Support for people navigating the emotional ups and downs of trying to conceive.
Fertility & Infertility Therapy in Pasadena & Online Across CA
Your anxiety about whether or not you’ll be able to have a baby feels impossible to turn off.
Maybe your latest round of fertility treatment was unsuccessful. Your life feels like it’s on pause while you wait for the results of another test, procedure, or transfer. There’s a sense that your body has failed you in a fundamental way, or that you are somehow defective. It’s hard to ignore the constant worry, disappointment, and grief.
Work feels meaningless at times. Your marriage may feel strained as you both try to cope in different ways. Perhaps you’re declining social invitations because conversations and gatherings feel like emotional landmines.
You may find yourself:
Obsessively researching fertility information
Analyzing everything you eat, drink, and do
Wondering if one wrong decision could ruin your chances
The emotional triggers are everywhere.
An unexpected pregnancy announcement or hearing someone get pregnant “by accident.” Getting your period. Another baby shower invitation. Watching friends have their second or third child.
Sometimes your reaction is anger or jealousy. You want to scream, “It’s not fair!” And then the shame arrives because you think you should feel happy for them.
You’re ready to stop feeling consumed by your emotions and find a sense of balance during the turbulence of trying to conceive.
Helping you develop emotional stability.
Together we will look at how your reproductive story has unfolded. We can process past experiences so they stop running the show. We’ll dig into the beliefs and meanings you hold around being a parent so we can find the ones that may be driving your distress. And we’ll build specific skills and strategies for navigating triggering situations like baby showers, pregnancy announcements, and medical appointments.
As a therapist with lived experience and extensive training in reproductive mental health, I understand how psychologically complex fertility struggles can be. My role is not to minimize the pain or force optimism. In therapy with me, you will not hear platitudes like “everything happens for a reason” or “just stay positive, it will happen when it's meant to.”
Therapists without training in fertility often unintentionally minimize the TTC experience, require education from you, the client, or rush toward reassurance. I provide you with a soft place to land where you can bring everything you have experienced and are dealing with and be met with zero judgment or expectations.
I pull from a variety of approaches–like psychodynamic and attachment theory, feminist and liberation psychology, CBT, ACT, narrative, and EMDR–to help you generate insight, reduce worry, and increase your confidence that you can handle what’s ahead. Whatever we work on, it’s tailored to you, including topics outside of trying to conceive. This process touches every part of your life and identity, and therapy should too.
Specialized therapy for fertility can help you:
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Interrupt the incessant researching on Chat GPT and Reddit forums that take over your treatment cycles and waiting periods
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Advocate for what you need and lean on the people in your circle who actually get it.
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Process the procedures, losses, and moments of being dismissed by providers so they stop showing up in your body.
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Let go of guilt and people-pleasing so you can protect what's left of you for what's still ahead.
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Find your way back to the parts of you this process has buried and embrace the strengths that have emerged.
Let’s face the uncertainty of trying to conceive together.
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Therapy cannot change the medical aspects of infertility. What it can change is how much the experience negatively affects your wellbeing. Many people find that fertility therapy helps them reduce anxiety, improve communication with their spouse, and make clearer decisions during fertility treatment.
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Yes. Trying to conceive can place enormous strain on relationships, and couples therapy for fertility can help you to feel seen by your partner, learn coping skills to navigate decisions and waiting periods, and ultimately feel like you’re on the same team again. If you’re doing individual therapy with me, there is also the option for your spouse to join us for a session to support your treatment goals.
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Meeting your therapy goals varies based on your personal situation, severity of symptoms, and dedication to the process. I’ve seen clients achieve their fertility therapy goals within six months and others who enjoy a longer process. Fertility therapy often goes hand in hand with your fertility treatment and new treatment phases could necessitate different therapeutic support, such as getting pregnant or discerning when to take a break or stop trying to conceive. I’ll check in with you throughout services to review your progress and how you are feeling about our work together. Length of treatment can always be adjusted as needed.
Frequently Asked Questions About Fertility Therapy
