Feldenkrais and Fertility - Emotional Wellbeing for Conception

Kat H Author

Feldenkrais supports emotional wellbeing (stress is known to affect fertility) & intimate wellbeing so that intercourse stays fun and stress-free

You love each other and have decided to have a baby.

Maybe you have been trying for a while and you have seen a fertility specialist. You will have been given a lot of do’s and don'ts to support conception.

One “to do” is to have intercourse as often as possible. Now that seems straightforward. But being “on call” for intimacy can be challenging. And when you are under pressure to conceive it can be particularly difficult. 

When we are trying to conceive, intimacy can become loaded with expectation. Our relationship can suffer. Those moments of blissful twosome-ness that may have previously lead to playful intimacy can become tense occasions when you feel under pressure to have sex. Intimacy and desire can easily get lost when we are forced to “perform”. We may become irritable rather than feel intimate. We feel stressed.

Stress, worry and anxiety don’t just affect arousal, stress can also affect fertility. It disrupts our hormones, affects ovulation and sperm count. But relaxing to order doesn’t work for most of us. Breathing, guided relaxation, meditation, mindfulness are all relaxation techniques that have been shown to reduce the effects of stress. But if your mind is full of worry and anxiety, these techniques might be hard to practice. 

How can somatic movement practices like Feldenkrais support you? 

Feldenkrais is a mindful movement practice. Movement takes up a lot of space in our brain. When movement is mindful, as it is in Feldenkrais, our brain is busy focusing on movement which can help us stop procrastinating. 

Feldenkrais movements also help us to relax our body. Movements are slow and small so that we can notice habitual patterns of tension and let them go. A relaxed body allows the mind to relax. 

A relaxed body also has physical benefits that support enjoyable intercourse: when we are tense in any part of our body, our pelvic floor often tightens. A tense pelvic floor can make intercourse difficult and also inhibits blood flow - the latter is important for orgasm for women and in men for erection. Areas of tension that affect the pelvic floor may be our jaw, hands, shoulders or feet. Feldenkrais offers a variety of lessons for all of these - and many of the lessons even link to the pelvis. Feldenkrais is pretty unique in that respect. 

Feldenkrais is a full body practice. Whilst movements might be small, we are encouraged to feel how they affect the whole body. This is important for pleasurable intercourse: ideally, we should feel pleasure in the whole body and not just focus on the sex organs.

Feldenkrais and somatic practices focus on awareness not achievement. We are given time and space to connect to ourselves; to our body, breath and sensations. This allows us to befriend our body and accept our thoughts and feelings. This is particularly important at a time like this; when our focus is on conception and we may override our and our partner's emotions. 

The focus on awareness also teaches us to sense. We sense as we touch our partner and when we are touched. Touch is a fundamental way of communication when we are having sex. We feel closer to each other, we connect with our partner.

Feldenkrais and other somatic practices also anchor us in the here-and-now. Being present allows us to connect to pleasure, the pleasure of being with the person we love, the pleasure of touch and being touched, the pleasure of intimacy.

I recently was interviewed by Inna Duckworth, a medical herbalist who specialises in fertility. We talked a lot about the benefits of Feldenkrais for Conception. Here is the link to the podcast.

If you are interested in the physical benefits of Feldenkrais for fertility, read this blog.

About Kat

Kat Hesse, Movement Therapist specialising in women’s intimate and sexual health, digestion and conditions related to stress

Kat creates tailor-made somatic movement programmes for pelvic and reproductive health, stress resilience (stress is a major factors affecting ovulation) and emotional intimacy.

She originally trained as a Medical Herbalist. During her training she shadowed a doctor in India who combined movement, breath and mind work with herbs and nutrition. Kat was so inspired by the results at the Indian clinic that she decided to focus on the movement and mind aspect of healing. She is a firm believer in an integrative approach to health: an approach that combines therapeutic movement and mindful approaches with other healing modalities, such as diet and herbs.

Kat’s teaching combines modern rehabilitation techniques with traditional and ancient methods of healing. She trained in a range of therapeutic modalities, including as a Feldenkrais practitioner, Somatic Movement Educator (Body Mind Centering), Yoga, Chi Gong and Pilates instructor. She has also completed specialist trainings in pelvic floor rehabilitation, intimate vulvovaginal health and digestive health. She is also a mindfulness, relaxation and sleep coach and is presently training in psychosexual counselling support.

This wide range of approaches helps Kat design tailor-made programmes that support intimate, pelvic and reproductive health; tone the pelvic floor, release restrictions such as scar tissue and improve circulation to bring nutrients into the reproductive area.

Kat’s programmes include techniques to improve stress resilience (stress is a major hormone disrupter and can affect ovulation) and support intimacy. Sex can become a chore when we try to conceive and a tailor-made movement programme can help us to stay close and connected to our partner, support intimacy, desire and arousal. Arousal, incidentally, improves sperm count so Kat is happy to work with couples or fathers-to-be too.

Categories: womens intimate health