A private, unhurried place to talk about the death of your preterm baby and everything that has changed since. Registered Psychologists, Registered Provisional Psychologists, Registered Social Workers, Canadian Certified Counsellors, Mental Health Therapists, and Student Therapists. Psychologists at Wholesome Psychology are registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP), Canadian Certified Counsellors (CCCs) are regulated by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA), and Registered Social Workers are regulated by the Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW). In person at three Edmonton locations and two St. Albert locations, or virtually anywhere in Alberta.

Book a Session | Match with a Therapist

You Might Be Wondering Whether Preterm Infant Loss Counselling Is Right for You

You may be wondering whether what you are carrying counts as the kind of loss people go to therapy for. Maybe your baby lived for an hour, or three days, or six weeks in the NICU. Maybe someone has already said that you can try again, or that it was probably for the best, and some part of you has been quietly measuring your grief against the number of weeks ever since.

Some people notice they have started avoiding the hospital route, or the aisle with the sleepers in it, without quite deciding to. Some find they can hold a whole conversation at work and then sit in the parked car afterward, unable to go inside. Some feel almost nothing at all and worry about what that says about them. Partners often describe grieving on completely different schedules, one wanting to talk it through and the other wanting to fix the deck.

These responses are not a sign that you are handling it badly. Canadian perinatal care guidance is direct on this point: grief is the ordinary human response to losing someone you love, and grief reactions are not determined by gestational age, by how long your baby lived, or by how many children you already have. There is no correct way to grieve after a loss (Public Health Agency of Canada [PHAC], 2020).

If you would like to see what this kind of counselling actually involves before deciding anything, the sections below set out who it tends to suit, what happens in a first session, what the research does and does not show, and what it costs.

Who We Help

Preterm infant loss counselling at Wholesome Psychology may be a reasonable fit if you are:

• A parent whose baby died before, during, or after a preterm birth, at any gestation and at any point since.
• A partner who has been holding things together for someone else and has not had much room for your own grief.
• A parent who is finding significant dates hard, including the due date, the birth date, the date your baby died, or family occasions.
• Someone whose relationship, work, or daily routine has shifted in ways you did not expect.
• Someone considering another pregnancy, or already pregnant again, and finding that complicated.
• A grandparent, sibling, or close family member affected by the loss and looking for your own support.
• Gathering information on behalf of someone you love, and trying to work out what to suggest.

This service may not be the right fit, or may not be enough on its own, in these situations:

• You need help right now. Please use the crisis resources below rather than waiting for an appointment.
• You need medical answers. Questions about what happened clinically, autopsy or test results, or planning a future pregnancy belong with your obstetrical, neonatal, or primary care team. Counselling does not replace that care.
• You need a formal psychological assessment or a report. Psychological assessment is a separate service at this clinic and is not included in counselling. Legal, forensic, and insurance reports are outside the scope of this page entirely.
• You are looking for a peer support group. This page describes one-to-one and family counselling with a regulated clinician. If group or peer support is what you want, ask your care team or our administrative staff what is currently running in your area.

If You Need Help Right Now

Wholesome Psychology books appointments in advance and cannot respond to emergencies. If you are in immediate danger, or thinking about ending your life, please use one of these instead.

• 911, or your nearest emergency department, if there is immediate danger.
• Alberta Mental Health Help Line: 1-877-303-2642, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741.

Wholesome Psychology is not an emergency or crisis service.

What This Service Is

Preterm infant loss counselling is a series of private conversations with a regulated mental health clinician about the death of your baby and what has followed it. Sessions run 50 minutes. What gets discussed is up to you, and it can change from week to week.

People bring very different things. Some want to talk through the pregnancy, the birth, the NICU, or the decisions that had to be made. Some want to talk about their relationship, or about going back to work, or about what to say to their other children. Some want to talk about their baby by name, to someone who will not change the subject.

There are things this service is not. It is not medical or obstetrical care, and your therapist will not interpret test results or advise you about future pregnancies. It is not a legal service or an investigation. It is not crisis intervention.

It also does not include psychological assessment, testing, or diagnostic reports, which are handled separately at this clinic. Your therapist works within their scope of practice and will tell you plainly when something needs a different professional.

Grief itself is not treated here as an illness. The Canadian Psychological Association describes grief as a normal response that does not usually require psychological treatment, and notes that treatment of grief should be approached with caution, since removing grief entirely is not necessarily the goal (Canadian Psychological Association [CPA], 2025). Counselling can still be useful. It is simply useful as a place to think and be accompanied, not as a procedure applied to a defect.

