Dr. Anne Welsh

Most companies aren't doing enough to support working parents.

So typically they leave.

If you work for a company where this has happened, I imagine you know the financial costs, cultural impact, and institutional knowledge that's lost.

In order to truly support working parents - especially women - we need to address caregiving.

And as a qualified RETAIN Parental Leave consultant (the first evidence-based and systematic teaching method for the growing field of parental leave coaching), I know exactly what we need to do.

The results of this work make an impact company-wide.

For example, a large retail company in Australia found immense benefits for everyone involved in the program - including:

• 100% were retained as employees

• 85% had an increased ‘sense of being valued by the organization’

• 77% reported increased confidence in work-life integration

• 69% reported increased productivity, health and well-being

All of them found the program helpful.

So, what does a RETAIN program look like for your team?

1) First we assess what your current policies are around working parents and where we can make meaningful, researched backed, changes.

2) Then I provide training to managers and leadership on the best ways to support working parents, including cultural change and mindset work.

3) Finally, I follow up with coaching to support working parents and those that are becoming parents.

You cannot afford to lose your working parents and new parents.

This is your chance to get ahead of the curve and become a top place for parents to work.

Ready to help your organization thrive and become magnetic for more top talent?

Send me a message today or check out more information here: https://www.drannewelsh.com/parental-leave-coaching

Leadership Consultant

If you're a working mom reading this, I imagine you probably want to...

- Gain clarity on what you want for yourself

- Shed perfectionism while embracing ambition

- Move from constant overwhelm to intention & presence

- Feel confident in all your roles while allowing connection & joy

- Create a plan to find a fulfilling career that works WITH your personal life

Hi, I'm Anne, & helping women find an aligned way to fulfillment & presence is my specialty 👋

I've supported clients in clearing the clutter of external voices, so they know what they truly want… AND confidently ask for it.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution in my work. We find what works for YOU...

Just like how I did with my client Liz.

Liz is a mom of 2 young kids and works remotely for a company in a job that felt blah.

When she came to me she:

- Knew she wanted more, but didn't know WHAT

- Was overwhelmed about balancing work & her family

- Felt unfulfilled…but didn't think she had capacity for more

She thought of herself as a failure.

By the way, if you feel like this too - you're not a failure.

How do I know this?

Well, it's because there are lots of systemic issues at play that keep most working moms feeling trapped. That's why it feels hard. It's because it IS hard - not that you're doing it wrong.

Once Liz saw this, we started to separate out the external voices telling her what she “should” do/want, & identify her own.

Then we took action:

+ We explored her values and strengths

+ She started looking at career options, getting help at home and with the kids

+ She started listening to and trusting her inner voice.

She made more progress with me than she had in years.

Remember: self-blame & criticism don't work.

Instead, we have to get quiet & access the YOU underneath it all.

Just like Liz, who found a new role for herself and now feels fulfilled and challenged as she moves up in her career & continues to show up as a wonderful mom.

Ready for change like this too?

Clinical Psychologist & Executive Coach

Harvard University

Clinical Psychologist

Cambridge Eating Disorder Center

Postdoctoral Fellow

University of New Hampshire

Clinical Psychology Intern

I'm so glad to see you here. I support women in their leadership journey and in the transition from a working person to a working parent.

I do this in two ways:

1️⃣ Coaching for busy or ambitious working moms

If you're feeling overwhelmed at work and home, having invested into your career but still feeling unfulfilled, or coming back after a pause and unsure of how to do it all,  you've landed on the right profile.

I imagine it feels like everyone else has figured this out.

They are getting promoted, throwing perfect kid’s birthday parties, and seem to enjoy it all.

So in an attempt to "be better", you might have tried...

— Productivity hacks - but the to-do list just never ends
— Taking vacation time - which provides temporary relief
— Venting to friends - which feels good, but somehow they don’t have the same struggle

Maybe this is all there is? Maybe the reality is that being a working mom or a woman in leadership is just miserable?

You start to wonder if you’re the problem. (Hint: You're not).

If this resonates with you, please know you’re not alone.

