What if grief did not need to be fixed or pushed away but gently met and held in the body?

In this reflective conversation, Shreyasi welcomes Sarah, a women’s bodyworker, womb-care and grief-tending practitioner based in Northern Ireland. Together, they explore how embodied care, gentle touch, community, and connection to the womb can create space for grief during fertility treatment and other life transitions.

Sarah shares how her own experiences of burnout and grief led her to this work. They discuss the ways IVF and IUI can leave women feeling disconnected from their bodies, why grief does not follow a timetable, and how slowing down and listening to the body can become acts of self-care.

This episode offers a compassionate invitation to honour grief without rushing it—and to find support and connection along the way.

Sarah is a women’s bodyworker, womb-care practitioner, and grief-tending practitioner based in Northern Ireland. She offers in-person individual sessions and retreats as well as online grief-tending and womb-connection work. Her approach combines attuned touch, somatic movement, guided practices, and a gentle, body-led pace.

• How Sarah found womb-tending and grief work after burnout
• Why grief is not something to simply overcome or finish
• The relationship between fertility treatment, embodied experience, and accumulated grief
• Moving from the story of grief into bodily sensation
• The role of touch, breath, gentle movement, and guided meditation
• Why pacing and consent matter in somatic grief work
• The importance of community and co-regulation
• Sarah’s online grief-tending offering and Women of Shee
• Connecting with the inner mother through everyday self-care
• Why doing less, pausing, and honouring boundaries can be restorative

Grief can be met rather than managed: Sarah encourages making room for grief as an ongoing human experience, rather than treating it as a problem with a deadline.

The body can offer a way in: Gentle body-led practices may help people notice sensations and make space for emotions at a tolerable pace.

Support matters: Trusted relationships and community can help make difficult experiences less isolating.

Inner mothering can be simple: Listening to bodily needs, setting boundaries, and making caring daily choices are meaningful forms of self-tending.

Less can be more: Slowing down and creating spaciousness may be more supportive than adding another wellness task.

• Women of Shee, Sarah’s offerings and online grief-tending sessions available at https://www.instagram/womenofshee and at https://www.womenofshee.com

Website: https://www.womenofshee.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenofshee

Email / booking information: womenofshee@gmail.com

If you're navigating infertility, IVF, IUI, pregnancy loss, or the emotional complexity of a fertility journey, you don't have to walk this path alone.

Through fertility support programs, mindfulness-based practices, equine-facilitated healing experiences, retreats, and one-to-one support, Shreyasi helps women stay connected to themselves while moving through the uncertainty of trying to conceive.

Website: https://shreyasibrodhecker.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shreyasi_brodhecker

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you show yourself compassion when you're grieving, struggling with infertility, or feeling betrayed by your own body?

In this solo episode of The Red Thread, Shreyasi explores the emotional weight of IVF and IUI, the many layers of grief that can accompany fertility treatment, and why self-compassion can feel impossible when you're experiencing disappointment, anger, or frustration with your body.

From grieving the life you imagined to navigating unsuccessful treatment cycles, fertility challenges can change how you see yourself and your relationship with your body.

Shreyasi shares a gentle, practical approach to mindful self-compassion that begins not with forcing positivity, but with acknowledging your feelings, recognizing your struggles, and finding small ways to care for yourself.

This episode is a reminder that you don't have to love how you feel to treat yourself with kindness.

• The different layers of grief experienced during IVF and IUI
• Grieving lost expectations, timelines, and imagined futures
• How fertility treatment can change your identity and relationship with your body
• Feelings of body betrayal, frustration, and self-blame
• Why mindful self-compassion can feel difficult during infertility
• Learning to identify and acknowledge your emotions without judgment
• Using a Feelings Wheel to better understand what you're experiencing
• Creating small moments of self-care on emotionally difficult days
• Building a simple, sustainable mindful self-compassion practice

The Feelings Wheel

Sometimes the hardest part of processing emotions is finding the words to describe what you're feeling.

In this episode, Shreyasi introduces the Feelings Wheel, a visual tool that can help you identify and name your emotions, particularly when you're experiencing grief, frustration, or uncertainty.

Use the wheel during a quiet moment to check in with yourself and explore what's coming up emotionally.

Click to view: Feelings Wheel — a free tool to help you name what you're feeling

The Red Thread Mindful Self-Compassion Journal

Coming November 1, 2026!

Shreyasi's Mindful Self-Compassion Journal is designed to help women navigating IVF and IUI develop gentle, intentional practices of emotional awareness and self-care.

The journal offers a way to bring more structure, kindness, and compassion into everyday life during a challenging fertility journey.

Visit https://shreyasibrodhecker.com for updates and availability.

Shreyasi invites you to begin with three gentle steps:

1. Pause and notice. Take five or ten minutes to check in with how you're feeling. Use the Feelings Wheel if you need help identifying your emotions.
2. Acknowledge your experience. Recognize that what you're going through is difficult. Allow your feelings to exist without needing to change or dismiss them.
3. Offer yourself care. Ask yourself how you would comfort a close friend in the same situation. Choose one small act of kindness, whether that's taking a walk, enjoying a warm bath, making a cup of tea, or simply giving yourself permission to rest.

Self-compassion doesn't mean your difficult feelings will disappear. It means learning to care for yourself while they're present.

Navigating infertility, IVF, IUI, pregnancy loss, or the emotional challenges of trying to conceive?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.