FAQ
Everything you want to know about Uniquely Knitted
What is Uniquely Knitted?
Uniquely Knitted is a non-profit started by Jesse and Doug Brown in 2020. The mission of Uniquely Knitted is to support people struggling with the mental health impact of infertility. They do that by providing group care, individual counseling services, and national research.
What are Process Groups?
Process Groups help us work through our emotions and deal with hard things. They help us heal from trauma and find validation for our experiences. They are different from peer lead support groups. Process groups are facilitated and follow a more structured path. Each person in the group will have designated time to share, be heard, and receive encouragement.
What makes the Uniquely Knitted Process Groups special is that each of our facilitators have experienced infertility and there are hours of videos to help us understand the language of connection and resilience. This combination creates a safe environment to truly process what you have been through.
Who can join a Uniquely Knitted Process Group?
Our process Groups are open to ANYONE who has had experience with infertility. No matter if you are in the early stages of trying and figuring things out, or if you feel like you are at the end and ready to move on to whats next.
Here is a list of things people have been dealing with in our groups!
- Trying to get pregnant
- Testing to figure out why it’s been difficult to get pregnant.
- Medicated Cycles
- IUI
- IVF
- Every type of ART treatment
- Every type of Donor Conceived option
- Miscarriage
- Late term pregnancy loss
- Loss at every stage
- Embryo transfers
- Every type of medical issue that effects fertility
- Male Factor Infertility
- Pregnancy after infertility
- Secondary Infertility
- Living a childless not by choice life
- Adoption after infertility
- The stress of infertility
- Depression and infertility
- Relationship stress and infertility
- And so much more!
The Uniquely Knitted process groups are for everyone! Everyone needs to process their emotions and experience with infertility and these groups are a place where you can do that.
We are united by our grief but we are not uniform in our experiences.
How do the Process Groups work, give me the logistics!?
If you are looking for logistics, I bet you would like some bullet points!
- All groups are virtual
- We meet for 6 weeks with the same people at the same time
- There are videos to watch each week and weekly meetings
- We meet for 1 hour the first week and 2 hours every other week
- All groups are led by a trauma informed facilitator
- You will be emailed the Zoom link a week before we meet
- There is nothing to prepare for the first meeting. It’s a get to know you night.
Will there be pregnant people in the Process Group?
It is possible. Our groups are designed for every stage of infertility. Sometimes that means people will get news that they are pregnant. Sometimes that means people will be process their years of infertility while being pregnant.
Our promise is that these groups will be a safe place to process your feelings about all of it. There will not be surprise announcements, and we will handle the subject with the utmost care.
We know that being around pregnancy when you are struggling to get pregnant is triggering and painful. We also hope that everyone who wants to get pregnant will get pregnant. We also think that processing infertility is so important for your mental health. We do our best to hold all these realities together while we process our experiences.
If you have ANY questions or thoughts, please reach out!
Are the Process Groups worth it, be honest!?
We think they are. We will be honest, MANY people say that they life changing.
It’s an opportunity to be validated in what you have been through. Its a safe place to process and heal from trauma. It’s a moment to get what you emotionally need.
Here are words from one of our alumni. It’s is a very common review that people have.
“I am sure you must hear this all the time, but it is true, my experience with the Process Group was life-changing. I was scared and anxious to join, but also desperate to try something different. I was desperate to feel better, even if only slightly. And I hoped that the anxiety I was feeling about stretching so far outside my comfort zone was going to be easier to tolerate than the sadness that was always with me. I was in pain and isolated—not because I did not have social support, and not because I did not have tools–but because I did not have anybody in my life who could see my pain in the way that I (it turns out) needed it to be seen. There is something transformative about sharing space with people who can really see and connect with you, especially around something as difficult and traumatic as infertility.”
