Single Mother by Choice Therapy
Virtual therapy for Single Moms By Choice (SMBC, SMC in Florida, California, and Tennessee
You Didn't End Up Here. You Chose Here.
Whether you identify as a single mom by choice, single mother by choice, SMC, or SMBC, this space was built for you.
There's a difference between becoming a single mother and choosing to become one. You weighed it. You researched it. You probably made a spreadsheet or twelve. You asked the hard questions out loud, and then quietly, in the dark, asked them again. You moved forward anyway; not because it was easy, but because the alternative was a life that didn't feel like yours.
Your baby arrives and here you are, carrying more than you expected, in ways you didn't fully anticipate. During your most stressful moments, you may start wondering if it's okay to find this hard when you chose it.
It is okay. Choosing something doesn't make it simple. It just makes it yours. You can do hard things. You’ve already done so many hard things AND it is still completely valid to feel overwhelmed, depressed, anxious and emotionally dysregulated.
What Brings Single Mothers by Choice to Therapy
You may be here because:
You're in the thinking or planning stage: weighing donor conception via egg, sperm and/or embryo, IUI, IVF, adoption, or fostering. These decisions feel enormous and they are entirely yours to make
You're actively trying to conceive and navigating the emotional weight of doing it solo, without a partner to process the two-week waits, the negative tests, or the next steps
You're pregnant and experiencing joy and terror in equal measure, sometimes within the same hour
You're postpartum and realizing that "doing it alone" hits differently at 3am than it did on paper
You're deep in the parenting years and struggling with the specific exhaustion that comes from being everyone, all the time, for one person who needs everything
You feel guilty for struggling because you wanted this, you planned this, and you're still finding it incredibly hard
You're watching people in partnered relationships complain about their co-parents, and you don't have the words for what that stirs in you
You've never felt like you fit neatly into "single mom" spaces, because your path looked different from the start
Single motherhood by choice is not the same as single parenthood by circumstance. The path here often involves years of deliberate decision-making, financial planning, medical appointments, and quiet grief. You grieve the partnership that didn't come, the family structure you once imagined, and the versions of this story you let go of before you arrived at this one.
There is joy in this path. Real, enormous, chosen joy. There is also complexity that often goes unnamed: the loneliness of making every decision alone, the pressure to appear grateful and capable at all times, the ambivalence that can coexist with deep love, and the grief that doesn't disappear just because you got what you wanted.
Many single mothers by choice describe feeling caught between worlds, not quite fitting the "infertility" narrative, not quite fitting the "single mom" narrative, not quite fitting anywhere. That in-between space deserves acknowledgment, not minimization. There are also single mothers by choice who do fit the “infertility” narrative ON TOP of everything else. These feelings and experiences are allowed to take up space.
This Is a Particular Kind of Journey
Why Work With Me
I'm Beth. I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in perinatal mental health and I'm a single mother by choice.
My son was born in early 2025, and the road to him was mine to navigate alone. I know what it is to sit with a decision this big with no one to turn to in the middle of the night. I know what the fertility clinic waiting room feels like when you're the only one without a romantic partner. I know the particular kind of strength it takes to keep choosing yourself and your future child through every obstacle, and I know the particular kind of exhaustion that comes after.
I became a therapist to fill the gaps I personally experienced; the gaps in emotional support, understanding, and the lack of spaces that can hold the full complexity of non-traditional paths to parenthood. You will not have to explain yourself here. You will not be asked to perform gratitude or minimize struggle. This space is for all of it.
I work virtually with clients in Florida, California, and Tennessee.
What We Can Work On Together
Processing the grief and ambivalence that coexist with deep desire on this path
Managing anxiety and decision fatigue during the thinking, planning, and trying stages
Coping with fertility treatment without a partner to absorb the emotional weight
Navigating pregnancy as a single mother by choice, including fear, bonding, and preparation
Postpartum support that accounts for the specific reality of parenting solo from day one
Identifying and asking for the support you need and why that's so hard
Building an identity that holds both "I chose this" and "this is really hard" without contradiction
Parenting sustainability: the long game of doing this on your own without burning out
You're Allowed to Find This Hard
The fact that you chose this path does not mean you are required to carry it quietly. Choosing something with intention does not disqualify you from struggle, grief, fear, or exhaustion. It does not mean you have to be grateful all the time, or that asking for support is a sign you made the wrong call.
You made a courageous, deliberate choice to build your family. You deserve support that meets the full weight of that.
Let's Work Together
Virtual therapy for single mothers by choice is available in Florida, California, and Tennessee. Whether you're in the thinking stage, actively trying to conceive, pregnant, postpartum, or years into parenting, this is a space for wherever you are right now.