Initial Visit with a Therapist

An excerpt from Fertility & Beyond: Join the Conversation

By Tara Joyner, LPC

People get really overwhelmed with the whole infertility process. There are so many appointments to go to and so many other obligations (medications, blood work, etc.) involved. Fitting a therapy session in seems like one more thing added to the list.

Until you’ve done it, most people simply don’t understand how cathartic it can be to talk about what you’re going through and figure out better ways to communicate with your partner or spouse. Otherwise, it can start to become the only focal point of your relationship, and it feels completely consuming.

The goal is to find out what the main issues are around infertility, what other things a couple has going on in life, how to balance infertility and their life outside of infertility, and even how to manage intimacy outside of infertility.

A lot of times intimacy becomes a job instead of an act of closeness. Men tend to struggle with feeling like a circus animal and having to perform on command. Women tend to feel hyper-focused on the day of their cycle and the narrow window of ovulation.

Initial Visit with a Therapist

When you first sit down with your therapist, most likely they’re going to try to get an understanding of what you’re going through and where you’re struggling the most. You’ll want to plan to talk about how it’s impacting you personally and how it’s affecting your relationship.

Prior to the initial session, brainstorm some areas in which you’d like guidance. And this is going to largely depend on your personal situation, including but not limited to how long you’ve been trying, using a donor egg/sperm, etc.

It’s a good idea to come to the first session with your partner. Oftentimes, after that, the therapist may want to see you separately for a session or two. However, if your partner is not ready or willing to go, don’t put off scheduling for yourself. It can be helpful either way.

About Tara Joyner, LPC 

Background:  

When Tara was an undergraduate at Texas A&M, she worked in a women’s health facility processing difficult topics with patients. Later, she moved into clinical research while in graduate school. There she discovered her passion for women’s health and the associated emotional components. This motivated her to go to into private practice.  

Tara began seeing a variety of patients in her practice. Having gone through infertility herself where she had in vitro resulting in twins, she became involved with a fertility clinic and became a fervent advocate helping people through their process.  

With her firsthand experience and training, she found that she had the necessary level of empathy and knowledge of all the acronyms and industry terms, nurturing people as they navigate the waters.  

Contact Information : http://www.TaraJoynerLPC.com

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