Online Infertility and Pregnancy Loss Therapy in Irvine, CA
Therapy for the grief of infertility, failed IVF, miscarriage, stillbirth, and TFMR. Serving Irvine, Tustin, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, and surrounding Orange County communities.
The life you’re living doesn’t match the one you planned
On Saturday mornings in your neighborhood, every sidewalk has a stroller on it. You smile and wave and keep walking, and nobody knows what that small moment costs you.
From the outside, everything looks fine. You go to work, show up at social events, send the right texts at the right times. But there's a version of your life that was supposed to exist by now, one with a nursery, a car seat, a reason to care about school districts, and the distance between where you are and where you thought you'd be gets heavier every month.
Maybe you're in the middle of treatment and the emotional weight of it has started to bleed into everything: your sleep, your patience, your relationship, your ability to care about things that used to matter.
Maybe you've had a loss, or more than one, and the people around you have moved on but your body hasn't. Maybe you're staring down a decision about whether to keep going, and you can't think clearly enough to make it.
You're here because you're tired of carrying this alone.
Specialized therapy for infertility and pregnancy loss in Orange County
Infertility and pregnancy loss create a grief that most people in your life won't fully grasp, and that you may have trouble making sense of yourself. You might be mourning a pregnancy that lasted six weeks, or a transfer that didn't work, or a baby you held and named, or a pregnancy you ended because the diagnosis left you with no good options. The loss is real in every one of those situations, even when the people around you don't treat it that way.
I've trained specifically in how reproductive loss affects the brain and body. You won't spend sessions explaining what a two-week wait does to you, or why a friend's pregnancy announcement can feel like a punch to the chest, or why your doctor's calm tone sometimes makes you want to scream. That understanding is already in the room, which means your sessions focus on what this experience is doing to your daily life and how to help it change.
When understanding the grief hasn’t changed how your body experiences it
After enough cycles of hope followed by loss, your body starts treating hope itself as a threat. That's why you tense up before the phone rings with results, why your heart races when someone asks a harmless question about kids, why you can't settle down even on days when nothing bad is happening. Your body learned to stay on guard, and it hasn't gotten the message that it can stop.
You can understand all of this clearly and still feel the dread arrive on schedule. That's not a failure of insight or effort. It means the grief is living somewhere that insight alone can't reach, which is exactly what the therapeutic approaches I use are designed to work with.
What changes in your daily life through our work together
Your friend tells you she's pregnant, and you feel the sting, but you also feel something else underneath it: you're actually happy for her. You call her that evening and mean the congratulations. The two of you talk for twenty minutes and it feels like your friendship again, not something you're enduring.
You and your partner sit down to talk about whether to try another round, and for the first time in months, the conversation doesn't end in someone crying or someone leaving the room. You disagree about the next step, but you hear each other. You go to bed that night feeling like you're on the same team again instead of living in the same house with a stranger.
You're at a family dinner and your mother-in-law asks when you're going to give her grandchildren. You feel the heat rise in your chest, but instead of spiraling for the next three days, you let it pass. You change the subject, enjoy the rest of the meal, and on the drive home you and your partner actually laugh about it.
A coworker brings her new baby to the office and everyone crowds around. You walk over, hold the baby for a minute, and feel something tender instead of something sharp. You hand the baby back and go to your desk and get back to work, and the rest of the afternoon belongs to you.
You start making plans again. Dinner with friends, a trip you've been putting off, a hobby you dropped when treatment took over your calendar. Your life starts to feel like it has room for more than waiting, and you start to remember what it's like to look forward to something that has nothing to do with a test result.
Online therapy for infertility and pregnancy loss in Irvine and throughout California
Online therapy means you can have your session from home, your office, or any private space with a stable connection. No driving across Orange County, no sitting in a waiting room, no running into someone you know on the way out.
I work with clients throughout the Irvine area and Orange County, including Newport Beach, Tustin, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Costa Mesa, Aliso Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Clemente, and Dana Point.
I also work with clients going through infertility and pregnancy loss in other parts of California, including Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara.
Who this works well for
I work with people at every stage of the infertility and pregnancy loss experience: during treatment, after a failed cycle or transfer, after a miscarriage or stillbirth, after a TFMR, after deciding to stop trying, or years later when the grief resurfaces. I also work with people who are pregnant after a loss and carrying anxiety through what should feel like good news.
This is a good fit if you want a therapist who specializes in reproductive loss and who uses approaches that work with your body and nervous system, not just your thoughts. This is not a good fit if you're looking for couples therapy (I work with individuals), parenting support, or fertility coaching.
Meet Summer
I'm Summer Verhines, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW #68507) with a private telehealth practice serving all of California. When you work with me, you're working with someone whose training is specifically in grief and trauma, and who uses approaches designed to help that grief actually move instead of just being talked about week after week.
I'm trained in EMDR, Brainspotting, and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), all body-based methods that work with your nervous system directly. That means we're not just understanding what happened, we're helping your body let go of the brace it's been holding since the last loss, so you can actually feel safe enough to hope again, make decisions from a clear place, and live your life while you figure out what comes next.
Logistics
50-minute Sessions are $250.
I also offer 90-minute sessions for $375 and intensive sessions (2-4 hours) ranging from $500 to $1000 for people who want to work intensively.
I don't take insurance directly, but I can provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement if your plan covers that.
I am available early mornings, evenings, and weekends. I provide services online only.
Self-Schedule or Contact Me Below
For the quickest and most confidential option, you’re encouraged to book directly into my calendar by clicking the Self-Schedule Here button below. That button will take you to my HIPAA-compliant calendar where you may request an appointment. Once I confirm your appointment request (typically within 24 hours), I will email you the new client forms to digitally sign. Then, we will meet on your scheduled day.
If you have questions prior to scheduling, you can also use the contact form below, and I’ll reply within 48 business hours. If you don’t see a reply, please check your junk/spam folder.
I look forward to hearing from you!
— Summer Verhines, LCSW
Contact Summer
Frequently Asked Questions
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The first session is about me understanding what you've been through and how it's showing up in your life right now. I'll ask about your history with treatment or loss, but I'm also listening for what's happening with your sleep, your relationship, your body, and the things you're avoiding. That's where the work starts. You don't have to tell me everything in the first session if you're not ready.
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No. The approaches I use, EMDR and ART in particular, don't require you to narrate your trauma repeatedly. We work with what's happening in your body and brain in ways that process the pain without needing you to retell the whole story.
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You don't have to wait. Many clients find it helpful to have support during treatment rather than after. We can work on the emotional toll of the process in real time, and having someone who understands what you're going through can make the experience less isolating.
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Absolutely. An early loss can carry just as much weight as a later one, especially after months or years of trying.
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I charge $250 per session. I provide superbills for potential out-of-network reimbursement. Call the number on the back of your insurance card and ask about out-of-network mental health benefits to find out what your plan covers before your first session.
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Support groups and online communities can be a real source of comfort, and connecting with people who understand is valuable. But those spaces can't help you process what's stored in your nervous system or change the automatic responses that are running in the background. They can hold space for your pain. Trauma therapy can help you heal from it.