Infertility Support Group Therapy
The In-Between
An infertility therapy group for women · In person in Birmingham · Online throughout Alabama
Led by Anna Mills Fleenor, LMSW · Empower Counseling
Everyone Keeps Telling You to Relax. No One Tells You Where to Put the Grief.
Another cycle. Another negative. And the people who love you keep saying the things that land wrong, so you have stopped telling most of them anything.
The In-Between is a ten-week closed therapy group for women navigating infertility and fertility treatment. The same small circle of women, all ten weeks, no one new joining partway. Led by Anna Mills Fleenor, LMSW, a therapist with specialized training in infertility and reproductive grief, grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
She will not tell you to stay positive. She will sit with the whole truth of it, alongside women living it too.
Offered in person in Birmingham and online throughout Alabama. New groups forming now.
There is no name for what you are grieving.
Whatever brought you here — you do not have to have it figured out. You just have to show up.
"I don't even have a word for what I'm grieving." "I should be over this by now."
Grief usually comes with something to point at. Yours has no ritual and no casserole on the porch, and grief that no one acknowledges is grief all the same.
Your body has started to feel like something working against you.
"What is wrong with my body?" "I did everything right and it still didn't work."
You followed the protocol exactly, and when the result came back negative the mind reached for the only explanation available: you. It is not you. That blame usually grows out of something decent — the belief that effort should be honored.
You cannot keep getting your hopes up. You also cannot stop.
"I can't keep getting my hopes up. I also can't stop." "I don't know how to want this less."
The hope you cannot switch off is not weakness. It is how much you are willing to love something you cannot yet hold. The work is not wanting it less. It is carrying hope and disappointment at once without either running your week.
Isolation Is Not a Side Effect of Infertility. It Is Part of the Injury.
Up to 52% of women navigating infertility experience anxiety or depression (Kiani et al., 2021). The medical side of this gets managed carefully. The emotional side gets a pamphlet, if that. Learn More about PMAD
There is nothing else quite like sitting with women who are living the same thing you are living. Not a friend doing her best to understand. Not a partner who is grieving it differently. Here you do not explain what a trigger shot is, or why you cried in a Target parking lot in April. Everyone already knows, so the ninety minutes go to the actual thing. The group is closed on purpose: by week three you are not introducing yourself anymore, you are just talking.
Across ten weeks: naming the losses · quieting the self-blame and the bracing · boundaries with the people around you · getting your life back while you wait.
Who This Group Is For
- Trying to conceive, in active fertility treatment, or between cycles
- Navigating IVF, IUI, or medicated cycles
- Grieving failed cycles, secondary infertility, or reproductive loss others did not recognize as loss
A different level of care may fit better if you are in acute crisis, in the early weeks after a loss, or currently pregnant. Anna Mills will talk that through with you in the consultation.
Meet Your Therapist
Anna Mills Fleenor, LMSW, is a therapist at Empower Counseling with specialized training in infertility and reproductive grief. She is fluent in the language of this experience, so you will not spend ten minutes explaining acronyms. And she is unbothered by the ugly parts — the rage at the announcement, the relief when a friend's cycle fails and the shame right behind it. She has heard all of it and she does not flinch.
The Details
- 10 weekly sessions, 90 minutes each · Tuesdays, 6:00–7:30 PM
- In person at Empower Counseling in Birmingham, or online from anywhere in Alabama
- Separate in-person and online cohorts, each closed for all ten weeks
- $750 total ($75 per session), private pay, in two installments
- Half reserves your seat, half at the first session
- Seats are limited and each group closes once it begins
New groups forming now. Schedule a free consultation, tell Anna Mills which format fits your life, reserve your seat.
You Have Been Doing This Alone. You Do Not Have To.
You are not alone. Let's begin.
Ten weeks from now the cycle may or may not have gone the way you want. What can be different is that you are no longer carrying it by yourself. You reached out. That matters. New groups forming now.
In person in Birmingham · Online throughout Alabama.
Common questions
You don't have to have it figured out to reach out.
When does the next group start?
New groups are forming now. Schedule a free consultation with Anna Mills and she will tell you when the next cohort begins and whether seats remain.
Do I need to be in active treatment to join?
No. The group is for women experiencing infertility and/or in fertility treatment — in active cycles, between cycles, or earlier in the process.
How does ACT help with infertility?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy was built for problems that cannot be solved by trying harder. It does not challenge the thought "my body is failing." It changes your relationship to it, so the thought can show up without deciding how your day goes — and it helps you keep a life while the outcome stays out of your hands.
Why a closed group instead of a drop-in support group?
The same women, every week, for ten weeks. Nobody joins in week six. That lets the conversation deepen instead of restarting. It is also therapy led by a licensed clinician, not peer support.
What if I get pregnant during the ten weeks?
It happens. Anna Mills will talk with you individually about what makes sense. No rule forces you out and no expectation keeps you in.
Can my partner come?
This group is for women only, so the room stays a place where you can say things you have not said in front of anyone.
Is this covered by insurance?
Empower Counseling is private pay and out of network. We can provide a superbill to submit for possible out-of-network reimbursement.
What if I have never done group therapy?
Most women here have not. You are not required to talk in week one.
Where is the group held?
Two ways. In person at Empower Counseling's Birmingham office, or online from anywhere in Alabama. The in-person and online cohorts run separately, so the group you join stays the same group for all ten weeks.
Is the online group as good as the in-person one?
It is the same ten weeks, the same structure, the same therapist. Online works well here for a practical reason: much of this experience already happens at home, around appointment schedules and injection timing, and not having to drive across town at 6:00 PM after a hard day removes one more thing. Choose the one you will actually make it to every week. That matters more than the format.
Do I have to live in Birmingham?
No. The online group is open to women anywhere in Alabama. Anna Mills is licensed in Alabama, so participants need to be located in the state during sessions.
What is reproductive grief?
Grief connected to reproductive loss of any kind — failed cycles, miscarriage, stillbirth, and the loss of an imagined future. It is real grief, and it is frequently disenfranchised, meaning the people around you do not recognize it as loss.