Family Planning & Infertility Therapy in Etobicoke Room for hope, grief and everything between

Deciding whether or when to have children, and everything that can follow, can touch your body, your relationships, your work and your sense of who you are. For many people it involves appointments, calendars, waiting and news that can change a whole day. It can bring hope and grief in the same week, often while the people around you have no idea what you are carrying.

Family planning and infertility therapy, which you may also see called fertility counselling or reproductive mental health support, is a private space to talk about all of it, with someone who will not tell you what you should want or how you should feel. You might be coming on your own or with a partner. You might be single, partnered, a solo parent by choice or part of a 2SLGBTQIA+ family. You might have a diagnosis, no clear explanation or no plans to use a clinic at all. You might not be sure a child is what you want. All family structures and all outcomes are welcome here.

Emotional support alongside your medical care

Therapy at Thought & Feeling is emotional support. It does not replace the care you receive from your doctor, midwife or fertility clinic, and our therapists do not give medical or fertility advice. Questions about tests, treatment options, medication or timing belong with your medical team. What we offer is a place to make sense of those conversations, prepare for hard decisions and look after yourself as you go through them.

You do not need a referral from your clinic, and you can start before, during or after treatment, or in the gaps between cycles. Some fertility clinics have their own counsellors, and some people also want someone outside the clinic, where the conversation is not tied to the next step in treatment. Your therapist will not contact your clinic unless you ask them to and give your consent. If you notice your mood changing during treatment, including while on medication, please raise it with your medical team as well as in therapy.

What people often bring to therapy

• Deciding whether or when to try for a child, alone or with a partner
• Feeling that time is running out, or freezing eggs, sperm or embryos for the future
• The monthly cycle of hope and disappointment while trying to conceive
• Secondary infertility, and fertility worries linked to a health condition such as endometriosis
• The emotional load of fertility treatment, including IVF and IUI
• The two-week wait, the days between insemination or embryo transfer and a pregnancy test
• Pregnancy loss, cycles that did not work and losses others may not see
• Fear and guarded hope during a pregnancy after loss
• Decisions about donor conception, surrogacy, adoption or fostering, including feelings about genetic connection
• Deciding to stop treatment, and being child-free not by choice
• Strain on relationships, intimacy, friendships and work
• Deciding who to tell, handling other people’s questions and carrying the cost of treatment

How therapy can help

There is no set way to go through this, and therapy will not rush you toward an answer or a particular ending. Your therapist might help you steady yourself through the waiting, work through guilt, shame or envy, name a grief that has had nowhere to go, or think through a decision in a way that reflects your own values. You might plan for a hard appointment, a baby shower or a family dinner, or practise what to say when someone asks when you are having kids. Other weeks, sessions can simply be a place where none of this has to be managed or explained.

If you have a partner

Partners often cope differently. One person may want to talk about it all the time while the other needs a break from it, and sex can start to feel like one more appointment. The person who is not in treatment can feel helpless, or feel they have no right to struggle. Either of you can come on your own, and select therapists on our team offer couples sessions if you would like to work through this together.

How this differs from postpartum therapy

This page focuses on decisions, trying to conceive, treatment, waiting and loss, including lives that take a different direction than planned. If you are pregnant or adjusting after a baby arrives, our Postpartum Therapy page covers pregnancy, birth and early parenthood in more detail. The two can overlap, and you do not need to work out which one fits before you reach out.

A different kind of room

Fertility care can mean a lot of time in clinical settings. Our clinic on Lake Shore Boulevard West was designed to feel different, with soft light, natural wood, comfortable chairs and a hot drink waiting. We encourage meeting in person when you can. Video and phone sessions are available anywhere in Ontario, which can help on days close to appointments or when leaving home feels like too much.

When you reach out, we reply within 24 hours on business days and recommend a selection of therapists who may fit your needs. You can book a free 15-minute phone consult with one or more of them and choose who feels right.

We are not a crisis service. If you are in immediate danger or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 or go to the nearest emergency department.