When I talk about trauma being passed down in the womb, I don't necessarily mean explicit events that happened during your mother's pregnancy. In my experience of helping adults heal from chronic nervous system dysfunction and PTSD, in utero trauma goes much deeper than your mother having a shock event when pregnant or becoming ill. There is a deeper and often more subtle imprinting that takes place, that means the mother's unresolved trauma and energetic imprints get passed down unknowingly to the developing fetus. The fetus then develops its electrical networks and internal charge and flow of life force on the early nervous system scaffolding that has been created in the womb, most of which is a mirror image of it's mother's internal womb conditions. The transmission of traumatic imprinting occurs at all levels, from the neurological and biochemical but also the emotional and subtle energetic levels.
I help women (and sometimes their children too) to identify and heal the foundational structure or primal nervous system, and early embryological field where it has become affected by complex trauma and is affecting them as adults. Most of the women that come to me for this depth of healing have already done years of inner work in therapy to recognise how their in utero world and their mother's nervous system at the time, affected them in subtle ways, shaping who they are today.
It takes time and requires a peeling back of many layers of conditioning in the body, to arrive in the embryological field where transmutation can take place. It asks for deep somatic and energetic sensitivity to feel the very subtle fields that have moved and shaped at this level. These imprints are deep and barely stir, but they have a profound impact on anything that the nervous system attempts to build on afterwards. When healed, it can lead to profound shifts in the inner sense of safety, nourishment, grounding and inner peace. My clients often report finally being able to feel the way they always hoped one day they would. For many, this is a life changing experience.
The Importance of the Womb
You might be trying to solve your problems or heal at a psychological level, without realising that your brain literally developed from the constant electrical imprinting that began in your mother's womb. This is what you were receiving, before you were even yourself.
If you feel like you have only received or felt terror, fear, grief and disconnection from the day you were born, it is highly likely that the scaffolding of your brain and nervous system were created in this vibration, because of your mother's unresolved trauma and her own nervous system and field fluctuation.
This situation can be intensified if your mother:
Experienced severe physical pain during pregnancy
Took synthetic medications that significantly altered her biochemistry
Was emotionally disconnected from herself
Was dissociated and disconnected from the sensations in her body / womb due to her own unresolved trauma
Underwent active trauma while carrying you including bereavement
Conceived you as a result of violence or rape
Suffered from chronic stress and remained in a state of dissociation or dysregulation
Most of the clients I have worked with had to bear the burden of a combination of these and the most common combination is:
Mother had substantial unresolved trauma trapped in her own nervous system and womb that she had not healed
She was emotionally and spiritually disconnected from her partner and conceived through a vibration of uncertainty or fear
Mother was going through the physical motions of pregnancy but was unable to deeply feel her womb, her child at an emotional or energetic level
Granted, the last point is quite rare in this modern world. However, that doesn't take away from the fact it is a vital part of the child's development. Nourishing, nurturing and recognition are not just physical, as we realise growing up that just receiving protection and food leads to a deprivation, so too, developing in womb without deeply being held or seen leaves an imprint on self worth.
The In Utero Transmission of Trauma from Mother to Child
During times of stress, the mother's body releases a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol helps regulate important functions like metabolism, blood sugar, and the immune system. But too much cortisol can become harmful, both for the mother and the fetus.
The placenta normally acts as a barrier, regulating the amount of cortisol that reaches the developing baby. However, prolonged exposure to high stress can weaken this protective mechanism. Excessive cortisol from the mother's body can then cross over into the fetal circulation.
This is particularly concerning because the fetal stress response system, centered around the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis, begins developing as early as the fourth week of pregnancy. When bombarded by elevated maternal cortisol, the fetal HPA axis becomes dysregulated, with potential long-term consequences.
The HPA axis coordinates the neurological and hormonal aspects of the stress response. Chronic activation caused by the mother's trauma or unrelenting stress can impair its delicate balance. This manifests as the overproduction of cortisol, which can then infiltrate the vulnerable, rapidly developing fetal brain and body.
While the placenta tries to shield the fetus, persistent maternal stress can eventually overcome this safeguard. The placental enzyme meant to convert cortisol into its inactive form can become inhibited, allowing the stress hormone to breach the barrier.
In this way, the mother's unresolved trauma and overwhelming life demands can become imprinted on the child, even before birth. Understanding this mind-body connection is crucial, as it reveals how prenatal experiences can shape a child's trajectory long after delivery.
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Stress transfer in utero
Healing with our parents
Guided womb meditation
Monster vs mother
What it means to be the new ancestor
Womb through womanhood
The importance of womb healing for men
Womb-heart-throat axis
Healing Approaches I use to Support my Clients to Heal In Utero Trauma
Somatic reintegration of the organs (kidneys, adrenals, brain)
Releasing deep fear from pre verbal nervous system
Supporting heart to open to process deeper emotions
Womb alchemy and rebirthing
Ancestral healing work
Spiritual healing between mother and child
Divine embodiment of feminine energy
Reconnection the Great Mother Source Energy
What My Clients Say: In Utero Trauma Healing Transformations
I was then taken back to being in utero, to my birth and then to a mirror image of the innocence in the young toddler I once was. Suddenly, I felt such huge love! In that moment, the love engulfed me. It came without judgement and was so forgiving! I hugged my dad and then my mom, playfully climbing all over them and feeling the energy of emotional holding from them that I have been missing in my lived childhood experience.
