Ariel Garten is a psychotherapist in Toronto Specializing in Gestalt, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Art Therapy.
Psychotherapy can help
- Manage Infertility
- Reduce stress / Stress Management
- Reduce anxiety
- Overcome Depression
- Find a place for emotion
- Resolve trauma
- Improve family relations
- Reduce of chronic pain
- Change habits that don't work
- Understand roots of behaviours
- Conquer phobia
- Quit Smoking
- Weight Loss
- Excel in life
- Set goals and achieve goals
- Enhance Creativity
Fertility and Psychotherapy
Improving your fertility through emotional well-being.
As the following studies indicate, stress may be a significant factor preventing fertility. At Forces of Nature, Ariel Garten, Psychotherapist, is available for one-on-one counseling to get to the root of your stressors and psychological blocks and minimize them.
Ariel uses the same cognitive-behavioral restructuring therapy as the studies below included, as well as other psychotherapeutic methods to encourage relaxation, regain emotional balance and reduce the cognitive stressors in our life. We know that preparing to have a baby is a very emotional process with a lot of decisions. We’re also here to help you deal with the emotional residue resulting from infertility treatments.
All of this in a caring, supportive and friendly environment.
Most infertility clinics have psychotherapists and counselors as part of their core fertility-plan treatments. Holistic infertility treatments are no different in recommending and benefiting from psychotherapeutic care.
You’ve taken a big step toward overcoming your infertility. You’ve made a choice for yourself. Now we can help take some of the pressure off, and make the process work as smoothly as it can.
Your baby is waiting for you.
Fertility and Emotional Well-Being, 3 studies:
The relationship between stress and infertility is a complex one. From biblical times until recently, infertility has been seen as largely a psychologically based problem.
With the advent of medical infertility techniques, infertility was dealt with as a physical problem. The psychological stress and distress that women dealing with infertility obviously were suffering was seen as resulting from infertility, rather than causing it.
Now the pendulum has swung in the other direction again, and doctors are beginning to recognize that the relationship between psychological states and infertility may be reversed: stress and psychological factors may be part of the root cause of inability to conceive.
A number of studies have suggested that a change in psychological well-being can lead to an increase in fertility success.
Women with a history of depressive symptoms may be twice as likely to report a history of infertility. Women with depressive symptoms greatly improve their chances of fertility by participating in psychological programs that teach relaxation and cognitive restructuring of the depression. Severely depressed women who attended a cognitive-behavior group program for 10 sessions that was designed to decrease depression and anxiety experienced a 60% viable pregnancy rate within 6 months. (Domar et al. Psychological Interventions and Pregnancy Rates Vol. 73, No. 4, April 2000)
In another study, women undergoing infertility treatment were assigned either to 10 weeks of cognitive-behavioral training, emotional support groups, or control groups. Outcome: 55% of cognitive-behavioral group pregnant within a year, 54% of support group, and only 20% of controls got pregnant in that time. “Women who participated in a group psychological intervention had significantly increased viable pregnancy rates compared to women who did not participate in any psychological intervention. This difference was not due to any group demographic differences, including age and duration of infertility, nor was it because of group differences in medical interventions.” (Domar et al, 2000)
Other studies point to similar conclusions:
Women who were not depressed before starting IVF treatment had a conception rate twice as high as women who were depressed before treatment. (Thiering, Beaurepaire, Jones, & Saunders, 1993)
In a study of 63 women about to undergo an IVF treatment cycle, those who chose to attend 2-weeks worth of sessions on relaxation training were significantly more likely to conceive on their first IVF attempt. (Farrar, Holbert, & Drabman, (1990).
How can this work for me?
The psychological program the women in the Domar studies experienced included methods for emotional expression; relaxation techniques such as imagery and yoga; nutrition and exercise advice; and, mainly, cognitive-behavioral restructuring techniques. These allowed participants to identify negative thought patterns, such as “I will never have a baby”, and substitute them with thoughts like “I am doing everything I can to try to get pregnant”
The above study takes into account a 10 week group CBT course.
Ariel Garten offers one-on-one counseling using the same cognitive-behavioral techniques that significantly improved the chances of conception for the women in these studies.
"Ariel is a warm, compassionate, highly skilled and astute therapist who immediately put me at ease. her gentle yet pointed questions guided me along the path of self-discovery in a way I had never, in all my years of psychotherapy, experienced in such an immediate way."
- Anon, Toronto, Canada