You may have come across the term prolonged grief disorder, which the World Health Organization includes among conditions specifically associated with stress. That same classification is explicit that grief lasting longer than others expect can still fall within a normal range for a person's cultural and religious context (World Health Organization [WHO], n.d.). This page does not assess or diagnose anyone. Only a qualified clinician who has met with you can speak to your situation.

The pace belongs to you. Your therapist may suggest a direction, and you can decline it. Everything shared is confidential within the limits set out further down this page, and those limits are explained at the start rather than left for you to discover.

Signs the Loss of Your Baby May Be Affecting You

These are experiences people commonly describe after a perinatal loss. They are patterns, not a checklist, and you do not need to recognise several of them to be worth talking to someone.

• Grief arriving in waves rather than steadily, sometimes flattening you without warning (CPA, 2025).
• Trouble sleeping, low appetite, exhaustion, difficulty concentrating, tearfulness, or a fear-like physical agitation (CPA, 2025).
• Waves of grief returning around specific dates, including the due date, your baby's birth date, the date your baby died, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and family celebrations (PHAC, 2020).
• Avoiding places that bring it back, which can include clinics, hospitals, family gatherings, and other people's baby showers (CPA, 2025).
• You and your partner grieving in ways that do not line up, and struggling to accept each other's version of it (PHAC, 2020).
• Strain on your relationship, including changes to physical intimacy, or pulling away from your family emotionally (PHAC, 2020).
• Numbness, or feeling less than you expected to feel, which is a recognised grief pattern rather than an absence of love (CPA, 2025).
• Dread or fear about attaching to a future baby, or about medical appointments in a subsequent pregnancy (PHAC, 2020).

Having several of these does not mean something is permanently wrong with you, and it does not amount to a diagnosis. Grief reactions vary enormously between people, and roughly half of bereaved people never go through a depressive phase at all (CPA, 2025). What structured support offers is company and a bit of shape while you work out what this loss means for your life.

How Treatment Works Here

• Find your therapist. Use the Match with a Therapist tool, or read through the profiles on our Our Therapists page. If you would rather talk to a person, our administrative team can help you narrow it down at 780-904-4880.
• Book your first session. Appointments are booked through our online booking system. The first session covers consent, how confidentiality works and where it ends, and what you want out of this. You are not obliged to tell the whole story that day.
• Build your plan together. You and your therapist decide what to focus on. It might be the loss itself, or your relationship, or getting through a specific month. The plan is written with you, not handed to you.
• Ongoing sessions. Most people start weekly or every second week, and adjust from there. Sessions are 50 minutes. Frequency can change as things change.
• Progress check-ins. Your therapist will revisit with you whether this is doing anything useful. If it is not, that is worth saying out loud, and the plan or the therapist can change.

There is no fixed number of sessions. Some people come for a short stretch around a difficult period and stop. Others come back a year later, when a due date comes around. Both are ordinary. You can find more detail about the process on our Getting Started with Therapy page.

Evidence and Approaches

Before the specifics, one piece of honesty. The research on bereavement support after the death of a baby is thin, and the approaches below are drawn from the general grief and bereavement literature rather than from studies of preterm infant loss specifically. They describe how clinicians commonly work, not a fixed program. The business information available for this page does not confirm which individual clinicians hold training in perinatal bereavement, so if a particular approach matters to you, please ask our administrative team before booking.

Individual Bereavement Counselling

What it helps with: Talking through the loss, the hospital experience, and the changes that followed, at a pace you set.

Evidence summary: A systematic review of bereavement support for parents whose infant or child died found only eight eligible studies, mostly involving perinatal or neonatal deaths (Ainscough et al., 2022). The reviewers reported major concerns about study quality, and only three of nine papers found a significant difference between groups across 23 measured outcomes (Ainscough et al., 2022). Canadian perinatal guidance still recommends referral of bereaved parents to clinicians with perinatal bereavement training (PHAC, 2020).

Limitations: The evidence base is too small and too weak methodologically to support claims about how well bereavement counselling works. Individual responses vary widely.

Cognitive Behavioural Approaches

What it helps with: Gradually re-approaching places, people, and reminders you have been steering around since the loss.

Evidence summary: The Canadian Psychological Association describes cognitive behavioural therapy aimed at grief-related avoidance as one option for people whose grieving has become stuck, particularly where distressing memories are keeping someone away from situations they would otherwise return to (CPA, 2025). The same guidance positions psychological intervention as best reserved for prolonged, complicated grief rather than offered routinely after a death (CPA, 2025).

Limitations: This guidance addresses adult grief broadly and was not written about preterm infant loss. Whether a cognitive behavioural approach suits you is a clinical judgment made with you, not something this page can determine.

