Art + Breath + Body: A Trio for Calming Mom Anxiety from a Postpartum Therapist in Denver
Anxiety Lives in the Body, Not Just the Mind
You may know you’re safe, physically, but your body doesn’t feel safe. Racing thoughts. A tight chest. A short fuse. Buzzing energy. Constant worry that won’t shut off. Intense bursts of anger. This is how anxiety can show up for a postpartum mom. And by postpartum, I mean any time after a mom gives birth, whether that’s one day or twenty years later.
Hi, I’m Leanne—a mom of two, art therapist, and perinatal mental health therapist in Denver. I know, from both personal experience and my work with moms, that early motherhood can be a season of nervous system overload.
What I’ve learned is that anxiety often doesn’t need more thinking to soften. Through expression, breath, and presence, we can speak the language of anxiety so it can finally be understood and loosen its grip. Reducing anxiety isn’t about fixing what’s broken; it’s often a return to the wisdom your body already holds.
Why Talk Therapy Alone Sometimes Isn’t Enough for Mom Anxiety
Now don’t get me wrong, I love talk therapy. I’ve benefited greatly from it myself, and I continue to use it with my clients in session. And yet, in my own experience of becoming a mom, and in the experience of many of the mothers I see in my practice, talk therapy alone sometimes isn’t enough.
Why? Because anxiety doesn’t always speak in words.
Anxiety is Somatic
In early motherhood especially, anxiety is often somatic, meaning it is held and processed through the body. It can surface for a variety of reasons, but more often than not, when anxiety is present, a mother’s nervous system is working overtime. This is when many moms describe feeling like they’re in “survival mode,” where the body actually feels and acts as if it’s being chased by a bear.
Words May Not Be Accessible
And motherhood itself is a transformation that touches nearly every aspect of a mother’s being: physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual. Research even shows that a birthing person’s brain undergoes physical changes during this time. With so much rearranging happening at once, it makes sense that words aren’t always accessible, even when there’s so much to say.
I want to reassure you: if you haven’t been including the body in therapy, you aren’t doing anything wrong. Talk therapy is still deeply valuable. And… including the body in your healing could be even more impactful for moving through emotions, processing trauma, and getting to the root of the issue.
The Trio That Calms: Art + Breath + Body
In my experience as a postpartum therapist in Denver, integrating art, breath, and the body into mental health therapy allows us to meet anxiety with compassion and curiosity. I think of these as three different ways of listening inward.
Art: Letting Feelings Move Without Needing Words
Many of us have been conditioned to believe that art needs to look a certain way—that it should be aesthetic, “good,” or that the final product somehow reflects who we are. Along the way, we’ve often forgotten how to use art as a tool for regulation simply because it feels good to do, regardless of the outcome, much like we did as children.
How Art Helps Anxiety
Anxiety has a way of setting up shop in our thoughts and is often experienced through sensations in the body. What I’ve noticed when clients create a visual representation of their anxiety is that they’re able to externalize the inner chaos. The anxiety no longer has to stay contained inside. And that realization alone can create more space, more breathing room, for those experiencing anxiety.
Art-Making is Presence
Beyond externalizing anxiety, the act of creating art naturally invites presence. If you live with anxiety, you know how easily the mind jumps into the future, with the “what-ifs” running on autopilot. Art-making does the opposite. Through the repetition and rhythm of mark-making, engaging the senses, and tapping into the non-thinking parts of the brain, the nervous system is given an opportunity to slow down.
Breath: Creating Safety From the Inside Out
Breathwork is having a bit of a moment right now, so it makes sense if some skepticism comes with it. What I often hear from clients when I introduce breathwork is, “I’ve tried deep breathing, and it didn’t work.” If that’s been your experience, you’re not alone.
A Reframe for Breathwork
A reframe to try on: using the breath as a way to soothe anxiety is less about a technique and more about a relationship. It’s not something we try once or twice and then move on from. It’s something we return to with intention, over time, noticing how it meets us in different moments.
Rather than only reaching for the breath when anxiety is loud, it can be supportive to explore breathing practices during calmer moments, too. That way, when anxiety does pop up, the breath already feels familiar, something you know how to access.
When breathwork is approached as a relationship, it often becomes less about “fixing” anxiety and more about offering reassurance. Sometimes anxiety just needs to be shown that slowing down is possible, that taking a few breaths doesn’t lead to anything bad happening. Truly. You’re invited to see how that feels for you below.
A Soothing Breathwork Practice for Overstimulated Moms
Place one hand on your chest, one on your belly
Slowly inhale through your nose
And a long exhale through your mouth
Imagine fogging a mirror as you breathe out
Do this several times until you feel anxiety begin to soften
Body: Coming Back Home to Yourself
With technology, pressure to conform to what society is telling us to do, and less connection with nature and one another overall, most humans are generally disconnected from their bodies. This means that they may not have a sense of their own internal experience, sensations, emotions, or a sense of their intuition or inner wisdom.
It makes sense that new moms may continue to disconnect from their bodies during motherhood because it is such a sensory experience. From pregnancy, to brith, to caring for a newborn who is completely dependent on its parents, to a mother healing her own body, it makes sense that a mother’s body can feel more like a vessel that a home for herself.
In many situations in the Western world, the birthing person or mother is providing most of he needs to the baby/children, they may have “touch fatigue” from constantly using their body as a vessel for feeding and/or caring, where moms’s body can begin to feel like a tool rather than their home.
Embodiment Can Be a Gentle Noticing
Here’s a practice to try, a gentle noticing, a micro awareness of what your body needs in the moment. You get to choose what feels okay for you today and what doesn’t:
Press your feet into the floor
Roll shoulders slowly, forward and back
Rock, sway, or stretch intuitively
Weaving Them Together: A 5-Minute Nervous System Reset
If you’ve made it this far in the post, I’m glad you are here! This is the heart of the post right here because it gives you a chance to put art + breath + body together in a 5-minute practice.
Step-by-step flow:
Sit or stand comfortably
Take 3 slow breaths
Engage in 2–3 minutes of artmaking by making sporadic marks on the page
Pause and notice your body and sensations
One final long exhale
I love this sequence because it can happen during nap time, on the floor, or while your baby is nearby. There’s even a chance you may get interrupted, or it will not be perfect. I encourage you do Normalize interruption and imperfection
When to Use This Practice
Middle-of-the-night anxiety (hint: keep a journal for art-making by your bed)
Overstimulation at the end of the day
Ragey, tearful, numb, or frozen moments
“I can’t think my way out of this” moments
A Loving Note If You’re Still Struggling
If you practiced the sequence above and still find yourself feeling overwhelmed, please know this: these practices are meant to support anxiety, not replace deeper care. Especially for those of us carrying trauma or navigating early motherhood, anxiety is not something to think or self-soothe away on our own. Early motherhood was never meant to be done alone.
You Don’t Need to Fix Yourself
Anxiety isn’t a personal failure; it’s your body asking for safety, support, and care. Sometimes that care looks like trauma-informed, somatic, or art therapy in Denver, where your nervous system can be met gently and at its own pace.
If you feel curious about what that kind of support might look like for you, I offer free intro calls as a gentle place to begin. No pressure, just a conversation to see if it’s a good fit for you. I’m here when you’re ready.
