LGBTQ+ Family Building & Fertility Decision Support
IVF • Donor Conception • Reciprocal IVF • Surrogacy
Boston-based • Telehealth available
Becoming a parent can be exhilarating—and surprisingly exposing. For LGBTQ+ intended parents, the path often includes more decision points, more logistics, and more moments where a practical and timely choice carries deep personal meaning.
We meet in a comfortable, well-appointed Back Bay office designed to feel more like a private sitting room than a clinic—calm, quiet, and thoughtfully arranged for sustained conversation. Telehealth is also available.
We offer a structured, depth-oriented consultation that helps you slow down in the right places—so you can move forward with clarity, steadiness, and a shared sense of direction as intended parents.
Clinicians offering this service: Dr. Cecil R. Webster, Jr. and Dr. Jacqueline Buchanan
Many families use HSA/FSA funds for consultation sessions, and we can provide a superbill if you’d like to pursue out-of-network reimbursement.
We’ll reply within 1 business day with fit + timing guidance. With patient consent, we can provide a brief consult summary the patient can carry back to your team. You may also reach us at office@websterclinic.com or directly at 617.859.5953
WHO THIS IS FOR
LGBTQ+ individuals and couples pursuing IVF or fertility care
Intended parents pursuing surrogacy (gestational carrier)
People navigating donor conception (known or unknown donor)
Couples exploring reciprocal IVF
Co-parenting constellations (including friends co-parenting and polyamorous parenting arrangements)
This consultation is especially helpful when decisions are technically possible but emotionally complicated, and you want to choose in a way that fits your history and relationship.
Our Back Bay office is designed for this kind of work—quiet, comfortable, and well-appointed, with privacy and a pace that supports sustained conversation. Many families also choose telehealth for convenience and flexibility.
What makes this different?
Many intended parents have access to support groups and educational webinars. Those can be valuable but they often can’t hold the specificity of your relationship, your histories, and the meaning your particular choices carry. Our model is built to help you integrate the emotional, relational, and identity-level questions that shape your important upcoming decisions.
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LGBTQ+ family-building often includes additional decision points—and, at times, exposure to stigma or discrimination—which can create paralysis or a sense of needing to accommodate a system rather than confidently choosing what fits you as intended parents.
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Donor and surrogacy choices are rarely just logistical. They touch attachment, identity, family-of-origin dynamics, cultural continuity, and the future narrative a child will ask you to explain.
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When one person wants to move quickly and the other wants to slow down, or when donor/genetics becomes a proxy for deeper fears, support needs to do more than educate. It needs to help co-parents think together again.
Structure that moves you forward
A time-limited, high-yield series of five sessions (more if needed)
Clear next steps after each session
A shared decision framework you can reuse
Support for your relationship
Reduced polarization and looping conflict
Better language for hard conversations with your intended co-parent
Alignment without forcing sameness
The family story, early
Thoughtful planning for disclosure
Developmentally informed narrative-building
Less regret, less reactive decision-making
How Sessions Work
This is a structured consultation model designed for decision support in family-building, with a pathway into ongoing individual and couples therapy if helpful or desired.
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We work with individuals, couples, and a range of co-parenting constellations over a core of five structured sessions and more if needed.
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We find meeting intended parents together and individually provides the most depth and efficiency. We offer a brief summary of decision-making strengths, vulnerabilities, and next steps to intended parents and if desired and with consent, to your agency.
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Most people complete the 5-session consultation and proceed with clarity. Others choose a pathway into ongoing individual therapy, couples therapy, family therapy, or parent guidance as fertility care unfolds.
The questions we help you answer
These are the kinds of questions that can quietly derail otherwise well-organized plans. Seeing your question here is often the first moment of relief.
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What kind of relationship do we want our child to have with a donor? Distant helper, role model, extended family, or guardian?
How do we set boundaries that protect everyone while staying ethically grounded?
How do we choose in a way we can explain later, calmly and coherently?
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How do we decide when both partners want connection—but in different ways?
How do we handle grief or envy without letting it take over the decision?
How do we protect the relationship while making irreversible choices?
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What does “motherhood” mean in your relationship—emotionally, socially, and in your bodies?
How do you handle unexpected feelings if plans change, cycles fail, or pregnancy is complicated?
How do you protect your relationship’s tenderness when roles feel medically and socially split?
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What’s values-based planning vs. anxiety-driven overcontrol?
How do you stay emotionally connected when timelines, agencies, and medical processes pull you into logistics?
How do you prepare for shifts in friendships and family dynamics?
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How do donor choices intersect with racial/cultural identity and belonging?
How do you respond to family pressure without self-betrayal?
