Cradle (verb): to hold gently and protectively, with care and tenderness.
Cradled Psychiatry provides a space to cradle and nurture your personal growth
All individuals deserve to be held in safe, responsive care as they navigate the shifts and changes of growth
-Dr Heather Buxton MD
Child, Adolescent and Perinatal Psychiatrist and Founder of Cradled Psychiatry
Cradled Psychiatry was born from a truth I lived as I worked to balance my own career, mental wellness, and the evolving roles in my life.
Life transitions are full of opposites—and we are often expected to cradle them all, usually without enough support.
For many, becoming a parent brings this tension into sharp focus: after birth, the spotlight shifts from the birthing person to the baby, even as parents themselves are navigating profound emotional and identity shifts. Others experience similar push and pull during different stages of growth, caregiving, or personal change.
Joy and grief. Presence and ambition. Exhaustion and awe.
We are stretched between who we were, who we are becoming, and what the people who depend on us need.
Cradled Psychiatry was created from the belief that everyone deserves mental health support as they navigate identity, family, and life transitions.
We honor the complexity of these experiences—and offer care that holds space for all of it.
A Personal Spotlight on Advocacy
This picture always brings tears to my eyes. It was taken during a time when I was balancing my child psychiatry fellowship with life as a new parent to my post-NICU baby. I was grateful for the small flexibility I was granted—four weeks working from home after most of my maternity leave had been spent in the NICU. But the truth is, it still wasn’t enough.
No parent should have to choose between healing, bonding, and survival on one hand, and career, training, or financial stability on the other. Yet this is the reality for so many families in our country. The system places impossible expectations on parents while offering too few supports.
Cradled Psychiatry was born not only to care for individuals and families, but also to stand for something bigger: the urgent need for systemic and policy change that ensures parents and caregivers have the resources, protections, and compassion they deserve. Because thriving families don’t happen in isolation—they require communities and systems designed to support them
-Dr. Heather Buxton