CLUB MFT™ · FOR CLINICIANS & CURIOUS MINDS
The thinking behind CLUB MFT
How CLUB MFT is built, and where it fits alongside clinical care. For clinicians, practitioners and curious minds: therapists, OBs, midwives, doulas, pelvic floor PTs, lactation consultants, and anyone who wants to understand the thinking behind the practice.
ON THIS PAGE · The Method · Training · Five Strands · Rhythm · Who It’s For · Refer · Cool Aunts
A PRACTICE, NOT A PROGRAM
A place she returns to every week
I’m Elizabeth Wellington, MA, LPC, PMH-C, a perinatal psychotherapist and co-founder of Moms Feelin’ Themselves. I designed CLUB MFT’s programming from the same belief that guides my clinical work: healing doesn’t happen through insight alone, but through embodiment, relationship, and community.
CLUB MFT is not therapy, and it isn’t trying to be. It’s a weekly practice for mothers, built to do something a fifty-minute session can’t. It gives her a nonjudgmental place to return to every week: a container in which to be held, a guide to walk alongside her as she navigates her own evolution, and a community of like-minded women who share the belief that women are more powerful together.
If you work with perinatal clients, you know how much of their life happens between sessions. This is designed for that space.
ABOUT MY TRAINING
Clinical depth, lived experience
Clinical depth
Master’s in Contemplative Psychotherapy, Naropa University (2015). More than a decade of modern psychoanalytic training at the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies (CMPS) and the Academy of Clinical and Applied Psychoanalysis (ACAP), including more than a decade in my own analysis with Dr. Lucy Holmes. Extensive experience in DBT. Years of training in group psychotherapy, as both member and leader, including the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA).
Perinatal specialization
Perinatal Mental Health Certification (PMH-C) through Postpartum Support International (2022). Advanced training with Karen Kleiman (2022). Study with neuroscientist Jodi Pawluski on the neuroscience of parenting and perinatal mental health (2025).
Affective neuroscience
Neuropsychoanalysis: Why It Matters with Dr. Mark Solms (2025). Ongoing study of Jaak Panksepp’s affective neuroscience and Adrian Perkel’s work on aggression.
Embodiment & contemplative practice
Yoga teacher training (2011). LifeForce Yoga for Mood Management (2013). Somatic study in Kimberly Ann Johnson’s Jaguar method. Decades of dance, yoga, and endurance sports. More than fifteen years of meditation in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
Jungian, depth & sociocultural
Ongoing study of Marion Woodman’s work on the feminine, the body, and the addiction to perfection. Political science major, Boston College, and the study of how social structures shape women’s and families’ mental health.
Lived experience
I’m also a mother of two. My own perinatal experience, including a medically complicated pregnancy and postpartum anxiety and depression, is part of why I built this. I know this terrain from the inside as well as the clinical side.
HOW CLUB MFT IS BUILT
The MFT Method
The MFT Method is how we built it. The practice is what you do with it.
The organizing idea: holding her, as a subject
Winnicott described the holding environment as the reliable, attuned container that lets development unfold. Karen Kleiman made holding central to postpartum care. Usually, holding describes what a mother provides. CLUB MFT is built to provide it to her.
That reflects a second idea running through the whole design: maternal subjectivity. Psychoanalysis spent most of its history looking at mothers from the child’s side, as the environment that succeeds or fails. Jessica Benjamin changed that question. She argued that the mother is a subject in her own right, and that healthy relationships depend on mutual recognition, being seen as well as seeing. CLUB MFT is built for that kind of recognition. We want the women in our community to know they are more than their functions and the roles they play. They have their own desires, ambivalence, aggression, pleasure, and history, all of which matters, and the programming is built to make room for all of it.
Joan Raphael-Leff’s work on childbearing adds something just as important. Mothers come to pregnancy and early motherhood with very different inner orientations: some lean into merging with the baby, some work to protect a separate sense of self, and many move between the two. There’s no single healthy way through. That’s why CLUB MFT is not a parenting program and never holds up an ideal mother or a single “right” parenting approach. We want mothers to trust their own inner wisdom rather than feel they have to follow the latest parenting trend or the “good mom” archetype of the day. It’s also why so much of the programming builds in choice. In the Rage Jam, every member plays her own song at the same time. Each one’s own way, together.
“Mothers in matrescence are holding everything. The structure is built to hold them back.”
