Can fertility hypnotherapy help me get pregnant naturally or with IVF?

The mind-body connection fascinates me and there is growing research that indicates that utilising hypnosis can influence us physically as well as emotionally. I have experienced this both personally and supporting clients. 

So can fertility hypnotherapy help me get pregnant naturally or with IVF?

There are studies that show that hypnotherapy can enhance fertility.1 Over the coming weeks I intend to share such research as well as my personal experiences of hypnosis and hypnotherapy; the good, the misleading and the transformative.

I’m Naomi I’m a mind-body fertility coach and therapist. I am trained in Cognitive Hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT Tapping) and Applied Movement Desensitisation & Reconsolidation (AMDR). For the past nine years, I have worked to raise the level of understanding about an infertility diagnosis – from the debilitating emotional impact and the overwhelming feelings of sadness, helplessness and grief, to the simple yet powerful mind-body techniques that provide relief and build resilience during this highly emotive time and greatly increase the chances of conceiving.

My personal experiences of hypnosis and hypnotherapy

I experimented with programs that promised that if I listened repeatedly I would get my baby, the result: I started berating myself for the fact I was still not getting pregnant, obviously I was not being positive enough and the feeling that I was to blame for not being able to conceive was overwhelming.

I felt much happier with a series that supported my body during IVF, inviting me to imagine my body responding perfectly at each stage. On my second round of IVF I did fall pregnant so in my case those MP3s have a 50% success rate! Sadly I miscarried at 8 weeks but fell pregnant naturally four months later which coincided with when I was writing my natural cycle hypnosis MP3s! I have created two hypnosis packages specifically for Embrace Fertility readers; one to support your natural cycle and one to support an IVF cycle. Both are very much in keeping with mindfulness and focus on allowing you to reach a place of deep relaxation and acceptance. I also offer one-to-one hypnotherapy support and will be talking about my own experiences of working with different therapists.

But let's start at the beginning

What is hypnosis?

Hypnosis is a psychological state where you are completely focused on one thing. Each of us goes in and out of this state throughout the day. Some examples are when you are reading and you don't hear someone trying to get your attention as you are so engrossed, or when you arrive home and realise you were not consciously thinking about how to get there – slightly disturbing when you were driving!

Our conscious mind is the part of us that we think of as 'I'. It is our awareness, our logic, everything we are aware of in terms of our thinking and thought processes.

However it has been proven that 95% of our behaviour is directed by our unconscious, we get up in the morning and get ourselves washed and dressed without having to consciously decide how we are going to put our socks on for example. We learn how the world works and store that information to free up our mind for more important tasks. Many problems we experience are just the result of unconscious thought processes based on miscalculations, which lead to actions designed to bring a benefit, even though they don’t.

For example if we are attacked or scared by a dog in childhood our unconscious stores the belief “dogs are a threat” and each time we encounter a dog our mind pulls up this belief and our body responds by increasing our heart rate and preparing the body to either fight or run away from the threat. This reaction is obviously not helpful if experienced every time you encounter a dog on the street.

What is hypnotherapy?

Hypnotherapy can help us to reprogram our unconscious so we remain in control of our thoughts and actions instead of being hijacked into running away from dogs, smoking when we want to quit, comfort eating when we want to lose weight or any other limiting action. Hypnotherapy therefore actually de-hypnotises us. By asking the conscious mind to focus, be that by relaxing the body or focusing your thoughts we can access your unconscious. You will notice the similarity therefore between hypnotherapy and mindfulness. The key difference between the two is that with mindfulness we are looking only to experience the present moment as it is and with hypnotherapy we are using language to guide the conscious and unconscious minds to achieve a desired result.

What is cognitive hypnotherapy?

Cognitive hypnotherapy integrates cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), evolutionary and positive psychology, emotional freedom techniques (EFT), hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) to create a fast and effective way of creating lasting change in your life. If you would like more information please watch this short video:

Through my professional training, supporting women struggling with infertility for the past nine years and my own personal experience of conceiving naturally following almost four years of infertility, IVF and miscarriage I have created The Embrace Fertility Method. Clients ask me "Can fertility hypnotherapy help me get pregnant naturally or with IVF?" Five steps that I use in my coaching and therapy sessions with one-to-one clients and as the foundation of my 12 week course the Embrace Fertility Method.

Comfort

We start with simple but effective acupressure and neurolinguistic programming exercises to instantly soothe your mind and body in the moment while rebalancing your parasympathetic nervous system and hormones.

Coping

I teach you stress reduction cognitive behavioural techniques to allow you to cope with the emotional rollercoaster of trying to conceive and build your resilience.

Connecting

Beautiful meditation and hypnosis exercises allow you to connect deeply with yourself and your body, your partner and future child. Strengthening your intuition and developing trust in yourself and your body again.

Clearing 

Emotional freedom and hypnotherapy to clear the thoughts, emotions and beliefs that may be blocking your ability to get and stay pregnant.

Creating 

Powerful guided visualisations, journaling exercises and affirmations to instruct your conscious and unconscious minds to create the life you desire. You may have tried some of these techniques in the past and loved them or loathed them. It’s not that they don’t work for you, you just need a tried and tested method of applying them in the correct order in a way that allows each technique to enhance and build on the one previous. Working with me is very much a two-way street, you tell me what you want to achieve and I support you in taking action towards that goal. I offer one-to-one support via Zoom. Read more about support here.

Over to you

Do you feel you are doing everything you can to support your fertility and well-being? Come and join the conversation on the Embrace Fertility Instagram page.