What story do you want your child to inherit about where they come from?
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What does “developmentally appropriate” disclosure look like at different ages?
How do you validate a child’s feelings (difference, jealousy, sadness) without panic?
How do you hold your own feelings so your child’s questions don’t become a crisis?
Common moments we help with
These are composite examples (not any specific patient), offered to make the work more felt.
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One co-parent wants to move quickly because time feels tight. The other wants to slow down and “vet” a known donor, worried about boundaries and future insecurity. We help co-parents integrate values and vulnerabilities so the decision becomes shared and sustainable.
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A couple feels pulled between the wish for a biological connection, cultural/racial continuity, and intense family-of-origin expectations about “the first child.” We help clarify priorities and reduce polarization so choices reflect the couple’s values—not pressure.
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A school-age child asks why their family looks different from peers. A parent feels unexpectedly threatened or “not enough,” and worries about future questions about donors or origins. We help parents find developmentally appropriate language while also tending to the parents’ feelings so the child’s questions don’t become a crisis.
For fertility clinics & surrogacy agencies
We aim to be a high-trust adjunct that makes your work easier—especially when emotional complexity begins to slow decision-making, increase conflict, or amplify distress. Our 5-session structure gives intended parents a contained, clinically grounded place to think, so they can proceed with greater clarity and stability.
Best Timing:
Before donor selection, before embryo transfer, early pregnancy, or when co-parents are stuck.
Format:
We often meet co-parents together and individually. When helpful (and with consent), we provide a brief summary of decision-making strengths, vulnerabilities, and next steps.
Deliverable:
With consent, a brief ‘decision summary’ the patient can share with your team.
WHEN TO REFER
We’ll reply within 1 business day with fit + timing guidance. With patient consent, we can provide a brief consult summary the patient can carry back to your team. You may also reach us at office@websterclinic.com or directly at 617.859.5953
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The couple keeps revisiting the same decision (donor, genetics, timing) without movement.
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One partner is ready to proceed; the other is flooded, ambivalent, or feels pushed.
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Questions about legitimacy, dysphoria, stigma, or family pressure are intensifying distress.
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Parents want help crafting the story early (and revisiting it across development).
5-Session Core Consultation Bundle : $3000
Designed for intended parents who want a structured, high-yield series that supports real decisions—without committing to open-ended therapy. Ongoing individual and/or couples therapy is available afterward if helpful.
Webster Clinic is a private-pay practice. Many families use HSA/FSA funds for this work (eligibility varies by plan). We can also provide a superbill and supporting documentation if you’d like to seek out-of-network reimbursement for eligible services. Because coverage varies widely, we recommend checking with your insurer and/or benefits administrator in advance.
Central Location
Prudential Center Garage is convenient. The entrance and exit closest to the Clinic is on Ring Road. Please note that we aren't able to offer parking validation at this time. Back Bay metered parking is also available.
PARKING
The closest MBTA station is Copley on the Green Line (all branches) and we are a ten minute walk from Back Bay Station and Hynes T Stop. In addition, several major bus routes stop nearby.
PUBLIC TRANSIT
Telehealth options available for the LGBTQIA+ Family Building Core Series
meet our clinicians
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![A woman sitting on an olive green armchair in a room with dark walls and wooden bookshelves behind her. She is smiling and wearing a black blazer and patterned top. The bookshelves contain books, framed pictures, and decorative items.]()
Jacqueline Buchanan MD
Child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist
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Cecil R Webster Jr MD
FOUNDER & CEO
Child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist
Psychoanalyst
FAQs
Is this therapy or a consultation?
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It’s a structured consultation model designed for decision support and meaning-making in the family-building process, with a pathway into ongoing therapy when helpful.
Do you meet with co-parents together and individually?
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Often, yes. Individual histories and family-of-origin dynamics shape how decisions feel and how conflict emerges, so a mix is frequently the most effective.
Do you work with non-traditional parenting constellations?
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Yes. Couples, friends co-parenting, and polyamorous parenting arrangements are welcome.
Can you help us plan how to talk to our child about donor conception or surrogacy?
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Yes. Children revisit origin questions across development. We help with both the language and the emotional process so conversations stay grounded and safe.
Take Your Next Step Toward Parenthood
If you’re an intended parent, reach out and we’ll help you decide whether the 5-session core consultation is the right first step. If you’re a fertility clinic or surrogacy agency, you’re welcome to contact us directly to discuss referral fit and timing.
Your privacy matters. This form is not HIPAA-encrypted. To protect your privacy, please share only general information. Share only what you want us to know to schedule the right screening. We’ll reach out to you directly to discuss details safely and confidentially.