Just over ten years ago my partner and I decided it was time to grow our family. Figuring we had a basic understanding of seventh grade science class we expected the arrival of our little bundle of joy in the following ten months- twelve months tops! So you can imagine our surprise when months turned into years and yet no bundle… no joy. Nothing could have prepared us emotionally, physically or spiritually for the fertility journey that ensued. The myriad of emotions included everything from excitement to fury; grief reared its ugly head cycle after cycle along with dashed hopes, impaired relationships and feelings of failure; and the struggle with isolation was real. Eventually, finding a community that “got me” proved instrumental to improving my mental well-being and the ability to move forward with my family-building quest.
Fast forward to 2021- my family is complete, I am a therapist and Director of Fertility Programs at Family Tree Wellness, and working with the fertility community is my passion. With the goal of decreasing isolation and improving mental health amongst the fertility challenged, in 2018 I launched a free monthly (in-person) Fertility Support Group at Family Tree Wellness that was open to individuals and couples in all stages of the family-building process, and within months it was bumping! Fast forward to 2020 COVID times and we didn’t skip a beat transitioning to virtual meetings allowing Family Tree Wellness to support not only the Bay Area, but all of California and beyond. And I am now absolutely thrilled to announce the expansion of our fertility support services in January 2021! In addition to individual and couples counseling services we have increased our Fertility Groups to include the following:
General Fertility Support Group
Every 2nd Monday of the month
Facilitated by Jamie Van Zanen, LCSW
6:30-7:30pm
Free
Fertility Support Group for Womxn of Color
Every 2nd Thursday of the month
Facilitated by Qu’Nesha Hinton Sawyer, PhD, APCC
(supervised by Rebecca Geshuri, LMFT #107943)
6:00-7:00pm
Free
General Fertility Support Group
Every 4th Monday of the month
Facilitated by Emma Rouda, ACSW #94548
(supervised by Jessica Sorci, LMFT #53881)
6:30-7:30pm
Free
Pregnancy After Infertility Group (available to California residents)
Every 1st Thursday of the month
Facilitated by Jamie Van Zanen, LCSW
5:30-6:45pm
$45
As our fertility offerings expand, so does our team! I would love to introduce my two fabulous colleagues- Qu’Nesha Hinton Sawyer, PhD, APCC and Emma Rouda, ACSW- who are both exceptional humans, and they are excited to join me in supporting our fertility community.
To learn more about our Fertility Support Services, including how to RSVP for our groups, please visit www.familytreewellness.org or give us a call @ 408.345.5572. Happy New Year!
Written by Jamie Van Zanen, LCSW