Events of Interest

Fertility Counseling Clinical Supervision and Consultation Group  (LINK TO FLYER) 

This is a live, interactive consultation group with a closed cohort of 6-8 mental health professionals that will meet once a month virtually for 90 minutes for 6 months. This class is designed for licensed mental health professionals who have attended an intensive course on Fertility Counseling.**

This group will address issues inherent to working with third party reproduction/fertility including, but not limited to:

1. Third Party Reproduction with donor gametes and gestational surrogacy assessments and psychosocial consultations, including guidelines from American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Mental Health Professional Group (MHPG), what needs to be covered, necessary consents, and case examples.
2. Psychosocial and developmental issues of children conceived by assisted reproductive technologies
3. Psychosocial aspects of fertility treatment for a range of populations, such as single women, single men, LGBTQ individuals and couples, and patients of advanced parental age
4. Psychosocial aspects of fertility preservation and treatment for transgender patients, patients with a serious medical illness, and patients using planned embryo, oocyte, or sperm cryopreservation

When: February 2022-July 2022 Wednesdays at 12PM EST

             February 23, March 30, April 20, May 25, June 29, July 13

Cost: $600

Facilitated by Tara Simpson, PsyD, Licensed Psychologist, and Laura Covington, PhD, LICSW

To register: Fill out the application and return to Laura Covington laura.covington@sgfertility.com

No CEUs are provided. 

**For specifics please see: https://www.asrm.org/globalassets/asrm/asrm-content/news-and-publications/practice-guidelines/for-non-members/qualifications_for_infertility_counselors.pdf

This training is not endorsed or sponsored by MHPG or ASRM 

You are invited to join the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work for a free webinar series on Reproductive Mental Health throughout February 2022! 

Many social workers and other helping professionals are unaware that infertility affects many people in a variety of ways. One in eight couples is affected by infertility in the United States, affecting about 170,000 people in Wisconsin (Building Families Alliance Wisconsin, n.d.); (World Health Organization, 2021).  Adoptive parents are 10 times as likely to have experienced infertility or have attempted fertility treatments (CDC, 2009). Thirty-nine percent of foster parents’ motivation for becoming a foster poster was due to infertility (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2011).  Often, with infertility comes psychological distress, isolation, and other challenges similar to those experienced by people diagnosed with cancer (Domar, Zuttermeister, & Friedman, 1993), yet the effects of infertility on mental health are rarely a focus of education for mental health professionals.

Our webinar series will explore the topics of male, female, and third party/surrogacy perspectives on infertility and mental health.  1 Social Work CEH/.1 CEU will be provided for each webinar. Click on the links to register for the session. A Zoom link will be sent out one week prior to the session to those who register.

• February 7^th, 6pm-7pm (CST), Male Perspectives on Infertility and Mental Health by Dr. Bill Petok, licensed psychologist.

https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0SQmXw2Zq8E5uhE

• February 17^th, 6pm-7pm (CST), Female Perspectives on Infertility and Mental Health by Dr. Anna Flores-Locke, licensed professional counselor.

https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_06etvyKRx5vxHP8

• February 23^rd, 6pm-7pm (CST), Third Party/Surrogacy Perspectives on Infertility and Mental Health by Brie McKeller, MPA, and Jeanne Ferguson, LISW, licensed social worker

https://uwmadison.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_42DpBCEn3AexnxA

You will be asked to complete an anonymous brief survey when registering. Your survey responses will be used to see if there is an increase in knowledge about infertility and mental health, before and after the sessions.  We look forward to having you attend the series and learning more about how infertility can impact one’s mental health.

References

Building Families Alliance- WI. (2021, August 7). Retrieved from Building Families Aliance About: https://www.buildingfamilieswi.org/about

CDC. (2009, January ). NCHS Data Brief. Retrieved from Who Adopts? Characteristics of Women and Men Who Have Adopted Children: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db12.pdf

Domar, A., Zuttermeister, P., & Friedman, R. (1993). The psychological impact of infertility: a comparison with patients with other medical conditions. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 45-52.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2011, May 29). Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Retrieved from Children Adopted from Foster Care: Child and Family Characteristics, Adoption Motivation, and Well-Being: https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/children-adopted-foster-care-child-family-characteristics-adoption-motivation-well-being-0#_Toc300125443

World Health Organization. (2021). Health Topics. Retrieved from Infertility: https://www.who.int/health-topics/infertility#tab=tab_1

EM•POWER donation is an organization dedicated to empowering choice and fostering understanding for all stakeholders involved in embryo donation.  Founded by Maya Grobel, LCSW, Jen Vesbit, NCC, and genetic counselor, Gina Davis, EM•POWER provides educational webinars and support services free of charge to the community.  EM•POWER is funded by the department of Health and Human Services. 