Instead, what you need to do is:

✨ Get clear on what YOU truly value ✨

Suddenly it becomes easier to evaluate your current situation and make necessary changes. You start to feel motivated again with a renewed sense of self and goals that align with your priorities.

My clients experience all of this and more...

❤️ “I have finally started completing my [work] on time. Using positive reinforcement rather than guilting and shaming myself.... setting boundaries with my time.... it was a big change!"

🪴 "Prior to working with Anne, I was feeling like I was lost and unsure of myself. Anne worked with me to identify a path forward and feel more confident."

🌊 "I found this extraordinarily helpful! I can’t believe how much of a shift I have made in my thought pattern.”

======

2️⃣ Consulting with companies around women's leadership development, working parent policy and culture improvement

I do this by creating a self-reinforcing culture of care that values caregiving and employee’s life outside of work resulting in:

- better loyalty

- higher retention

- attracting top talent

I also offer parental leave coaching, leadership development workshops, & group coaching for women in leadership through their employers. 

======

If you're a working mom or at a company that wants to support women & working parents, then let’s connect.

Send me a DM or book a time with me here: https://calendly.com/drannewelsh/connection-call

The maternal brain is one of the most powerful examples of neuroplasticity we have... and yet we ridicule it with the term “mom brain.”

Neuroscience shows that motherhood reshapes the brain in lasting ways, strengthening empathy, intuition, and social intelligence.

What looks like forgetfulness or fog is actually the brain fine-tuning itself for connection and care.

The problem isn’t the change. It’s the story we tell about it.

I wrote about what the research really shows, and what it means for how we think, feel, and lead.

Anne Welsh, PhD, PMH-C, PCC

Executive Coach, Clinical Psychologist, Working Parent Consultant, Speaker | Helping women go from perfectionism → to focused & confident leaders | 100s of empowered & aligned women now thriving at work & home

The surprising growth of the maternal brain, and what it means for how we think, feel, and lead. It’s no secret that motherhood changes you. What may 

Open article: The Maternal Brain: How Motherhood Rewires You for Emotional Strength and Leadership by Anne Welsh, PhD, PMH-C, PCC • 3 min read

The Maternal Brain: How Motherhood Rewires You for Emotional Strength and Leadership

“I feel so lazy. I know I should be doing more, but I just… can’t.”
Her voice cracked on can’t...

She wasn’t someone who ever slacked off.

In fact, she’d built her whole identity around doing more than anyone else.

The overachiever. The dependable one. The mom who never missed a beat.

But lately, she couldn’t make herself do the simplest things. Not the big work project, not the laundry, not even responding to a text.

She hated how it felt. The stillness. The shame. The sense that she was disappearing inside her own life.

So she called it what she thought it was: laziness.
But it wasn’t.

It was functional freeze. 

When your system has been running on overdrive for too long. When you've been managing deadlines, mental load, care work, expectations... it eventually hits capacity.

Your nervous system does what it’s designed to do: protect you.

It shuts down to keep you from collapsing.

You don’t need more discipline.
You need recovery.
You don’t need another productivity hack.

You need to feel safe enough to move again.

You’re not lazy.
You’re overloaded.

And overload doesn’t respond to shame. It responds to care.

You don’t need to push harder.
You don’t need to earn your rest.
You need space to let your system recover.

Because you’re not lazy. You’re human.

Anyone else ever called themselves lazy when they were really just completely done?

We ask women to do everything.
To lead, to nurture, to hold it all together.
And when they finally say, “this isn’t sustainable,”

We act surprised. Or worse, we call them the problem.

450,000 women have left the U.S. workforce this year.
Not because they lost ambition,
but because the system lost them.

Some will say it’s personal choice.
That women are “reprioritizing.”
That maybe they “just wanted to stay home.”

For some, that’s true. Motherhood is a powerful way to grow, influence, and lead. When it’s a grounded, intentional decision, it’s a beautiful one.

But too often, and especially in this data, what looks like choice is actually constraint.

They are leaving because they cannot afford to stay.
Because childcare costs more than a paycheck.
Because flexibility was revoked.
Because someone needed care, and they were the ones expected to provide it.
Because their ambition was questioned the moment they became a parent, and they are chronically over looked or questioned.

