Welcome to my web site. I am a senior clinical psychologist with about 40 years of clinical experience. My practice is based upon the reality that a mother’s physical and emotional health cannot be understood or supported at any stage of her life journey without understanding her journey as a mother.
Our ongoing well-being requires joy, and a strong life force. I specialize in making this possible for the mother (at any age or stage of life) who is seeking a new way to understand her moods, her fatigue, and her well being.
My clinical training is in Mind Body Medicine; how the mind and body interact to protect our emotional and physical well-being. My doctoral dissertation was an investigation into why a mother’s devotion to her family, and her sense of responsibility and love for them, still did not provide her a with an overall feeling of emotional well-being. I read women’s autobiographies from the 14th century onward for my doctoral thesis. The learnings would be a game changer for my motherhood journey. They also defined my career.
I would discover that much of mom work is invisible work. So – mom worry, mom anxiety, mom blues, mom guilt, and most especially mom anger and even rage, becomes a negative judgement of the mother’s “normalcy,” rather than what it truly is; mom reality. Not a diagnosis, not “what’s wrong with me,” not an inability to do the work. Just mom reality.
My life passion has been to help moms take this reality, the “mom job,” unsupported by respect, understanding or legitimacy, and transform it. The path of a mother into the deeply immersive and love-based care she provides for her family is the most ancient journey known to humankind.
I put in tremendous effort towards coaching mothers (even after the children have left home, or some major shift has occurred) to find new ways to grow, new pathways to turn to. The The North Star here is learning how to preserve our own humanity in a society severely confused about love, emotions, and the work of caring. Stargazing (and time to prioritize ourselves) helps! If we can imagine the life we want, new pathways will be found.
My clinical training has a meta mind body medicine focus. My work experience ranges from individual coaching and psychotherapy to group workshops, and speaking at conferences large (over a thousand women business leaders from all over the world) and small (a few mothers gathering in area libraries). However, through it all I remain absolutely clear that the most important and meaningful work I do is in the one-to-one relationships with you, my client.
I want to emphasize that psychological research shows that liking your psychologist coach (that elusive search for a “good fit”) is up to seven times more likely to result in a successful outcome than any theoretical approach or methodology. So when you want to, we will chat for 90-120 minutes. This is called the “initial evaluation,” where we will decide if we are a good fit. Bring your hopes and strengths, along with all you wish you could change. I can’t wait to meet you.
Thank you for visiting my website.
Dr. Kumkum P. Malik, Psy.D.
If you are curious, check out the ‘My Story‘ and ‘Credentials‘ pages.