PEOPLE
KEEPING WOMEN WELL Jessica Gallo introduces clients to the Mommy Tribe STORY BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI | PHOTOSBY LUIS CHAVEZ
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Jessica Gallo is a licensed clinical social worker who offers therapeutic services in Santa Monica and Playa Vista/Culver City, and works virtually with clients throughout California. 34 PLAYA VISTA DIRECT | JUNE - JULY 2021 34 PLAYA VISTA DIRECT | JUNE - JULY 2021
essica Gallo says she feels women need to be supported. They take on their fair share of work within and outside of the family. “It weighs us down for sure,” she says. For 15 years, Gallo has worked as a psychotherapist for pregnant women, moms, young adults and teens. Her services include one-on-one therapy, postpartum planning and parenting support. Additionally, she runs a postpartum support group. “I’ve worked with a lot of children and with mothers who were really in need,” says Gallo, a Playa Vista resident. “I’ve done a lot of trauma work, too. “A lot of families I’ve worked with really struggled with their own histories of trauma and mood disorders and it was really difficult to show up the way they wanted to show up in parenting. I saw that year after year.” Through her work, Gallo has found that women who are supported share that healthy spirit with their families and friends. Gallo says she had a “transformative” experience when she became a mother. “Even as a therapist, and all the research available to me and all of the knowledge, I was not completely immune of the intensity of the transition to motherhood,” she says. “I’ve really found myself drawn to work with pregnant women, new moms and parenting women, and just really support them through their journeys.” Mothers, Gallo continues, find their identities shift, and with the pandemic, mothers were taking on the brunt of the work. “They’ve held us through this pandemic,” she says. “There is so much healing that needs to happen.” (Continued on page 36)
