Reproductive and Perinatal Trauma Centre

Reproductive and Perinatal Trauma Centre Amplifying silenced experiences with reproductive struggles and perinatal trauma.

The reality is many families to have to pick. April 19-25 is Canadian Fertility Awareness Week. A week close to many of ...
04/20/2026

The reality is many families to have to pick.

April 19-25 is Canadian Fertility Awareness Week. A week close to many of the people we support at RPTC as 1 in 6 Canadians struggle with fertility.

This years theme by is “Fertility Unlocked.” Our understanding of that is unpacking this to enhance education and better access to care, and we are on board!

Access to fertility care shouldn’t depend on your postal code, your income, or your ability to endure waiting.
Care should be timely, informed, and humane. period. But the reality is that it isn’t.

During Canadian Fertility Awareness Week 2026, the conversation has to go deeper than awareness because education and accessibility are what actually change outcomes.

Education matters because timing and information directly impact fertility.Most people are not taught how fertility changes with age, how conditions like PCOS or endometriosis affect conception, or when to seek help. That gap means people often seek care later than is ideal, not by choice, but by lack of accurate, early information.

Education gives people agency to recognize red flags, to advocate for themselves, and to make informed decisions about their bodies and timelines.

Accessibility matters because knowing something is wrong means nothing if you can’t get care. Right now, fertility care is often limited by cost, long waitlists, and geography. That creates a reality where people delay treatment, go into debt, or are excluded entirely.

And with fertility, delays aren’t neutral in fact they can change outcomes.

Without accessibility, education becomes frustrating instead of empowering. And without education, accessibility comes too late.

Together, they are what make early intervention possible, reduce emotional and financial strain, and create a system that doesn’t rely on privilege to determine who gets to build a family.

Because fertility care isn’t a luxury.

It’s healthcare. And it should function like it.

Help us in raising awareness this week 💚💜

We are so happy to introduce you to Tya! 😍Tya (pronounced Tea-ya) is currently a Mental Health Therapist, awaiting regis...
04/16/2026

We are so happy to introduce you to Tya! 😍

Tya (pronounced Tea-ya) is currently a Mental Health Therapist, awaiting registration as a Provisional Psychologist with the College of Alberta Psychologists.

Prior to returning to school to complete her Master of Counselling degree at City University of Seattle, she worked as a nurse for over 10 years in both antepartum and postpartum units. This work provided her with a comprehensive understanding of the complex interplay between medical and psychosocial factors affecting individuals and families throughout the perinatal period.

Tya’s lived experience has further informed her clinical focus and therapeutic perspective. As a mother of four, she has personally navigated both birth-related trauma and profound loss. At 34 weeks pregnant, doctors discovered that her baby had a brain tumour. A month later, despite the amazing care from a large team of specialized physicians, Tya and her family experienced the heart-wrenching grief that follows the loss of a child. This life-changing event was what precipitated her to step out of her career as a nurse and pursue a career as a psychologist.

She considers it a profound privilege to support individuals who have experienced hardship and to walk alongside those navigating pain, adversity, and loss.

Tya’s therapeutic approach is grounded in an empathetic, trauma-informed, and client-centered framework. Tya is also an EMDR certified clinician and has Levels 1 and 2 of the Gottman Method Couples Therapy. With specialized training in Solution Focused Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, Internal Family Systems, and Emotionally Focused Therapy.

Tya excels and has a passion for working with couples, walking alongside them during challenges that come from pursuing a family, loss, birth trauma and day to day parenting and marriage struggles. She also supports individuals with maternal mental health, medical trauma, and caregiver fatigue.

She works Wednesdays 12:00-8:30 pm and Thursdays 10:00-5:30 pm in person and online. Her rate is $150 until registration then $220. You can book by visiting website or link in bio.

Help us give Tya a huge welcome to the RPTC family 💜

April Fools. We are big fans of funny reels and humour around here, whether it’s within the team or with clients. And th...
04/01/2026

April Fools. We are big fans of funny reels and humour around here, whether it’s within the team or with clients.

