Patient Support

Mind-Body Behavioral Medicine

Are you experiencing any of these normal symptoms of infertility stress?

difficulty thinking of anything other than infertility
difficulty concentrating
change in sleep patterns
change in appetite or weight
social isolation
persistent feelings of pessimism, guilt, worthlessness, bitterness or anger

You are not alone. One out of every six couples will experience challenges with infertility. A total of 6.1 million Americans are affected by infertility.

Laurel Fertility Care understands that enhancing the Mind- Body connection can be a key component in supporting the fertility process. Creating balance, joy and awareness in your day to day life and applying relaxation techniques will help prepare you for your journey to pregnancy.

Our Mind-Body Behavioral specialist provides support and effective treatment using different Mind-Body medical approaches. You will learn:

stress reduction
mindfulness
cognitive restructuring
coping skills
home practice

Stress Reduction

Infertility is stressful. It is often experienced as a life crisis. Conceiving is one of our strongest drives. It is normal to experience physiological symptoms of anxiety and depression when conception is inhibited. Stress and depression affect our physical health. We are less likely to conceive because our bodies are flooded with hormones that negatively impact conception. Inducing the relaxation response is a key component of reducing stress, preventing physiological symptoms of depression and promoting fertility.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is defined as moment to moment non-judgmental awareness of present time experience. Mindfulness cultivates relaxation, self-acceptance, body awareness and self nurturing. It is important for fertility because it teaches us to experience our thoughts, emotions and physical states simply as they are without the added feelings of stress, fear or overwhelm.

Cognitive Restructuring

Our thoughts influence our emotions and our emotions can influence our health.

For example:

The thought, “I will never get pregnant,” can lead to feelings of hopelessness (depression) and fear which can negatively impact our physiology and our ability to conceive. We restructure the thought and I will never get pregnant becomes I am trying my best to have a child.

We will learn about:

Cognitive Distortions: negative, intrusive thoughts that are not really valid or accurate; and,
Cognitive Reframing: exploring the negative thought, discovering a more accurate, kinder belief.

Coping Skills

We will learn how to cope with negative responses to situations like invitations to baby showers as well as unfavorable responses from family and friends. In addition, we will help improve couple communication.

Specific coping skills include:

Attaching to supportive people.
Dodging unsupportive people and situations.
Educating people to help them understand what you are experiencing.
Communicating with loved ones and spouses in a way that supports increased understanding and differing perspectives.
Promoting Beginner’s Mind, which means simply practicing withholding judgment when people we love respond unfavorably to our process.

Home Practice

The foundation of this program is the home practice. A minimum of 30-40 minutes a day is the suggestion. We give you specific exercises in the above categories to practice at home during the week.

Program Facilitators

Buffy Lundine, MA, is a specialist in Mind-Body Behavioral Medicine. Buffy’s graduate training in Mind-Body Psychology included clinical interests in Mindfulness and Stress Reduction. Her 10-year personal and professional study of the transformative aspects of mindfulness has led her to its positive clinical applications for fertility. She is involved in post-graduate training in San Francisco with Ken Farber, MA, founder of Mindfulness-Behavioral Skills Training.