About Sanah Kotadia | therapist for moms | Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, TX
Our Values:
Authenticity
‣
Openess
‣
Kindness
‣
Our Values: Authenticity ‣ Openess ‣ Kindness ‣
Get to know me
✧
Get to know me ✧
I’m Sanah, and I work with ambitious moms who are exhausted from doing everything for everyone.
I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor (LPC-S) who works with moms and couples all across Texas.
I draw on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Attachment Theory, and Interpersonal Therapy in my therapy and coaching practice.
More About Me
I’m a mom to a toddler and an infant, a frequent baker with a very enthusiastic toddler helper, and someone who takes far more photos than she’ll ever manage to scrapbook. I’m also part of an interfaith marriage, which has taught me firsthand how curiosity, respect, and communication keep a relationship strong, especially when life is full and demanding.
People sometimes assume I’ve figured out balance, but my passion for supporting overwhelmed, high-achieving mothers comes from living through my own breaking point. Before becoming a mom, I felt steady in who I was. I loved my career, held boundaries, and genuinely believed I had made peace with perfectionism and people-pleasing. Then my daughter arrived, and when my husband returned to work six weeks later, reality hit hard. Standing in my kitchen with my newborn, I felt the full weight of the mental load drop onto my shoulders, tracking feeding schedules, cleaning bottles, planning meals, keeping appointments, keeping the house running, and carrying every detail in my mind.
I adored my baby, but I missed me: the professional, the achiever, the woman with energy and ideas. Wanting to return to work came with guilt; staying home came with grief. And scrolling social media only made it harder, watching other moms seem to juggle career and motherhood without a hint of strain.
The hardest part showed up in my marriage. Weeks of quiet resentment finally boiled over, and one night, surrounded by laundry we were too tired to fold, we finally talked. We named the mental load. We admitted the ways we were missing each other. And instead of aiming for 50/50 perfection, we shifted toward shared ownership, weekly check-ins, and rebuilding the sense of teamwork we’d lost. That support steadied me enough to begin my own healing and revisit the roots of perfectionism, identity, and worth with more honesty than ever before.
This journey is the heart of Balanced Minds Therapy. I believe balance isn’t about splitting everything evenly; it’s a responsive rhythm that shifts with your season of life. Some days your career needs you more. Some days your kids do. Some days, your relationship or your rest matters most. My work in maternal mental health and couples therapy for dual-career parents reflects that truth. I help you build a life that feels whole, not just the polished parts, but the messy, beautiful, real version of motherhood and partnership.
Who I help
The high-achieving moms I work with aren’t looking for quick fixes. They’re ambitious, thoughtful, emotionally intelligent, and they care deeply about their kids, their work, their marriages, and their identity. They’re the ones people count on, who keep things moving and manage the details no one else ever seems to notice. Despite all that, they’re burned out from being the “default parent,” carrying emotional and mental labor nobody else sees, work deadlines, childcare pickups, meal-planning, remembering to buy a birthday gift and call the pediatrician, all the invisible tasks that keep the household, relationship, and routines running smoothly.
In therapy, we don’t just name what’s not working. We figure out what needs to change. Whether that’s learning how to communicate without starting a fight, getting clear on what’s yours to carry and what’s not, breaking free from the pressure to be a “good mom” and creating a version of motherhood that works for you, or reconnecting with your partner when it feels like you’re living parallel lives that never intersect, I’m here to walk with you.
If you’ve been white-knuckling it for too long, I see you. Here are a few signs you might be in the right place:
Perfectionism & People-Pleasing:
If Your Standards Are High
In your career, your family, and your friendships, you show up, follow through, and rarely drop the ball. But behind that hyper-competence is exhaustion, pressure, and a deep fear of disappointing people.
You don’t relax, you research how to relax the “right” way
No matter how much you’re doing, you worry you’re not the mom/partner/employee you should be.
You may receive a lot of praise, but behind the scenes, you’re exhausted.
Small mistakes make you spiral, replaying conversations or obsessing about whether you did or said something wrong.
You say yes without hesitation, and then resent it when you have to follow through.
You feel anxious when someone’s upset with you, even if you did nothing wrong.
You secretly believe your worth is tied to how productive or helpful you are.
You feel like you have to do everything perfectly, or not at all.
You rarely ask for help, because explaining what you need feels like more work.
Postpartum Identity:
If You Love Your Kids But Miss Yourself
You used to feel driven, creative, and in tune with yourself. But now, your inner world is crowded out by your child’s needs. You love being a mom, but you didn’t expect to feel this invisible, this lonely, or so unrecognizable from who you used to be.
You fantasize about a weekend alone, no partner, no child, just you, a hot tub, and a romance novel, and then feel guilty for even thinking that.
You miss the parts of you that felt energized, curious, or confident before motherhood.
You wonder if your goals still matter or if the “pause” you’ve hit will become permanent.
You feel physically and mentally overstimulated all day, but on the inside, your heart, creativity, personal growth, and professional drive are excruciatingly under-stimulated.
You’re grieving parts of your personality that don’t feel accessible anymore.
You wonder if you’re doing this wrong. After all, all the other moms seem to be thriving!
You’re tired of always being “on.” You wonder what it would be like to sleep for 24 hours.
