For ParentsTherapy for Parents in Boston and Across Massachusetts
Support that honors your intuition and your nervous system.
Online across Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and South Carolina. In-person parent circles in Medford.
Bilingual, Spanish and English
Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker
EMDRIA Certified Therapist
EMDRIA Approved Consultant
Online, five states
Parent circles in Great Boston, MA
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner in Training
Nurture Neuroscience Practitioner
Bilingual, Spanish and English Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker EMDRIA Certified Therapist EMDRIA Approved Consultant Online, five states Parent circles in Great Boston, MA Somatic Experiencing Practitioner in Training Nurture Neuroscience Practitioner
Sound familiar?
Does this sound like you?
Parenting can bring up everything. You want to be present and regulated, yet find yourself overwhelmed, reactive, or disconnected, especially when your child is dysregulated or you're facing hard parenting decisions.
Maybe you snapped at your kid over something small and spent the rest of the night replaying it. Maybe the baby is finally asleep and you are wide awake, running through everything you might be getting wrong. Maybe you have read the books, listened to the podcasts and asked the group chat, and somehow all that advice has made it harder to hear yourself.
Many of the parents I work with are deeply intuitive and loving but feel pulled away from their own inner wisdom by social pressure, conflicting advice, or old patterns being stirred up.
If that is you, nothing is wrong with you. Parenting asks more of your nervous system than almost anything else in adult life, and it does so at exactly the point when you have the least time to tend to it.
The work
Why parenting brings up so much, and how therapy for parents helps
Therapy for parents is therapy that works with you as a person first, with parenting as the place where your own patterns show up most clearly. It is not about learning a script for the next tantrum. It is about understanding why the tantrum lands in your body the way it does, and giving that part of you what it needed back then, so it does not have to run the show now.
Your child's big feelings are contagious in a very literal way. Nervous systems pick up on each other, and a dysregulated child pulls on a parent's system whether the parent likes it or not. That is not a flaw. It is the same wiring that lets you soothe your child simply by being steady. The trouble comes when your own system is carrying old, unfinished stress. Then your child's cry or defiance or clinginess does not just land in the present. It lands on top of everything it reminds you of.
That is why reactivity so often looks bigger than the moment. You are not only responding to a four-year-old who will not put their shoes on. You are responding to what it felt like to be four, or fourteen, with nobody steady beside you.
I support parents in regulating their own nervous systems and meeting the unmet needs of their younger parts, so they can attune to and co-regulate with their children in real time. Our work helps you meet your own unmet needs with compassion, allowing you to show up as the grounded, embodied parent you want to and can be.
You do not have to have it figured out first
Parents often wait to reach out until things feel more manageable, as though therapy is something you earn by getting your act together. It works the other way around. The middle of it, when you are tired and reactive and unsure, is exactly when this work is most useful.
You also do not need a story that sounds serious enough. Some parents come to me after a hard birth, a loss, or a childhood they are only now seeing clearly. Others come because ordinary life with small children has quietly depleted them out, and they miss aspects of themselves. All are real reasons. All are welcome.
Who this is for
Who I work with
New parents and the first year
Therapy for new parents looks different from therapy at other stages, because the first year is a season of broken sleep, a changed body, a changed relationship and an identity that has shifted under your feet. Sessions are online so you can join from home, and we work with what is actually possible in your week rather than what an ideal week would allow. If you are pregnant, this is also a good time to begin. The nervous system you bring into the birth room is the one your baby meets first.
Parents whose own childhood is surfacing
Becoming a parent has a way of reopening your own early years. You hear your mother's voice come out of your mouth. You feel a flash of anger at your child that frightens you. You realize you are parenting against something, and you are not sure what. This is the heart of my work with parents: processing what happened to you, so you can respond to your child from the present rather than the past.
Moms carrying more than their share
Therapy for moms often starts with exhaustion and ends up somewhere deeper. The mental load, the guilt that arrives no matter which choice you make, the sense that everyone's needs are visible except your own. We look at where that pattern comes from, and what it would take to let yourself matter inside your own family.
Parents of sensitive, big-feeling children
If your child feels everything intensely, there is a good chance you do too. Many of the parents I see identify as highly sensitive people raising highly sensitive kids. The goal is not to make either of you less sensitive. It is to give you enough steadiness that their intensity has somewhere safe to land.
All parents are welcome here, including fathers, non-birthing parents, adoptive and foster parents, single parents and LGBTQ+ families. I grew up in a queer household myself, and I work from a foundation of cultural humility.
The approach
How I work with parents
Everything moves at the pace of your nervous system. We start with what happens in your body when things get hard at home, and we build steadiness there before we go toward anything painful. Depending on what you need, I draw on:
I am trained as a Nurture Neuroscience Practitioner, which grounds my work in the science behind nurturing, co-regulation and attunement in the early years of parenting, and gives me practical tools to support parents through the hard moments of baby sleep, tears and dysregulation.
EMDR
For the specific memories and beliefs that parenting keeps pressing on, such as "I am failing" or "I am on my own with this." I am an EMDRIA Certified Therapist and EMDRIA Approved Consultant. About EMDR
Somatic Experiencing
For the stress responses that live below words: the clenched jaw, the flooding, the shutdown when the noise gets too much. I am a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner in Training. About trauma work
Brainspotting
For patterns that feel stuck and hard to reach through talking, including parenting triggers that trace back to your own childhood. I am Phase 1 trained, with Phase 2 training in November 2026.
Parts work and mindfulness
I draw on parts work-informed approaches to help you get to know the younger parts of you that show up when you parent, and mindfulness runs through all of it.
