The controversial 'scientific spiritual' conception plan that helped couples conceive after YEARS of trying… and was created by an experienced gynecologist

Kathryn Pearson had never believed in spiritual things. Then she found herself undergoing a profound change when a shamanic healer drew her hands in the air around her body. Suddenly, to the sound of beating drums, she felt an overwhelming sense of emotional release.

“I started crying,” Kathryn says. 'It was so powerful, very intense. I walked out of there a different person. It was like I finally had the answers I needed.”

The purpose of the practice was to release stress and clear “emotional space,” thereby increasing her “capacity to receive.”

But Kathryn and her partner Dan weren't on the two-day retreat to achieve mental balance. They had one specific goal in mind: getting pregnant.

After trying unsuccessfully for three years to have a baby, they were turned down for NHS fertility treatment because Kathryn's BMI was deemed too high. Since they couldn't afford to go private, they were willing to explore all options, including alternative therapies.

Today, she and Dan are the proud parents of Freddie, a smart and energetic toddler who recently celebrated his fourth birthday with a soft play party and a visit from Spider-Man.

Kathryn attributes his birth to an unconventional fertility treatment plan that advocates not only overhauling your diet and lifestyle, but also using crystals, shamanic healers, chakras, and even exploring how past traumas can affect your gynecological health.

It would be all too easy to be skeptical if it weren't recommended by a qualified doctor who has worked as an obstetrician and gynecologist for more than a decade.

In a new book called The Conception Plan, Dr. Larisa Corda describes what she calls a “scientific spiritual” twelve-week program that aims to increase a couple's chances of conceiving.

There's advice on monitoring your cycle, as well as how often you should have sex (throughout your cycle and not just in the 'fertile' period around ovulation) and diet, encouraging couples to eat foods that are good promotes fertility. These include red fruits and vegetables, which have been linked to improved sperm count, and green leafy vegetables, which help regulate estrogen levels.

Dr. Corda recommends avoiding synthetic fragrances, not storing food in plastic, drinking filtered water and wearing clothes made from natural fibers. She also researches epigenetics, a relatively new field of science that studies how behavior and environment influence the way genes work. “It used to be thought that health and fertility were determined by your genes, and you couldn't change them,” she explains. 'Now we know that this is not the case for the vast majority of people.

“Epigenetics explains why changes in your daily habits, diet, exercise, behavior, environment and even your emotional state will make you more fertile (but can also make you less fertile).”

Dr. Corda also links the ability to conceive to past trauma and 'energetic' health. “Suppressed emotions affect a cascade of biological processes that impact your overall well-being and even your fertility,” she argues.

Dr. Larisa Corda is an obstetrician and gynecologist who uses alternative therapies

Dr. Corda advocates “chakra meditations” and says, “Access the chakras [points where information flows between the physical and energetic body] can be a powerful way to improve fertility.”

She claims that a dysfunction in one area can cause a hormonal disorder. In her book, she advises couples to “activate” their chakras through daily meditation and breathing exercises, and by spending five minutes a day visualizing themselves as parents. Regarding crystal healing, Dr. Corda writes, “Each crystal has its own electromagnetic properties, giving it frequencies that can be used to influence our energetic body.”

About shamanic healing, she says, “Shamans were the original neuroscientists of ancient civilizations and they understand how to work on the energetic and spiritual body to bring into consciousness and release old pain and trauma.”

Of course there will be cynics. But Dr. Corda, 41, is a passionate advocate of her methods. “More and more people – doctors, nurses, midwives – are opening up to these new concepts and the mounting evidence of their positive effects,” she says. 'Alternative therapy is dismissed as just a placebo effect, but even if so, it points to the power of the mind to bring about physical change.'

She believes her approach can revolutionize ideas about conception. 'I don't believe in the gross restrictions placed on women if they can't get pregnant after the age of 40, or that there is a cliff you suddenly fall off at 35. Of course, sometimes there will be a biological reason why someone cannot conceive naturally or why they need to access IVF or other reproductive techniques.

'But I am strongly convinced that many more people can be helped by techniques that do not cost a lot of money, but that they can do themselves. And that there is potential to shift that fertile window into the later stages of life if you do things to take care of yourself.” After advising women on their gynecological health via social media and in her role as a fertility expert for ITV's This Morning, Dr Corda launched a call in 2019 for couples to try her conception methods.

Kathryn, 35, a team leader for a telephone answering service, and her partner Dan Edwards, also 35, a gas engineer, from Wrexham, had been together for six years and had been trying to have a baby for three. While Kathryn was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries and Dan with enlarged veins which could affect his sperm count, they were refused fertility treatment by the NHS because she was two and a half stone overweight.

Ironically, Kathryn says that giving up the pill to get pregnant was the cause of her weight gain.

“Having a family was something we had both always wanted and at this point we would have tried anything,” she says. 'As a woman, I thought pregnancy should be the most normal thing in the world, but I still couldn't do it. I felt ashamed.'

Dr. Corda told them to follow a vegan diet – which also excludes gluten, alcohol and processed foods – which increases foods that are good for egg and sperm health. They had to eliminate as many chemicals as possible – using natural toiletries and cleaning products and minimizing contact with plastic – and also exercise more.

There was the spiritual retreat in Devon, where they experienced treatments such as reiki and yes, shamanic healing.

Kathryn says they were also encouraged to have sex throughout the month. 'Many couples don't realize that you need to do this consistently throughout the month because your fertile window can be unpredictable. We had sex every other day, which was difficult, but the changes in our diet gave us the energy and motivation.”

To their delight, Kathryn discovered she was pregnant three months later. 'I thought to myself, “Wow, is that that? [making Dr Corda’s changes] everything it took?” Then celebrate with a bacon sandwich.”

Dr. Corda left the NHS in 2021 to write her book and set up a practice at the Women's Wellness Center in Chelsea, London, last year. She says it's too early to give success rates, but many women have been told that her holistic advice has helped them conceive, “including those who had been given a poor prognosis by others.”

Kathryn is definitely in favor. “I will be forever grateful that she put her trust in us to try something new. I can't wait to tell Freddie all about it one day.'

Dr Larisa Corda's Conception Plan is available now (Penguin Life, £18.99). theconceptionplan.com