These aren’t isolated choices.
They’re heartbreaks- individual and collective- 

with ripple effects across families, workplaces, and generations.

Women aren’t leaving because they’ve lost ambition.
They’re leaving because they’ve lost support.

The good news? That’s a problem we can fix...
 if we’re brave enough to tell the truth about it.

What would it take for your workplace to make staying possible?

I was testing font colors for the cover of my new book, Ambitious Mother. ChatGPT decided the title should be Ambitious Father.
And, just for good measure, it changed my name to John. 

I wish I were kidding.

No prompt. No explanation. Just… rewritten.

I asked it to adjust the font color, not the story.

If you think technology has evolved past bias, think again.

AI mirrors the data it’s trained on...and apparently, in that data, ambition still belongs to fathers.

That quiet swap said everything.

 About how bias hides in plain sight.

 About how language still shapes who gets to be seen as ambitious, capable, or worthy of a cover.

I’ve been talking about this for years- how motherhood and ambition are still seen as opposites.

Sometimes I wonder if the message has been said enough, if it’s old news.

And then something like this happens, and I’m reminded: we still have a long way to go.

This is exactly why this book, and this conversation, matter.

Because the more we connect ambition and motherhood, the more we rewrite not just our narratives, but the systems that reflect them.

Where have you seen bias show up in the smallest, subtlest ways?

October is ADHD Awareness Month. 
And one pattern I see again and again, especially in my work with mothers, is this: 

Motherhood is often the moment when one’s ADHD finally comes into focus.

I’ve lost count of how many women have come to me over the years saying some version of:

“I’m so overwhelmed. I used to manage everything, now I’m dropping balls left and right.”

They’re not lazy.
They’re not disorganized.
They’re managing more executive functioning tasks than most CEOs.

School forms, soccer sign-ups, snack duty, sibling dynamics, birthday parties, doctor appointments...the invisible load never ends.

For some, we can work on getting help, using The Fair Play Policy Institute, etc. to address the mental load.

However, for others, it's not enough, because they realize that they've actually been making something bigger for most of their lives.

Girls who were labeled “anxious” or praised for being high-achieving learned to over-function their way through life. They created elaborate systems, worked late, people-pleased, powered through.

But then they hit motherhood...and the scaffolding collapses.

Not because they’ve suddenly become incapable.
But because the system offers almost no support for the sheer volume of mental load they’re now expected to carry.

Motherhood doesn’t create ADHD.
But it often exposes it.

So if you’re sitting in the swirl of it, feeling like you’re failing, or wondering why things feel harder than they should, here’s what I want you to know:
You’re not alone.

There are tools. There’s language. And there’s support.

If you’re not sure where to start, I’m always happy to help point you in the right direction.

Have you noticed motherhood revealing challenges you didn’t see before?

Most parental leave return-to-work plans look great on paper...until real life shows up.

I’ve seen it so many times.
A new parent with a color-coded spreadsheet:
Childcare secured.
Commute timed to the minute.
Pumping breaks blocked on the calendar.
Backup plan for the backup plan.

Everything accounted for...except what happens when life doesn’t follow the plan.

The baby refuses the bottle.
The daycare closes for a week.
The commute that looked fine in theory feels unbearable in practice.
And suddenly, the “perfect plan” becomes one more thing to manage.

That’s the moment I think about most in my work with expecting parents and when I designed the parental leave coaching program for Phoebe:

the moment when planning meets reality,
and parents need space to recalibrate.

Because returning to work isn’t just logistical.
It’s emotional.
Physical.
Deeply personal.
You don’t come back as the same person who left.
And your plan shouldn’t expect you to.

When organizations make room for that recalibration, everything changes:
Parents return engaged instead of anxious.
Managers lead with empathy instead of uncertainty.
Cultures strengthen from the inside out.

Support during this transition isn’t a perk.
It’s what keeps great employees, and great parents, in the game.

What part of your “perfect plan” went sideways when you (or someone on your team) came back to work, and what helped you find your footing again?

