Shattered Conception: Navigating Infertility, Pregnancy Loss, and Healing Paths

My guest is licensed acupuncturist, Laura Erlich. She is the owner and founder of Mother Nurture Wellness, a holistic women’s health collective located in West Los Angeles, where she maintains a private practice as an acupuncturist with a specialty in reproductive medicine. Her career in the healing arts began in New York City in 1998 when she graduated from the Swedish Institute of Massage and immediately felt called to work with pregnant women. By 1999, she was back in her home town of Los Angeles, where she quickly built a successful house-call massage therapy practice and became a birth doula. After several years of growing her massage/doula business, Laura felt a desire to deepen her knowledge of both eastern and western medicine and enrolled in Chinese Medicine school at Emperor’s college in Santa Monica.

In 2007, she gave birth to her son and her new practice, and began tending to them both with her full heart and soul. Her background in pregnancy and birth made way for an acupuncture and herbal medicine practice with a speciality in women’s health, with a special focus on fertility, the childbearing cycle and labor support. After 5 years in practice, she began teaching other acupuncturists through webinars and joined the faculty at Yo San University as a professor in their doctoral program in reproductive medicine.

In 2015, Laura co-authored her first book, with Emily Bartlett, Titled: Feed Your Fertility. The book breaks down different health conditions and compares how Eastern medicine and Western Medicine view and treat that health condition. That was the same year, she founded Mother Nurture Wellness. Mother Nurture Wellness is one of the leading Acupuncture and Holistic Health Centers in the city of Los Angeles. Her Center, offers more than acupuncture and herbal medicine, Mother Nurture Wellness also offers chiropractic care, health and nutrition coaching, pelvic floor physical therapy, body work, midwifery services and a curated retail shop of wellness products made by local woman-owned businesses, such as SeedLyfe and Counter Top, for example.

Dr. Laura Erlich can be reached at [email protected]

She is offering $25 off the first visit to the first three listeners who make an appointment with her.

My guest on Episode 19 is Paola Brass. She is a Clinical Social Worker who works as a Child Advocate at Stuart House, a program of the UCLA Rape Treatment Center in Santa Monica. Paola works with children and their families to provide crisis intervention, case management, advocacy, and court-related services for children who are victims of sexual abuse. Paola also participates in The Rape Treatment Center’s 24-hour on-call-response services for suspected victims of assault/abuse as a crisis counselor. Prior to coming to Stuart House, Paola investigated child abuse for 8 years with the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) as an Emergency Response Social Worker. While working with DCFS Paola had the opportunity to work closely with Stuart house, she found passion in the work she was doing with sexual abuse survivors and decided to pursue the role of a child advocate. After 9 plus years of clinical experience in supporting families during traumatic events Paola was able to recognize the need to obtain specialized treatment and support after experiencing a traumatic pregnancy and termination for fetal anomaly. Paola’s medical team had failed to diagnose Hyperemesis and failed to provide adequate support leaving Paola feeling very isolated. Paola was able to seek treatment and support to help her grieve, process, and heal from her traumatic pregnancy and loss, and in turn was able to continue to provide the highest level of care to her families as a clinician. She went on to have another pregnancy, again with the diagnosis of hyperemesis, and brought her daughter to term. Paola is bravely sharing her reproductive story and helping many listeners who may be going through the same or similar diagnosis. Additionally she and her husband both developed a diagnosis of postpartum and sought professional treatment to help normalize and de-stigmatize the most common mental health complication of pregnancy.

Paola's IG: @itspaola

Paola's Email: [email protected]

She referenced the website www.HelpHer.org

And, Mother's Haven in Encino, California

On episode 15 of Shattered Conception my guest is Laura Malcolm Kocsis. She is the founder of Give InKind. Give InKind was created after Laura and her husband, James, experienced the devastating loss of their daughter Layla while in her 8th month of pregnancy in 2013.

While on leave from their respective technology jobs, she and her husband remembered how badly their friends and family around the country wanted to help, but felt too far away during the time after Layla’s death. Laura and James knew there had to be a better way to provide friends and family with a way to support those they care about during times of need and in life’s celebrations.

Give InKind is on a mission to make sure that no one feels too far away to help when life events happen. We know you can't always be with the ones you love when they need you, but they also know that sending money or flowers isn't always the only answer. They wanted to make it easy to send the support that's really needed - whether that's a hot meal, a housecleaner, a good book to read or a cup of tea.

Give InKind has hundreds of articles from experts - and the people that have been there before - talking about how best to support one another through these times. Whether you're visiting a friend after a c-section or supporting a family member after a stroke, you can find information on Give InKind with ideas for how to help. Give InKind has been featured in Forbes, babycenter, The Seattle Times and GeekWire.

