Rates & Insurance
WHAT IS IN/FERTILITY COUNSELING?
Infertility is a complex medical condition with many causes and implications. A recent study revealed that a diagnosis of infertility can be just as stressful as a diagnosis of cancer. (*Cue the validation exhale*) Infertility treatment is an overwhelming and daunting world that is expensive, foreign, and doesn’t even guarantee success in the end. Being poked, probed, treated like a broken body, disconnected from your emotions. Those who’ve been given an infertility diagnosis, told by their doctors that IVF is their best option, often find themselves keeping their circumstances from family and friends. Putting on smile, crying alone in your car, and only sharing with intimate partners. Often times, unloading on your partner is a lot of pressure for one person to bare. I encourage you to preserve that intimate relationship and spread the stress. Particularly with someone who isn’t emotionally and intimately invested in the ultimate outcome. So, you have a space to be honest, to be raw, and unafraid of upsetting your inner circle.
As an In/Fertility & Reproductive Loss Counselor, this means that I have married my specialized training in Assisted Reproductive Technology (A.R.T.) and how it affects one’s mental health, along with my clinical training. I already speak the infertility language. For example, there’s no need to educate me on the “two-week-wait,” the medical jargon, and injections. Of course, we will discuss and process how this is affecting your life, but you won’t have to educate me on the basics of infertility because I’ve already done the homework.
I assist clients in finding ways to cope with the various aspects of infertility:
- Unexplained infertility
- Specific infertility diagnoses
- Secondary infertility
- Processing Reproductive grief and loss
- Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) treatment
- Coping with the side-effects of medication on one’s mood
- Support through Third party reproduction (egg/sperm/embryo donation, surrogacy)
- Support with decision making regarding frozen gametes and embryos
- Adoption counseling
- Decisions to living child-free
- Pregnancy and Parenting after A.R.T.
- Counseling for single family building / parenting
- Counseling for LGBTQ family building / parenting
- Counseling for pregnancy and parenting after A.R.T. (including talking with your child/ren about your building journey.)
- Consultation to help link clients to the most appropriate resources necessary to move forward.
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Infertility is hard. Often leaving clients feeling depressed, anxious, isolated and loss of control. I am here to support you, help you find ways to cope and hopefully, find a way out of this stage in your life with your relationships intact. I can’t guarantee there’s a child at the end of this road, but we will work towards emotional wellbeing and balance.
DO YOU ACCEPT INSURANCE TO COVER THE COST OF THERAPY?
I am an out-of-network provider, which means that I do not bill insurance companies and clients pay me directly. Some clients have insurance that covers out-of-network providers or have an FSA/HSA account through their employer which they can use to pay for therapy. I give clients a receipt at the end of the month which they can submit for reimbursement from their insurance provider. Before we meet, you should contact your insurance carrier to verify whether you have mental health benefits, the number of sessions covered, the rate of reimbursement, and how much of a deductible may need to be met.
FEE FOR THERAPY SESSIONS
$150 = 60-minutes
I accept payment by debit card or major credit card. Payment is due prior to service.
STARTING THERAPY
I offer a free 15-minute call to talk and see what therapy might be like for you. Let’s see if I can meet your needs. At the end of our talk, we can set up an appointment for your first appointment.
I return all phone calls and emails within 48 hours. If you are experiencing an emergency and need immediate assistance, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
EMAIL: jacqueline.fernando@apsaratherapy.com
WHAT CAN I EXPECT IN THERAPY?
You can expect a confidential, safe space to process thoughts, feelings, and challenges related to your in/fertility story with someone who can speak the “In/fertility language.” You don’t have to waste time and energy educating me on the various terminology, technologies and processes of the infertility rollercoaster. You wouldn’t go to your OB/GYN to get intubated, why would you go to a general therapist for infertility specific mental health support and treatment? You can expect a space where you can be your unapologetic fertility struggling self.
During our initial meetings, we will review your current circumstances, in/fertility journey, mental health history, and other important life history.
Assessment – During our assessment, we gather information, and create a treatment plan to best fit your needs. Additionally, this plan can be reassessed and tweak to better reflect changes and progression during your time in therapy. I will listen and gather information about your “trying to conceive story," related psychological functioning, history, and needs to get to know you as a whole person.
Implications and Decision-making Counseling – Decision-making is a process. This allows individuals and couples to explore the personal implications of significant reproductive decisions they are contemplating. This includes a discussion and understanding of how one’s culture, religion, and other values and beliefs view reproductive issues. Clients may seek this type of counseling for support around gamete/embryo storage, third party reproduction (donor egg, sperm, embryo, or surrogacy), adoption, or high risk and multiple pregnancy.
Support Counseling and Education – offers psychological support, information, and tools to manage reproductive events and consequences. Examples include emotional support during and following fertility treatments, and providing information to optimize one’s fertility, prepare for treatment, or manage uncertainty and waiting periods.
Crisis Counseling – Crisis counseling is available during the counseling relationship when a crisis or trauma occurs. Clients may benefit from crisis counseling following specific losses such as receiving an infertility diagnosis, after a miscarriage, other reproductive losses, or failed IVF cycle, or following any other event that destabilizes the client.
Therapeutic Counseling – In/Fertility is a highly stressful time in one’s life. Anxiety, depression, resurfacing grief and loss, are just some of the mental health challenges that make infertility treatment so taxing on one’s emotional and psychological health. Therefore, anxiety, depression, relationship conflicts, or problematic coping mechanisms may need to be specifically addressed in concurrence with fertility counseling.