Infertility/Pregnancy Loss/Perinatal Mental Health
The words “infertility” or “infertile” are tough to hear. Diagnosis and treatment can lead to depression, anxiety and/or difficulty managing the stress of it all. Learning coping strategies alleviates suffering and reduces symptoms. I can help you cope with the emotional fallout that comes with most reproductive challenges and/or pregnancy loss. I’ve been there. I know both what it’s like to struggle to conceive, and to have to seek medical assistance with that which would ideally be kept private and natural. I also know the devastating and seemingly invisible pain and loss of having miscarriages. I can assure you that this phase of your life will resolve one way or another. I can help you establish guidelines and boundaries around medical treatments, considerations for assisted reproduction, and options for adoption or for living meaningfully without children.
Relationships can also become strained by the weight of infertility and/or pregnancy loss. Couples often find their usual ways of connecting and communicating inadequate for the strain of infertility or the emotional rollercoaster of assisted reproduction. Therapy and art therapy can provide tools to stay healthier as individuals and more connected as a couple.
I am certified in Perinatal Mental Health (PMH-C) and can help with pregnancy and postpartum anxiety, mood changes and other concerns. There are special considerations for those who become pregnant via IVF, as well as some unique challenges that can come with parenting a child who was created via IVF (with or without third party reproduction). As an adoptive parent, I am well-versed in “non-biological” parenting, and topics that may impact you and your child (or adult adoptees). While third party reproduction and adoption are not the same thing, there is some overlap. I am also happy to assist if you are a single parent by choice (or considering), or LGBTQIA looking to build your family, or seeking help with relationships or parenting after building your family.
