A Look at What the Body Might Be Communicating
by Joanne Yanke, Conscious Conception Practitioner
When trying to conceive becomes a longer process than expected, it can feel intensely personal and often isolating. Many people move into cycles of tracking, testing, and planning. Trying to take control of the situation often without taking the time to ask why the body might be waiting.
In body-mind-centered work like BodyTalk, we often see that delays in conception aren’t failures — they’re communication. The body isn’t broken. It may be prioritizing safety, integration, or completion before it’s ready to create.
Often, simply bringing awareness to what’s been held beneath the surface is enough to allow the system to reorganize.
Conception Happens Within a Whole System
Fertility isn’t just a biological function. It’s a reflection of a person’s entire internal environment.
That includes:
- The nervous system’s response to pressure or stress
- Emotional loads that haven’t been fully processed
- Relationship dynamics and identity transitions
- Subtle influences from past experiences, family history, or internal conflicts
In simple terms: when the system is overwhelmed, unsettled, or unsure, the body may choose to pause conception — not as punishment, but as protection.
What Might Be Underneath the Delay?
Sometimes the factors are easy to name:
- Work stress
- Relationship tension
- Burnout from months or years of trying
Other times, they’re harder to see:
- Subtle fears about becoming a parent
- Unprocessed grief or previous losses
- Concerns about the world or future
- Internal conflict around identity or change
- Generational trauma or patterns
These experiences don’t always live in conscious awareness. Often, they are held physiologically, influencing how the body responds long before the mind has words for them.
When they’re acknowledged — rather than pushed past — the body often responds differently.
Every story is different. There is no single explanation — only the one that belongs to you.
Supporting the Whole System — Not Just the Cycle
Whether someone is on a natural path, working with assisted reproductive technology (like IVF or IUI), or somewhere in between, the goal of body-centered work is not to “fix” the body. It’s to help the system come into balance so that the body feels safe enough to move forward.
Support might include:
- Easing chronic stress patterns
- Addressing unresolved emotional material
- Strengthening the body’s sense of internal coherence
- Listening to what feels stuck or disconnected
This isn’t a guarantee of pregnancy. But it often brings a greater sense of ease and self-connection — making the process feel less stressful and more supportive of the body overall.
When the Truth Is Not What You Expected
In rare cases, something else emerges through this work.
Occasionally, people discover that at a deeper level, their desire for a child is not fully their own — but shaped by expectations, pressure, or ideas about what life should look like.
When this truth surfaces, it can be destabilizing and complex.
There may be grief — not only for a child that may never be conceived, but for an imagined future that is being released.
This work does not judge or redirect.
It offers space to grieve honestly, clarify what is true, and move forward with greater self-trust — whether that means continuing on the conception path or consciously choosing a child-free life that feels aligned and alive.
For this reason, I never promise pregnancy as an outcome.
What I do promise is that the process itself — the healing, clarity, and reconnection — is never wasted.
Supporting IVF and Assisted Reproductive Journeys
Many of the people I work with are also navigating IVF, IUI, or other assisted reproductive technologies.
My role is not to replace medical care or to override it.
Instead, I support the internal environment in which treatment is occurring — particularly the nervous system, emotional load, stress patterns, and the body’s capacity to remain responsive during an intense and often demanding process.
Some people begin this work in the months leading up to treatment cycles.
Others choose support during key phases such as stimulation, retrieval, or transfer. Sessions may be in person or remote, depending on location and needs.
Outcomes are never predictable.
What many clients report, regardless of results, is a greater sense of groundedness, agency, and self-connection — qualities that deeply support navigating the TTC journey with more ease.
Two Stories From Practice
Every journey is unique, and no single story represents a promise or a formula.
These experiences are shared simply to illustrate how supporting the whole system can influence how a journey unfolds.
One client came to me after multiple unsuccessful IVF cycles. She chose to begin BodyTalk sessions a few months before another round. That cycle did not result in pregnancy. However, the following month, she conceived naturally — something she had not believed was possible for her.
