Fertility and Reproductive Mental Health Certificate Program.
Supporting the Unseen Grief and Complex Realities of Reproductive Journeys.
Infertility is often treated as a biomedical problem, a diagnosis, a protocol, a timeline.
However, what is often overlooked is the emotional toll: the heartbreak, the uncertainty, the relationship strain, the cultural shame, and the quiet grief that come when things don't go as planned.
This training invites mental health professionals and support workers into the psychological landscape of reproductive health, including fertility challenges, alternative family-building, and grief that doesn’t always have a name.
We recognize that not all reproductive journeys are the same. We make space for the unique experiences of queer, trans, and non-binary clients, and for those whose stories don’t fit the dominant fertility narrative.
Hybrid Format: 30hr Program
20hr Live/Online + Recordings & Self-Study Resources
1979 +HST
November 3th - November 24th
Who Is This Program For?
The Fertility and Reproductive Mental Health Certificate Program is designed for professionals who want to build confidence and competence in supporting clients through complex reproductive experiences. It’s ideal for therapists, social workers, and psychotherapists; birth workers, doulas, and coaches; those supporting queer and trans clients navigating family-building; and anyone working with clients facing fertility struggles, reproductive loss, or assisted reproduction.
No prior training in fertility or reproductive mental health is required, just a commitment to learning and showing up for clients with care.
This training offers a trauma-informed framework for mental health professionals supporting clients navigating complex reproductive, pre-conception, and fertility experiences. Through experiential learning, case studies, reflective exercises, and hands-on tools, participants will:
✔️ Deepen their understanding of the psychological and emotional impacts of fertility struggles, infertility diagnoses, and reproductive loss, including medical trauma, ambiguous loss, and disenfranchised grief.
✔️ Learn how to recognize and support trauma responses, grief expressions, and emotional coping strategies across the fertility spectrum, while avoiding retraumatization and fostering emotional safety.
✔️ Gain practical tools for emotional processing and regulation, including breath work, mindfulness, somatic techniques, and narrative meaning-making.
✔️ Build skills to support clients facing prolonged uncertainty, decision fatigue, moral distress, and relationship strain, while holding space for ethical and emotional complexity.
✔️ Explore how to create inclusive and affirming therapeutic spaces for diverse reproductive stories, including queer, trans, non-binary clients, and those using donor conception, surrogacy, or chosen family systems.
✔️ Engage with strategies for offering culturally responsive, anti-oppressive, and spiritually respectful care, while critically examining the influence of societal narratives and expectations on the fertility journey.
✔️ Develop reflective practices to explore countertransference, manage personal feelings related to fertility, and strengthen practitioner presence, resilience, and sustainability in this work.
Program Outline:
Module 1: Foundations of Fertility Support: Language, Identity & the Preconception Journey
✔️ Introduction to reproductive mental health and the preconception journey
✔️ Inclusive language, identity-affirming care, and reproductive justice
✔️ Fertility-related anatomy, hormones, cycle tracking, and menopause
✔️ Medical concerns, systemic barriers, and body literacy
✔️ Mind-Body Tools: Mindfulness practices for grounding and body awareness; supporting clients in tuning into cycle symptoms, sensations, and emotions
Core Competency Focus:
✔️ Clinical Knowledge:
- Understanding fertility-related distress, trauma, and reproductive grief
- Recognizing how identity, culture, and systemic barriers shape reproductive experiences
✔️ Cultural Humility & Queer-Affirming Practice
- Working beyond cis-heteronormative narratives of reproduction and parenthood
When: Tuesday, November 3rd (5-hours)
8:00 PT / 9:00 MT / 10:00 CT / 11:00 ET / 12:00 AT / 12:30 NT
Module 2: Medical Pathways, Interventions & Psychological Impact
✔️ Common fertility pathways (IVF, IUI, etc.)
✔️ Stress, trauma, and the psychological toll of medical interventions
✔️ Pharmacological support and implications for mental health
✔️ Living with uncertainty, decision fatigue, and trauma layering
✔️ Clinical tools: Narrative therapy and values mapping to support clients in meaning making and decision making
Core Competency Focus:
✔️ Clinical Knowledge:
- Awareness of ART, donor conception, surrogacy, and medical decision-making
✔️ Cultural Humility & Queer-Affirming Practice
- Delivering trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and identity-affirming care
- Supporting clients facing stigma, systemic exclusion, and familial pressure
When: Tuesday, November 10th (5 hours)
8:00 PT / 9:00 MT / 10:00 CT / 11:00 ET / 12:00 AT / 12:30 NT
Module 3: Loss, Identity & Complex Reproductive Paths
✔️ Body image, identity, and navigating relationship dynamics during infertility
✔️ Miscarriage, abortion, and the complexity of ambiguous grief
✔️ Shame, grief, and the impact of ambiguous loss
✔️ Reproductive paths, including donor conception, surrogacy, adoption, choosing not to continue treatment and redefining family
✔️ Fertility preservation and queer-specific considerations
✔️ Clinical tools & case studies: exploring identity, grief, and reproductive decision-making
Core Competency Focus:
✔️ Clinical Knowledge:
- Supporting clients through reproductive grief, shame, and identity shifts, with attention to how systemic barriers, identity, and relationships shape loss and decision-making
✔️ Cultural Humility & Queer-Affirming Practice:
- Providing affirming care for queer, trans, and non-binary clients
When: Tuesday, November 17th, 2026 (5 hours)
8:00 PT / 9:00 MT / 10:00 CT / 11:00 ET / 12:00 AT / 12:30 NT
Module 4: Clinical Integration and Continuing the Journey
✔️ Transitioning from infertility to pregnancy and parenting
✔️ Reproductive trauma and its impacts throughout the perinatal period
✔️ Integrating trauma-informed approaches and nervous system regulation tools
✔️ Case studies, treatment planning, and sustainable care strategies
Core Competency Focus:
✔️ Clinical Knowledge:
- Applying grounding, breath work, and regulation to fertility support
✔️ Trauma-Informed and Somatic Tools:
- Applying grounding, breath work, and regulation to fertility support
When: Tuesday, November 24th (5 hours)
8:00 PT / 9:00 MT / 10:00 CT / 11:00 ET / 12:00 AT / 12:30 NT
Why This Matters:
Reproductive mental health isn’t just about the body; it’s about identity, grief, hope, injustice, and resilience.
With 1 in 8 people now accessing fertility support, and numbers expected to rise, fertility care is becoming an essential part of reproductive health.
Clients navigating these journeys often find themselves overwhelmed by medical information, high-stakes decisions, emotional burnout, and relational tension. They need support that acknowledges the full scope of that experience.
Whether you're working with someone processing IVF that didn’t go as planned, managing the ethics of donor conception, or grieving a child they never got to meet, this training gives you the skills to show up with clarity, compassion, and clinical grounding.
How It Works:
This hybrid program includes 30 training hours in total: four 5-hour live online sessions held every Tuesday in November, plus two pre-recorded lectures you can complete at your own pace. Each module includes 1–2 hours of required review.
Live attendance is encouraged, but recordings (excluding breakout rooms) are available for those who can’t attend in real time.
After completing all requirements, you’ll be eligible to pursue the Canadian Certificate in Fertility and Reproductive Mental Health (CC-FRMH), with supervised practice in either the counselling or community services stream.
Would you like to learn more about our programs? We're happy to chat with you and help you decide if they're right for you. Click the link below to schedule a Meet & Greet session!
