T/NY/Support
Family Planning & Parenting
Before the Bump: Exploring Parenthood
Deciding whether, when, and how to become a parent is a significant and deeply personal process. People often come to therapy during major transitions related to family planning—from questioning whether they want children to navigating fertility treatments to adjusting to the realities of early parenthood. Therapy offers a grounding, nonjudgmental space to explore your hopes, fears, identity, and changing relationships at every stage of the journey.
Questions about parenthood can stir up excitement, anxiety, and uncertainty.
You may be asking yourself:
• Am I ready emotionally or financially?
• Do I want to be a parent, and what would that role mean for my identity?
• How will my career, relationships, or lifestyle change?
Therapy can help you sort through these questions, differentiate fantasy from reality, reflect on the responsibility of raising a child, and understand how your values and personal history shape your decision-making.
Planning: Deciding to Grow Your Family
Once you decide you want to pursue parenthood, the path forward may involve many possibilities: natural conception, intrauterine insemination (IUI), in vitro fertilization (IVF), donor conception, surrogacy, adoption, fostering, or single parenthood. Each route brings its own emotional landscape. Therapy provides a space to process excitement, manage expectations, navigate fears about the unknown, and cope with setbacks or disappointments that arise along the way.
Fertility Challenges, IUI, IVF, and Surrogacy
Struggles with fertility can be isolating, surprising, and emotionally complex. Many people experience shame, grief, frustration, or jealousy when others seem to conceive easily. Assisted reproductive technologies can bring hope, but they also introduce physical strain, uncertainty, and difficult decisions.
Therapy supports individuals and couples in:
• Processing complicated feelings around infertility
• Navigating IUI, IVF, or surrogacy with greater emotional clarity
• Strengthening communication and connection with partners
• Finding support beyond family and friends, such as groups or specialized resources
During the Bump: Pregnancy and Identity Shifts
Postpartum and the First Year
Pregnancy is often a time of profound change. Even when it is welcome and planned, it can bring anxiety, ambivalence, identity shifts, and questions about personal, relational, or cultural expectations of parenthood. Therapy can help you reflect on these changes with compassion and understand how your own life experiences shape your feelings about becoming a parent.
The first twelve months of parenting can feel like a whirlwind. Lack of sleep, fluctuating hormones, feeding challenges, shifting roles in your relationship, and the responsibility of caring for a newborn can impact emotional health.
Therapy provides a safe space to:
• Process postpartum anxiety, depression, and mood changes
• Navigate feeding decisions, childcare stress, and communication challenges
• Explore identity shifts and feelings triggered by your own early experiences
• Build coping skills while adjusting to the realities of new parenthood
Early Parenting: The First Five Years
Toddlers and young children are joyful, curious, and often emotionally intense. They can also activate a parent’s deepest fears, frustrations, or unresolved childhood experiences.
Therapy at this stage can support you in:
• Navigating tantrums, separation anxiety, discipline challenges, and transitions
• Understanding how your own upbringing influences your reactions
• Reducing burnout and managing work/life balance pressures
• Identifying unrealistic expectations for yourself or your child
• Strengthening confidence and increasing presence in your parenting role
Whether you are contemplating parenthood, navigating fertility challenges, welcoming a new baby, or adjusting to the demands of early childhood, support is available. You can schedule a consultation with one of our clinicians below.
Ready to find your therapist?
Start with a brief conversation with one of our directors, senior psychologists who personally guide every match. We’ll take the time to understand what matters most to you and connect you with the therapist who is the best fit for your needs.