Meet Amber Rukaj & Chelsea Sybrandt | Maternal Mental Health Therapists

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amber Rukaj & Chelsea Sybrandt and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amber & Chelsea, how has your work-life balance changed over time?

As busy, full-time maternal mental health therapists, mothers, and business owners the precarious balance of time feels ever present in our minds. In hindsight it feels like we had all the time in the world before motherhood and our time was easier to manage. Before motherhood, it feels like we had more time alone, more time to pursue individual pursuits and goals, and perhaps more time for self-care activities. Since becoming full-time working professionals and mothers our balance looks a little different to say the least. Everything feels shared now. Within that shared time we look for balance not just for ourselves but our families, our relationships, and our employees. In general, we both feel we are more efficient with our time and we set stronger boundaries around things that create imbalance in our lives. We both appreciate the vital need for a balanced lifestyle now more than we did prior to motherhood. Our bodies and our minds crave it in a way it perhaps did not before.

As therapists working with busy mothers who balance a multitude of responsibilities and roles, the topic of how to feel more balanced is a daily conversation that does not have an easy solution. In some ways with larger systemic issues that put more responsibility and pressure on women, the idea of balance feels precarious and difficult to obtain and maintain. From our perspective creating equilibrium in your life iis a daily check in with yourself around how you’re doing, what you need more or less of and then moving towards that solution to create more balance. It is also about walking the walk, we teach balance to our clients all the time, but we are only helpful if we are being intentional about our own self care and needs.

Please tell us more about your business. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today business-wise. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?

Spark Mamas is the new moms gift registry that allows mothers to create a wish list of items they really need  to help them adjust easier to motherhood. You can sync your wishlist to your other registries so that when friends and family are looking to buy you gifts for the new baby they buy something that takes care of you. We are most proud of launching Spark Mamas while both working full time jobs and taking care of our families. We have created something that does not currently exist in our community. Nationwide there is not a model that exists in the way we created ours so we’ve really had nothing to build off which is both exciting and scary.  What is also unique about our business is that all of the gifts in our shop are by women owned businesses (most of them mothers) and with every gift purchased we give a percentage back to a local non profit that supports mothers in need that cannot afford the services. It’s important to us that we are able to help ALL mothers in some way, even the ones that are not in a position to access or afford the the resources we offer.

We got where we are by working collaboratively with each other, passion, patience and a supportive team of women and our families cheering us on.  One of the ways we overcame challenges was by building off the strengths we both bring to the business and asking for support from other women business owners for areas we needed more help in. It took us nearly 5 years to finally get to launch with our time divided to other areas of our life while we slowly built the business. We are proud we never gave up on our vision especially after Covid set so many lives off track and businesses closed. We want the world to have the same passion we do about changing the way we take care of mothers. We want the world to think about taking care of mothers versus just the baby. We want mothers to think about what they really need to take care of themselves first and make a registry of those items so they have practical things that nourish them.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc. In your view what are some of the most fun, interesting, exciting people, places or things to check out?

We feel so lucky to live in San Diego. It has so much diversity in restaurants, neighborhoods and outdoor activities. We love taking friends to Torrey Pines Beach to hike and walk along the water. We love visiting Little Italy with friends to go to the Farmers Market or enjoy many of the incredible restaurants. We also love taking friends to the Glider Port and enjoying food at the cafe there while overlooking the cliffs and watching the Gliders.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

We would not exist without so many other women helping us to build our business and being a vital part of our gift registry. Every one of our gift providers are women owned businesses, most of them mothers who have founded services that help care for women in vital ways. Each of our partners are amazing role models of balancing mothering and entrepreneurship.

Website: www.sparkmamas.com

Instagram: @sparkmamas

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spark-mamas-llc-a2416b263/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070436916794

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SparkMamas

Image Credits
Emily Thao Photography