Finding Fertile Ground

Over the past few weeks, like many of us, I’ve been preparing my yard for the growing season—leveling the earth, planting seeds, and cutting back last year’s overgrowth. This time of year is marked by celebrations across cultures that honor new beginnings, fertility, and the sacredness of the earth. It often brings to mind a meaningful part of my work that I don’t always speak about: the Mondays I spend supporting patients at a fertility clinic. 

For nearly ten years, I have dedicated time each week to working in this setting, where I’m able to collaborate in a focused, integrative way. I primarily see patients immediately before and after embryo transfer. This is a profound and tender moment in their journey—one that is often accompanied by both hope and significant anxiety. 

At this stage, acupuncture serves multiple purposes. It helps calm the nervous system, allowing patients to enter the procedure with greater ease, and it also offers supportive care alongside the IVF process. In this context, I use the Paulus Protocol (Paulus et al., 2002), a series of acupuncture points which have shown a nearly 50% improved success rate in IVF. Sharing this statistic alone is often a moment in which I can see a feeling of relief wash over the patient’s face.

Anyone who has experienced fertility challenges knows that it is rarely a simple path. It is a time full of appointments, medications, exams, blood draws, and ultrasounds. Having children can be so deeply important for so many people, and the notion of being unable to do so can be one of the most emotionally difficult times in a person’s life. The process is also costly in both time and money, with several waiting periods between each step of the process. By the time they get to transfer day, they are often a bundle of nerves, trying to walk the very thin line between being hopeful but not too hopeful, excited but cautious.

In these moments, I aim to create a space that feels markedly different from the clinical environments they’ve grown accustomed to. The room is warm and quiet, the lighting soft. There is nothing to analyze or fix—only an opportunity to rest. Supporting the body’s relaxation response can help shift it away from a heightened stress state and toward one that is more receptive and balanced. By allowing the nervous system to relax, the body becomes able to focus less on building stress response hormones and more on creating the hormones needed for a healthy pregnancy. Acupuncture also supports healthy blood flow to the uterus, promoting the delivery of oxygen and nutrients during this critical window.
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Being able to offer patients even a brief moment of calm and connection with their bodies during such a challenging time is one of the most meaningful aspects of my work. While my role is just one small part of their larger journey, it is an honor I don’t take lightly.

As we enter this season of growth, I invite you to reflect: What seeds are you planting? How are you drawing energy from the awakening earth and channeling it into your own life?
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If you feel called to explore what “fertile ground” might look like for you—whether physically, emotionally, or energetically—I would be happy to support you in my office.