Meet Mercedes

Lead Counsellor

HypnoBirthing® Educator & Owner

Mercedes is our HypnoBirthing® and Perinatal Mental Health expert, and she’s here to support you through everything from TTC (trying to conceive) to the postpartum period and beyond.

Mercedes has supported clients in the perinatal period as a birth and postpartum doula, childbirth educator and counsellor since 2014. Throughout her own journeys in the perinatal period in Nova Scotia, Mercedes recognized a gap in perinatal services and decided to create The Perinatal Wellness Centre.

Originally from Mexico City, Mercedes has been in Nova Scotia since 2013 and has grown her family in Dartmouth.

Modalities

Mercedes incorporates a diverse range of modalities in her practice, including EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Hypnosis, Gestalt Psychotherapy, and Experiential Therapies.

These approaches focus on deep emotional healing, trauma release, and personal empowerment. In her counselling practice, she provides a safe space for clients to explore and process their feelings. In sessions, she utilizes the modality she believes would be most helpful to the person she is working with at that specific moment with what her client is bringing to the session.

  • Helps resolve traumatic memories by using bilateral stimulation to rewire the brain’s response to stress.

  • Facilitates deep relaxation and allows clients to access their subconscious to address fears and blockages.

  • Focuses on present experiences, helping clients become more aware of their emotions and behaviours in real-time

  • Involve interactive exercises to engage clients in healing through physical movement or creative expression.

Unlike Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), which typically focuses on changing thought patterns and behaviours, these modalities provide a more holistic, experiential approach to healing, recognizing that emotional and psychological challenges are unique to each individual and require personalized, integrative support.

Mercedes’ Experience

Mercedes has experience working with:

  • Folks navigating the fertility, prenatal, postpartum and parenting journey.

  • Anxiety, fear and stress around pregnancy, birth and beyond.

  • Prenatal & Postpartum Anxiety, Depression and Rage.

  • Pregnancy termination and loss.

  • Birth Trauma.

  • Birth workers.

  • Specific topics like:

    • Inducing labour

    • Flipping breach babies

    • Birth Debrief/Healing Session (for families and birth workers)

    • Fear Release for labour and birth

What to Expect

  • A space where you can heal in a unique way.

  • Sessions where we will talk.

  • Experiential sessions with exercises specifically created for the topic on hand.

  • Sessions with deep relaxation, hypnosis & EMDR.

  • A deep understanding of the perinatal period & its challenges.

  • A very different experience from CBT/DBT counselling sessions.

Mercedes bases her counselling practice from the belief that every person is the expert of their life and she is a facilitator of the healing process.

She believes that we are all unique human beings and we all heal in our own very unique way.