Licensed Clinical Social Worker Associate

Francheska Del Rey

LCSWA, MSW, M. Ed

Support Through Parenthood, Identity & Life’s Transitions

Therapy for teens, adults, couples, and families navigating parenthood, pregnancy, postpartum changes, relationship dynamics, identity shifts, and the many transitions that come with building a family.

Languages: English | Español

Welcome

You Don't Have to Navigate This Transition Alone

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 questions about 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.

My Approach to Therapy

Collaborative, Supportive, Honest & Human

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.

Couples & Family-Building Support

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+ individuals and families

  • Single parents

  • Co-parents

  • Individuals and families figuring out their own path

Areas of Focus

What We Can Work On


Reproductive & Identity-Related Mental Health

Support through the changes that come with family-building.

Supporting you through fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and the identity shifts that come with becoming a parent.

Anxiety & Depression

Understanding what is driving the worry and finding practical support.

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

Finding your way through change while building a life on your own terms.

Navigating identity shifts, relationship changes, and big life decisions, including co-parenting and separation or divorce with kids involved.

Transitions can also include:

  • Fertility decisions

  • Adoption

  • Foster care

  • Surrogacy

  • Donor conception

  • Family-building outside traditional or biological paths

  • Figuring out what kind of life and family you want on your own terms


Perinatal Relationship Education & Support

Preparing emotionally and relationally for your growing family.

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

Support for the emotional and mental health challenges that can arise during this transition.

Areas of focus include:

  • Onset Bipolar I/II

  • Postpartum Depression

  • Postpartum Anxiety

  • Postpartum Psychosis


Parenthood & Identity Transitions

Navigating changing roles, responsibilities, and expectations.

Managing shifting roles, responsibilities, and expectations.

Exploring fears, hopes, and values around parenting or the next stage of life.

Working through family boundaries and support systems while reconnecting with your identity.


Depression & Feeling Disconnected

Sometimes depression isn't just sadness.

It can look like exhaustion, irritability, isolation, low motivation, feeling numb, or simply not feeling like yourself anymore.

Together, we'll work toward understanding what's underneath that disconnection and gradually rebuilding a sense of meaning, connection, and hope.


Trauma & Difficult Experiences

Past experiences can continue influencing how you see yourself, relationships, safety, trust, and the world around you.

We'll move at a pace that feels manageable while helping you better understand those experiences, recognize their impact, and develop healthier ways of responding in the present.

Therapeutic Techniques & Modalities

How I Work

My approach is collaborative, supportive, and tailored to the needs of each individual, couple, and family.

My therapeutic work is informed by the following approaches:

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 and patrescence while staying committed to the person you want to be and remaining aligned with your values.

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 during this transition.

Attachment-Based Therapy

Understanding how your own attachment history shows up in the way you bond with your baby, partner, and friendships while building more secure patterns for it all.

A Good Fit

You Might Feel At Home Working With Me If...

  • You are navigating the mental load of pregnancy, postpartum, or parenthood.

  • You are trying to understand who you are outside of everyone else's expectations.

  • You are experiencing anxiety, depression, or emotional overwhelm.

  • You are navigating fertility decisions or family-building.

  • You are preparing for parenthood with your partner.

  • You are adjusting to postpartum life or changing family roles.

  • You are working through relationship changes or family dynamics.

  • You are exploring non-traditional paths to family-building.

  • You are a single parent, co-parent, or part of an LGBTQ+ family.

  • You are trying to balance ambition, identity, and caregiving.

  • You want support that is compassionate, honest, and direct.

  • You appreciate humor, curiosity, and meaningful self-reflection.

  • You are ready to build self-trust and advocate for yourself.

  • You want a therapist who will warmly challenge you when needed while offering genuine care.

    You don't have to figure everything out before reaching out. We can begin exactly where you are.

Credentials

Education, credentials & experience

Education

Master's in Social Work with an Emphasis in Healthcare

Aurora University, Illinois

Master's in Educational Leadership

University of Davis, California

Licensure

Licensed Clinical Social Worker Associate (LCSWA)

North Carolina

Certifications

  • Becoming Us Parenthood Guide & Facilitator

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

  • Bringing Baby Home Educator, Gottman — In Progress

Professional Experience

  • Former K–12 Educator

  • Therapist in inpatient settings

  • Therapist in outpatient settings

  • Therapist in Intensive Outpatient Programs

  • Therapist with Anchor Perinatal

  • Hospice and Palliative Care experience in pediatrics

  • Extensive group therapy facilitation

10 Years of Experience

I bring 10 years of experience working with children, families, and individuals across school, hospital, inpatient, IOP, and outpatient settings.

This experience has given me a multidisciplinary understanding of how mental health shows up across different stages of life, especially during the transition into parenthood.

Personal

Get to know me

A Little About Me

When I am not accidentally stepping on Legos 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!

Practical Information & Next Steps

The details that make it easy to start

Insurance Accepted

  • BCBS

  • Blue Home w/ UNC Health Alliance

  • Aetna

  • SHP

  • Healthy Blue

  • Out-of-network for all others

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Session Availability

Virtual and in-person sessions offered

Request a Consultation

Taking the first step toward therapy can feel difficult, especially when you are already navigating a major life transition.

You do not have to have everything figured out before reaching out.

Whether you are preparing for parenthood, navigating fertility or postpartum changes, working through relationship dynamics, or trying to reconnect with your identity, therapy can offer a supportive space to begin.

Let's start where you are and work together toward greater self-trust, connection, and support.

Location

8392 Six Forks Rd, Suite 203

Raleigh, NC 27615

Let’s start with a conversation.