Navigating fertility challenges can feel isolating, exhausting, and deeply emotional. You don't have to go through it alone. I offer warm, specialist support for individuals and couples at every stage of the fertility journey — available online, UK-wide and internationally.
Book a free consultation →Fertility struggles affect far more people than is often acknowledged. Yet despite how common these experiences are, many people feel a profound sense of isolation — as though they are the only ones going through it, or that they should be coping better than they are.
The truth is that the emotional weight of fertility challenges — the hope, the disappointment, the grief, the uncertainty, and the strain on relationships — is significant and real. Whatever you are feeling right now is a valid response to an incredibly difficult experience.
"You do not need to have a diagnosis, be mid-treatment, or have experienced loss to seek support. If fertility is weighing on you, that is reason enough."
Counselling provides a confidential, non-judgemental space where you can speak openly — about fears you haven't been able to voice, feelings you worry others won't understand, and decisions that feel impossible to navigate.
people of reproductive age globally experience infertility
Source: WHOpregnancies end in miscarriage — many go unsupported emotionally
Source: WHOIVF cycles are carried out in the UK each year
Source: HFEAI work with individuals and couples across a wide range of fertility-related experiences — at the very beginning, mid-treatment, or living with an outcome that wasn't what you hoped for.
Coming to terms with a diagnosis — unexplained or with a specific cause — and exploring what it means for your future.
Emotional support through the demands and uncertainty of assisted reproduction, including IVF, IUI, and ICSI.
Support following miscarriage, recurrent pregnancy loss, stillbirth, or termination for medical reasons (TFMR).
Exploring complex decisions — whether to continue, when to stop, and what comes next.
Fertility challenges can place enormous pressure on relationships. I support individuals and couples in navigating this together.
Emotional support and implications counselling for those considering or using donor eggs, sperm, or embryos.
A confidential space for donors, and for donor-conceived people navigating identity, disclosure, and questions of genetic connection.
Specialist support for individuals and couples pursuing parenthood through non-traditional routes.
My starting point is always person-centred — which means that you lead the way. There is no agenda, no checklist, and no expectation of how you should be feeling. My role is to create a safe, warm, and genuinely non-judgemental space where you feel heard and understood.
Fertility counselling is not about telling you what to do, or fixing how you feel. It is about helping you make sense of what you are experiencing, process emotions that may feel overwhelming, and find your own path through — whether that is continuing treatment, considering alternatives, or coming to terms with outcomes you didn't choose.
As an integratively trained counsellor, I draw on a range of approaches where helpful — including psychodynamic work to explore how past experiences may be shaping present feelings, and existential approaches to help you navigate uncertainty and meaning. But always, the relationship between us — built on trust, warmth, and safety — is at the heart of our work together.
"I came to fertility counselling through my own personal experience. That journey shaped not only my decision to train as a counsellor, but the depth of understanding I bring to this work."— Julie Sherman, Halcyon Counselling
I also have a deep understanding of the clinical side of fertility treatment, having spent over four years working as a fertility counsellor at a large Surrey fertility clinic — providing both therapeutic and implications counselling to patients undergoing treatment. This experience gives me an unusually clear understanding of the medical, emotional, and relational dimensions of the fertility journey.
Fertility counselling is a specialist area that requires dedicated training beyond a general counselling qualification. I hold specific qualifications in infertility counselling, giving you confidence that you are working with someone who deeply understands this field.
You can read more about my background and training on my About Me page.
Fertility challenges can place enormous strain on a relationship. Partners often experience the journey differently — one may want to talk constantly while the other withdraws; one may feel ready to explore alternatives while the other is not; grief may arrive at different times and in different ways.
This is not a sign that something is wrong with your relationship. It is a very human response to an extraordinarily difficult situation. But without space to explore these differences together, distance can grow.
I work with couples as well as individuals, providing a safe and neutral space to communicate honestly, understand each other's experience, and find a way forward together. Many couples find that working through this together — with support — actually strengthens their relationship in ways they didn't anticipate.
All sessions are conducted online via a secure video platform, making specialist fertility counselling accessible wherever you are. I work with clients across the UK and internationally.
Online counselling offers significant advantages for fertility clients in particular:
Sessions are 50 minutes for individuals and 60 minutes for couples. A free 20-minute telephone consultation is available so that we can talk about what you are looking for before committing to sessions.
No. I work with people at every stage — those just beginning to think about fertility treatment, those mid-cycle, those who have completed treatment, and those living with the long-term emotional aftermath of their fertility journey. You do not need a diagnosis or a referral.
Yes. I offer compassionate support following miscarriage, recurrent pregnancy loss, stillbirth, and termination for medical reasons (TFMR). Pregnancy loss is often a deeply private grief and one that is frequently underestimated by others. For those undergoing fertility treatment, when achieving a positive pregnancy test may have seemed out of reach and where early scans may have enabled an earlier connection to a developing embryo, pregnancy loss can hit especially hard. You deserve space to process it fully, at your own pace.
Implications counselling is a specific type of fertility counselling that explores the emotional, psychological, and social implications of using donated eggs, sperm, or embryos — both for you and for any future child. It is a supportive, exploratory process rather than a form of assessment or gatekeeping.
You don't have to have implications counselling before donor conception, though many clinics offer or recommend it as part of the process — it's a supportive, exploratory conversation, not an assessment or a test you can pass or fail. Whether it's required in your case is best confirmed with your own clinic. I provide this counselling online, at a pace that gives you room to think through what donor conception means for you and your future family.
This varies depending on what you are bringing to counselling and what feels helpful. Some clients find a small number of focused sessions useful; others choose to work over a longer period. We will discuss this together and review regularly. There is no fixed commitment required.
Individual sessions are £70 for 50 minutes. Couples sessions are £100 for 60 minutes. A free 20-minute telephone consultation is available. Visit the Session & Fees page for full details.
Yes. A failed or abandoned cycle can bring a very particular kind of grief — for the outcome you hoped for, and for the time, money and hope you invested. There is often pressure to "just try again" before you've had space to process what happened. I offer a place to feel the disappointment fully, at your own pace, and to think about what feels right for you next — without anyone rushing you.
The two-week wait can be one of the most emotionally charged parts of treatment — caught between hope and fear, analysing every twinge. Counselling won't make the wait shorter, but it can give you practical ways to steady the anxiety, hold the uncertainty more gently, and feel less alone with the thoughts that tend to spiral in those days.
Yes. Struggling to conceive again when you already have a child carries its own quiet pain — often alongside guilt for grieving when others feel you "should" be grateful. That grief is real and valid. I offer a space where you don't have to justify or minimise it, and where we can work through it together.
Yes — this is one of the hardest decisions many people face, and there is rarely a clear right answer. I won't tell you what to do, but I can help you explore it honestly: what you're weighing, what you're grieving, and what a life beyond treatment might hold. Many people find it steadying to think this through with someone outside their situation.
Absolutely. Fertility difficulties affect both partners, often in very different ways, and that difference can create real strain. Working together gives you space to understand each other's experience, communicate more openly about a painful subject, and face what's ahead as a team rather than in isolation.
Yes. Everything discussed in our sessions is held in strict confidence, in line with the BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions. The only exceptions are in rare circumstances where there is a serious risk of harm — which I would always discuss with you first wherever possible.
A free 20-minute telephone consultation gives you the chance to talk about what you are looking for and ask any questions — with no obligation to proceed.
Book your free consultation →Send a message and I'll get back to you — or ask for your free 20-minute consultation.