Infertility can make you feel like you are completely alone in your experience. It feels like everyone else around you can do something with ease that you can't despite how hard you try.
The stress of infertility can cause a unique type of grief and loss that friends and family don't always know how to relate to or support. Those feelings of confusion, isolation, hopelessness and helplessness are coupled with the tangible stressors of infertility like having difficulty planning for the future or managing the financial stressors that come with paying for fertility treatment.
In addition, the process of trying to conceive and going through fertility treatment can create stress on your relationship with your partner as well as physical and emotional stress from the treatment itself.
My counseling sessions are designed to meet your unique needs throughout your infertility journey. Individual and couples sessions can be scheduled around your infertility treatment or pregnancy milestones. You can have more sessions around procedures and testing then less during the lulls in between cycles. Even group therapy is designed differently than your the typical 10-12 weekly sessions. I run groups once a month instead to be a support over the course of your infertility journey, which could be a year for some but is many more years for others. Because Infertility Treatment can be all consuming, my counseling services are via telehealth so you can conveniently fit them into a lunch break or whenever you have a moment.
Counseling can provide vital support through these experiences and give you the tools and information you need to thrive through this journey to parenthood rather than just wait and survive. Narrative Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) are evidence-based tools that can transform your experience of these reproductive barriers and reduce the negative impacts on your life. In addition, lowering your stress and improving your mental health can significantly reduce your cortisol levels which is the stress hormone that contributes to infertility.
The experience of male partners and of LGBTQ+ partners during infertility often go unaddressed as well, which can further impact the relationship of those on this journey.
When it comes to infertility, we often treat the physical factors and neglect the critically important mental and emotional factors needed to get pregnant. By treating the whole person, your chances of conceiving improve and the hardships of infertility are lessened.
In addition to specialized training through the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, I've personally been there myself on my own long journey with infertility, so you won't have to explain everything when trying to get support.
Take a step toward Reproductive Wellness by scheduling an individual or couples session. Call (360) 467-9008. Or sign up for Group Therapy for Infertility. Serving out of Olympia, WA area, services are available online and throughout the state of Washington