Where This ERA Began
ERA Founder Emily with her family
ERA opened our virtual doors about 3.5 years ago, and I’ve been meaning to write this post for probably just as long. We’re a smaller and locally owned practice, and just like every other small business, when you’re at ERA you’re choosing the people behind the business just as much as the services they provide.
Here’s some of the who and why of ERA.
I’ve been asked a lot of times how ERA came to be.
Even entering grad school, my goal was always vaguely eventually having my own practice. I started out working with kids and adolescents, and thought that was going to be my thing indefinitely. Then I had my first child and felt like my entire world was tipped upside-down. I got rocked. Then rocked again after my second pregnancy with my twins. I knew the mental health system well, I had been through grad school, I was already working as a therapist, I thought I had my shit together. I am a privileged person with insurance and support - and it was still nearly impossible to get what I needed.
I saw huge gaps in truly good and accessible mental health care for parents - not just “sure, I work with lots of women so…” That isn’t enough when a parent is really struggling - they need more than basic therapy from a generalist therapist. While that too is important work, PMADs are a specific situation that require specialized knowledge. What has been there is not enough. While there are definitely still gaps in services across the board for parents, we’re working on closing those gaps little by little and client by client, both at ERA and beyond. I could never have imagined that such a deeply difficult experience could turn into something so meaningful and include so many people.
Entering our new waiting room - we want you to feel welcome here!
People with PMADs or who are struggling with their identity as a parent need true connection and validation, to know they are not alone in this big overwhelming thing they’re going through.
People with fertility challenges need to know that when they come to therapy they aren’t going to have to explain every piece of testing to their clinician. People who have lost a baby or child need a therapist who isn’t going to say “well you can always try again”. Parents need to be able to say the ‘I can’t believe I feel this way when I’m supposed to be happy’ kind of stuff without judgement. When I was deeply struggling I needed my therapist to not be annoyed that I was 3 minutes late to our session and tell me I just needed to be more strict with my uber challenging toddler so I could get there on time.
I wanted to create a practice that truly met the needs of all kinds of parents from a place of understanding, validation, connection, and authenticity. We want you to feel welcome at ERA, and like you’ve found the people that get you (the real, vulnerable, messy you - not the ‘holding their shit together’ version).
Coffee, tea, and snacks for our clients!
A lot of the decisions that have gone into creating ERA and the way we operate are based on what is truly best for our clients.
We’re purposeful about putting practices and policies in place that really work for our clients and help you get what you need.
We want to increase the accessibility and simplicity of getting therapy with us or whoever is the right fit for you. We know coming to therapy is really freaking hard for a lot of reasons. Many parents have the energy to reach out once to get help - and we’re not letting somebody slip through the cracks by that one shot they had going unanswered.
Over the last few years we’ve expanded our specialities - and now include couples work, OCD, fertility, and climate psychology with our original niche of perinatal mental health, trauma, stress, and anxiety. We’re thrilled to be continuing to grow, add additional practitioners and services, and welcoming more people while staying true to the original values that ERA was founded on.
One of those values and ideas behind ERA is our name itself.
I spent an obnoxiously long time trying to name this practice. There were mannnnny “this is finally it” versions. And yes, ERA is (sort of) my initials - but pronounced like the word ‘era’. But it’s also more: an era is a period of time. (Yes, like T Swift, but for the record I named this practice way before she made it cool.)
I’m a big fan of symbolism and metaphors, and what ERA represents is right in line with that. This, right now, what you’re struggling with - it’s a period of time in your life. It doesn’t define your whole life. It’s going to be a chapter, maybe a giant one. But then it will end and you will have more chapters. Those chapters are informed by the ones that came before and we can’t just rip one out and pretend it didn’t happen, but the hard ones aren’t the whole story.