Today we’d like to introduce you to Joy Bouchard.
Hi Joy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
In 2012, I graduated with my Bachelor’s in Social Work and began an internship with a hospice company in Orem. I loved working with the elderly and found meaning in helping families navigate grief and loss. Those experiences taught me how powerful it can be to simply sit with someone in their pain.
Eventually, I decided that I wanted to expand my reach so I went back to school for my master’s degree, The timing felt right. I knew that I would be starting the program with a 4 month old baby and a 3 year old. And I knew that it would be hard to balance it all when I applied for the program. But what I didn’t expect was that I would develop postpartum depression and OCD soon after my delivery and would have to begin my program while trying to heal mentally and emotionally. That season was one of the hardest of my life, but it changed everything. I realized how many mothers silently struggle, and I knew I wanted to help women through those same dark moments.
While in grad school working toward becoming a therapist, I accepted a job as a bereavement specialist in labor and delivery, expecting it to be similar to hospice work. Instead, I found myself supporting families through stillbirth and infant loss. My job was helping the parents bathe and dress their babies, take handprints and photos, and say goodbye. It was sacred work that deepened my passion for helping women heal. My path toward becoming a therapist for mothers went a little deeper and I knew I needed to somehow incorporate this into my plans.
From there, my focus became perinatal mental health, specializing in postpartum depression, anxiety, birth trauma, and infant loss. I trained in EMDR and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) to better support women processing trauma.
In 2023, I opened Lotus Rose Counseling, a practice dedicated to women’s mental health. At Lotus Rose Counseling we help women find healing through life’s hardest seasons. From grief and trauma to the emotional complexities of motherhood.
Every step of my journey — even the painful ones — led me here.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Some of the hardest moments came after experiencing a traumatic birth and mental health challenges. I experienced postpartum depression and OCD, filled with constant intrusive thoughts that I was going to die. The anxiety was relentless—no matter how many compulsions I tried to calm myself with, the fear always came back. It was terrifying and isolating, but it ultimately gave me deep compassion for the women I now work with.
Another challenge I remember is staying up late to finish grad school papers, finally closing my laptop, and crawling into bed…only to be woken moments later by my newborn needing to eat. Just as I’d drift back to sleep, the hospital pager would go off letting me know a mother had unexpectedly lost her baby. I’d pull myself together, drive to the hospital, and help her say goodbye—guiding her through her final moments with her child. By the time I got home, I’d maybe catch an hour of sleep before my toddler woke up and my husband headed off to work. Those nights tested every ounce of strength I had. I give a lot of credit to my amazing husband for pushing me to push through even though it was so difficult. Otherwise I don’t know that I could’ve done it.
Later, when I became a therapist specializing in birth trauma and infant loss, I faced another challenge. During my third pregnancy, I was incredibly sick and often had to fight through extreme nausea and fatigue to make it through sessions. Hearing heartbreaking stories about birth trauma and loss every day while pregnant with my own child began to take a toll on my own mental health. I had to learn to protect my own wellbeing, take a step back, and broaden my focus to include developmental trauma and sexual abuse work—still meaningful, but less triggering during that stage of life. At the time it felt like a pivot in my path, but looking back I can see that it prepared me to have the capacity, training, and passion for helping even more women with an even bigger variety of needs.
And then came a whole new kind of challenge: starting my own business. I knew therapy, but I didn’t know business. Suddenly I was learning how to do payroll, hire an accountant, manage employees, and handle business expenses all for the first time. I made plenty of mistakes and lost money unintentionally, but every misstep became part of the learning process. It’s been humbling and stretching in all the best ways.
Through it all, I’ve learned that growth rarely happens in comfort. Each stage—whether it was surviving sleepless nights, facing my own mental health battles, or figuring out how to run a business—has shaped me into a stronger, more compassionate version of myself. And that’s what I hope to help other women find, too.
As you know, we’re big fans of Lotus Rose Counseling. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are an outpatient mental health therapy practice. We specialize in women’s mental health but also see some teens and kids. We help with things like trauma/PTSD, grief/loss, anxiety, depression, OCD, ADHD, body image struggles, relationship conflict, and other women’s issues. We utilize evidence-based practices including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), Internal Family Systems (IFS), along with other modalities including Experiential Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). We often provide groups for further processing and connection to others.
Something that sets us apart is our warm and inviting office space where I put a lot of thought and intention into every single piece of art, furniture, and accessory. My main goal was to create a space that felt welcoming, comfortable, and safe. We realize it takes a lot of courage to take the first step toward healing so we wanted to make sure that everyone that steps into our door feels at home. We take most of the major insurances to make it as affordable as possible and try to be flexible with our self pay rates as well because healing shouldn’t only apply to those from a specific socioeconomic status.
We are constantly looking for new ways to empower, educate, and inspire women and mothers.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
One of my favorite childhood memories is celebrating the 4th of July with my big extended family including aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings all gathered together. My aunt lived just down the street from the parade route, so every year my cousins, some of my siblings, and I would camp out the night before to save our spots. We’d stay up late eating junk food, playing games, and telling jokes until we couldn’t keep our eyes open even one more minute. One year, we even found the longest extension cord we could and ran it from my aunt and uncle’s house—nearly fifty yards down the sidewalk—so we could watch a movie outside together. Looking back, those were some of the best nights of my life… even though I still can’t believe our parents actually let us do it.
Pricing:
- $175 for an intake diagnostic session
- $140 for. a routine self pay session
- $150 for a routine insurance session
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lotusrosecounseling.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lotusrosecounseling/
