Irish Fertility
Counsellors Association
Welcome
Welcome to the Irish Fertility Counsellors Association (IFCA ). This website, on behalf of our members, aims to share our philosophy and commitment to providing emotional support to clients throughout any fertility journey.
Fertility can be one of the most challenging experiences for anyone planning to have a family. The need for assisted reproduction is often a shock that threatens the hopes and dreams of how you may have imagined having your family and your shared future.
If you are going through this at the moment, it can be frightening to experience so many challenges, on your body, your emotions, your relationship and other family relations and also on your ability to cope. Loved ones sometimes don’t fully grasp the grief you are feeling. Not everyone will appreciate that a miscarriage is a bereavement or that undergoing fertility treatments is stressful and includes loss.
As specialist Fertility Counsellors, we are trained to create a confidential and safe space for you to talk through any feelings, concerns, losses and hopes as you aim to create a family. We will help you to gain coping skills to deal with the emotional impact of infertility and the hardship and grief that may accompany that journey.
Fertility counselling provides a space for individual clients and couples to share their experience of infertility, pregnancy or baby loss, assisted reproduction and more. It provides an opportunity to seek understanding at any stage of your fertility journey. Your counsellor’s role is to listen and support you in a non-judgemental way.
There can be complex considerations around assisted reproduction, which can be challenging to work through emotionally and socially. Your counsellor will help you to explore and understand how you feel about these, and will also talk through the implications for the future for you and your family.
Our IFCA members are all qualified specialist Fertility Counsellors with high standards of ethical practice and effectiveness that are central to our organisation.