Fertility Counseling for Couples in Massachusetts and Washington
Gottman Couples Counseling for Fertility and Infertility
You Want to Build a Family. You Don't Want to Lose Each Other Along the Way
Fertility Counseling for Couples
Finding Your Way Back
Gottman couples counseling can help you feel heard, reconnect emotionally, and navigate difficult decisions as a team. Your relationship deserves care, too, while you're building your family.
Missing Each Other
You love each other, but you're not always experiencing infertility in the same way. Conversations feel harder, support gets lost in translation, and you may feel more like you're managing logistics than being partners.
Not What You Imagined
You didn't expect starting a family to be this hard. Now fertility treatment, difficult decisions, and uncertainty are affecting not only your future, but your relationship, too.
Fertility Challenges Can Change Your Relationship. You Don't Have to Navigate Them Alone.
You probably didn't expect starting a family to be this hard. Maybe you imagined what pregnancy would look like, how many children you might have, or when you would start telling friends and family. Instead, you're navigating fertility appointments, treatment decisions, difficult news, and a future that feels much less certain than you expected.
And somewhere along the way, your relationship may have started to feel different, too.
You might find yourselves having the same conversations over and over without feeling any closer to understanding each other. One of you may want to talk through every appointment, while the other would rather focus on getting through the day. You may disagree about who to tell, how much to share, or whether you have the emotional energy to spend time with friends who are growing their families.
Sometimes one partner is carrying more of the physical and emotional weight of treatment, while the other is trying to figure out how to help. Offers to attend appointments or take something off your plate may not feel like the support you need. At the same time, the partner trying to help may feel rejected, shut out, or unsure what to do differently.
Fertility counseling for couples offers a space to understand these differences, work through the hurt and frustration, and find ways to feel like partners again. You don't need to be in crisis or considering separation to benefit from couples counseling. Sometimes you just miss each other. You want to feel loved, understood, and supported by the person you started this journey with.
If fertility challenges have started to affect your relationship, I'd love to help you find a way forward together. Book a consultation to talk through what support might look like for you.
What Does Gottman Couples Counseling for Infertility Look Like?
Gottman Method couples counseling helps partners manage conflict, communicate more effectively, and, most importantly, reconnect. When infertility takes up so much space in your life, it's easy for conversations to become focused on treatment, logistics, and what's next, leaving less room for affection, intimacy, and enjoying each other.
Our work focuses on three important areas:
Communication and Conflict
Learn to bring up difficult conversations, listen without becoming defensive, and help each other feel heard and understood, even when you disagree.
Emotional and Physical Intimacy
Reconnect outside of fertility treatment. We'll work on rebuilding affection, friendship, and intimacy without everything feeling tied to trying to conceive.
Friendship and Partnership
Make room for appreciation, meaningful connection, and the parts of your relationship that have nothing to do with fertility. Learn to make difficult decisions together while feeling like you're on the same team.
Conflict is inevitable and shows up differently for each couple. Sometimes conflict shows up more like avoidance, passive communication, or holding back effort to be the partner you used to be.
You don't need to know exactly what needs to change. We can figure that out together. Book a consultation to get started.
When You're Not Experiencing Infertility in the Same Way
One of the hardest parts of infertility is that you can be going through the same experience while feeling very differently about it. Even couples who communicated well before treatment may find themselves struggling to understand or support each other.
Different Ways of Processing Grief and Loss
Pregnancy loss, unsuccessful transfers, and disappointing test results can affect each partner differently. One may need to talk through what happened, while the other stays busy or focuses on what's next.
Neither approach means someone cares more or less. Some people need words, reassurance, and quality time, while others show love through practical help and problem-solving. We'll work on understanding what support actually feels meaningful to each of you.
How Well Do You Know Your Partner?
Quiz from John and Julie Gottman
Learning to Hear Each Other, Even When You Disagree
Different Opinions About Treatment and What Comes Next
One partner may want to follow every medical recommendation, change their lifestyle, and do everything possible to improve the chances of success. The other may feel restricted and worry about losing the parts of life that still bring enjoyment and hope.
You may also disagree about pursuing another retrieval, the emotional and financial costs of treatment, or how many children you hope to have. These conversations need space to explore what each of you wants, fears, and may be grieving.
Navigating Donor Conception and Gestational Carrier Decisions
Donor eggs, donor sperm, donor embryos, and gestational carrier decisions can bring another layer of complexity to family building. You may have different feelings about genetic connections, disclosure, or what it means to build your family this way.
Couples counseling offers space to explore these feelings without rushing either partner or expecting you to arrive at the same place at the same time.
Making Room for Your Relationship Outside of Fertility Treatment
When life revolves around appointments and treatment cycles, it can be hard to imagine a future together beyond the next step. We'll work on having intentional conversations about treatment stopping points, future decisions, and how to stay connected to the life you're living now.
If you recognize your relationship in these experiences, you're not alone. Fertility counseling can help you understand each other and navigate these decisions as a team. Let's talk about getting started.
Online Counseling Sessions for Couples & Parents
$350 | 60-Minute Sessions
Available to residents of Massachusetts, Washington, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Texas
Appointments available Monday-Thursday
Superbills Provided for Out-of-Network Reimbursement
Feel Like Partners Again, Even When the Future Is Uncertain
I believe couples deserve support during infertility that goes beyond managing difficult conversations. Your relationship deserves to feel like a relationship, not just a partnership in managing appointments, medications, and treatment decisions.
In our work together, we'll identify patterns that leave you feeling disconnected, practice new ways of responding to each other, and make room for the feelings that are sometimes hard to express.
I'm Jessica Katz, LICSW, PMH-C, a Level 2 Gottman-trained therapist specializing in fertility and perinatal mental health. Over the years, I've seen how the research-supported Gottman approach can help couples make meaningful, lasting changes in how they communicate, navigate conflict, and reconnect. My practice focuses on infertility, IVF, pregnancy loss, and reproductive mental health. I'm also a mother through egg donation, giving me a personal understanding of some of the complicated emotions that can come with this path to parenthood.
You can expect a warm, collaborative space where both partners matter and neither person's experience is overlooked.
You can want a family deeply and still want to take care of your relationship along the way.
I offer online fertility and couples counseling in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Washington, and Texas.
