Pregnancy and Infant Loss Counseling in Davis & online in California

It’s common for pregnant women to immediately start to envision what life will bring and how it will change with the potential of this baby. You may start to picture your family with this new addition, make plans for your baby, and dream of what it will be like to parent this child. When any loss occurs, regardless of what stage you are in your pregnancy, it can be devastating. Suddenly all the hopes, plans, and dreams are gone. You may be left with questions about why or how this happened, making your grief even deeper. It can be difficult to put one foot in front of the other and figure out how to pick up the pieces after this loss.

After a loss occurs, you may initially want to retreat from others. You may not feel up to going about your daily activities, including work, caregiving, and keeping up with household chores. Everyone’s grief is different: You may find it very difficult to talk to those around you about what happened, or you may find that you take comfort in sharing your story. You may have sadness, anger, and even physical symptoms. Know that everyone’s grief is individual, and personal. There is no one way to grieve. 

Therapy cannot take away this loss, but our sessions together can provide a space to mourn, process your grief, and start to pick up those pieces at your pace. It is a place to both remember your pregnancy or baby while finding ways to reenter your life. Together we will discuss how to care for yourself, how to communicate your needs to the people who support you, and how to move through this grief so that eventually you are able to go forward.

Sometimes feelings of distress and trauma are attached to grief which can cause a range of difficult physical and emotional symptoms. I use an evidence-based technique called EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) with clients to help ease these symptoms. While EMDR does not erase the memories of your loss, once these symptoms are relieved it gives you the chance to grieve with more peace.