Save the date for our next live webinar, Talking to Kids About Embryo Donation.  In this 90-minute informational session, the EM•POWER team will explore different ways to talk with children about embryo donation.  We will share our family experiences and discuss tools and tips to support children as they develop their own unique narratives.  Maya will start by talking about how embryo recipients can talk to their children about their unique beginnings, and Jen and Gina will cover talking to children of embryo donors.  While this webinar is specific to families connected to embryo donation, it could also be a good support for any family created through donor conception.  One note: Our webinars are designed to keep participant names and questions anonymous to other viewers. 

This webinar is the third in a series of five.  If you missed our first two webinars and are interested in checking them out, you can watch them here.

Additionally, please mark your calendars for our next two webinars!

Becoming a Parent Via Embryo Donation
Saturday March 13th • 10am PST / 1pm EST
This webinar will focus on the recipient's experience and will explore family building and parenting through embryo donation.

The Experience of Having Frozen Embryos
Saturday April 10th • 10am PST / 1pm EST
This webinar will cover the various choices one has for remaining embryos and will dive into the decision making process and experiences for embryo donors.

Continuing education credits are not provided.  EM•POWER webinars are not endorsed or sponsored by the Mental Health Professional Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.  

Sharon Covington, LCSW and Linda Applegarth, Ed.D. are pleased to announce their for-profit, year-long training program, Fertility Counseling Postgraduate Course (FCPC).  In the 6th year, this course will meet via live, video conference monthly for 3 hours, from September 2021 to June 2022, in closed cohort classes and provide 30 CEUs, including 3 for Ethics.  The attached flyer describes the course, provides instructor bio-sketches, and CEU information in more detail. 

Fertility Counseling Post-Graduate Course

As the instructors, Linda and Sharon are compensated directly by course participants for presenting relevant clinical and academic material as well as for providing additional information, resources, and current research in fertility counseling and reproductive psychology. The Fertility Counseling Postgraduate Course is not endorsed or sponsored by the Mental Health Professional Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

More information and applications can also be found at:

https://covingtonandhafkin.com/supervision-training/

FERTILITY COUNSELING POST-GRADUATE COURSE*

*A fourth class has been added for this year's class starting Fall 2021 and a few spaces are still available.​*

Reproductive Psychologist Dr. Janet Jaffe joins Deb & Nao to talk about the tremendous impact that miscarriages and infertility have on couples.  In the podcast below, she explains the power of our reproductive stories, and offers ideas for meaning making and support during what for many couples is the most difficult issue they have ever faced together.

https://thecouchwithdebandnaomi.libsyn.com/miscarriages-infertility-and-couples 

Dr. Jaffe was also recently interviewed by NPR on how to talk about a miscarriage.  This interview discusses the emotional and physical trauma families cope with after an unintentional pregnancy loss (about 31 minutes in).

https://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2020/10/02/21241/ 

This 30-hour introductory-level year-long course is geared towards all mental health clinicians and will be led by licensed psychologist Dr. Julie Bindeman from Integrative Therapy of Greater Washington, who will benefit financially from this training.  This 10-month long course will be an overview in the field of reproductive psychology and will cover infertility, pregnancy/neonatal losses, postpartum issues, and birth trauma.  Each month, we will explore an aspect of one of these topics in depth.  The course is limited to a maximum of 10 participants to ensure an atmosphere that promotes didactic learning as well as experiential and case consultation.  This course is considered to be for beginners or those that have had relatively few classes in these topical areas.  There will be one month devoted to ethics.  Attendance at all of the meetings will yield 30 Continuing Education Credits for APA.  This training is not endorsed or sponsored by MHPG or ASRM.

For more information, please visit:

https://greaterwashingtontherapy.com/courses/  (overview)

https://greaterwashingtontherapy.com/event/reproductive-psychology-a-comprehensive-year-long-training/

Sharon Covington, LCSW and Linda Applegarth, Ed.D. are pleased to announce their for-profit, year-long training program, Fertility Counseling Postgraduate Course (FCPC).  In the 6th year, this course will meet via live, video conference monthly for 3 hours, from September 2021 to June 2022, in closed cohort classes and provide 30 CEUs, including 3 for Ethics.  The attached flyer describes the course, provides instructor bio-sketches, and CEU information in more detail. 

Fertility Counseling Post-Graduate Course

As the instructors, Linda and Sharon are compensated directly by course participants for presenting relevant clinical and academic material as well as for providing additional information, resources, and current research in fertility counseling and reproductive psychology. The Fertility Counseling Postgraduate Course is not endorsed or sponsored by the Mental Health Professional Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

More information and applications can also be found at:

https://covingtonandhafkin.com/supervision-training/

FERTILITY COUNSELING POST-GRADUATE COURSE*

*A fourth class has been added for this year's class starting Fall 2021 and a few spaces are still available.​*