Hi, I’m Emilie Martin — the mother, wife, therapeutic listener, experienced confidante, and woman behind Motherheard, here to support you as you find yourself in motherhood.

Through miscarriage, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, the process of becoming a mom (as well as witnessing the transformation of mothers around me) has awakened my awe for and desire to encourage women in the complexities — psychological, emotional, spiritual, somatic — of their unfolding matrescence.

My background is in psychotherapy/mental health care, international humanitarianism, and the Arts (including professional music and writing). I hold an M.S. in Counseling Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy and Professional Clinical Counseling from Dominican University of California and a B.S. in History from Westmont College. In the past, I volunteered extensively for a nonprofit’s medical and humanitarian missions among displaced communities in Jordan, in a children’s trauma treatment center for Syrian refugees in Amman, and in humanitarian relief efforts and crisis response on Lesvos. These experiences — tightly woven with hearing heart-wrenching stories from parents, women, and children of loss, displacement, physical violence, and other traumas — catapulted me into pursuing mental health as a career, with the desire to support families on their journeys back toward wholeness.

Before becoming a mom, I worked with children, adolescents, young adults, and parents/families as an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFTA), Mental Health Professional (MHP), and Child Mental Health Specialist (CMHS) in Washington, both via telehealth and in-person at a community mental health clinic. Prior, I provided school-based individual and group psychotherapy for adolescents, supervised by Bay Area Community Resources (BACR), and worked with teens in outpatient and residential treatment programs in the SF Bay Area. I have worked with clients struggling with trauma and abuse, grief and loss, depression, anxiety, self-harm, and life transitions, as well as gender and identity, neurodivergence, spirituality, and relationship and family issues.

Over thousands of clinical hours, my approach to being alongside and supporting clients in their ongoing healing and growth processes sought to be collaborative, client-centered, trauma-informed, culturally competent, somatically aware, evidence-based, and of course, based on the fundamental tenets of unconditional positive regard, empathy, and the therapeutic relationship as the conduit for change. The treatment modalities I most gravitated to in this work incorporated attachment, psychodynamic, and family systems approaches and theories, which deeply informs Motherheard now.

Though I am not now working as a licensed psychotherapist, this therapeutic and empathic approach grounds and guides my vision for Motherheard and our work together. I offer reflective listening, respectful guidance, perinatal emotional and relational support and presence that honors your unique process and unfolding story.