Five years ago, I lost my dear friend Renee to brain cancer.
I still miss her.
And I especially think about her every time I hit a challenge in parenting.

We met during one of the loneliest seasons of my life — I had just left full-time work after having my second child, was launching my own practice, and didn’t have many friends with kids yet.

My toddler was struggling in every class we tried. I felt isolated, unsure, and exhausted.

Renee was a lifeline.

Her child was struggling too, and in her, I found a kindred spirit.
Someone who saw how hard I was trying.
Someone who reminded me the challenges weren’t my fault.

We traded ideas, late-night messages, and encouragement.

Eventually, we both learned why our kids were struggling (AuADHD). 

We continued to build our families and learn and grow together. 

We even had a playdate while she was in labor with her third.

Then, just before COVID, everything changed.

She was diagnosed with brain cancer.

Later, I sat beside her in hospice.

She wasn’t up for many visitors, but she told me she wanted me there,
because I knew how to sit with the hard.

Because she wouldn’t have to take care of me in her last moments.

That’s something I’ll never forget.

And it’s part of why I believe so deeply in the power of connection, especially between mothers.

Renee wasn’t a therapist.

She was a mom who saw me when I really needed to be seen.

And that kind of presence, steady, generous, real, changed everything.

That’s the kind of space I try to create in the groups I lead now.

Because the most powerful part of group work isn’t the curriculum or even the coach.

It’s the women who show up for one another.

Who say: “Me too.”

Who make it safe to stop pretending everything’s fine.

Connection doesn’t fix everything. But it softens it.

It saves us in small, quiet ways, and sometimes in big life-altering ones.

If you’ve ever had someone like Renee, or been someone like Renee, I’d love to hear about it.

Who’s held you through a hard season? Or reminded you that you weren’t alone?

One of the hardest parts of working motherhood, and one we don’t talk about enough, is how easy it is to lose touch with your friendships.

Between the work I cared about and the kids I adored, my relationships slipped into the margins.

Quick waves at pickup. A rushed “how are you.”
Maybe a meme sent at 10 p.m. before falling asleep.
And I missed it.

I missed the kind of conversations where you can finally exhale.
Where you drop the mask.
Where you say the real thing, and hear, “me too.”

That’s one of the reasons I lead groups for ambitious mothers.

In these spaces, even the most private or introverted women find themselves opening up.

One mom told me, “These aren’t the conversations I have on the playground. I’m so grateful to finally have them.”

And what's even better? Again and again, women tell me the same thing:
That what starts in group doesn’t stay in group.

It ripples outward.

They leave realizing how universal their struggles are, and suddenly, they’re deepening connections in their other friendships too.

Because motherhood and ambition were never meant to be solo journeys.

If you’ve been craving that kind of connection, I'm opening doors for my next cohort of Ambitious Mothers Mastermind. I'd love to have you join us. 
Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eCfjfzar


What’s helped you keep friendships alive as a mom? What kind of connection are you missing most?

Open article: Ambitious Mothers Mastermind — Dr. Anne Welsh | Executive & Leadership Coaching and Therapy in Cambridge, MA by drannewelsh.com

Ambitious Mothers Mastermind — Dr. Anne Welsh | Executive & Leadership Coaching and Therapy in Cambridge, MA

Who are your partners in parenting...at work?

Every working parent has them- the people who help make it all work.

Last week at the Women at the Top Summit for Phoebe, I had the privilege of leading a panel on what really makes working parenthood work.

And one theme stood out:

Policies make it possible.
People make it sustainable.

- The colleague who says, “Go, I’ve got it,” when daycare calls.
- The manager who doesn’t blink when you leave early for pickup.
- The teammate who quietly moves a meeting so you can make the school concert.

Sometimes it’s another parent.
Sometimes it’s not.

Because working parenthood isn’t meant to be managed alone. It depends on trust, teamwork, and small acts of flexibility that turn good policy into lived support.

That’s the heart of healthy culture: not just what’s written in a policy, but what happens in the moments no one sees.

It’s also the kind of culture we help organizations build, where support isn’t performative, it’s practiced.

Events like this panel reminded me how powerful it is when working parents get in a room together, share what’s real, and realize they’re not the only ones carrying so much.

