Women’s Health

Finding Your Way

The journey to motherhood is rarely a linear path. The story we’ve been fed about creating a family has created a collective mirage that shows having a baby as a secret kept behind closed doors and shown only with celebratory news of a baby is on the way. The way our world talks about and depicts trying to conceive and motherhood leaves little to no room for:

  • Those struggling to conceive

  • Those experiencing infertility

  • Those undergoing IVF

  • Those creating a family through donor egg, donor sperm, surrogacy, and adoption

  • Those who loose their baby

  • Those who experience trauma during pregnancy and birth

  • Those who struggle postpartum

If your path hasn’t looked like instagram-perfect bliss you’re not alone. Giving yourself the gift of counseling can transform your isolation into healing.

Infertility and IVF

Receiving a diagnosis of infertility at any stage of trying to can knock you out at the knees. You might have been trying for 2+ years, or maybe you’re not even ready to build your family but you’ve received new medical information. Moving forward with medically assisted reproduction itself can be a wildly mixed experience. Sometimes embarking on IVF itself can feel like the most purposeful, clear part of your trying to conceive process. Sometimes it can also bring up feelings of anxiety, overwhelm, failure, anger, and deep longing - not even mentioning the emotions that may flood your system as a result of the stimulation medications. Counseling can help you make sense of your diagnosis and your treatment, create meaning out of the trauma and loss you’ve experienced, and give you the tools you need to walk yourself into this next chapter of your life.

Postpartum Mood Disorders

Did you know postpartum mood disorder are the number one complication of birth in America?Maybe you’ve dealt with trauma, depression, anxiety, or OCD in your past and you’re ready to be proactive about your postpartum plan. Or maybe you’re little one has arrived and you’re floored with a sadness, fear, or dread you can’t shake. You could be having thoughts that scare you or rage that scares you and your partner. All of what you’re experiencing is understandable and there is help available. Change is possible. Working together we’ll talk about emotional healing and how to support your physical recovery. You’ll learn skills to help you ground yourself when caught up in an emotional storm and practical strategies to help your physical, hormonal, and energetic body recover.

Miscarriage

Your miscarriage is not your fault and loss at any stage of pregnancy deserves full recognition. During and after a miscarriage all kinds of emotions can show up; sometimes it can be feelings of grief, fear, and shame and other times it might feelings of confusion, anger, and envy.

Sometimes it can feel scary to grieve, to allow yourself to feel your loss as you move forward with trying to conceive. Sometimes we might tell ourselves stories like “If I let myself feel sad now, my body won’t let me get pregnant or stay pregnant,” or “This is my fault, I shouldn’t have x,y,z,” or “I don’t deserve to feel this way, I wasn’t ‘far enough’ along.”

On top of the loss of a baby, and a vision for the future, miscarriage can often include medical trauma. Whether it’s recurring HCG tests, a D&C, or the experience of miscarrying itself. In counseling you can create the space you need to define what’s happened, making meaning of what you’ve been through, and work towards healing.

Birth Trauma

Birth trauma can be incredible scary, confusing, enraging, overwhelming, and so much more. If your birth experience left you feeling powerless and helpless; fearing for the safety, health, and survival for yourself and your baby, you may have experienced birth trauma. It is so important to note that trauma is in the of the beholder; if you’re wondering if what you experienced what traumatic that is for YOU to decide.

Symptoms of birth trauma can include:

  • Intrusive thoughts related to your experience

  • Emotional triggers that you might be able to explain or connect to what you’ve experience OR that you might not quite be able to explain or understand

  • Avoiding people, places, things that remind you of what happened (like your OB, the pediatrician, certain clothes/smells/foods)

  • A deep sense of fear that you can’t think your way out of

  • Difficulty sleeping, feeling on-edge, difficulty concentrating, memory changes, loss of appetite

If you’re feeling this way this your mind and bodies incredible way of communicating to you something wasn’t right and something still isn’t safe. By using trauma-informed approaches you can recover from what’s happened.