Online Infertility and Pregnancy Loss Therapy in San Ramon, CA, and the Tri-Valley
Therapy for the grief of infertility, failed IVF, miscarriage, stillbirth, and TFMR. Serving San Ramon, Pleasanton, Dublin, Danville, and surrounding East Bay communities.
Therapy for the grief of miscarriage, IVF loss, stillbirth, and TFMR in San Ramon, Pleasanton, Dublin, Danville, and surrounding East Bay communities
You had a picture of how this was going to go. The second bedroom that would become the nursery, the stroller you’d push through the neighborhood on Saturday mornings, the way your parents’ faces would look when you told them. You could see the whole thing, and it felt so close to real that you’d already started living in it. Now that picture is fading, and you’re grieving something that most people don’t even recognize as a loss because it never technically existed.
And then there’s what this has done to you. You used to have energy for your friendships, your work, your weekend plans. Now you cancel things at the last minute because you don’t have it in you, or you show up and spend the whole time pretending you’re fine. A pregnancy announcement from a friend sends you to the bathroom to collect yourself. A coworker’s baby shower invitation sits in your inbox for a week because you can’t figure out how to say no without explaining why. Your body, which used to just be your body, now feels like something that’s failing you, and the distance between who you were before this started and who you are now gets wider every month.
Maybe you’ve been through rounds of IVF and each failed cycle has taken a little more than the last. Maybe you had a miscarriage that everyone around you treated like a minor setback, something to “move past” and “try again” from. Maybe you had a stillbirth or a TFMR, a termination for a medical reason, and the grief from that has nowhere to go because the people in your life don’t know what to say, so they’ve stopped bringing it up. Maybe you’re somewhere in between, stuck in the uncertainty of what to do next, unable to move forward and unable to let go of what you wanted.
Learn more about my approach to infertility and pregnancy loss here.
When Talking About Pregnancy Loss Doesn’t Change the Grief
You may have tried therapy, or talked to your partner, your mother, your closest friend. The conversations helped for a day or two, and then the same feelings came back, just as heavy as before. That’s because this kind of grief isn’t only in your thoughts. Your body is carrying it too, in the way you tense up when you see a pregnant woman, the way your stomach drops when someone asks if you have kids, the way you can’t relax during intimacy because sex and pregnancy and loss are all tangled together now.
Talking about grief helps you understand it, but understanding doesn’t always change how your body reacts. The approaches I use, EMDR, Brainspotting, and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (more about these in the FAQ below), work directly with the way grief and stress are stored in your body. The goal is to loosen the hold these responses have on your daily life so the grief is something you carry rather than something that runs you.
What Changes After Therapy for Infertility and Pregnancy Loss
Saturday morning starts with coffee and the newspaper instead of a mental inventory of where you are in your cycle. You realize halfway through breakfast that you haven’t thought about it yet today, and you spend the rest of the morning on a long walk and a cookbook you’ve been meaning to try, and the morning belongs to you instead of to the waiting.
A friend texts you a photo of her newborn and you feel a pang, but you text back something genuine and go on with your afternoon. You keep your dinner plans that night, you’re actually present at the table instead of going through the motions, and you wake up Sunday and take a yoga class and call your sister and the weekend feels like a weekend instead of something you had to survive.
You and your partner have the conversation about what to do next, whether to try again, when to stop, whether to explore other options, and you make the decision from a clear, grounded place instead of from panic or desperation. A month later you’re not second-guessing it at 2 a.m. or googling alternatives, and you and your partner are on the same page for the first time in a long time.
Someone at a work event asks if you have kids and your chest tightens, but you give your answer and move on to the next conversation. The question doesn’t wreck the rest of your evening, and you go home and fall asleep without replaying it.
You start doing things that have nothing to do with getting pregnant, signing up for a half marathon, picking up a hobby you dropped, making plans with a friend you haven’t seen in months, and you notice that your weeks have shape again instead of just being the space between appointments and results.
Online Therapy for Infertility and Pregnancy Loss Across the Tri-Valley and East Bay
All sessions are conducted through secure, HIPAA-compliant telehealth. You can meet with me from a private room in your home, your car, or any quiet space with a stable internet connection. For people who are in the middle of fertility treatment and already have more medical appointments than they can manage, not having to add another in-person visit makes it easier to get support without overhauling your schedule.
I work with clients throughout the Tri-Valley, including San Ramon, Pleasanton, Dublin, and Danville. My clients are also located in Livermore, Walnut Creek, Fremont, Castro Valley, Lafayette, Orinda, and surrounding East Bay communities. Because sessions are online, I work with California residents statewide.
Also serving clients experiencing infertility and pregnancy loss in San Jose.
Who this is for
I work with clients in San Francisco and the Bay Area 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 loss and carrying fear through what everyone else treats as happy 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.
About Summer
East Bay Therapist for Pregnancy Loss & Infertility
I specialize in grief and trauma therapy, and I work with people navigating infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, and TFMR. My clinical training is in body-based trauma approaches, EMDR, Brainspotting, and Accelerated Resolution Therapy, which I use because the grief that comes with reproductive loss is stored in the body, not just the mind. Talking about what happened is important, but it’s often not enough to change how your body responds to the triggers, the pregnancy announcements, the baby showers, the “do you have kids?” question.
I spent nine years working in child welfare and adoption before becoming a therapist, which means I also understand the intersection of infertility and adoption for clients who are considering or have pursued adoption after pregnancy loss. I am C.A.S.E. certified in adoption competency.
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
-
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, but I'm also paying attention to what's happening with your sleep, your energy, your relationships, and the situations you avoid. That tells me where to focus. You don't have to share everything in the first session.
-
No. EMDR and ART don't require you to narrate your trauma over and over. 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.
-
Yes. Some clients find that therapy during fertility treatment helps them manage the emotional toll cycle by cycle, make clearer decisions about next steps, and maintain their relationships and daily functioning while going through something that takes a lot out of them. I work alongside your medical team.
-
Absolutely. An early loss can carry just as much weight as a later one, especially after a long stretch of trying or multiple losses.
-
No. Many clients come to me months or years after a loss because the grief never fully resolved, or because something recent, a pregnancy announcement, a milestone birthday, a medical decision, brought it back to the surface. There’s no expiration date on grief, and there’s no timeline by which you “should” be over it.
-
I charge $250 per session. I provide superbills, which are detailed receipts you can submit to your insurance company for potential out-of-network reimbursement. The amount you get back depends on your plan. Call the number on the back of your insurance card and ask about out-of-network mental health benefits to find out what's covered before your first session.
-
Support groups can be a real source of comfort, and they can remind you that you're not the only person going through this. But they can't help you process what's stored in your nervous system or change the automatic responses that are running in the background. Trauma therapy can.
-
All three involve focusing on a specific memory or experience while your brain works through it in a new way. In EMDR, I guide your eyes back and forth while you hold a memory in mind. Brainspotting uses a fixed eye position to find where stress is stuck in your body. Accelerated Resolution Therapy uses guided imagery and eye movements and is designed to work in fewer sessions. None of these require you to describe painful experiences in detail out loud. Most clients say the experience is intense but manageable, and many notice a shift after just a few sessions. The memory is still there, but it doesn’t take over the way it used to.