Francheska Del Rey, LCSWA

Welcome to Hearth Counseling & Consulting

Hi there! I am Francheska Del Rey, a Licensed Clinical Social Work Associate. Has your path to parenthood or your decision about whether parenthood is even part of your story looked different than you expected? Are you navigating the mental load of pregnancy, postpartum, raising young kids, or simply trying to hold onto your own identity while life keeps shifting around you? Have you ever thought to yourself, "Why doesn't anyone tell you how hard this stage of life can be?" Do you often wish you could talk to someone who truly gets it? 

Life transitions can bring joy, uncertainty, anxiety, and figuring out who you are outside of everyone's expectations. Therapy offers a supportive space to process these changes, manage stress and anxiety, navigate the mental load, and reconnect with yourself. I am here to walk alongside you through it all.

Education & Professional Background

  • Master’s in Educational Leadership: University of Davis, CA

  • Master’s in Social Work with an emphasis in Healthcare: Aurora University, IL

  • Licensure: Licensed Clinical Social Worker Associate (LCSWA)

  • Certifications

    • Becoming Us Parenthood Guide & Facilitator

    • In Progress-Perinatal Mental Health Certificate (PMH-C)

    • In Progress- Bringing Baby Home Educator (Gottman)

  • Professional Experience

    • Former K-12 Educator

    • Therapist in Inpatient, Outpatient, Intensive Outpatient Programs including Anchor Perinatal and Hospice/ Palliative Care (Pediatrics)

My Approach to Therapy

I am a classroom educator turned therapist. I come with 10 years of experience working with children, families, and individuals across school, hospital, inpatient, IOP, and outpatient settings, including extensive group therapy facilitation. That range has given me a deep, multidisciplinary understanding of how mental health shows up across every stage of life and especially across the transition into parenthood.

My approach to therapy is a collaborative, supportive, non-judgmental space where individuals and couples can come together to get the support they need to help their family thrive. Humor and curiosity are also a part of how I work. I believe healing doesn’t have to be heavy all the time and it includes laughter, a whole lot of it. I practice radical candor which is direct, honest, and rooted in genuine care. It’s important to me to balance personal care with direct and compassionate truth in order to foster profound self-awareness and trust within oneself. My goal is to empower you to build the inner and ego strength to trust and advocate for yourself, so you leave our work together more grounded in who you are. For those who come in with a strong sense of self and are feeling stuck, we will work together to warmly challenge when needed and push toward action where it’s helpful, always with care.

In couples work, I offer therapy for relationship and family-building preparation. It truly is a proactive, supportive space to strengthen your partnership at any stage. Whether you're deciding if or when to grow your family, navigating fertility treatments, adjusting to postpartum life, blending families, or working to reconnect as partners, preparing emotionally matters in this transition of life, just as much as choosing a nursery theme for your new family member.

I work with all families who are navigating non-traditional paths to family-building, and anyone trying to balance ambition and identity with the demands of caregiving. This includes LGBTQ+, Single parenting, Co-parents or those just trying to figure it out. 

Therapeutic Techniques & Modalities

  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) – Building skills to ride the emotional intensity of regulating overwhelming thoughts, tolerating distress, and staying present with yourself even on hard days.

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – Untangling anxious or guilt-driven thought patterns and building calmer, more workable ways of coping.

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)– Making room for the conflicting emotions of matrescence/patrescence and staying committed to the person you want to be while being value aligned.

  • Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) – Focusing on what’s already working in a season with little bandwidth and identifying small, doable shifts that create real relief.

  • Narrative/Relational Therapy – Reauthoring the stories you carry about motherhood, partnership, or your own upbringing, so they don’t quietly run the show in this transition.

  • Attachment-Based Therapy – Understanding how your own attachment history shows up in the way you bond with your baby, partner, friendships while building more secure patterns for it all.

Areas of Focus 

  • Reproductive & Identity-Related Mental Health – Supporting you through fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and the identity shifts that come with becoming a parent.

  • Anxiety & Depression – Helping you understand what's driving the worry and build practical tools to feel more grounded. Creating space to process what's heavy while rebuilding a sense of energy, purpose, and connection.

  • Life Transitions – Navigating identity shifts, relationship changes, and big life decisions, including co-parenting, separation, or divorce with kids involved. Transitions also include fertility decisions, family-building outside of traditional or biological paths (adoption, foster care, surrogacy, donor conception), and figuring out what kind of life and family you want on your own terms.

  • Perinatal Relationship Education & Support – Creating your "Nesting" Coping Plan for partners and families, in whatever form your family takes before your new family member arrives. 

  • Perinatal & Postpartum Mental Health – Onset Bipolar I/II, Postpartum Depression, Postpartum Anxiety, Postpartum Psychosis.

  • Parenthood & Identity Transitions – Managing shifting roles, responsibilities, and expectations. Exploring fears, hopes, and values around parenting or the next stage of life. Navigating family boundaries and support systems.

A Little About Me

When I am not accidentally stepping on Lego’s and Barbie Accessories or vacuuming four-week-old Goldfish crumbs in the backseat of the car, I can be found with a Kindle in one hand, iced coffee and car keys in the other, and a diaper bag hanging on my shoulder full of everything but the diapers. I enjoy short walks in the park as long as it is 72 degrees and watching that one reality TV show where strangers fall in love rather quickly. I’ve been homesick for In N Out burgers since moving from California and I spend a lot of time convincing my Husband that I can quit my book buying addiction at any time. 

I find immense joy in working with folks who never stop being curious about themselves, I look forward to meeting you!

Insurance Accepted

  • BCBS

  • Blue Home w/ UNC Health Alliance

  • Aetna

  • SHP

  • Healthy Blue

  • Out-of-network for all others

Session Availability

  • Virtual and In-Person sessions offered

Location

  • 8392 Six Forks Rd Suite 203, Raleigh, NC 27615

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