Elizabeth Anne Grill, Psy.D.

About

Infertility treatment has a second pathology: the loss of control patients describe when cycles, calendars and outcomes stop being theirs. Dr. Elizabeth Grill built her career on that layer. She directs psychological services at the Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine, embedded in the IVF team rather than referred outside it, and holds professorships of psychology in three Weill Cornell departments — obstetrics and gynecology, reproductive medicine, and psychiatry.

Her leadership roles map the same territory from the national level: Chair of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, past chair of the Mental Health Professional Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and immediate past president of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research.

Her training is deliberately layered: an undergraduate degree in psychology and communications with Highest Distinction at the University of Wisconsin, a Psy.D. in clinical psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology, a year-long internship at the Manhattan Veterans Affairs Medical Center, a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell’s reproductive medicine center, mind-body stress-management certification from Harvard Medical School’s Mind/Body Institute, and a two-year sex therapy fellowship at the Payne Whitney Clinic’s Human Sexuality Program — the program Helen S. Kaplan founded. She provides individual and couples therapy across every family-building path, including donor eggs, donor sperm and surrogacy; treats sexual and relationship problems with and without an infertility component; runs stress-management workshops she designed (relaxation training, cognitive restructuring, assertiveness skills); and writes and lectures nationally on the psychology of reproduction.

Clinical Expertise

• Infertility and IVF Counseling: individual and couple therapy timed to treatment cycles, including anxiety, grief and decision paralysis
• Third-Party Reproduction Evaluation: psychological assessment and support for donor gamete, donor embryo and gestational carrier programs — required by most such programs, done inside CRM
• Sexual Dysfunction and Sex Therapy: a rare dual credential in a fertility center — certified sex therapist treating desire, pain and erection problems, coital timing pressure included
• Oncofertility and Preservation Decisions: supporting patients balancing cancer treatment timelines against family-building options
• Stress-Management Workshops: Harvard Mind/Body Institute-trained group programming built for infertility patients
• Couple Communication: relationship-enhancement skills training, previously developed at the NYU Child Study Center

Why Choose Dr. Grill

National chair-level leadership in the field’s own patient organization. RESOLVE is the US infertility association; its chair sits close to both policy and patient experience.

Psychology inside the clinic, not bolted on. As CRM’s director of psychological services she is in the building where cycles run — counseling can meet a positive test or a failed transfer the same week.

A genuine dual specialist. Reproductive psychologist and fellowship-trained sex therapist; few clinicians hold both roles in one fertility practice.

Workshops with a designed curriculum. Her group programs teach specific tools — relaxation, cognitive restructuring, assertiveness — from Harvard Mind/Body Institute certification, rather than generic reassurance.

Recognition beyond academia: New York Magazine Best Doctor and Castle Connolly Top Doctor listings in her field.

Professional Affiliations

Chair of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association; Past Chair of the Mental Health Professional Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine; Immediate Past President of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research. Assistant attending psychologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Author of numerous articles on reproductive health psychology, sexual health and third-party reproduction; a frequent speaker at national meetings.

Suitable For

• Patients mid-treatment whose anxiety or marriage is now a symptom to treat: therapy scheduled around the cycle calendar
• Donor egg, donor sperm and surrogacy families: the psychological evaluation those pathways require, conducted on site
• Couples whose sex life has become a procedure: certified sex therapy with a reproductive specialist’s context
• Cancer patients deciding on preservation: decision support when the oncology clock and the fertility clock run together
• Patients who want tools, not platitudes: structured stress-management workshops with named techniques