← Groups & Workshops
For Mothers · In Person
Forming · a private conversation first

The Mother You Are Now

For the woman inside the mother — not just the baby’s needs, but yours.

Everyone asks about the baby. Almost no one asks about you. This is six weeks that do.

When
Weekends · TBD
Length
Six weeks · 90 min
Circle
Six to eight mothers
For
Mothers, on their own experience
Language
English · Ukrainian · Russian
Where
182 Tamarack Circle, Skillman, NJ 08558

Becoming a mother is one of the largest changes a person can go through — as big as adolescence, and just as disorienting — and yet it arrives with no name and very little room to speak the whole truth of it. There is love, deep and real. And alongside it there can be grief, exhaustion, invisibility, loneliness, a self you can’t quite find anymore, and a guilt about feeling any of that at all.

All of it can be true at once. None of it makes you a bad mother.

This group is for that — for the woman inside the mother, not the parenting techniques, not the baby’s schedule. It’s about the identity shift almost no one warned you about: the overwhelm, the mental load that never sets down, the love and the loss sitting side by side, and the slow work of finding yourself inside this new life rather than losing yourself to it. A short private conversation comes first, so we can make sure it’s the right fit for where you are now.

♡ ♡ ♡

What we make room for

Over six evenings, among a few other mothers who understand, we move through four movements.

Movement
One

The change no one named

That becoming a mother remade you, and the disorientation you feel is not failure. It even has a name: matrescence. Naming it is often the first relief.
Movement
Two

The love and the loss, both true

Permission to grieve the body, the freedom, the career, the self you were — without it meaning you love your child any less.
Movement
Three

The invisible load and the hard feelings

The overwhelm, the guilt, the resentment, the thoughts you’d never say out loud. Said out loud here, gently, among people who won’t flinch.
Movement
Four

Finding your way back to yourself

Not returning to who you were, but carrying her forward into who you’re becoming — on your own terms.
How it works

The group runs over six weeks, ninety minutes each, with six to eight mothers, in a small closed circle that stays the same from beginning to end. It’s held in English, Ukrainian, or Russian.

Because it holds tender things, it begins with a short, private conversation before it starts — so I can make sure it’s the right fit and the right moment for you, and point you toward more support if that’s what’s needed.

A practical note: I know leaving a small child for an evening isn’t always possible. Please ask about timing and whether babies-in-arms are welcome for the current group — I’d rather make it reachable than have you count yourself out.

For Ukrainian- and Russian-speaking mothers

In your own language

If you are mothering in a new country, you may be doing it without your own mother, your grandmother, the whole circle of women who traditionally holds a new mother close. That circle isn’t here — and the loneliness of that is real and rarely spoken. A group in your own language, among women who understand both the motherhood and the weight of building a life far from home, is one place to set some of it down. You don’t have to explain it in a second language here.

How payment works
$65 per person, per session
Six weeks · paid in full at enrollment

Groups run out-of-network and privately. Paying in full at enrollment holds your place for the whole series — and lets the group form as a stable, closed circle: the same people, from beginning to end.

Refunds

A full refund if you withdraw before the first session. In the first two weeks, a prorated refund or a credit toward a future group. Once the group has formed, the remaining sessions aren’t refundable — the circle was built around your place in it — but if something serious comes up, talk to me and we’ll find a fair way through.

Superbill

A superbill is available for possible partial reimbursement through your out-of-network benefits. Whether a group qualifies depends on its nature, so it’s best to check with your insurance company.

To begin — a short private conversation

If you love your child and still feel lost, tired, or unseen — if you’ve been carrying more than you let anyone see — you’re exactly who this is for. Reach out, and we’ll find out together whether this is the right next step for you.

Contact to begin
alesia@ivycounselinggroup.com (609) 688-8300
Where we meet 182 Tamarack Circle, Skillman, NJ 08558