Interpersonal and Psychodynamic Approaches

What it helps with: Working out how the loss sits inside your relationships, and what an ongoing connection to your baby looks like for you.

Evidence summary: Alongside cognitive behavioural work, the Canadian Psychological Association lists interpersonal psychotherapy, brief psychodynamic therapy, and complicated grief treatment as approaches used to help people re-engage with life and make sense of a loss (CPA, 2025). It notes that unresolved anger, guilt, and regret about the relationship itself can be part of what makes grieving difficult, and that these are workable in therapy (CPA, 2025).

Limitations: The relative merits of these approaches are not established for infant loss, and none is presented here as better than another. Availability depends on which clinician you see.

Family-Centred and Couple-Inclusive Support

What it helps with: The gap that can open between partners, and supporting surviving siblings through a grief they can see but not name.

Evidence summary: Canadian perinatal guidance notes that parents' grief may be out of step despite the same loss, and that a perinatal death can strain or strengthen a relationship (PHAC, 2020). It describes bereaved children as carrying two losses (PHAC, 2020). Clinical quality standards state that psychological support should be delivered or supervised by registered practitioners skilled in adapting therapy to bereavement (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE], 2017).

Limitations: The NICE standard addresses end of life care in life-limiting conditions, so it applies only generally here. Family appointments depend on clinician availability.

What Results to Expect

Recovery from this kind of loss is not linear, and it is not a destination. People describe stretches where things feel more manageable, followed by a week in November that undoes it. Waves of grief around anniversaries can continue for the rest of your life, and that is understood as an expression of a continuing bond rather than a failure to move on (CPA, 2025).

Some people notice shifts within a few months. Others find they want longer-term work, or want to come back at particular points, such as during a subsequent pregnancy. What influences this includes the circumstances of your baby's death, what else is happening in your life, the support around you, and how well you and your therapist work together (CPA, 2025; PHAC, 2020).

No therapy guarantees an outcome, and this page does not promise one. The available research on bereavement support for parents does not allow anyone to tell you how much counselling will help, or how quickly (Ainscough et al., 2022). What can be said is that many people find value in having a place to put this, and that outcomes vary.

Fit matters more than most people expect. If your therapist is not right for you, changing to someone else is a normal request and not an insult to anyone. The approach can change too.

Confidentiality and Privacy

What you say in session stays between you and your therapist. Records are kept securely, and your information is not shared with family, employers, or insurers without your consent.

Privacy in Alberta is governed by legislation, and which statute applies depends on the setting. The Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) generally governs private organisations in Alberta, including private psychology practices. The Health Information Act (HIA) governs health information held by custodians such as Alberta Health Services, hospitals, and certain regulated professionals, and it becomes relevant when your information moves between a private clinic and those settings. Your therapist can explain which applies to your file.

Alongside the legislation, clinicians are bound by professional obligation. Psychologists at this clinic are registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists (CAP), which sets standards of practice and handles public complaints. Practice is also guided by the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists.

Confidentiality has limits set by law. Your therapist may be required to disclose information in these circumstances:

• There is a risk of serious harm to you or to someone else.
• There is suspected abuse or neglect of a child, which carries a mandatory reporting duty under Alberta law.
• A court orders the release of records.

Your therapist will walk through these limits with you in the first session, before you share anything personal. You are welcome to ask questions about how your information is handled at any point, including before you book. Virtual sessions carry additional privacy considerations, such as who else is in your home and how secure your connection is, and privacy cannot be fully guaranteed in that setting. Raise any concerns with your therapist and you can work out arrangements together.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to describe what happened in detail?

No. You decide how much to say and when. Some people want to tell the story from the beginning, and some never go through it in detail at all. It is entirely workable to focus on the present, on how this week has been, on your relationship, or on getting through a particular date. If your therapist suggests going somewhere you are not ready to go, you can say so, and that is treated as information rather than resistance.

Is what I share kept private?

Yes, within limits set by law. Your therapist may have to disclose information where there is a risk of serious harm, where child abuse or neglect is suspected, or where a court orders it. Alberta privacy legislation applies, and psychologists are also bound by the standards of the College of Alberta Psychologists. The confidentiality section above sets this out in full, and your therapist will go through it with you before you share anything personal.

How many sessions will I need?

There is no set answer, and anyone who gives you a firm number is guessing. Some people attend for a short period around a difficult stretch. Others prefer longer-term work, or come back at particular points such as an anniversary or a subsequent pregnancy. Your therapist will review with you regularly whether the work is doing anything useful, and you can stop or pause at any time.

