Reproductive & Infertility Counseling
For many people, the journey to having a baby isn’t straightforward. Bumps along the road can feel painful, isolating, and immensely challenging. You may feel hopeless, angry, or overwhelmed.
I understand these feelings first-hand. Infertility is what led me to therapy as a client, and the meaning I derived from my experience is what led me to provide therapy as a clinician.
You are not alone.
While I cannot change your circumstances, I can offer unwavering support. I have expertise in many facets of reproductive counseling, including:
Primary infertility
Secondary infertility
Recurrent miscarriage
Third-party reproduction (egg, sperm, or embryo donation or gestational surrogacy)
Termination of a wanted pregnancy for medical reasons (TFMR)
Pregnancy and parenting after infertility
Considering becoming a single mother by choice (SMC)
Ambivalence about becoming a parent
Support for Individuals
Individual counseling is appropriate for patients in any stage of family-building process. Everyone’s journey is unique, and together we can process your experience and any associated feelings of grief, isolation, or loss of control. Counseling can also help to build skills in stress management and resilience, explore impacts on relationships, and process choices and decision-making. I also believe in importance of exploring meaning in difficult experiences. Many clients describe infertility as the most challenging experience they have ever had; discovering some meaning or growth in this experience can lead to feelings of greater acceptance or closure.
Many individual clients choose to continue therapy after becoming pregnant. In this phase of work, we can process feelings of anxiety or fear in early pregnancy, as well as expectations and identity shifts in preparation to becoming a parent.
I have a special interest in helping couples navigate the impacts of infertility on their relationship. It is common to feel quite alone and disconnected from one’s partner when facing reproductive challenges. While members of a couple are facing the same circumstances, they may be experiencing those circumstances very differently from one another. You and your partner are may be coping in very different ways, or you’re not on the same page regarding decisions about your next steps. You may feel confused or angry that your partner seems “fine” when you are not. Perhaps life has getting consumed by tracking cycles, timing intercourse, or enduring medical procedures, and you miss the relationship you had before.
Counseling can be helpful to open up communication, creating a space in which each person can express their unique feelings, needs, and fears, and in-turn better understand the emotional experience of their partner. These conversations can also illuminate each per’s unique coping style and help the couple learn how to best support one another, leading to deeper feelings of connection and increased intimacy. Counseling also be especially useful in decision-making on topics such as when to start or stop fertility treatments.
Support for Couples
The term “Intended Parent” identifies those who are planning to grow their family with assistance from a third-party (egg, sperm, or embryo donation, or gestational surrogacy.) For many people, this is a difficult decision and possibly follows a long journey of unsuccessful fertility treatments. Counseling can be useful in the decision-making progress to explore topics such as: feelings of grief related to the loss of one’s ability to carry a pregnancy or have a genetic tie to their future child, assumptions about what makes a family, and fears about the the impact of using a donor or surrogate on the relationship with a future child. I also offer a specialized support group for women having their first child through surrogacy.
In addition, I conduct formal psychosocial consultations with Intended Parents, which are frequently required by fertility clinics, in accordance to the standards set by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).