You’ve said, “I just want to feel like me again!” more than once this month
The Mental Load:
If You’re the One Keeping Everything Running at Work & Home
Your partner is “involved,” or at least, it looks like it to everyone else, but you’re the one keeping track of pediatrician appointments, what size shoes your kid wears, and who needs a birthday gift next week. The logistics, emotional labor, and invisible to-dos are nonstop.
Before you ask your partner to “help,” you find yourself mentally rehearsing to get the words exactly right.
Even when you phrase it perfectly, you still have to remind your partner about the help you asked for.
You’re the one who thinks ahead about meals, childcare, school forms, family dynamics…
You know you’re maxed out, but no one steps in until you completely lose it.
You’re scared to let go of control because if you don’t handle it, who will?
You try to “communicate better,” but each time, you’re met with defensiveness or shutdowns.
Between your child’s needs and your partner’s needs, there’s no room for your own.
Sometimes, it’s easier just to do it yourself than deal with the mental effort involved in telling your partner exactly what to do. You want him to take initiative, not just complete a checklist.
Ambition, Career, & Motherhood: If It Feels Like Everything Shifted
You care deeply about your work, your impact on the world, and your personal and professional growth. But since becoming a mom, everything feels heavier. You don’t want to abandon your career goals, but you're also not willing to keep sacrificing your sanity, relationship, or health.
You feel like you’re not winning anywhere; you’re falling behind at work but also failing at home.
You show up everywhere, but you’re never fully present anywhere.
You miss being able to dream big without wondering how it’ll affect your family
You want more support from your partner, so your ambition can matter as much as his does.
You feel stuck between who you used to be and who you want to become now.
You’ve thought, “I’m tired of being strong all the time.”
You’re frustrated that your partner seems to feel no guilt about being a working parent, while you struggle with feelings of inadequacy at work and at home.
★★★★★
“Sanah is a compassionate and warm provider who genuinely is there to support her clients through some of the most challenging times.”
“She's a pleasure to collaborate with and brings in a mix of professional expertise as well as en empathetic approach when working with clients. Any client is lucky to have her as a provider!”
Kimberly Meehan
★★★★★
“I highly recommend her to any moms needing some support!”
“Sanah is a kind and caring therapist and person. She is passionate about her work with new moms and is able to perfectly balance professional expertise with personal empathy.”
Gabrielle Ferrara
★★★★★
“Sanah is a wonderful therapist who helps her clients manage the mental load of motherhood while also preventing burnout.”
“She is passionate, relatable, and empathetic. If you're looking for a therapist who gets it, and can help you find balance in motherhood, look no further!”
Laura Sandoval-Sweeney
Are you ready to make a change?
Starting therapy can feel like one more thing on your already-full plate.
But if you’ve been pushing through, balancing work meetings and preschool drop-offs, showing up for everyone and still feeling like it’s never enough, I want you to know there’s space here for you too.
You can care about your career and feel completely drained.
You can love your kids and miss the version of yourself who had more space to think, feel, and just be.
You can have a supportive partner and still be the one keeping track of everything that needs to get done.
I work with ambitious moms who are tired of overthinking every decision, tired of managing everything at home by default, and tired of wondering if this is just how life’s going to be now.
If that’s you, I see you. And I understand, both as a therapist and as someone who has lived it too.
My approach to therapy is warm, collaborative, and rooted in understanding the emotional reality of motherhood today, not just the logistics. I show up as a therapist, but also as a South Asian woman, an oldest daughter, a working mom, and someone who’s had to unlearn perfectionism and redefine what “being enough” actually means.
Whether you’re struggling with resentment in your relationship, trying to set boundaries that actually stick, or just want to feel like yourself again, I’m here to help you make space for that.
If this spoke to you, I’d be honored to support you.
My approach to therapy
I primarily use a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) lens during my work with clients. CBT is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
The main idea behind CBT is that negative thoughts and beliefs can lead to difficult emotions and unhelpful behavior patterns. CBT can help you identify and challenge these negative thoughts and beliefs and replace them with more balanced and realistic ones.
We’ll create a customized treatment plan that’s specific to your unique needs, values, and goals. With that being said, the key components of CBT include:
Identifying negative thought patterns and beliefs. This involves becoming aware of automatic thoughts, irrational beliefs, & thought distortions.
Challenging negative thoughts. This involves evaluating the evidence for & against negative thoughts & beliefs, & questioning their validity.
Reframing thoughts. This involves replacing negative thoughts & beliefs with more balanced & realistic ones.
Changing behaviors. This involves addressing problematic behaviors and teaching new, more effective coping skills & problem-solving strategies.
In addition to CBT, I also use an attachment-based lens. This approach helps us understand how your early experiences with attachment figures (i.e. parents) shape how you show up in relationships.
Interpersonal therapy is another central component of my therapeutic approach. In this method, we’ll explore how to use effective communication skills, and learn how to resolve conflict in a healthy, constructive way.
Follow along on instagram
Let's grow together
✧
Let's grow together ✧
Our Values:
Authenticity
‣
Openess
‣
Kindness
‣
Our Values: Authenticity ‣ Openess ‣ Kindness ‣