If your company or women’s network wants to host conversations like this-  the kind that spark change and build connection- then let’s talk.

Who are your workplace partners in parenting? Who are the people who help you make it all work?

What if the biggest untapped leadership pipeline in your company isn’t a program... it’s your working mothers?

When one of my clients, a senior leader, first reached out, she told me:

- She’d already tried a corporate women’s program that felt surface-level and left her stuck
- She was working harder than ever but still felt invisible after returning from leave
- She believed her only options were to lean in harder or step back completely

She was caught in what I call the Ambition Paradox: the push-pull of wanting to be both a great mother and a great leader, but feeling like she had to choose.

Her company sponsored our coaching engagement, and within six months, here’s what changed:
- She set her first real boundary at work — and didn’t spiral with guilt
- She finally advocated for a promotion she’d been holding back on
- She stopped ending every day in decision fatigue and started ending it with her kids

Most importantly, she realized her ambition and her motherhood weren’t in conflict- they were fueling each other

And here’s the part I love: her organization noticed.

Her clarity and confidence didn’t just help her, they lifted her team.

This isn’t just about one woman’s growth. It’s about what becomes possible when workplaces stop treating motherhood as a liability and start seeing it as a leadership advantage.

Here’s what I want you to know:
Working mothers don’t need more “resilience tips.”
They need systems, language, and leadership frameworks that allow them to thrive.

That’s where I come in. I partner with HR leaders to help organizations support working mothers in ways that drive retention, engagement, and leadership growth.

If you’re an HR leader ready to make your company a place where ambitious mothers stay and rise, message me here on LinkedIn.

Or, simply forward this post to the person who should be leading this work where you are.


 What’s one way your organization could turn working motherhood from a challenge into a leadership advantage?

Guilt is not “proof of failure”, it’s a symptom of impossible standards.

I spent the first few years of working motherhood wracked by guilt.

Guilt I wasn’t spending enough time with my kids.
Guilt I was showing up tired to work.
Guilt I wasn’t enjoying all of it.
Guilt I was behind on housework.

And when I searched for answers?
The advice made it worse.

Spend more time with your kids.
Get up earlier.
Just let go.

None of it felt helpful... because in the end, the problem wasn’t me.

Here’s what I know now:
1) Every woman I know has felt it too, the quiet pressure to be everything to everyone, all at once.
2) The issue wasn’t my effort, it was the lack of support.
3) I wasn’t broken — the system was.

This is the Ambition Paradox at work: women are told to strive endlessly, then judged by standards that no one could possibly meet.

The way forward isn’t doing more, it’s redefining ambition on our own terms,  with support, alignment, and permission to be both/and.

You don’t have to earn your worth through guilt.

What’s one piece of guilt you’ve been carrying that was never really yours to hold?

Hey LinkedIn friends!  I need your help- What are your best tips for work travel as a working mom?

The practical ones, the emotional ones, the sanity-saving ones… I want them all.



I’m getting on a plane this afternoon: first to Austin to speak with a group of women entrepreneurs on strategic planning, then to New York to lead the Working Mothers Summit.



And like any working mom heading out the door, I’ve got lists upon lists.

What to pack.

What to finish.

What to hand off at home.



AND, last week, in several different groups, clients were talking about work travel.

One is leaving her baby for the first time.

Another is leaving her middle schoolers for the week.

Each navigating that mix of excitement, guilt, and logistics.

The conversations were full of empathy, humor, and genuinely great ideas.  Everything from freezer meals to bedtime rituals over FaceTime.

It reminded me how layered this experience is.

Pride and purpose on one hand.

Guilt and missing home on the other.

The Ambition Paradox, in motion.



So let’s crowdsource this:

What makes work travel easier, smoother, or even joyful for you and your family?

For me:

I leave notes in random places for my kids to find.

My youngest has a recording of me singing her nighttime song.

And my older ones text me everything from “I miss you so much” to “Where are my (full in the blank item)?”


However you do it, you’re not alone in the lists, the love, or the longing.


Drop your favorite tip below. Let’s build a working-mom travel survival guide together.

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