Welcome!

Hello! Welcome to the Inclusive Reproductive Healing (IRH) blog!

My name is Ashley Halverson, and I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has been in practice for 9 years. For more than half of my career, I have focused on offering therapy to those who have mental health concerns around their reproductive mental health.

What do I mean by “reproductive mental health”? I mean mental health around things such as going through puberty, choosing sexual partners, expressing your sexuality, accessing and making informed choices around sexual and reproductive healthcare, choosing or choosing not to parent, experiencing infertility, losing or ending a pregnancy, postpartum, the end of reproductive years (menopause, sterilization, bodily changes). These events often are surrounded by huge life transitions and have hormonal shifts in all genders that can cause depressive and anxious symptoms.

Basically, change is hard, AND hormone shifts can make it harder!

We all have reproductive stories and spend a large portion of our lives thinking about them. Much of the conversation and focus has been around pregnancy, postpartum, and “women’s issues”. Labeling reproductive health as a “woman’s issue” ignores and alienates the humanity and experience that all humans will experience in their sexual and reproductive stories.

When naming my practice, I decided I wanted to have the word, inclusive, because I want all sexual and reproductive choices as well as the thoughts and feelings that come along with those choices to feel welcome in this space.

I want all reproductive choices to be acknowledged, normalized, celebrated, and openly shared. My hope and intention for this space is to create safety in discussing hard topics in a nuanced way. And so I started Inclusive Reproductive Healing.

So…Welcome. I’m glad you are here.