About the Counselors

What makes Mommy-Muse coaching & counseling more powerful than most choices?

It's the counselors themselves, Linda Semrau, M.A. and Christy Cuellar-Wentz, M.A. Studies have shown that the personality and character of the coach or therapist is as important as her training or the methods of therapy she uses. At Mommy-Muse we offer you unconditional acceptance, interest in what you have to say, empathy, highly developed intuition, and a great deal of knowledge and know-how regarding the problems common to new moms. New moms often experience their negative feelings and symptoms as self. Your symptoms are not you; they are not who you are. And they are 100% treatable. We guarantee you a secure and welcoming climate in which to express yourself, understand what is happening to you, problem solve, and allow your symptoms to safely disappear. Our focus is to help you feel balanced and secure in your life with your baby as quickly as possible.

We understand that it can be difficult to ask for help, and want you to know this: asking for help comes from strength, not from weakness. It is completely okay for you to ask for our help.

Linda Semrau, M.A.

When my daughter was born in 1971, I was thrown to the ground with postpartum depression. It took me two years to recover. When my son was born 16 years later, I thought I was ready. I was a mental health therapist now. The bad part wouldn't happen to me again! It did, although this time I knew more and was in a far better marriage.

My daughter experienced similar struggles after her two babies were born, even though she, too, was a mental health therapist with plenty of skill and knowledge. The problem is, when a mom is in the midst of a postpartum depression, she isn't thinking clearly at all. It can be very difficult to find one's way out. That's why Christy and I teamed up to found www.Mommy-Muse.com and provide support and information to other mothers.

There's no one I would rather help than a woman struggling to move with success and joy into her new life as a mom. And that transition doesn't happen instantly and automatically. It is definitely not accomplished by the time of the six-week checkup. With or without postpartum depression, it is likely to take 24 months - each time - to make the whole journey.

I know the way, and I want to help.

I am a Washington State Licensed Mental Health Counselor (#LH60161076) and Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), Time Line Therapy® and hypnotherapy. I bring these and an eclectic mix of other therapeutic modalities to my work, including Transactional Analysis, Holodynamics, Family Constellations, and Gestalt Therapy. I received my Master of Arts in Psychology from Antioch University in 1986.

My daughter Christy Cuellar and I bring counseling, resources, and information to other mothers from our favorite place in the world: the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State.

Christy Cuellar, M.A.

Each person does the best they can with the resources they have, and sometimes life circumstances can overwhelm our coping skills. In offering this unique online counseling service for new mothers, Linda Semrau and I draw from all we learned during our personal experiences with baby blues and postpartum depression as well as from our years of helping others in face-to-face therapy. We understand the difficulties many mothers face in a society that is often unwilling to acknowledge the inherent challenges of adjusting to life with a new baby.

I received a Master of Arts in Applied Behavioral Science – Systems Counseling – through Bastyr University and the Leadership Institute of Seattle in 1995. I initially focused on traditional private practice and volunteer work with a children’s shelter and a hospice. After the birth of my first daughter in 2001, I realized there was a vitally important group of people to reach out to: new mothers, who often do an amazing job of hiding their internal challenges from friends, family and even health care providers.

I am a Washington State Licensed Mental Health Counselor (#LH60160828) and Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), Time Line Therapy® and hypnotherapy.