And there’s a time and place, and good taste.

Not everyone experiences pregnancy as a surprise worth celebrating.

For some, it’s month/ or years of trying.

Of tracking, hoping, grieving.

Of loss that doesn’t get spoken out loud.

Pregnancy, for many, is layered with longing, fear, and heartbreak, not certainty.

So when pregnancy announcements are used as an April Fools’ joke, it doesn’t land as harmless fun for everyone.

It can land as a reminder of the baby they lost, the test that was negative again, the many tears they’ve shed, and the life they’re still waiting for.

This isn’t about taking the joy out of pregnancy. It’s about recognizing that for some, this topic holds real grief.

And, we wish it would extend past this day.

You’ll see some pages remind me people on this day not to do this, and yet we wish that this conversation would extend to more ordinary days.

That the awareness around all that those who are battling infertility and pregnancy loss go through on the daily would be a normalized conversation rather than a moment in passing. 💜

This Mother’s Day, we are holding space for those whose motherhood exists in love, in grief, and in the in-between. A tr...
03/25/2026

This Mother’s Day, we are holding space for those whose motherhood exists in love, in grief, and in the in-between.

A trauma-informed group for mothers who have experienced stillbirth, a group where your baby is spoken of, your story is honoured, and your grief does not have to be made palatable for others.

This holiday brings with it a complex emotional landscape of grief and loss. A time where loss moms tend to feel torn between worlds and existing in a space that not many understand.

This space will centre validation, story, connection, and the ongoing identity of motherhood after stillbirth.

Date: May 10th, 2026

Time: 12:30-2:00 pm MST

Location: Zoom

Open to: all loss moms in Alberta. We will keep the group small to 10 and if the number exceeds that and the need for two groups occurs we will break the facilitators into two Zoom spaces.

Fee: Pay what you can and all proceeds will go to supporting

Facilitated by:

Megan Ivancic (Registered Psychologist)

Dr. Teela Tomassetti (PsyD & C.C.C)

You don’t have to do this day alone. See you there 🤍

A note about where the proceeds will go, the Kayde Foundation’s mission is to provide compassionate inclusive ongoing support, resources, and community for parents navigating the profound journey of loss. We are committed to ensuring that all options for support and care are made available in the critical first hours after loss, guiding parents through immediate decisions and emotions. By bridging the gap of isolation often felt after baby loss, we aim to create a space where parents can connect, share, and heal together. Through this, we aim to empower grieving parents with the strength, understanding, and hope needed to heal, while honoring the memory of their children and fostering resilience in the face of grief.” 🦋

03/23/2026

You better believe they’ve mastered how to spill the tea in 10 😌



March is Endometriosis Awareness Month, a time to bring attention to a condition that affects millions yet is still wide...
03/12/2026

March is Endometriosis Awareness Month, a time to bring attention to a condition that affects millions yet is still widely misunderstood.

Endometriosis, is an area we’ve supported since the very inception of RPTC, because we know how often those living with it are silenced. Several people on our team know this on a deep intimate level.

For those unfamiliar, endo occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of it, often causing severe pelvic pain, painful periods, fatigue, bowel or bladder symptoms, pain with s*x, and in some cases infertility.

But what many people don’t realize is that the impact of endometriosis goes far beyond the physical.

On average, it can take 7–10 years for someone to receive a diagnosis. That’s often years of being told their pain is “normal,” “just bad periods,” or something they should simply push through.

Living with chronic pain, unpredictable flares, medical dismissal, and the grief that can accompany fertility struggles or changes in daily functioning can take a profound toll on mental wellbeing.

This is where therapy can be an important part of support.