It is their sincere hope that Give InKind makes everyone's life a little bit easier, no matter what you or someone you care about is going through. Give InKind would love to hear new article ideas, product suggestions and ways that they can help support you, whatever your reason or situation may be.

You can quickly set-up a free page for you or a loved one and receive:

• Situation-specific product, service and content suggestions
• Meal & Help scheduling
• Visitor, phone call and other preferences
• Social and Email options to invite others

Laura Malcolm Kocsis can be reached through her website: www.giveinkind.com

Book mentioned: The Body Keeps the Score

My guest on Shattered Conception is licensed Clinical Psychologist and music composer, Dr. Michael Mollura with a private practice in Beverly Hills. Dr. Mollura is the creator of Dream Music Therapy. Dream Music Therapy is based on the foundations of Dr. Carl G. Jung and James Hillman. Dr. Michael Mollura composes music to the actual dream reports of his patients as a way of accessing unconscious material to provide healing pathways on neurological, quantum, and collective levels. His music helps heal and bring relief to trauma, emotional conflict in the unconscious mind, and provide answers to confusing and distressing nightmares and dreams. His work is the first of its kind and exemplifies the healing powers of creativity in a clinical setting.The dream music therapy draws a bridge between Dr. Mollura’s work as a music composer and as a clinician.

As a feature film music composer, Michael Mollura is known for his recent score for the documentary film HEAL directed by Kelly Noonan, which is currently the #1 best seller on iTunes Documentaries and in the top 10 rentals on Netflix. This documentary takes us on a scientific and spiritual journey where we discover that our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions have a huge impact on our health and ability to heal. The latest science reveals that we are not victims of unchangeable genes, nor should we buy into a scary prognosis. The fact is we have more control over our health and life than we have been taught to believe. This film will empower you with a new understanding of the miraculous nature of the human body and the extraordinary healer within us all. HEAL not only taps into the brilliant mind's of leading scientists and spiritual teachers, but follows three people on actual high stakes healing journeys. Healing can be extremely complex and deeply personal, but it can also happen spontaneously in a moment. Through these inspiring and emotional stories we find out what works, what doesn't, and why. Featuring Dr. Deepak Chopra, Anita Moorjani, Marianne Williamson, Dr. Michael Beckwith, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Dr. Joe Dispenza, Anthony William author of ' Medical Medium', Dr. Bernie Siegel, Gregg Braden, Dr. Joan Borysenko, Dr. David Hamilton, Dr. Kelly Brogan, Rob Wergin, Dr. Kelly Turner, Peter Chrone, Dr Darren Weissman, and Dr Jeffrey Thompson!

Michael has also composed music scores for AWAKE: THE LIFE OF YOGANANDA, HARE KRISHNA, CLARITY, THE HIGHEST PASS and most recently a score for a pilot season of an episodic TV show ROAD TO DHARMA. His work is new and exciting seeking to breakthrough the ceilings of quantum driven theory using music, love and a passion for life as his tools.

Dr. Mollura has also taught and lectured about the healing components of music, meditation and dream work to some of the finest well-being health facilities such as ESALEN. He will be presenting at the end of the month of April 2019 at ESALEN. Michael is currently teaching an annual course titled "Working With Dreams in the Psychoanalytic Relationship" at the WRIGHT INSTITUTE IN LOS ANGELES to doctorates and masters level trainees.

Michael R Mollura, received his Ph.D In Clinical Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and a Master's Degree in Performance Studies from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts which included training and research work in dreams, drama, music, theater and dance work.

You can reach Dr. Mollura directly at [email protected] or call 213-280-9625. To learn more about Dr. Mollura's clinical work, visit www.drmichaelmollura.com

Danica Thornberry, L.Ac., was one of the first women in America to focus, treat, and support women going though assisted reproductive technology. She is a fertility specialist and founder of Well Women Acupuncture in Los Angeles. She completed a post-graduate certification in Chinese Gynecology and has had phenomenal success in helping thousands of women reach their individual goals. She has appeared twice on Lifetime TV’s “Speaking of Women’s Health, ” where she presented acupuncture as a successful form of treatment for fertility problems and hormone imbalances. She is the author of Stick it to Me, Baby! Inserting Spirit Into The Science of Infertility and the creator of The Seed Program, where she offers a collection of online courses for women who want to learn what they can do to improve their fertility. Danica faced fertility challenges of her own and learned that baby-making is a combination of timing, self-care, and faith in a bigger picture. She shares the wisdom she gained in pursuit of her own children with her patients. Danica would like to offer a free meditation called "Fertile Thoughts" to anyone who emails her at https://www.seedfertility.com/freegift/

Danica Thornberry can be reached at 310-826-3706

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