Amber Sperling Social Work and Psychotherapy Services

Amber Sperling Social Work and Psychotherapy Services Specialized therapy for women, focusing on perinatal health, trauma, and life transitions. Offering We accept select insurance and offer sliding scale fees.

Amber Sperling Social Work & Psychotherapy offers specialized mental health care for women. Our Barrie-based practice provides in-person and online therapy, focusing on pre/postpartum, trauma, and women's wellness. Experienced therapists use evidence-based approaches to help you overcome challenges and reach your full potential. Specializing in EMDR, REBT, IFS, CBT, and DBT for anxiety, depression

, and trauma. Supporting women through life transitions, such as motherhood, career changes, and relationship challenges.

When anxiety feels loud, your senses can help bring you back to the present. Try this grounding exercise:👀 Name 5 things...
08/14/2025

When anxiety feels loud, your senses can help bring you back to the present. Try this grounding exercise:
👀 Name 5 things you can see
🤚 Touch 4 things around you
👂 Notice 3 things you can hear
👃 Smell 2 scents
👅 Taste 1 thing
Your nervous system loves predictability—and this simple routine can help you feel calmer in just a few minutes.

You don’t need to wait until you’re falling apart to ask for help.If you’ve been quietly wondering whether you deserve s...
08/06/2025

You don’t need to wait until you’re falling apart to ask for help.
If you’ve been quietly wondering whether you deserve support—this is your sign.
You don’t have to carry it all alone. Not now. Not anymore.

💛Share with a friend who keeps saying “I’m fine” but might need to hear this today.
www.ambersperling.ca | Trauma-informed. Heart-led. Rooted in EMDR.

This World Breast Feeding Week we want you to know that breast feeding is not *easy* or without a learning curve for man...
08/06/2025

This World Breast Feeding Week we want you to know that breast feeding is not *easy* or without a learning curve for many many many many new moms. If you are struggling there is help available.

I know in my own breast feeding journeys with my girls there were so many challenges from milk supply, pumping, anxiety, lack of sleep and so on - that I can relate to the confusion about if you are doing it right and how to best feed your baby.

As a mom who had to supplement with both her girls and I also had amazing support from my midwives and lactation consultant, I can relate.

Any amount of breast milk is amazing for infants. And whether its your milk, from a milk bank or if your baby was given the gift of a healthy mom while thriving on formula - you are a good mom.

🥰

You’re not broken. You’re becoming.Matrescence (say it like muh-TRESS-ents—it rhymes with adolescence, but comes with fe...
07/24/2025

You’re not broken. You’re becoming.

Matrescence (say it like muh-TRESS-ents—it rhymes with adolescence, but comes with fewer sleepovers and more late-night Googling 😅) is the real name for the wild transformation you go through when becoming a mother.

It’s not just physical.
It’s mental. Emotional. Hormonal. Social.
Basically, your whole system is getting an upgrade—not a meltdown.
(Even if it feels like one some days.)

🧪 Hormones first:

During pregnancy, estrogen and progesterone increase up to 50x, then crash within 48 hours of birth. Emotional freefall, anyone?

Then comes:

Oxytocin: the bonding hormone (aka why you tear up looking at baby socks)

Prolactin: helps with milk and makes you feel all the feelings

Cortisol: keeps you alert, but too much = anxiety + sleeplessness

🧠 Now your brain:

Canadian neuroscientist Dr. Jodi Pawluski, author of Mommy Brain, shows that motherhood literally reshapes your brain. Not a decline—a neuroplastic upgrade.

You gain:

stronger emotional regulation (even on no sleep)

super-sensitive threat detection (yes, you did hear the baby cough at 3am)

powerful caregiving instincts (intuition = science)

These brain changes can last for years—and they’re meant to help you adapt, not disappear.

📚 Let’s stop using “mom brain” as an insult.
It’s a transformation rooted in science.
Check out www.jodipawluski.com to go deeper.

🌱 So if you feel different?
You are. That’s not failure—it’s matrescence.
Messy. Beautiful. 100% human.

📝 Try this:
Write down 3 ways you’ve changed since becoming a parent.
Not your baby’s milestones—yours.
That’s your story. That’s growth. That’s the next chapter.

Want more support on this journey?
You don’t have to figure it out alone.
Connect with our team

📍 Barrie | Orillia | Ontario-wide
✨ EMDR | Perinatal Therapy | Real Talk for Moms

Is an EMDR Intensive the reset you’ve been craving?You don’t need months of therapy to start feeling like yourself again...
07/22/2025

Is an EMDR Intensive the reset you’ve been craving?

You don’t need months of therapy to start feeling like yourself again.

An EMDR Intensive is for the woman who’s:
🌀 Still carrying the weight of a difficult birth
🧳 Trying to enjoy a long-awaited trip without her past tagging along (or the anxiety that comes with flying)
🍼 Wanting to get back to her baby instead of drowning in anxiety
💼 Prepping for a big job interview but stuck in old patterns
💔 Processing loss, grief, or trauma that’s showing up everywhere

This isn’t surface-level support.
It’s deep, nervous system work that actually moves the needle.

Take our 2-minute quiz to see if an EMDR Intensive is the right next step.
No pressure. Just clarity.

👉 Tap the link in bio to take the quiz.

| EMDR | Trauma Recovery | Perinatal Mental Health | Nervous System Healing | Therapy That Works

✨ Therapy should never feel out of reach.If cost has been holding you back from getting the support you need, you’re not...
07/22/2025

✨ Therapy should never feel out of reach.
If cost has been holding you back from getting the support you need, you’re not alone and you’re not out of options.

Catherine, our compassionate therapist-in-residence, offers pay-what-you-can therapy to make care more accessible for those navigating fertility, postpartum, relationship changes, or just the mental load of everyday life.

She gets it—not just professionally, but personally too. As a mom of three, she brings real-life experience, deep empathy, and evidence-based support to every session.

📍In-person in Barrie or virtual anywhere in Ontario
💛 Learn more or share with someone who needs this: www.ambersperling.ca

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Address

80 Bradford Street
Barrie, ON
L4N6S7

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 8pm
Tuesday 9am - 8pm
Wednesday 9am - 9pm
Thursday 9am - 8pm
Friday 9am - 4pm
Saturday 9am - 4pm

Telephone

+12494870760

Website

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