Dr. Marisa Perera, PhD

What you are feeling after pregnancy and birth is not just in your mind. It is in your body, your hormones, your nervous system, or your sense of who you even are anymore. As one of the few health psychologists in the country specializing in reproductive and perinatal mental health, I uniquely understand both the physiological and psychological sides of that experience, and I built my practice, Natal Counseling, so women would have a space dedicated to exactly this.

I spent my career specializing in postpartum depression, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and the full emotional weight of the reproductive journey, including infertility and pregnancy loss. My training as a medical psychologist means our work together goes beyond general therapy. You will learn to regulate your nervous system, understand why your body and mind are responding the way they are, and build real, lasting tools for accessing the version of yourself you want to be.

Beyond my private practice, I have volunteered on the Postpartum Support International crisis hotline, trained therapists in perinatal mental health and PTSD treatment across the globe, and have completed additional trainings with Postpartum Support International and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

My own journey through miscarriage, trying to conceive, high-risk pregnancy, and the layered anxiety of pregnancy after loss has deepened this work in ways that clinical training alone cannot. When you sit with me, you don’t have to explain why it feels this hard. I understand with my mind and body.

I specialize in postpartum depression and anxiety, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs), prenatal depression, pregnancy after loss, miscarriage and grief, birth trauma and postpartum PTSD, infertility and pregnancy after infertility, and the transition into parenthood… including the intergenerational patterns and inner child work that so often surfaces when we become a parent ourselves.

I offer virtual therapy to women in Miami, Florida, and throughout Florida, New York, and Michigan. My approach integrates nervous system regulation and Internal Family Systems, cutting-edge trauma-informed care, attachment-focused work, and cognitive and behavioral therapies. Our work together is always highly individualized to you, where you are at, and where you want to be. You don’t have to keep holding this alone.

Every woman I work with deserves to stop just surviving this and to access the mother and person she desires to be. My unique mind-body approach, rooted in my reproductive medical psychology background, is how we get there together.

Rates

• Per Session: $250
• Couples Session: $300

Dr. Marisa Perera, PhD Specializes in

• Acceptance and Commitment (ACT)
• Attachment-based
• Compassion Focused
• Culturally Sensitive
• Dialectical Behavioral (DBT)
• Emotionally Focused
• Internal Family Systems (IFS)
• Interpersonal
• Mindfulness-Based (MBCT)
• Narrative
• Psychodynamic
• Relational
• Strength-Based
• Trauma Focused

Issues treated

• Anxiety
• Birth Trauma
• Depression
• Grief and Loss
• Obsessive-Compulsive (OCD)
• Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorder (PMAD)
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Postpartum Depression
• Postpartum OCD

Specializes in Supporting These Ethnicities

• Black and African American
• Caribbean
• East Asian
• Hispanic and Latino
• Indigenous Peoples (including Native American)
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
• South Asian
• Southeast Asian

Experienced in Supporting These Groups & Communities

• Birth Trauma
• Immigrant or Refugee
• Infertility (Individuals & Couples)
• LGBTQ+
• People with Chronic Illness
• Primary Infertility (Individuals & Couples)
• Secondary Infertility (Individuals & Couples)

Ages

• Adults

What Insurance Plans are Accepted?

• Cash/Private Pay Accepted

Education and Experience

My background allowed me to train alongside physicians and medical teams to understand the full physiological picture of reproductive and perinatal mental health so I can best serve you today.

PhD, Clinical Health Psychology — University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida
Reproductive Psychology Fellowship — Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois
MS, Clinical Psychology & BA, Psychology & Spanish — University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Office Hours

Mon-Fri 9 AM - 5 PM

Languages

• English