Pregnancy and childbirth is a time of joy and anticipation – and sometimes much stress. While the excitement can mask trepidation and tension – especially in first-time moms – ensuring this time is experienced with hope, happiness, and calm preparation is important to ensuring that negative thoughts don’t take hold and spoil what should be a most enriching time of your life.

Sophrology provides you with a structured method of coping. Through simple breathing and relaxation exercises, along with guided meditation and visualisation, you can turn this time before, during and after childbirth into one of joy and positive experience. For those who find this time difficult, Sophrology can transform your experience physically, mentally and emotionally.

How do Sophrology and pregnancy connect?

Pregnancy in itself creates new perspectives: your body is changing, and your hormones, moods and way of life are all undergoing adjustment. This is the time when you want to build vitality, confidence and a positive outlook. Sophrology is a comprehensive approach using exercises and visualisation techniques to bring about harmony in both mind and body, and between mind and body.

It is a way of balancing the consciousness while learning to relax the body. Through the guided combination of meditation, relaxation and control of negative thinking, Sophrology helps to bring about the state of mind and body that empowers through calmness and energises through balance. Through this method you will gain:

  • An understanding of your inner resources
  • More energy and focus
  • Greater relaxation and ability to cope
  • Ways to handle any discomfort or pain
  • The ability to recognise stress and stop it in its tracks
  • Better sleep patterns
  • A process of connecting with your unborn child in a way that instils joy and anticipation.

 Sophrology and the birth process

Sophrology trains the mind to listen to physical sensations generated through movement, while at the same time visualising a colour or image to persuade calmness and a positive outcome. In essence, Sophrology works to introduce a state of dynamic relaxation. This is extremely helpful once the birth process begins. You are able to eliminate fears, focus on breathing, and maintain a sense of control and purpose during the birth process. After a few sessions you will be able to:

  • Relax physical and emotional tension
  • Develop smoother breathing and greater concentration
  • Discover tools to manage the pain inherent in contractions.

Sophrology and adjusting after the birth

Using Sophrology exercises after the birth creates deep relaxation, which in turn produces alpha waves in the brain, allowing the brain to rest and regenerate. A positive birth experience gives you and your child the best start in life. Sophrology gives you time to listen to your body, adjust to the way it feels, and the way it is changing back to pre-pregnancy status. The whole point of Sophrology is that you:

  • Breathe to create awareness of the life force within you, and now in your child in your arms
  • Exercise gently to restore balance and ease your body back to feeling comfortable and your mind positive
  • Create a harmonious bond between mind and body, and your baby
  • Deal competently with the emotional rollercoaster that pregnancy and birth can induce, analysing feelings, and discarding any negative attitudes from arising
  • Accept the transition to the new person that you are now, and the relationship with your child
  • Handle family dynamics, expectations, and lifestyle changes in your stride
  • Develop a more energetic approach to motherhood.

All this can be achieved over the months through pregnancy and leading up to the birth, so that as soon as baby has arrived, you are powerfully in control of yourself and your emotions. You will learn to listen to your body while recuperating. You will feel rested and motivated. Getting a full night’s sleep may not be possible, but you can learn to adapt to the rhythm of your baby’s sleeping. Wellness can become a reality when it is allowed to flourish through a unique combination of breathing, relaxation, movement and positive visualisation. Learn to overcome stress and access well-being in daily life, which now, with your baby in your arms, offers new and delightful perspective.

Sophrology: an old route to a new you

Currently revitalised as one of the most popular wellness trends in the world, Sophro-Ki® Sophrology translates to the “the study of consciousness in harmony”. It is essentially a holistic system, including physical and mental exercises, which promotes health, well-being, relaxation, and alertness.

Founded in the 1960s by Alfonso Caycedo, a professor of Psychiatry and Neurology in Madrid, Sophro-Ki® Sophrology was first created to treat war veterans suffering from PTSD and depression. Combining techniques from Zen, yoga, meditation and hypnosis, the system allows participants to release and redirect challenging emotions. Positive effects include: more focus, less stress, better sleep, more self-confidence, improved chronic conditions, and greater happiness.

In 2006, Dorna Revie, founded Energy Centre, the first school in the world to offer Sophrologist diploma courses in English. Sophrology Center Online, the newest of Dorna’s projects, has been established to meet the growing demand from around the world.