Infertility Counseling
Licensed Psychotherapist, Kim Saunders, M.Ed., LPC provides compassionate, supportive therapy services. She specializes in all dimensions of infertility counseling. Kim provides counseling for individuals and couples interested in third party family-building, including surrogacy and egg donation.
If you are trying to have a baby and hoping negative pregnancy test after negative pregnancy test that you'll finally test positive and be pregnant, you are not alone. One out of every six couples in the US will have trouble getting pregnant or will miscarry.
The journey of infertility can be an emotional, physical and financial life crisis for even the most balanced of individuals. Individuals and couples may find that they need psychological support and guidance to cope with a problem that has the potential to be emotionally, financially, socially and sexually devastating.
For a couple, infertility often creates one of the most distressing crises that you will go through as a couple. Through treatment, you may find yourself withdrawing from friends and at times from each other and unable to offer or ask for support. To compound this, fertility treatments may generally feel like a humiliating process in which sex becomes goal oriented toward making a baby. Misunderstandings often occur causing you to feel isolated and alone.
The two of you will have many important decisions to make and may be overwhelmed as you look at the various ways to create your family or decide to live a child-free life. By learning to have patience with each other, you can make decisions that will best support you as a couple over a lifetime.
In counseling you can learn relaxation techniques, how to build coping skills to deal with the emotional and social issues related to infertility and how to make decisions while under stress and to set realistic goals.
Infertility patients often seek counseling when they first start medical treatment, after a failed cycle or a miscarriage, for grief work and other emotions stimulated by this experience, personal and relationship stress, and when they need to make difficult decisions about their family building options.
Counseling offers a non-biased overview of your family building options to help you make timely decisions that are mindful of long term implications. We understand that what constitutes a family is different for everyone. Each family is unique. You may be considering Donor Egg, Donor Sperm, Embryo Donation/Embryo Adoption or a Gestational carrier arrangement; adoption or child-free living.
If you are going through fertility diagnosis or treatment, it is important that both you and your partner seek some type of fertility counseling. Dealing with infertility can raise a lot of intense emotions. If these emotions are not processed and dealt with properly, they can lead to increased stress levels, relationship problems, and severe depression. And because fertility counselors are highly knowledgeable about different treatment options, yours may be able to provide you with another voice when it comes to choosing the right fertility treatments for you.
Issues often addressed in counseling with Kim include:
- Finding ways to cope with the depression, anxiety and daily stress of infertility.
- Making difficult decisions about your fertility.
- Talking to friends and family about your infertility.
- Resolving conflict and maintaining a strong relationship with your partner.
If you are considering third-party family building, you may choose to discuss the following topics:
- Choosing an egg donor
- Choosing a gestational surrogate
- Disclosure to friends and family
- Possible issues for children conceived through egg donation
- Embryo adoption
- Processing grief about genetic losses
- How to talk to children about their origins
- Concerns about family dynamics
- Gestational Carrier Evaluations
Comfort and trust are essential to a therapeutic relationship. Although a therapist's qualifications and experience are certainly important, choosing among qualified therapists is often a matter of personal chemistry. Good rapport assures that you will feel able to talk freely and develop a deep level of trust and confidence in a therapist.
For this reason I offer a free initial phone consultation. We can talk about why you're considering counseling. I can answer your questions, ask some of my own, and give you a good idea of whether I can help you achieve your goals for counseling. You can gauge your comfort level and decide whether you'd like to schedule an appointment. If you are a couple, I like to speak to each of you before your first appointment.
You can reach me at (404) 906-8233. If I'm in session or out of the office when you call, you can leave a recorded message and I'll return your call at my first opportunity.