Over time
What can change
You notice the surge of reactivity earlier, and find a moment of choice before you act on it.
Repair after a hard moment comes more easily, for you and for your child.
Your child's big feelings feel less like an emergency in your own body.
You can hear advice without losing your sense of what your family needs.
Old patterns from your own childhood loosen their grip on how you parent.
You start to matter in your own household again.
None of this is about becoming a parent who never loses it. It is about becoming a parent who can find the way back, and who can show their child how to do the same.
Ways to work together
Individual therapy for parents
For parents who are noticing old pains resurfacing through parenting and want space to process these past experiences so they can be the present and attuned parents they want to be.
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Weekly sessions
45 to 50 minutes
Steady, ongoing work at a pace that fits around family life.
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Extended sessions
90 minutes
Room to go deeper in a single sitting. Especially useful for EMDR and somatic work.
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Intensives
With a personalized workbook
Concentrated work over a shorter period, for parents who want to move through something specific without months of weekly sessions.
All sessions are online, and I am licensed to see clients in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and South Carolina. I am an out-of-network provider and can give you a superbill to submit to your insurance for possible reimbursement.
Community circles for parents in Medford, Massachusetts
Alongside one-to-one therapy, I am building in-person circles for pregnant and postpartum parents in the Greater Boston area. These are small parent support groups grounded in mindfulness and community, for people who want to slow down and connect with themselves, their babies and each other during a season that can be surprisingly lonely.
Pregnancy Circles
For pregnant people who want to slow down, deepen self-connection, and build relationships with their babies in utero through mindfulness, self-awareness, and community.
Postpartum Baby & Parent Circles
Postpartum support to strengthen self-connection and co-regulation with your baby through mindfulness, practical tools, and community.
Getting startedWhat a first session is like
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We start with a free 15-minute call. You tell me a little about what is happening at home, I tell you how I work, and we both get a sense of whether it feels like a fit. There is nothing to prepare.
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If we go ahead, the first few sessions are about getting to know you, your family and what brought you now. We begin building body-based tools for grounding early, so you have something to use between sessions when things get loud. We do not go toward anything difficult until you have your footing.
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You do not have to tell the whole story. You do not need a clear goal beyond wanting things to feel different at home. We start where you are.
Meet your therapist
About your therapist
I'm Liza Detenber, a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) based in Medford, Massachusetts. Before private practice I worked with children, teens and their families in a public middle school, an inpatient hospital and a residential program, which is where I learned that a child's regulation and a parent's regulation are rarely separate questions. Today I work with parents who want to understand their own reactions, tend to their own younger parts, and trust their instincts again.
As a mother and someone who identifies as a Highly Sensitive Person, I know how uncomfortable it can feel to be stuck in overwhelm and self-judgment. I am bilingual in Spanish and English. Este es un espacio donde eres bienvenida/o tal como eres.
Training relevant to this work
EMDRIA Certified Therapist
The recognized clinical certification in EMDR
EMDRIA Approved Consultant
Trusted to train and consult with other therapists using EMDR
Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW)
MSW, Smith College School for Social Work
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner in Training
Brainspotting, Phase 1 trained
Nurture Neuroscience Practitioner
ARC (Attachment, Regulation, and Competency) Training
SMART (Sensory Motor Arousal and Regulation Therapy) Foundations
Internal Family Systems Introductory Training
Yoga Teacher Training (RYT-200)
LocationsWhere I work
I see parents online across Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and South Carolina. I am based in Medford, just north of Boston, and work with parents throughout the Greater Boston area, including Somerville, Cambridge, Arlington, Malden, Melrose and Winchester, as well as across the state. In-person parent circles are held in Medford.
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Rhode Island
New Jersey
South Carolina
Frequently Asked Questions
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Therapy for parents is individual therapy that treats parenting as the place your own patterns show up most clearly. We work on you, not on a parenting technique. The difference is the lens: we pay close attention to what your child's behavior stirs up in your nervous system, and where that reaction was learned, so you can respond from the present rather than the past.
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No. Some parents I see are dealing with postpartum anxiety or depression, and some carry a trauma history. Many simply feel overwhelmed, reactive or far from themselves, and want that to change. You do not need a label to begin.
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I work with mothers, fathers, non-birthing parents, adoptive and foster parents, and pregnant people. Much of my work is with moms, and the mental load and guilt that so often come with that role, but every parent is welcome.
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Yes, and the first year is often when it helps most. Sessions are online, so there is no travel, and it is fine if your baby is with you. We work around feeds, naps and interrupted sleep rather than pretending they are not happening.
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Both, but the work centers on you. Your child's behavior will come up constantly, because it is the trigger. What we are actually working with is your response to it, and what that response is protecting.
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A parenting trigger is your body reacting to the present as if it were the past. Somatic therapy works directly with that bodily reaction, helping your nervous system finish old stress responses and learn that the present moment is safer than it feels. Over time the surge comes later, lands softer and passes sooner, which gives you room to choose how you respond.
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I am building in-person Pregnancy Circles and Postpartum Baby & Parent Circles in Medford, Massachusetts. These are small mindfulness-based support groups for pregnant and new parents. Sign up on this page to be notified when dates are set.
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I am an out-of-network provider. I can provide a superbill after each session for you to submit to your insurance for possible reimbursement, and I am happy to talk through what that involves in our first call.
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Individual therapy is online, and I am licensed in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and South Carolina. The parent circles are in person in Medford, Massachusetts.
Ready to parent from steadier ground?
Book a free 15-minute call. There is nothing to prepare, and it is fine if the baby is on your lap or we get interrupted. That is the life I work in too.