Therapy for Fertility Challenges & Loss
Dealing with fertility challenges and loss can feel like you’re running on empty and it’s hard to keep going.
The repeated cycles of hope and disappointment put stress on even the healthiest people and their relationships. Sometimes, partners cope with the stress in different ways, which can result in relationship strain or conflict. Frequent, intrusive, and often painful medical tests and procedures take a toll and are disruptive to daily life. The emotional, physical, and financial impacts can be overwhelming.
Fertility challenges and loss may be the most difficult experience you’ve faced.
Common emotions experienced include grief, anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, and depression. Sometimes well-intentioned friends and family contribute to your pain when they say things like “you just need to relax – all that stress is the problem” or “trust me, you’re lucky you don’t have kids.” Baby showers, birthdays, Mother’s Day, and other holidays can be especially difficult when you’re experiencing infertility and loss.
You might try to distract yourself, but it’s nearly impossible when the images of babies and families are everywhere: your social media feed, the park, at work.
THERAPY FOCUS AREAS
Assisted Reproductive Technology
Depression & Anxiety
Donor & Surrogacy Options
Fertility Challenges & Infertility
Grief & Mourning
Perinatal Loss
Relationship Stress
Reproductive Mental Health
Trauma & PTSD
How Does Therapy Help?
In therapy, you’ll be supported in managing the range of thoughts and emotions that come with fertility challenges. You’ll have the space to grieve and mourn the often traumatic losses you’ve experienced. I’ll help you strengthen your existing coping skills and develop new ones. Therapy often includes improving social support, working on communications skills to help you get the support you need, and setting healthy boundaries to protect yourself.
Through our work together, my clients create meaningful lives that take many different forms. To figure out what this looks like for you, we’ll draw from your unique strengths and identities while addressing impacts of the systems and social pressures you encounter in your daily life. We’ll discuss your options and help clarify the best way for you to move forward. For some, this may mean continuing with further fertility treatments. For others, it can look like taking a temporary break or stopping fertility treatment altogether. And for some, it means considering other family building options, like adoption or surrogacy.
You don’t have to do this alone. As a certified perinatal mental provider and licensed psychotherapist with more than 20 years of experience, I have the knowledge and skills to help you manage fertility challenges & loss.