Therapy can help people living with endometriosis to process the emotional impact of chronic pain, work through the trauma of not being believed or taken seriously, navigate grief around body changes, fertility, or identity, develop tools for nervous system regulation and pain-related anxiety, rebuild trust in their body and their own experiences. To name just a few 🛋️

Endometriosis is a physical condition. But the emotional and psychological weight of living with it deserves care too. 💜 💛

🎗

Once upon a time these little girls had dreams about who they would grow up to be. Do we ever feel lucky that those drea...
03/02/2026

Once upon a time these little girls had dreams about who they would grow up to be.

Do we ever feel lucky that those dreams of helping others led them to the Reproductive and Perinatal Trauma Centre.

Where we support:

💜 Birth Trauma
💜 Pregnancy and Infant Loss
💜 Fertility struggles
💜 Perimenopause
💜 Endometriosis
💜 Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
💜 Maternal and Paternal Mental Health
💜 Vicarious trauma (nurses, doulas)

This the team who will offer:

🪻compassion
🪻 warmth
🪻 trauma-informed care
🪻 evidence-based modalities
🪻challenging of societal norms and expectations
🪻 humour when appropriate
🪻great snacks!

So grateful that those little ladies you see here grew up to lead with their hearts 💜

amber.collection
perinatalwellness
ca

When we start therapy as parents, it’s a huge leap of faith, and can feel really scared. Parents often feel a deep sense...
02/24/2026

When we start therapy as parents, it’s a huge leap of faith, and can feel really scared.

Parents often feel a deep sense of judgement from others, from society, from IG reels and books, and within.

Some of that judgment is very real, and some are assumptions we may need to check in on.

Starting therapy, it can amplify that fear of judgment.

“Wait, I’m supposed to be open and honest with how I’m breaking down, how I can’t carry it all, how hard I think this is. But, what will they think when the messaging around me is telling me to strive for perfection.”

Therapy should feel like a safe place.

And it’s not up to the client to just trust us.

That needs to earned. It needs to be felt and witnessed by the client. It takes time.

And. Perinatal therapists often get into this line of work because they know first hand the depth of the pressures and expectations you are under as a parent.

And better yet, a trauma-informed therapist will want to name that AND challenge it.

Hopefully this post lets you into how a perinatal therapists brain typically works in moments that high jack your nervous system and convince not to share cause you’ll be judged. 💜

02/11/2026

Our hearts are with the community of Tumbler Ridge today and those who feel the impact of this news. Please be gentle with yourselves. 💜

As therapists we are no where near perfect, but these are some of the things that you can expect from our team. At the f...
02/11/2026

As therapists we are no where near perfect, but these are some of the things that you can expect from our team.

At the forefront of our work isn’t a cookie cutter approach, but “flexing” to meet each person, their unique story, and needs.

With only 10 slides RPTC adds that as perinatal therapists other things we don’t do:

✖ normalize harm
✖ silence loss
✖ rush resilience
✖ bypass emotions
✖ ignore power dynamics
✖ offer platitudes instead of presence

We work with fertility grief, pregnancy after loss, medical stress, birth trauma, and postpartum, and we meet people where they are, not where the world thinks they should be.

Sometimes the work that we do is in the tiny details, the “small” things that we know matter and support our clients in feeling seen.

Therapists, what would you add to things you try not to do ⬇️💜

The start of the year can mark both heaviness and hope when you’re managing fertility struggles and pregnancy loss. As w...
01/21/2026

The start of the year can mark both heaviness and hope when you’re managing fertility struggles and pregnancy loss.

As we look at the new year, the numbers remind us of what was lost the year prior, all that we so desperately wanted that never came to be.

And we have to dig deep to find the hope that maybe, just maybe, this year will bring us what our heart aches for.

It’s hard to say it to others. And to be honest, it’s also hard to hear the hope from others. Because sometimes others hope, although not the intention, feels like pressure and expectations. It insinuates that we have control in this.

If only.

To the person navigating both hope and hurt, know this is always a soft place for you to land as you hold it all 💜

unpacks all of this on our blog “Amplify.” 📣 check it out, link in bio to our website and directly in our stories.

Address

200 937 Fir Street
Sherwood Park, AB
T6X1M5

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm

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