How Hypnosis Can Support Your Fertility Journey
When people begin a fertility journey, the primary focus usually is on the body. Finding out what isn’t happening within it that should be happening. There are hormones, nutrition, egg quality, sperm health, medical testing, acupuncture, supplements, medications, and lifestyle changes. All of those play important roles here. At Nuwa Integrative Wellness here in Gresham, Portland Metro, you're surrounded by practitioners who specialize in supporting many physical aspects of health. My role here at Nuwa is a little different.
Allow me to briefly introduce myself. My name is Leszek Erazmus and I’m Nuwa's consulting hypnotist and coach. I focus on another important part of the wellness equation: your mind and nervous system.
I want to be extremely clear here too: hypnosis is not a fertility treatment. Nor is it a substitute for the exceptional medical and integrative care provided by your healthcare team. Instead, hypnosis is a complementary approach that helps support your emotional wellbeing, regulate your nervous system, and strengthen your inner resources throughout what can be one of your life's most challenging journeys.
The Mind and Body Are Always in Conversation
I believe that the mind and the body are in a constant conversation with each other, most of it happening below the level of our conscious mind. Think about the last time you felt anxious or afraid. Your heart may have raced. Your breathing became shallow. Your muscles tightened. Perhaps your stomach felt unsettled. These are all signs of the fight or flight response.
Likewise, when you feel genuinely safe and happy, thinking happy thoughts, your breathing naturally slows down, your muscles begin to soften, and your body enters into a state that supports rest, recovery, and repair. That’s the rest and digest response. This is the remarkable connection between the mind and body.
Though I myself am not a fertility expert, I have seen the long and demanding fertility journey a number of my friends have taken and how it placed enormous demands on both the mind and the body. They anxiously waited for test results, they navigated treatments, they coped with disappointment and pain, they managed expectations, and balanced hope with often a great deal of uncertainty. There may even occur a sense of feeling betrayed by your own body, which seemingly isn’t doing what nature designed it to do. All of these factors contribute to ongoing emotional stress.
Speaking of stress, while it is not considered a direct cause of infertility, caring for your emotional wellbeing is an important part of caring for yourself and being a responsible steward of the body you inhabit. Research suggests that hypnosis may help reduce perceived stress and promote relaxation, while psychological support during fertility treatment has been shown to improve quality of life and emotional wellbeing. Those outcomes matter, regardless of where you are in your journey. The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology recommends routine psychosocial care as part of fertility treatment to support patients' emotional wellbeing and overall experience throughout treatment.
Source: (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26345684/)
So What Is Hypnosis?
Now, you may have seen a stage hypnosis show on TV or in a comedy club once, with participants randomly falling asleep or clucking like chickens. But despite what stage hypnosis shows may have led many people to believe, hypnosis is simply a natural state of both focused attention and relaxation. Just like when you’re driving back home from work along the same route a 100th time and pulling up in your driveway not fully remembering the drive back but having a vague idea you were there. And so, in my therapeutic hypnosis sessions you remain seated, deeply relaxed, focused, awake, aware, and in control throughout the process. Hypnosis is an interaction and not something that’s being done to you.
In this relaxed hypnotic state of awareness, many people find it easier to quiet racing thoughts, quiet the inner critic that’s often way too loud, process emotions, develop healthier perspectives and distance, as well as reconnect with a greater sense of calm that becomes anchored within. So, rather than "losing control," hypnosis helps many people feel more connected to themselves, to the peaceful, wise being residing deep within their heart.
From the American Society for Reproductive Medicine Mental Health Professional Group - The Psychological Impact of Infertility:
"The long-term inability to conceive a child can evoke significant feelings of loss. Coping with the multitude of medical decisions and the uncertainties that infertility brings can create great emotional upheaval for a significant number of couples and individuals."
Source: https://connect.asrm.org/mhpg/education/infertilityimpact?ssopc=1
Thinking about individuals navigating fertility treatment, I believe that hypnotic interventions can create a tremendously valuable space for them to step out of constant worry and into a calmer, more balanced frame of mind.
Supporting the Whole Person
One of the things I am excited most about being able to work within an integrative wellness clinic like Nuwa is that no single practitioner is expected to do everything. Your acupuncturist may support circulation and balance. Your naturopath may focus on nutrition and hormones. Your massage therapist may help your body release tension. My role here is to help support you, i.e. the person experiencing the journey, your mental-emotional-spiritual “body”.
In sessions with me, you and I may work on reducing anxiety, processing grief or disappointment, anger at the unfairness of it all, rebuilding hope after setbacks, strengthening sometimes much needed self-compassion, improving sleep, easing overwhelm, or simply creating a space where you can breathe a little more deeply again and grab a little distance from it all.
Sometimes the greatest gift we can give ourselves is permission to slow down, reconnect with our bodies, breathe and remember that we are more than a diagnosis, more than a test result, more than a treatment plan.
A Personal Introduction
Circling back to myself and continuing my earlier introduction, I'm a Certified Consulting Hypnotist, a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists, and a Double-Certified Life Coach. I'm honored to have joined the wonderful team here at Nuwa Integrative Wellness in Gresham, Portland Metro.
What I find truly rewarding is helping people remove unnecessary suffering and navigate stress, anxiety, grief, relationship challenges, life transitions, and the emotional experiences that often accompany them. Through hypnosis and guided mind-body techniques, I help clients calm their nervous system, build emotional resilience, and reconnect with their own inner strength.
This work is also personal to me. Years ago, someone very close to me experienced profound physical health changes following a period of chronic stress, negative self-image, and an eating disorder. As I watched her relationship between emotional wellbeing and physical health unfold firsthand, it really gave me a deep respect for the powerful connection between the mind and body. Obviously, our thoughts and emotions are never the whole story, but they are an important part of the picture and as such they deserve space, respect and care, too.
Fertility treatment asks so much of people, challenging them physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. My hope is that through hypnosis and coaching I can become one more source of support along the way. And not because hypnosis promises specific medical outcomes, but because you deserve a place where your fears can be acknowledged, your nervous system can rest, and your emotional wellbeing can receive just as much attention as your physical health.
Whether we meet in person here at Nuwa or virtually from the comfort of your home, my goal is simple: to provide a safe, compassionate space where you can feel supported, understood, and mentally emotionally and spiritually better equipped for whatever comes next.