Counselling and support

It’s common when you’re having difficulty conceiving, for ‘getting pregnant’ to become your most important goal.

The intense desire to continue pursuing this goal, and the depth of emotion experienced during treatment, is often underestimated – and many of our patients find talking to one of our specialist counsellors an invaluable experience. It can help immensely to understand your emotional responses, talk them through in a safe, neutral environment, and access strategies for minimising stress and anxiety.

A free consultation is included with most IVF treatment options, and we encourage you to discuss this with your medical team.

Seeing one of our counsellors can help you to:

• Gain a better understanding of your emotional responses.
• Explore and enhance your existing coping responses to help you feel more in control.
• Better understand the implications of treatment decisions.
• Understand your partner’s responses to treatment.
• Develop support networks and communication tools for friends and family.
• Deal with negative results and planning for what next.
• Provide support around pregnancy loss.
• Understand implications around using a donor.
• Improve emotional wellbeing – especially if you are feeling it is hard to enjoy life at the moment.

Meet our team of counsellors:

• Auckland - Andy Leggat & Maggie Fung 
• Wellington - Margaret Stanley-Hunt
• Christchurch - Anne Ott
• Dunedin - Emily Ware

Tips to help:

If you’re feeling very stressed or anxious right now, you could try the following:

• Reassure and remind yourself that these feelings will pass.
• Sit down or rest, and try to slow your breathing down (breathe in for 3 seconds and out for 3 seconds) and say the word “relax” on each out breath. Repeat this until you feel more relaxed.
• Try to distract your mind from anxious thoughts – focus on your senses:
  • What can you see?
  • What can you smell?
  • What can you feel?
  • What can you hear?
  • What can you taste?
• Make an appointment to see a counsellor.