Your child is the patient.
But you need
support too.
When your child is seriously ill, your own mental health moves to the back of the line. The fear, grief, helplessness, and exhaustion you carry is real — and it has a name. Emily Newland, LCSW specializes in supporting parents through the weight of a child's medical journey.
Getting help for yourself is not selfish — it's how you stay present for your child. You cannot pour from an empty cup, and you deserve support just as much as they do.
Nobody prepares you for what it feels like
to watch your child suffer.
There's no roadmap for this. No one tells you how to hold it together in the hospital waiting room, how to answer your other kids' questions, or how to explain to people who don't understand why you still aren't "over it."
Parents of medically complex children experience some of the highest rates of anxiety, depression, and PTSD of any population — and receive the least support, because all attention goes to the child. You are expected to be strong. To cope. To keep going.
Therapy gives you somewhere to put all of it. Not to fix you — you are not broken. But to give you the support, space, and tools you deserve.
"Studies show that up to 40% of NICU parents and parents of chronically ill children meet criteria for PTSD, depression, or clinically significant anxiety — yet the vast majority never receive treatment."
If any of these is your story,
you're in the right place.
NICU Parents
The beeping monitors. The tubes. Not being able to hold your baby. The guilt of leaving to sleep. NICU trauma is real, lasting, and deeply undertreated — even years after your baby comes home.
Post-Diagnosis Families
Receiving a serious diagnosis for your child — cancer, a rare disease, a heart condition — can feel like the ground disappearing beneath you. The grief and fear deserve real support.
Chronically Ill Children
When your child has an ongoing condition — diabetes, epilepsy, autoimmune disease — you live in a state of constant hypervigilance. Chronic parental stress is its own form of trauma.
Anticipatory Grief
Grieving a child you haven't lost yet — while also being their caregiver — is one of the most complex emotional experiences a human can have. You deserve a space to feel all of it.
Medical Trauma Survivors
Sometimes the trauma shows up later — after the crisis is over and you're "supposed to be" relieved. Flashbacks, hypervigilance, and avoidance are signs your nervous system is still protecting you.
Couples & Co-Parents
Medical stress strains relationships in ways that are hard to talk about. Partners often grieve differently, cope differently, and can feel deeply alone even when they're in it together.
Therapy built around where you actually are.
There's no timeline for healing. No "right" way to feel. Emily's approach starts with deep listening — understanding your specific situation, your family, and what you're carrying — before anything else.
Sessions are available mornings, afternoons, and evenings on weekdays to work around hospital schedules, appointments, and the unpredictability of medical parenting.
Free 15-Minute Consultation
A simple call. You share your situation. Emily shares how she works. No forms, no pressure.
Intake & First Session
Video session from home. Emily takes time to truly understand your story before anything else happens.
Personalized Ongoing Work
Weekly or biweekly sessions, at your pace. Practical tools. Real progress you can feel.
Therapeutic Approaches Emily Uses
- EMDR — for processing traumatic memories and medical trauma
- Trauma-Informed CBT — restructuring fear-based thought patterns
- Grief Therapy — for ambiguous, anticipatory, and complicated grief
- Attachment-Based Work — reconnecting with yourself and your family
- ACT — living fully despite uncertainty
Common questions from parents like you.
You've been holding this long enough.
Let someone help.
Free 15-minute consultation. No forms first. No pressure. Just a conversation.