The same day and time every week, a predictable arc within each session, and a monthly theme that gives each month a shape. Four traditions shape how that holding works.
THE FOUR TRADITIONS
Where the method comes from
01 · CONTEMPLATIVE
A practice, not a program
Contemplative psychotherapy starts from brilliant sanity: the view that health is intrinsic and still present underneath distress, not something that has to be installed. Its core attitude is maitri, an unconditional friendliness toward one’s own experience.
In CLUB MFT, this lives in the word practice. Members don’t complete CLUB MFT, and they can’t fall behind. There’s no curriculum to finish and no streak to break. They come back. For a mother who already feels she’s failing at everything, a program is one more thing to fail. Self-compassion and habit-formation research support the same choice from different directions. Everything here is practice: every tool, every moment, every interaction. No one expects her to power through or get it right.
02 · EMBODIED AND AFFECTIVE
Bottom-up first
Helena Vissing’s Somatic Maternal Healing model treats the maternal body as a subject with its own intelligence rather than an object to be fixed. Vissing also works from a bio-psycho-social model of maternal care, which aligns closely with the foundation CLUB MFT is built on. Marion Woodman’s Jungian work on the feminine is central to how I guide mothers through understanding themselves: the body as a place where the psyche speaks, and conscious femininity over the relentless pursuit of perfection.
My understanding of anger comes from affective neuroscience and modern psychoanalysis. Panksepp mapped primary emotional systems, including RAGE, CARE, PANIC/GRIEF, SEEKING, and PLAY; Solms frames feelings as the felt measure of whether our needs are being met; Perkel reads aggression as largely in service of regulation. Hyman Spotnitz, founder of modern psychoanalysis, saw aggression as a vital force that does the most harm when it has nowhere to go and gets turned against the self. His answer was to help people feel aggressive feelings and put them into words safely.
For mothers, anger is a predictable signal, not evidence that something is wrong with her. Sessions begin with breath and grounding before asking for energy. The Mom Rage Jam is ten minutes of unstructured movement, held in community. It uses somatic principles, but it is not Somatic Experiencing or trauma treatment.
03 · RELATIONAL
Regulation happens in relationship
The programming is informed by attachment theory, Winnicott, Rozsika Parker on maternal ambivalence, Bowen’s differentiation, and Nancy Chodorow’s The Reproduction of Mothering. Matrescence often reactivates a woman’s own history of being mothered, which is part of why “feeling like yourself again” is harder than it sounds.
CLUB MFT is attachment-informed, not attachment repair: a consistent rhythm works as a kind of secure base, and isolation is why TOGETHER is a strand of its own. Group work is where much of my own training runs deepest. Groups offer universality, hope, and being witnessed by peers. CLUB MFT is not group therapy, but group-process principles shape its whole community layer. The short in-the-moment practices in FEEL share a logic with DBT skills, offered as practice, not skills training.
04 · PERINATAL AND CONTEXTUAL
Nothing is wrong with her
Adrienne Rich separated motherhood as experience from motherhood as institution. Much of what mothers bring to my office as personal failure is really the institution pressing on the experience: a reasonable response to unreasonable conditions.
Dr. Lucy Holmes, my own analyst for more than a decade, wrote about childbirth as a developmental milestone, when a woman’s inner world gets reorganized. Jodi Pawluski’s research reframes “mom brain” as reorganization rather than decline, and matrescence frames identity disruption as a developmental transition rather than a disorder. Something real is being rebuilt, and nothing is wrong with her. That sets the stance every monthly theme takes: non-pathologizing, contextual, and specific.
THE FIVE STRANDS
Five strands, one whole you
Every piece of programming belongs to one of five strands, woven together to meet what every mother needs: body, mind, people, and meaning and joy (the bio-psycho-social-spiritual model).
MOVE
Bottom-up discharge and grounding. The weekly Mom Rage Jam; Recess; Get Grounded, yoga and somatics; and dance fitness with our movement partner. The body leads.
FEEL
Regulation first, and the identity work. The Reset Button, 2–3 minute tools drawing on DBT and sensory grounding, plus my monthly theme teaching and meditations. Not therapy.
PLAY
Joy without an agenda. Mom House Radio, a monthly live DJ set. Pleasure as a capacity to rebuild, not a reward to earn.
