The Power of the Postpartum Brain: Calming New Mom Anxiety
Most new mothers bring their infants to the doctor but ignore any distressing feelings or sensations they might themselves have―that sense of being “rattled” at many moments throughout the day and night. Dr. Nicole Pensak helps new mothers feel informed, validated, and guided through matrescence. After giving birth, a woman often feels like a completely different person. It may sound dramatic, but the rollercoaster of physical and psychological changes affects brain and body in a similar way that adolescence changes us. To compound that, many women hide these feelings, worrying that something is wrong with them.
Dr. Nicole Pensak is here to reassure us that being “rattled” is normal, and not at all surprising. After all, seismic changes in identity and emotion have occurred. Research shows that a woman’s brain shifts in real, biological ways very quickly after giving birth. Many women become hypervigilant, for good reason: the brain is telling her to stay alert because she has a human to keep alive and safe. While these brainpower boosts can cause anxious feelings, they can also help to manage the distress and harness the advantages of the postpartum brain. In fact, this is a time of neuroplasticity, when the brain is more receptive to positive reinforcement.
Trained at Yale and Harvard and certified in perinatal mental health, Dr. Pensak provides practical and emotional support, helping to relieve the anxiety and pressure for perfection in motherhood and paving the way for a better beginning for families and babies.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the risks and strengths of the postpartum brain and how to harness the changes to your advantage.
- Create a fool-proof postpartum mental health care plan.
- Better understand matrescence, mom guilt, mom shame, mom rage, and back to work.
About Instructor
Dr. Pensak received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from University of Rhode Island and completed her APA accredited internship and specialty training in behavioral medicine at Yale School of Medicine. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/ Harvard Medical School in psychiatric oncology and an NIH T32 fellowship at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Center in Aging and Palliative Care. As a Harvard and Yale-trained Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Pensak provides anxiety, depression, and trauma therapy that is empirically-based treatment that is uniquely tailored to meet the needs of each client. Prior to moving into full-time private practice, Dr. Pensak was the Director of Psycho-Oncology at Jersey Shore University Medical Center (JSUMC), Hope Tower. At JSUMC, she supervised and taught psychiatry residents how to provide Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to their patients. In addition, she directed the psychosocial oncology service, conducted research, and provided direct clinical services to patients with cancer. Prior to JSUMC, she was Assistant Scientist at Hackensack University Medical Center/John Theurer Cancer Center and Assistant Professor of Oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center.
Prior to that, she was Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine. She was a Career Development Award recipient from the National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC) for which she conducted technological intervention development and dissemination research for caregivers of patients with advanced illness. As a 2016 NPCRC Career Development Award grantee, she conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial of a mobilized intervention to help caregivers manage distress and to enhance intimacy.
Currently, Dr. Pensak specializes in treating postpartum mental health conditions, anxiety, OCD, depression, sexual dysfunction, and symptoms and side effects associated with medical issues (e.g., cancer, chronic medical conditions). Dr. Pensak is certified in Postpartum Mental Health. Dr. Pensak serves on the Expert Review Board of The Parents Magazine. Her new book RATTLED, How to Calm New Mom Anxiety with the Power of the Postpartum Brain, published by Norton, is available at bookstores nationwide. Dr. Pensak provides in-person therapy in Monmouth County, NJ and telehealth therapy in 40 states, nationwide.
