Surrogacy Therapy for Intended Parents
Therapy for gestational surrogacy, egg donation, embryo donation, donor conception, infertility, pregnancy loss, and family building in St. Louis, Missouri and Illinois.
When the path to parenthood involves complex decisions, uncertainty, and layers not fully seen by others
The path to parenthood through surrogacy, egg donation, or embryo donation is often filled with hope, grief, uncertainty, and emotional complexity. Therapy offers a place to process those experiences while staying connected to yourself, your relationships, and the family you're working so hard to build.
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Many intended parents arrive at surrogacy after years of infertility, pregnancy loss, failed IVF cycles, cancer treatment, or other unexpected life circumstances. By the time they begin working with a gestational carrier or donor, they are often carrying far more than excitement—they are also carrying grief, fear, exhaustion, and uncertainty.
Even positive milestones can feel emotionally complicated. You may find yourself wondering:
Why don't I feel as excited as everyone expects me to?
Will I ever stop waiting for something to go wrong?
I should feel grateful… so why do I still feel sad?
How do I navigate my relationship with our gestational carrier?
Will I feel like this baby is truly mine?
These questions are common, and you do not have to navigate them alone.
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Anxiety during a surrogacy journey
Grief related to infertility or pregnancy loss
Fear of another disappointment
Difficulty trusting the process
Emotional preparation for embryo transfer
Relationship stress with your partner
Questions about bonding with your future child
Complex emotions surrounding donor conception
Feelings of guilt, shame, or isolation
Difficulty adjusting after your child is born
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I personally understand the emotional complexity of this journey to parenthood.
Infertility and third-party reproduction are rarely just medical experiences—they are deeply emotional ones. Beneath appointments, medications, and timelines often lives grief, uncertainty, hope, fear, and the feeling that life has unfolded differently than expected.
My practice is intentionally dedicated to helping women navigate these experiences. Through specialized training in reproductive mental health (PMH-C) and focused work with women experiencing infertility, pregnancy loss, IVF, and gestational surrogacy, I understand the unique emotional challenges that can accompany this path.
Whether you're grieving a failed embryo transfer, coping with recurrent pregnancy loss, preparing to work with a gestational carrier, or navigating the emotional complexities of becoming a parent through surrogacy, therapy in my practice offers a place where those experiences don't need to be explained before they can be understood.
Areas of Support
Gestational Surrogacy
Whether you are considering surrogacy, preparing for embryo transfer, currently working with a gestational carrier, or adjusting after your child's birth, therapy can provide support throughout each stage of the journey.
Egg Donation
Processing the emotional impact of using donor eggs, identity concerns, grief, and questions surrounding disclosure and future family conversations.
Embryo Donation
Navigating the unique emotional and relational complexities that accompany embryo donation.
Pregnancy Loss & Failed Transfers
Making space for grief while deciding what comes next.
Common Questions About Gestational Surrogacy & Therapy
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Therapy for intended parents provides emotional support throughout the surrogacy journey. While surrogacy is often filled with hope, it can also involve uncertainty, anxiety, grief, loss of control, and complex emotions that many people don't anticipate.
Therapy can help you manage anxiety, cope with unexpected challenges, process difficult emotions, strengthen your relationship, and navigate the transition to parenthood while feeling supported throughout the process.
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Yes. Many intended parents experience anxiety during surrogacy, even when everything is progressing as planned. It is common to worry about the pregnancy, medical appointments, legal processes, your gestational carrier's well-being, or whether you will finally be able to bring your baby home.
These emotions are a normal response to a journey that often involves significant uncertainty.
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Losing a pregnancy carried by your gestational carrier can bring profound grief, shock, and confusion.
Many intended parents struggle with feelings of helplessness, guilt, anger, and uncertainty about trying again.
Therapy provides a space to process the loss while honoring both your grief and the complexity of caring about your gestational carrier's experience as well.
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Yes. A failed embryo transfer often brings grief that others may not fully recognize. After investing emotionally, physically, and financially in the transfer, many intended parents experience sadness, disappointment, anxiety, and fear about the future.
Therapy can help you process this loss while supporting you as you consider your next steps.
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Many intended parents seek therapy because surrogacy involves emotional experiences that friends and family may not fully understand.
Common concerns include grief after infertility or pregnancy loss, anxiety throughout the pregnancy, difficulty feeling connected to the pregnancy, fear of something going wrong, relationship stress, and preparing emotionally for becoming parents.
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Yes. I work with women and intended parents pursuing parenthood through egg donation, embryo donation, gestational surrogacy, and other forms of third-party reproduction.
Every family-building journey is unique, and therapy provides a space to process the emotions that arise along the way.
REASONS TO BOOK
REASONS TO BOOK
CLINICALLY TRAINED
You’re drawn to therapy that goes beyond symptom relief—a space with a curious, reflective, and empathetic therapist who helps you uncover the unconscious origins of your thoughts, feelings, and relational patterns, and understand how they continue to shape your present experience.
DEEP, INSIGHT-ORIENTED APPROACH
Therapy can be challenging work, and having a skilled, clinically trained therapist by your side makes all the difference. After transforming my own career from attorney to therapist, I completed several years of advanced clinical training at both the St. Louis and Chicago Psychoanalytic Institutes. This depth of training allows me to look beyond symptoms alone, helping you understand the underlying patterns that keep you feeling stuck.
WARM AND APPROACHABLE
Starting therapy can feel vulnerable. My goal is to make the process feel approachable by creating a space where you feel comfortable being yourself, asking difficult questions, and exploring what matters most to you.
