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Infertility: A Mindful Approach
The psyche, meaning the soul in Latin, consists of body, feelings, mind, sexuality and spirituality. Jodie works holistically with individuals and couples throughout all stages of their fertility journey. This includes: preconception, during assisted conception treatment, throughout pregnancy, parenting after infertility and ending fertility treatment.
She is able to work at depth with the issues experienced by those who are struggling to conceive - many of whom may be suffering with an infertility crisis. The term crisis is used because it is one of the most painful existential life crises that a person will experience throughout his or her life. The context held throughout therapy is a always a hopeful and optimistic one - whether pregnancy is achieved or not!
Jodie has a wealth of
personal and professional experience in relation to infertility,
alternative parenting paths including adoption and foster care,
involuntary childlessness and child free living. After many year of
trying to conceive naturally and with IVF using a donor, Jodie embarked on
the road to intercountry adoption and then local adoption and permanent
care. She is now an approved long-term carer.
In a recent study conducted with an online community group of
patients going through IVF and assisted conception, over 95% felt that
they could use a deeper level of counselling support than they were
currently receiving.
Jodie is a Master's
qualified psychotherapist and counsellor with over 1000+ hours of clinical
experience. She is a member of ACCESS, Australia's National Infertility
Network.
Infertility counselling and psychotherapy can help to explore the
following:
| Acceptance of infertility | IVF & assisted conception |
| Adoption & foster care | Living a fertile life without children |
| Ageing without children | Loss of a dream |
| Alternative parenting options | Loss of biological child |
| Body, feelings, mind connection | Loss of embryos |
| Child free vs childlessness | Loss of faith |
| Conscious conception | Low self-esteem/worth |
| Coping with other's pregnancy news | Managing the social stigma of infertility |
| Coping with an unsuccessful cycle | Meditation & visualisation |
| Coping with Religious/family holidays | Mindfulness techniques |
| Changing negative thought patterns | Miscarriage |
| Depression | Pre/Post natal anxiety/depression |
| Donor conception | Preconception |
| Emotional support | Pregnancy and parenting after infertility |
| Ethical dilemmas | Psychological blocks to pregnancy |
| Existential crisis | Relationships |
| Expectations | Sex & sexuality |
| Family of origin & how it may be affecting fertility | Relaxation & breathing techniques |
| Feelings of anger, betrayal, jealousy, like a failure | Spiritual crisis |
| Finding value, meaning & purpose in life | Suffering |
| Grief & loss | Stress management |
| Hope & hopelessness | Trauma caused by invasive surgery |
| Identity crisis: who am I if not a mother? | The end of the rollercoaster: reclaiming life & body |
| Initial diagnosis: what are my options? | |
| Intimacy issues |
© 2010 Jodie Gale
'Every crisis contains within it
the seeds for transformation
and growth'