LEARN
Meaning-making. My Smart Friend, a monthly guest expert. Every session lands on the same message: this is happening to you, not a personal failing.
TOGETHER
Co-regulation and connection. My monthly Breakdown, weekly Club Night, conversation cards, body doubling, and a book club.
THE RHYTHM
How a session, a month and a year are built
A session
One physiological arc: Calm → Build → Peak → Recovery. Breath and grounding first, so members leave regulated rather than wired. Live when the container is the point, recorded when the timing should be hers. The Rage Jam and group sessions are live; Reset Button skills and movement practices are recorded, because a mother needs them to work at 9:40 p.m. on a Tuesday.
A month
The weeks follow an arc, with intensity varying across strands. Our first month moves through Arrive, Breathe, Find Your Feet, Hold, Close, ending with my live group Breakdown. Each week has a fixed anchor: Club Night on Wednesdays, built around the Rage Jam. A mother who knows exactly when her practice happens doesn’t have to find the energy to decide.
A year
Each month has a theme with a fixed structure: a thesis, a clinical frame drawn from one of the four traditions, a feeling by end of month, and a content arc showing how each strand responds. Our founding cohort begins with a one-time prologue month, Rooting (December 2026), framed by self-determination theory.
| Month | Theme | The move | The feeling | Framework |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | Unravel | Release what the holidays left behind | Loose. Lighter. | Stress-cycle completion |
| February | Come Home | Reconnect with who’s actually there | Seen. By yourself. | Matrescence |
| March | Your People | Bring that self into community | Found. | Co-regulation |
| April | What You Want | Move from repair into agency | Clear. | Differentiation (Bowen) |
| May | All of It | Hold the contradictory truth of motherhood | Whole. | Maternal ambivalence (Parker) |
| June | Protect Your Practice | Defend your hour when summer breaks routine | Held. | Habit and context (Wood & Neal) |
| July | Come Alive | Fill the protected hour with pleasure | Alive. | Broaden-and-build (Fredrickson) |
| August | Soft Power | Push back on hustle culture | Unhurried. | Rest as resistance (Hersey) |
| September | Rhythm | Reclaim routine as embodied rhythm, not grind | In time. | Rhythmic entrainment |
| October | The Long Way Here | Integrate how far you’ve come | Integrated. | Narrative identity (McAdams) |
| November | Enough | Put down hosting-season perfectionism | Sufficient. | Self-compassion (Neff) |
WHO IT’S FOR, AND WHO IT ISN’T
Alongside care, never instead of it
A good fit for mothers who
- are navigating stress, overwhelm, identity shifts, or isolation without needing clinical treatment
- are in treatment and could use regulation, joy, and connection between sessions
- have finished treatment and want a structure that helps them keep what they built
- are on a waitlist and need something supportive in the meantime
Physical readiness. MOVE ranges from gentle to vigorous. Mothers who are pregnant, early postpartum, recovering from birth complications, or managing medical conditions should get provider clearance before vigorous movement. Every practice can be scaled down.
Not a substitute for care
A mother with a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder that needs treatment should be in treatment. CLUB MFT can sit alongside that care, but it can’t replace it. It is not appropriate as primary support for mothers in crisis, experiencing psychotic symptoms, or at risk of harming themselves or others.
Crisis protocol. CLUB MFT is not monitored as crisis support. Members are directed to 988, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline (1-833-TLC-MAMA), emergency services, and Postpartum Support International.
REFERRING A CLIENT
If you think CLUB MFT could help someone you work with
How to refer. Send your client the CLUB MFT page: momsfeelinthemselves.com/clubmft. There’s no referral form and nothing for you to fill out. She can read about it and join on her own terms.
What she’ll experience. A welcome from me, a simple guidebook to where to start, and access to the full library. She can begin with a two-minute skill from The Reset Button or come straight to Wednesday’s Club Night. A short onboarding form covers scope and physical readiness; there’s no clinical intake or assessment.
Cost. Founding rate (until January 15, 2027): $87 every 3 months or $313 a year, locked for the first year. Standard rate: $105 every 3 months or $378 a year. Reduced-rate spots are available.
Privacy. CLUB MFT does not communicate with members’ providers. We won’t confirm whether someone is a member or share anything about her participation. If you and your client want to bring her experience into your sessions, that conversation belongs to the two of you.
