Hypno-fertility - Effective preparation for conception
Experiencing infertility - particularly ‘unexplained infertility’ - can be stressful. And the prospect of employing Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) can be daunting as it can be both costly and additionally stressful, but often couples are left with few (if any) alternatives to consider.
Hypnotherapy has been clinically demonstrated as an effective way for couples to increase their chances of conceiving, both naturally or whilst employing ART.
How can hypnotherapy help?
Your mind and body are intricately linked and this is something that hypnotherapy uses to its advantage. Think about the last horror movie you watched or the last book you read that left you out of breath or your heart racing - all of these physical reactions in your body were generated by your thoughts and imagination alone.
Hypnotherapy can help you to visualise relaxing, positive thoughts and scenarios playing out in the future, which - if done during very deep relaxation - will lead to physical changes in your body brought on by the vividly imagined scenarios.
What happens?
The hypnotherapist works to first take you into a deeply relaxed state - a bit like daydreaming. And in this state your conscious mind (the analytical part of your brain that calculates and computes) is distracted and your subconscious mind is accessible. The subconscious is the part of your mind which stores your beliefs and behaviours - particularly those you are not even aware of any more as they have become habitual, like driving a car, riding a bike or believing that you always get ‘stressed out’ in X situation. By offering the subconscious alternative beliefs and behaviours, the hypnotherapist helps you to reprogramme any unhelpful thoughts or behaviours that may have been causing your physical, emotional or mental responses to your attempts to conceive. The hypnotherapist will also offer some suggestions for future behaviour, such as remaining calm and collected in situations that you may have found stressful in the past.
How effective is it really?
This all sounds a bit simple perhaps … but what the suggestions do is to offer the subconscious an insight into alternative ways of reacting to future situations. instead of relying on the old habitual responses they can be 'over-written' by the hypnotherapeutic suggestions. The process utilises your brain’s neuro-plasticity - it’s ability to continually rewire and learn new things - to allow you to link to a different thought next time.
Because the brain is so relaxed it can take on these new beliefs at a very deep level and can form a new habit immediately - that’s how clients are able to stop smoking after one session, or overcome a long-held fear of flying. I have also seen extremely nervous clients who go on to report back that they were completely calm during their appointment for ART procedures or clients who decided to postpone their IVF treatment to work on their personal wellness and relaxation levels first.
So what are the benefits?
By using hypnotherapy, clients are likely to enjoy increased levels of relaxation and experience calmer conception journeys, which could include any or all of the following proven benefits:
- Increased levels of relaxation which reduces stress levels
The hypnotherapy will focus on building and improving your relaxation skills, creating better stress management strategies and implementing lifestyle habits which may be negative effecting your fertility.
- Your calmer mind will create better mind-body wellness
As you reduce your stress levels, your nervous system can relax into a coherent state in which it is better able to produce the hormones required for conception and pregnancy.
- Release any subconscious mental/emotional blocks to conception
The hypnotherapist can work with you to address any subconscious issues that may be affecting your emotional readiness to conceive - for example an underlying fear of childbirth or any past worries about your physical or mental preparedness for being a mother. This is done during a state of deep relaxation which allows you to easily identify and let go of any anxiety without having to discuss it in any way.
- Release any physical tension preventing conception
As far back as the 1970s a woman who was unable to conceive participated in a psychosomatic behaviour study in which they found that her high levels of fear around pregnancy was directly affecting her nervous system and that the muscles surrounding her fallopian tubes involuntarily contacted when she was ovulating in response to that fear. They concluded that “a woman’s emotional problems may make her fallopian tubes involuntarily contract at the time of ovulation - when the eggs is produced - making conception impossible”. Further studies undertaken thereafter demonstrated that working on emotional issues directly related to infertility resulted in better conception success rates.