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I wanted to share some amazing news !!! Actually I’m super excited to share this with you... it’s been 3 weeks since we finished my 1:1 sessions... I ran for the first time and guess what I didn’t even use my inhaler !! I always have to use my inhaler before I do any work out; ever since I was little .... as you know I was born with asthma and don’t know life without asthma - I usually take my inhaler a lot from winter to March due to the cold weather and in the summer due to allergies so basically I’m on it all the time ! I’ve tested this out three times now (I was scared when I didn’t take my inhaler the first time round) so:Day 1 I started off with a brisk walk and a light jog... no wheezing ... Day 2 I started off with a light jog and kept a consistent flow - no wheezing !! Day 3 I started off with a light jog and now I am running and guess bloody what NO WHEEZING !!! I ran 12 whole minutes with no issues with my breathing the only reason why I stopped was cause I got tired lol !! I never thought in a million years I would be running like this !! Thank you for my new set of lungs ! Honestly I am speechless as I never thought this was possible !!!I feel now i need to keep trusting my body as it’s an amazing power machine that is so grateful to your healing and for safely taking me back to the utero to do this !!!
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I came to see Safa not really realising that in all levels, in all ways, I was traumatised. The question Safa asked me at the beginning, How am I? At 40 years old I did not know the answer. The truth is, my nervous system was in overdrive. I had been deeply fatigued for many years. I was so ill when I was 20 years old that I nearly died. 20 years later, I still never understood that experience, why it happened, what it meant. Why? Until the day I met Safa. Through the healing sessions each week we worked on the physical parts of my body that were holding trauma. This included my spine, cranium, getting back into my arms and legs and re- anchoring my root space.My body was holding so many unconscious trauma imprints - physical, sexual and emotional.
It was a very deep journey, to feel my sacrum again, to feel reconnected, to feel my pelvis and my womb. To feel like a woman again. Safa helped me heal, all the way back to my in utero experience which was the root cause of my shame and guilt and loneliness. We also had to do big karmic work in a deep field to re-work my masculine and feminine aspects which had been affected by trauma. I finally forgave and cleared the imprints in my ovaries, womb, neck, heart, liver and field. In just 12 weeks I have felt a big shift in my consciousness. I have become a woman again. I feel a deep love for myself. I trust in myself again!
Now I am able to feel the power of my womb. I am able to clarify my energy field and my space, connect to my ancestors and feel love in my daily life. I have learnt the art of embodiment. I turned away from senseless things like alcohol, smoking and empty friendships. My family is my big mirror. Through the healing work I have done with Safa, my family are now shining. I see the sun in their eyes!
I am speechless by the depth of transformation in this short amount of time. A huge thank you Safa.
I am so curious about everything I learnt from you! You are so big! Deeply impressed! Chapeaux!!!'
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During the session I felt a lot of chemical release. Lots of release in the brain, I literally felt the top of my left shoulder nerve by nerve being plucked and rewired. Both my masculine and feminine side being stretched and rested. Lots of work in my liver.Saw myself in utero. It felt like the only time I connected with my mother and father together.... the only time they were in unison. The only time I felt deeply loved by my father. So much coughing and air moving through me and my womb. I was holding myself... rocking myself slowly like a small child letting her know she is safe. That we are one. That it’s okay to feel. You are loved little one, you are loved. I remember seeing pink and blue and a quick flash of utero, a deep red rose, rainbows, and light beam. Oh I also saw what I perceive to be the universe I’m not really sure. I saw a the colors of the earth spinning with a hole in the middle? I love you all so much <3 I surrender and bow down to womb and all of my fellow womb warriors.
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Powerful! So much happened, wow! See my mission here on earth more quite deeply. Feel a way deeper clarity on doing things out of fear rather than love. Feels like a reorientation of my heart and brain connection. Released weights, bricks and barb wires from my heart and intestines, and breasts. Released feelings of resentment and hate. Felt my baby self coming out of my mamas womb, felt like I was in the gop like frequency sensation of coming out the womb. Messages and seeing of my mission "you will help turn pain into honey", you have felt deep pain, but you see the honey so clearly too. Felt my womb stirring like a honey pot. Seeing my own unique gift. The beauty and pain of birthing itself. (I want to take a duala course now) My deep cry and longing for all little girls to feel like they have their own space their own pile of clothes. My motherly love and cried for myself to fully remember myself and all. I feel I was able to truely see myself deeper. I felt like a mother at the end being able to greet a lot of past ages of myself. Saw and felt myself as a rocket ship flying through light. Saw a lot of us on a rollercoaster, and this swing ride, and felt as if I were on it too. Still feel a lot shifting on a DNA level. Feel like I am giving birth still.
Grateful and in awe of the sacredness of birthing.
As always, if you're ready to heal, please reach out to me.