Boston Infertility, Perinatal, and Post-Partum Therapist
Therapy for perinatal, infertility, and postpartum concerns provides a supportive, non‑judgmental space for individuals and couples navigating the emotional complexities of conception, pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood.
Clients may seek help for a wide range of experiences—including fertility challenges, pregnancy loss, birth trauma, identity shifts, and postpartum depression or anxiety—and therapy focuses on validating these often-overwhelming feelings while reducing isolation and shame.
In working with these realities, I use often use a mix of psychoeducation, cognitive‑behavioral, and supportive strategies to address anxiety or intrusive thoughts, grief‑informed work for losses, and mindfulness or somatic techniques to help regulate stress and reconnect with the body.
Therapy also supports clients in exploring changing relationships, redefining roles, strengthening attachment with their babies, and building coping tools that honor both the emotional demands and the profound transitions of the perinatal period.
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Infertility is commonly defined as the inability to conceive after 12 months of regular, unprotected sexual intercourse, or after 6 months for women over age 35. It can involve difficulties with becoming pregnant, carrying a pregnancy to term, or both. Infertility affects people of all genders, but women often bear the greater physical, emotional, and social burden of the diagnosis and its treatment.
Infertility is not a single condition; it can be caused by many factors, including hormonal imbalances, ovulatory disorders, blocked fallopian tubes, endometriosis, uterine conditions, age-related changes, or unexplained causes. For many women, infertility comes as an unexpected disruption to deeply held assumptions about their bodies, their futures, and their sense of identity.
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a form of assisted reproductive technology used to help individuals or couples conceive a pregnancy. The term in vitro means “outside the body.”
IVF is often recommended when other methods of conception have not worked or are not possible, such as in cases of blocked fallopian tubes, severe endometriosis, ovulatory disorders, male-factor infertility, genetic concerns, advanced maternal age, or unexplained infertility. While IVF can be highly effective, it is also medically intensive and emotionally complex.
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When people talk about perinatal mental health, they are referring to emotional and psychological experiences that occur from pregnancy through the first year following delivery. This period is marked by significant biological, psychological, relational, and social changes, making it a time of heightened emotional vulnerability as well as potential growth.
Hormonal shifts, physical changes, disrupted sleep, and major life transitions can all contribute to emotional instability during the perinatal period. Many women experience mood swings, heightened sensitivity, or emotional unpredictability. While some emotional fluctuation is common, the intensity can sometimes feel surprising or overwhelming.
Anxiety is also normal during this time due to the unknowns of child birth and labor, fear around change, concern for a baby’s health, cultural pressure to feel a particular way.
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Postpartum (often written post‑partum) refers to the period after childbirth, beginning immediately after delivery and commonly understood to extend through the first year after birth. This is a time of significant adjustment as a woman’s body, emotions, identity, relationships, and daily life shift in response to giving birth and caring for a newborn.
While postpartum is sometimes narrowly associated with physical recovery or depression alone, it is more accurately understood as a major developmental and psychological transition, marked by vulnerability as well as potential growth.
The post-partum period may come with mood changes, lability, anxiety, identity disruptions, exhaustion and depletion, marital struggles, and guilt and shame.
