Mia De Palma | Psychologist
Mia De Palma
helping women come home to themselves
You have tried everything...
Yet you still feel stuck
Disconnected from who you really are
you can't remember the last time you laughed just because
Thinking about the day ahead leaves you feeling exhausted before you've even gotten out of bed
Pause for a second. Now imagine waking up in the morning without that familiar feeling of dread sitting in your chest.
Instead of wondering how you're going to make it through the day, you feel a quiet confidence that you'll meet whatever comes.
Motherhood begins to feel lighter. It isn’t suddenly easy, but you trust yourself now. You know you don't have to be the perfect mother to be the mother your child needs.
You find yourself laughing again.
You look around and many parts of life are the same, but something within you has begun to shift.
You have the energy not only for the things you need to do, but for the things that bring you joy.
And you start asking for the space to actually do them. You start remembering who you were before life became one long list of responsibilities.
You look around and the washing is still on the couch. The toys are still scattered across the floor. But somehow, you're not spiralling. You know there will be time to tidy later. Right now, you're sitting in the morning sun with a warm cup of coffee, fully present in the moment.
Something has been knocked over. Someone is crying. Normally, your whole body would be tense, already on the edge of losing your cool. But in this moment, something feels different.
You pause.
There is space.
And in that space, you remember that you are safe. That this moment will pass. That you don't have to be perfect. That you already have what you need within you.
I am passionate about working with women and mothers because I really understand what it’s like to move through the world carrying the weight of so badly wanting to get it right. Of wanting to not make mistakes and be perfect all of the time. Of feeling afraid that getting it wrong means not being wanted or loved. This is the story I have walked for as long as I can remember.
Halfway through my PhD in Clinical Psychology I was diagnosed with ADHD. Suddenly, so many pieces of my life began to make sense. I understood why everything had felt so much harder than it seemed to for other people, why I had spent much of my life pushing myself beyond my limits, and why striving had become such a familiar way of being in the world.
My Story
After completing my clinical training I spent several years working in public child and adolescent mental health across community and hospital settings. During those years I really witnessed how change can happen when someone deeply listens and sees you as you are, without any agenda or pressure.
At the same time, I was completing a PhD exploring the transition to motherhood. I had immersed myself in the research. I'd published in the field of perinatal mental health and believed I understood this season of life as well as anyone could before living it myself.
And then I became a mother.
Motherhood unravelled me.
The very fibres of my being had changed.
Who was I in the world now?
I have walked the path of birth trauma, sleeplessness beyond comprehension, feeling alone and isolated, and looking at my relationship wondering "How did we get here?"
Like many of the women I now work with, I believed that if I just learnt enough, did more and tried harder, I could finally be enough.
But motherhood was asking something different. It asked me to slow down, to understand what it actually looks like to ask for and receive support. To deeply feel my emotions and to meet with parts of myself I had tried to escape.
Only in motherhood did I begin to understand the profound power of deep self-compassion and validation. I learnt what it meant to create enough safety to stay with my own feelings. And through this I found I could be with my daughter's feelings too.
This experience changed everything for me, and it has profoundly shaped the work I offer now.
I so deeply believe in the power of connection. In the shifts that can happen when someone is willing to truly be with us, exactly as we are. To hold us in our pain
I want to walk beside other women and be with them as they come back into connection with who they have always been.
Today, I work with women who feel exhausted from carrying so much.
Women who have spent years trying to understand themselves, reading the books, listening to the podcasts and doing everything they can to feel
better, yet still find themselves feeling stuck.
Together, we will slow down.
We will get curious, and we will begin listening to what your body has been holding.
At the heart of my work is the relationship we build together.
When we begin to feel what is there to be felt and to create enough safety in our bodies to experience what has been too overwhelming to feel, our experience of ourselves and our life begins to shift.
This work is not about trying harder.
It's about learning to meet ourselves with compassion, curiosity and connection.
Only then can we begin finding who we really are underneath everything we have been carrying.
Working together
Get in Touch
I currently offer online therapy to women anywhere in Australia. If my approach resonates with you, I'd love to hear from you. Fill out the form below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.