Part 1 - Assessment & Fertility Action Plan
A holistic review of your fertility health.
Before you attend our RE-MAP workshop, you will be asked to participate in two separate 1:1 online meetings. These important sessions are designed to help you clarify your goals for the program so we can tailor it to meet your specific needs.
During the Assessment, we learn about your fertility story and your fertility health – including your diet and exercise regime. We get to understand your mood and cognitions related to infertility, while we also assess how infertility has affected you socially and impacted your interpersonal relationships.
During the second meeting, Results & Fertility Action Plan, we share the results of the assessment in the form of a concise bio-psycho-social report. Based on our findings, we will work collaboratively to set treatment goals for the workshop and create a plan for moving forward.
Part 2 - Workshop
A comprehensive program using our proprietary RE-MAP model – designed to lower emotional distress and improve pregnancy outcomes. Our workshop takes place from Friday evening to Sunday evening, so does not require a complex time commitment. Each workshop includes no more than 16 women – ensuring an intimate, safe and comfortable space for you to connect with both yourself and others in the group.
Integration: 1:1 Consultation
Part 4 - Expand the Territory of Change: (Three 1:1 Consultations)
Assimilate insights and skills. Refine goals and create a sustainable plan.
A one-on-one online meeting will take place in the 2 week period following the workshop.
The purpose of this meeting is to help you assimilate the insights you gained about yourself during the assessment and workshop phases, and to set clear objectives for going forward on your fertility journey.
Following the workshop, you will have started to incorporate new exercise, nutrition, communication and self-care regiments into your life. But of course, you are sure to meet with obstacles and roadblocks along the way, which challenge your success. We look at how you can integrate your lifestyle changes into your daily life – especially by acknowledging obstacles and developing reinforcers to support your new healthy habits. Finally, should you desire continued work with a mental health professional, we can offer referrals or discuss options about continuing work with staff at the Sage Center.
Part 5 - Explore Additional Pathways to Family Building, including Third Party Reproduction and Adoption.
Learn skills for managing relationships and social engagements including
- Strengthening your Marriage/Relationship
- Managing Relationships with Extended Family, Friends, and the World
- Coping Skills for Family Functions, Holidays, and Pregnancy Announcements
1) Strengthening your Marriage/Relationship
Creating a family is often at the core of many couples’ dreams and plans for the future, and when this dream is blocked even the strongest of couples can be left feeling helpless and devastated. With each partner having to learn to manage their own grief and frustration – while at the same time supporting their distressed partner – relationships can be put under immense stress. What’s more, you and your partner might have different styles of coping. Perhaps your partner buries his or her feelings and emotionally ‘pulls away’ leaving you feeling angry and alone. Resentment, conflict and disconnection can follow all too easily.
In this module we help you recognize the specific strategies you and your partner use to cope with the struggle of infertility and introduce you to ways in which you can respect your differences. We’ll guide you on how to communicate openly and honestly, while treating each other with compassion.
2) Managing Relationships with Extended Family, Friends, and the World
When you’re dealing with infertility, conversations with family members and friends can feel like walking through a field of land mines. You’re on guard, waiting for an uncomfortable or hurtful question, or piece of advice, and often it is the unanticipated situation or random remark from a stranger that can knock you off your feet. Here we explore strategies for managing these relationships and situations.
3) Surviving the Holidays, Pregnancy Announcements and Baby Showers
Seeing your siblings, cousins and friends celebrate with their children at holiday time often emphasizes what you don’t have. Equally, pregnancy announcements and baby showers are difficult reminders that your dream of creating a family has not gone the way you imagined. With this in mind, we offer strategies for protecting you and your partner during holidays, family gatherings and special occasions. You will learn how to survive everyday stressful events – from a baby shower to a neighborhood BBQ.
This extension to the Silver Program, occurs in the form of five individual consultations, each lasting 50 minutes. In addition to the 3 consultations on ‘Expanding the Territory of Change’, there will be 2 consultations on ‘Exploring Additional Pathways to Family Building’, including donor egg, donor sperm, donor embryo, surrogacy, and adoption. Prior to each meeting you will be assigned readings and exercises to complete and submit.
Exploring Adoption, Donor Egg and Sperm, and Surrogacy
Up until now, you have perhaps only thought about conceiving the traditional way or using assisted reproductive technologies like IUI or IVF. But of course there are many ways to build a family – and in these two modules we consider additional pathways to the family of your dreams.
- We discuss family building through donor egg, donor sperm, donor embryo, surrogacy, and gestational carriers.
- We explore domestic and international adoption.