Another client sought support after four failed IVF attempts. She included BodyTalk sessions in the months leading up to her fifth cycle, as well as remote sessions during retrieval and transfer. She conceived successfully and went on to carry healthy triplets.
These outcomes cannot be attributed to any single factor. What they reflect is the complexity of conception — and the role that nervous-system regulation, emotional integration, and internal coherence can play alongside medical care.
Conception is Not Just Sperm meets Egg
Sometimes, the timing of conception isn’t just about the biology of the ‘parents’.
In body-mind-centered work, we often witness that conception is relational. A meeting point between readiness of the parent(s) and readiness of the life that may be arriving. It’s less about forcing something to happen, and more about when something feels aligned to begin.
This kind of timing doesn’t always follow logic. People sometimes sense it in subtle ways:
- A quiet, inner sense of “not quite yet,” even when everything seems in place
- A feeling of connection to something — or someone — not yet embodied
- Dreams or intuitive nudges that say “soon,” but not now
- A shift in the body or emotions that seems to clear space — and then something changes
Instead of the question being, “What am I doing wrong?”
It becomes, “What does my child need to arrive?
A Story From My Practice
One IVF-conceived child I have worked with comes to mind. In sessions, I found this child had a deep hesitancy about returning to a body. There was pain and trauma that was unresolved — not from this life, but from earlier lifetime experiences that were still impacting his sense of safety.
To him, coming back into a physical life didn’t feel safe.
The process of IVF represented that this lifetime would be different. IVF showed him his parents’ persistence, their care, and the lengths they were willing to go to welcome him.
For this child, IVF became part of the story that helped him feel wanted. It was a sign of commitment — something he needed to feel before saying yes.
His parents went on to conceive two more children naturally. From a physical lens, their bodies weren’t the issue. But there was something this child needed in order to be welcomed.
Sometimes I still wonder: if space had been held for spirit baby bonding before the IVF process, could he have felt safe enough to come naturally? Or was IVF always going to be the path that allowed him to arrive in a way that felt secure?
I don’t have the answer. And maybe that’s not the point.
The story isn’t about explaining IVF or offering a one-size-fits-all meaning. It’s about noticing that conception may involve more voices than we think — and that sometimes, the body or the baby is simply waiting for a clearer yes.
For many people, this perspective brings a kind of ease.
It shifts the experience from one of pressure to one of attunement — less about making something happen, and more about listening for when the system is ready to meet.
When people come to me around conception, I’m not looking for a reason something isn’t happening.
I’m listening for where the system might still be holding its breath. Sometimes the resistance is in the incoming child and not the parents.
My role is to help create enough safety and awareness that the body — and the life that may be arriving — no longer need to hesitate.
What unfolds from there isn’t something I control.
It’s something we allow space for.
For many people, fertility challenges aren’t about doing something wrong — they’re about carrying more than the system can easily hold.
I often say that the first step isn’t to fix the problem, but to recognise that something is asking for attention. Getting curious about symptoms — rather than fighting them — is a bit like noticing the check-engine light on your car’s dashboard.
The light itself isn’t the problem.
It’s a signal.
An invitation to pause, look a little deeper, and understand what’s happening beneath the surface before pushing forward again.
In the same way, fertility symptoms aren’t failures to override. They’re communication. When we take the time to listen, with curiosity, the body often shows us exactly what it needs in order to move forward with more ease.
When attention shifts from fixing the body to understanding what it’s protecting, something changes. The nervous system softens. Listening replaces effort. And even when nothing outwardly changes, the experience of trying to conceive often feels less heavy and less isolating.
This is the lens I explore further in a four-part fertility series on Coherence, Safety, Identity, and Action — the core conditions the body uses to decide when it’s ready to move forward.
Whether your path includes natural conception, assisted support, or more time to integrate what’s already been lived, this work offers a steadier, more compassionate way to meet the threshold of parenthood.
If you’d like to learn more about this approach, you can read How BodyTalk Works, attend a free No Stress Conception Masterclass or explore Aligned Creation, a guided preconception journey designed to support whole-system readiness.