How to describe it to a client. “This isn’t more therapy. It’s a weekly practice, built by a perinatal therapist, where you can breathe, move, and be with other moms between our sessions.”
Questions? admin@momsfeelinthemselves.com
MFT CLINICAL AMBASSADOR PROGRAM
The Cool Aunts
The cool aunt who also happens to be a licensed therapist. A hand-picked circle of clinicians who test CLUB MFT, contribute small clinical tools to it, and bring it to their clients and colleagues. Founding cohort of 10–15, by application.
Who’s eligible. Perinatal-trained clinicians (PMH-C or equivalent) first; licensed therapists who mostly work with mothers; and family therapists (LMFTs). Doulas, lactation consultants, pelvic floor PTs and somatic practitioners join in a later cohort.
What ambassadors do. Test CLUB MFT during the beta and give structured feedback. Recommend it to clients where it fits, and to colleagues. Contribute at least one small, theme-aligned tool a year to the “From the Cool Aunts” shelf, credited to you.
What ambassadors get. Free CLUB MFT membership while active; a listing in our upcoming directory; a Clinical Ambassador badge and credit on every contribution; a quarterly ambassador circle with me; social and podcast spotlights; and a path into My Smart Friend.
Our ethics. Never paid per referral. No discount codes or referral incentives of any kind. Ambassadors disclose the affiliation, and our materials say plainly that CLUB MFT complements therapy and never replaces it.
REFERENCES
Contemplative. Wegela, K. K. (2014). Contemplative Psychotherapy Essentials. Norton. · Neff, K. D. (2003). Self-compassion. Self and Identity, 2(2). · Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2007). A new look at habits and the habit–goal interface. Psychological Review, 114(4). · Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory. American Psychologist, 55(1).
Embodied and affective. Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective Neuroscience. Oxford University Press. · Panksepp, J., & Biven, L. (2012). The Archaeology of Mind. Norton. · Solms, M. (2021). The Hidden Spring. Norton. · Perkel, A. (2024). Unlocking the Nature of Human Aggression. Routledge. · Spotnitz, H. (1985). Modern Psychoanalysis of the Schizophrenic Patient (2nd ed.). Human Sciences Press. · Vissing, H. (2023). Somatic Maternal Healing. Routledge. · Woodman, M. (1982). Addiction to Perfection. Inner City Books. · Woodman, M. (1993). Conscious Femininity. Inner City Books. · Johnson, K. A. (2021). Call of the Wild. Harper Wave. · Weintraub, A. (2012). Yoga Skills for Therapists. Norton. · Nagoski, E., & Nagoski, A. (2019). Burnout. Ballantine. · Zaccaro, A., et al. (2018). How breath-control can change your life. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12.
Relational. Benjamin, J. (1988). The Bonds of Love. Pantheon. · Raphael-Leff, J. (1991). Psychological Processes of Childbearing. Chapman & Hall. · Winnicott, D. W. (1960). The theory of the parent-infant relationship. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 41. · Kleiman, K. (2017). The Art of Holding in Therapy. Routledge. · Parker, R. (1995). Torn in Two. Virago. · Chodorow, N. (1978). The Reproduction of Mothering. University of California Press. · Kerr, M. E., & Bowen, M. (1988). Family Evaluation. Norton. · Yalom, I. D., & Leszcz, M. (2020). The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy (6th ed.). Basic Books. · Linehan, M. M. (2015). DBT Skills Training Manual (2nd ed.). Guilford. · Coan, J. A., Schaefer, H. S., & Davidson, R. J. (2006). Lending a hand. Psychological Science, 17(12).
Perinatal and contextual. Rich, A. (1976). Of Woman Born. Norton. · Holmes, L. (2008). The Internal Triangle. Jason Aronson. · Holmes, L. (2020). Women and Psychoanalysis. Routledge. · Pawluski, J. L., Lonstein, J. S., & Fleming, A. S. (2017). The neurobiology of postpartum anxiety and depression. Trends in Neurosciences, 40(2). · Hoekzema, E., et al. (2017). Pregnancy leads to long-lasting changes in human brain structure. Nature Neuroscience, 20. · Jones, L. (2023). Matrescence. Pantheon. · Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The broaden-and-build theory. American Psychologist, 56(3). · McAdams, D. P. (2001). The psychology of life stories. Review of General Psychology, 5(2). · Hersey, T. (2022). Rest Is Resistance. Little, Brown Spark.