Hello and welcome to Family Connections Counseling! My name is Noelle Ferguson (she/her) and I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) with a masters degree from San Francisco State University. I have 10+ years of experience providing therapy to individuals, couples and young children and an additional 10 years of experience working in early childhood education and early intervention as a teacher, administrator, inclusion specialist and assessment provider.
Over the years I have worked in a variety of settings including, head start programs, preschool programs, youth and family counseling centers and open adoption agencies. The majority of my career I have focused on supporting pregnant people and partners, families of children in the early childhood period and those navigating family creation challenges. Additionally I am a Certified Perinatal Mental Health therapist (PMH-C) with specialized training in the areas of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, miscarriage and infant loss, birth trauma, adoption, infant attachment and infertility.
I operate from a space of compassion and empathy for self and others while maintaining humor and flexibility in the therapy process. I believe that one of the most important parts of therapy is not my orientation or method but rather the relationship that we build together. I tailor my approach to each individual client and family, ensuring that the knowledge and skill that you already hold around you, your child and parenting are not overlooked or discounted but rather recognized, brought to the surface and strengthened. For this reason, I draw from a variety of theoretical orientations and approaches including: CBT, ACT, Psychodynamic Theory, Feminist Theory, Attachment Theory, Circle of Security interventions, Child-Centered Play Therapy, Narrative Therapy and Mindfulness.
I have a special interest in supporting birthing people and partners in navigating the shift from individuals/partners to parents, infant attunement, addressing the burden of maternal mental load, equitable division of labor in relation to parenting and recognizing and managing parental burnout. I am also a certified Fair Play Facilitator and love to use this programs principles and tools to help couples re-evaluate how they approach creating peace and balance in their homes and lives.
Additionally, I specialize in mixed-neurotype couples and especially appreciate supporting relationships in which one partner has been recently identified as neurodivergent. This often comes with a process of unlearning and grieving the relationship we thought we had in order to re-learn each other as we know ourselves to be now, and to create a “new normal” where everyone feels seen, respected and valued for who they are.
Family Connections Counseling is a fat-positive, pro-choice and neurodiversity and identity affirming space and I am committed to my own continued work toward allyship both in the therapy space and in my personal life. Therapy (and parenting) can be an intimidating and vulnerable process and I am honored and humbled to partner with you in creating the family life that you hope for.
I look forward to our work together.
Despite what Instagram, TikTok, or an opinionated in-law may have us believe, none of us are born knowing how to parent, and many of us are actively working on changing intergenerational patterns in our own families in order to better support the growth and development of our children, in essence, reparenting ourselves. This process is a difficult one, and not meant to be done in isolation. Together we can look at how you were parented, how you want to parent, and how to bridge any gaps in between.