What if the therapist is not the right fit?

Then you change. Fit is a real clinical factor, not a matter of politeness, and telling us that someone is not working for you is genuinely useful. Our administrative team can help you move to a different clinician, and you do not need to explain yourself in detail. New clients may access their first session at 50% off to help find the right therapeutic fit.

Can I access counselling online?

Yes. Virtual sessions are available across Alberta, and the same confidentiality standards apply. Virtual care does raise extra practical questions, including whether you have a private space, how reliable your connection is, and where you will be sitting. Privacy cannot be fully guaranteed in a virtual setting, so it is worth discussing with your therapist whether it suits your circumstances.

Is it too soon, or too late, to come in?

Neither. Some people book within weeks, and some come in years afterward, often when something has stirred it up again. Grief commonly resurfaces around anniversaries and family occasions long after a loss, and that is understood as normal rather than a setback (CPA, 2025). There is no window you have missed.

Can my partner and I come together, or separately?

Both happen. Some couples attend jointly, some attend separately with different therapists, and some do a mix. Partners frequently grieve on different timelines and in different styles, and that mismatch can itself become a source of strain (PHAC, 2020). Joint and family appointments depend on clinician availability, so please check with our administrative team at 780-904-4880 before booking.

What if I am pregnant again, or thinking about it?

That is a common reason people come in, and it is a reasonable thing to want support with. Parents who have experienced a perinatal loss may find routine parts of a subsequent pregnancy, such as ultrasounds or listening for a heartbeat, unexpectedly difficult (PHAC, 2020). Counselling can be a place to talk about that. Medical questions about a current or future pregnancy belong with your obstetrical or primary care team, and your therapist will say so rather than guess.

Meet Your Clinicians

Wholesome Psychology's team includes Registered Psychologists, Registered Provisional Psychologists, Registered Social Workers, Canadian Certified Counsellors, Mental Health Therapists, and Student Therapists. All psychologists are registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists. Canadian Certified Counsellors (CCCs) are regulated by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA), and Registered Social Workers are regulated by the Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW). Registered Provisional Psychologists practise under the supervision of a senior registered psychologist, which is a normal stage of registration rather than a limitation on the quality of care.

Many of our clinicians have training in grief and loss, perinatal and postpartum mental health, trauma-informed practice, and couples and family work. Individual training and current availability vary, and the information available for this page does not confirm which clinicians hold specific credentials in perinatal bereavement. If that matters to you, ask before you book.

You can read individual profiles on our Our Therapists page, or use the Match with a Therapist tool. Our administrative team can also talk it through with you at 780-904-4880.

Children and Youth

Surviving siblings are affected by this loss too, even very young ones, and even when the adults have been careful. Canadian perinatal guidance describes bereaved children as carrying two losses at once, the sibling they were expecting and the parents they knew before the death. How a child responds depends on their personality, age, developmental stage, and how the family around them is coping, and younger children often work through grief in play rather than conversation (PHAC, 2020).

Wholesome Psychology offers counselling for children, adolescents, and young people. Clinicians working with younger clients use approaches suited to the child's age and stage rather than adapting adult therapy downward. They also work alongside caregivers, on the reasonable basis that a child's recovery happens mostly at home rather than in a therapy room.

You can read more on our Child and Youth Counselling page, or ask our administrative team which clinicians currently see children.

Taking a Next Step

If you would like to start, there are a few ways to do it. You can book a session online, use the Match with a Therapist tool, or call our administrative team at 780-904-4880. You can also email info@wholesomepsychology.ca with questions before committing to anything. Our Getting Started with Therapy page explains what the process looks like from here.

If you are not sure yet, related pages on grief and loss, perinatal loss, and couples counselling may be worth reading first.

New clients may access their first session at 50% off to help find the right therapeutic fit.

Starting the conversation is enough.

References

• Ainscough, T., Fraser, L., Taylor, J., Beresford, B., & Booth, A. (2022). Bereavement support effectiveness for parents of infants and children: A systematic review. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, 12(e5), e623–e631. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2019-001823
• Canadian Psychological Association. (2025). Psychology Works fact sheet: Grief in adults (prepared by L. Sexton). https://cpa.ca/psychologyfactsheets
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2017). End of life care for infants, children and young people. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs160
• Public Health Agency of Canada. (2020). Family-centred maternity and newborn care: National guidelines. Chapter 7: Loss and grief. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/maternity-newborn-care-guidelines-chapter-7.html
• World Health Organization. (n.d.). Prolonged grief disorder. ICD-11 for mortality and morbidity statistics. Retrieved July 26, 2026, from https://icd.who.int/browse11