability to enjoy your baby, that’s enough. Come find out.

I have thoughts about my baby that scare me. Can I say that out loud?

Yes. Please. Unwanted intrusive thoughts are one of the most common experiences of the postpartum period and one of the least talked about, precisely because women are terrified of how they’ll be received. Having them is not the same as wanting them or being at risk of acting on them, and they respond well to treatment. Our clinicians are trained specifically in this.

Can my partner come?

Yes. We offer couples and family sessions, and partners are welcome in individual sessions when it’s clinically useful. Partners have a perinatal mental health experience too, and it’s often ignored.

How much does it cost?

Individual therapy is $295–$400 per session, couples and family therapy is $400–$500, and we offer lower-fee therapy at $95 with our student therapists. Full details are on our fees page.

Where in California do you see clients?

Everywhere. Our psychologists are licensed in California and see clients online statewide — Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, the Central Valley, and everywhere in between.

How long will I be in therapy?

It depends on what’s going on. Some people come for eight to twelve weeks around a specific crisis. Others stay through a whole postpartum year or into a second pregnancy. We’ll talk about it openly at the start and revisit it as we go.

Read all the questions →

You don't have to keep white-knuckling this.

Book a call with one of our clinicians. No cost, no commitment, and no need to have the right words ready.

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