Therapy for the Mental Load
Virtual therapy in Massachusetts
This is nothing like what you thought motherhood would look like (or feel like).
You pictured coming home from a your dream job after a long day to your child waiting for you with open arms, an easy home cooked meal already prepped by your husband, but it’s not like that at all.
If you stop, it all stops. Everything has been placed on your shoulders, without hesitation. And you watch as your partner continues to climb their mountain leaving you behind in nothing but a shirt covered in the night sweats and your leaked breastmilk.
It's time to tear up the job description nobody hired you for.
The pediatrician appointments you booked because you knew no one else would think to. Memorizing nap schedules, snack and “lovey” preferences, and noticing whose grown out of their shoes and buying new ones.
You struggle to remember where you left your hot coffee but you know where your son left his cleats at 6:03pm on a Tuesday when he got home from soccer practice.
Together, we'll resign from being the invisible project manager of an entire household. You’ll learn to drop the heavy weight of resentment that you’ve been carrying and the guilt that comes along with snapping at those you love when you’re at your wits end.
What lessening the load will feel like.
Picture it. Spontaneously saying “honey, I’m headed to the gym” without having to tell your partner when the baby has to go down for a nap, or when they have to eat next. And did I also mention without feeling rushed to come back?
Finally reconnecting with your partner and falling more in love with them now as parents than you did across that college bar when you first saw them.
Think about having the patience to calm your screaming child in the midst of you peeling that banana they wanted to peel themselves.
And that spa day you've been wanting to take without having to plan your children’s entire day with you gone?
It’s booked for next Tuesday.
And I know what you’re probably thinking. “This all sounds GREAT Ali, but we both know that if I stop doing everything, the household will fall apart”.
I hear you and that fear makes sense, especially if you’ve never had reliable backup. In sessions, we get specific and practical about your life.. what’s actually yours to carry versus what you’ve been handed without discussion. We build real support around you, whether that’s people in your life you haven’t let in or paid help you give yourself permission to use-guilt free.
I can help you get rid of the weight
I know I can because I’ve been there. I’m a therapist, but alongside that I’m a working mom handling it all: the late night lunch packing, the frustrated one being the “go-to” person picking up the kids sick from daycare and the “oh shit, we’re out of diapers”.. and along with that the“wait, why am I the only one that knows we’re out of diapers!”
I built this practice because I needed to: a place for high-achieving mothers to stop white-knuckling it through motherhood (seemingly alone) and start actually feeling supported.
I get because I am in it.
Reclaim Yourself. Reclaim Your Peace.
The world doesn't need you to carry it all and neither does your family. Stop managing the chaos and start showing up for the life you actually worked for. Let's lighten the load together.
Mental Load Therapy: Frequently Asked Questions
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The Mental Load is the cognitive labor of managing a household (the appointments, the groceries, the nap schedule leaps). It’s not just the noticing, its also the planning and executing. When this load is unequal, it keeps your nervous system in a state of chronic "fight or flight." We audit this load together to find a sustainable path forward.
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Resentment in a partnership rarely means you chose the wrong person. It usually means the labor in your household has become deeply unequal in ways that were never explicitly discussed or agreed upon. When you are the default parent, the household manager, the emotional regulator for everyone, and the full-time professional all at once- resentment is a logical response, not a character flaw. In therapy, we don't pathologize the resentment. We treat it as data: it's pointing at something real that needs to change.
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Most mental load conversations fail because they happen when one person is already at their breaking point; which means the conversation starts in defense mode on both sides. In therapy, we work on the timing, framing, and specific language that actually lands. We also look at what's underneath the pattern for you specifically: whether that's a fear of conflict, a belief that asking for help is weakness, or simply not having a script for this kind of conversation. It's a skill, and it's learnable.
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It's both, and separating the two is part of what makes it so hard to address. The chronic cognitive overload of being the default parent- tracking every appointment, every developmental milestone, every household need -keeps your nervous system in a state of low-grade, ongoing stress that is genuinely a mental health issue. It contributes directly to anxiety, burnout, and depression. Addressing it requires both the relational work (shifting the dynamic with your partner) and the internal work (why you took it on, what keeps it in place, and how to change it sustainably).
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Yes. “More than most” is not the same as shared, and you are not obligated to feel grateful for a baseline that still leaves you carrying the majrity of the load. Comparisons to other generations or households is one of the things that keeps moms silent about their exhaustion because someone always has it harder. Your experience is valid on its own terms. If you’re depleted, resentful, and running on empty, that matters regardless of how your partner stacks up against other partners.
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Virtual therapy for the mental load and burnout is person-centered, flexible process designed to help you offload labor, regulate a stressed nervous system, and create a practical plan for your specific life. It will not be a place for partner-blaming. It’s for the person who wants to make noticeable change and reconnection with their partner.
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Yes! My entire practice is virtual to aid in the lessening the load. I see clients throughout Massachusetts.