Reclaiming Fertility Through Dance
Struggling with fertility can feel like a lonely emotional rollercoaster. For many women, the hardest part isn’t the medical process — it’s navigating the unspoken grief, repressed anger, and the feeling of growing disconnect from their bodies. But what if movement could help make offer a way back to yourself?
In this episode of Health Youniversity we sat down with Lisa Manca, a board-certified dance therapist. She guides women through dance movement therapy, a healing modality that uses intentional movement to support emotional expression and regulation. Her work reveals an embodied, compassionate path for those feeling overwhelmed by the weight of fertility challenges.
Understanding Dance Therapy
Dance therapy, or dance movement therapy (DMT), is the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, cognitive, and physical integration. It isn’t about choreography or performance — it's about tuning into how the body carries emotion and memory, especially when words fall short.
Our bodies speak all the time. Think of how someone’s posture can signal fatigue or tension before they say a word. DMT brings awareness to these patterns and invites shifts, whether it’s softening clenched shoulders, widening breath, or finding new ways to move through emotional states.
How Dance Therapy Sessions Work
A typical session begins with a verbal check-in and gentle movement warm-up. The therapist observes posture, breath, and energy to help shape the session's direction. From there, personalized movement interventions are introduced based on the client’s current needs and long-term emotional goals.
Props are often used to enhance the experience:
Scarves: Invite lightness and flow when emotions feel heavy.
Stretch bands: Provide structure and resistance, especially in group work.
Parachutes or softballs: Channel energy and encourage spontaneity or play.
Rather than mimicking movements, clients are encouraged to explore what feels intuitive—creating new emotional pathways through the body’s rhythm and voice.
Emotions & Movement
As physical awareness builds, so does emotional insight. Fertility challenges can stir up complex feelings — frustration, grief, and fear that often live beneath the surface. Dance therapy provides a compassionate space to notice, express, and move through these emotions, one gesture at a time.
Take anger, for instance, a feeling many women are taught to suppress. Through movement, that energy can be released safely through:
Stomping
Shaking
Punching the air
Breath paired with sound
And once that tension moves, something softer often emerges — grief, disappointment, or unspoken longing. DMT doesn’t demand a resolution. It makes room for what’s real, allowing expression through stillness, swaying, or even a single, deep breath.
Dance Therapy in Fertility
For many in the fertility journey, the body can begin to feel like a battleground — managed, measured, and judged. Dance therapy invites a shift from controlling the body to listening to it.
Each session becomes a mirror for what’s present. One woman might hold tightness in her jaw; another might curl inward, guarding her chest. Both expressions matter. Through movement, clients begin to rebuild trust in their body’s messages and their right to feel them.
With weekly sessions over 10–12 weeks, that echoes a full fertility cycle. Within this timeframe, many clients report greater emotional resilience, clarity, and a renewed sense of inner steadiness. While dance therapy doesn’t “solve” infertility, it offers something often missing in the process: connection, presence, and emotional grounding.
The Gentle Power of Movement
Fertility challenges often lead to disconnection, not just from dreams and outcomes, but from your own body. Dance therapy offers a gentle way back. It invites you to move with your emotions rather than against them.
If you’ve felt stuck or unseen on your fertility path, permit yourself to move. You might find that healing doesn’t always start with words — it begins with a step.
Listen to the Full Episode here:
Or watch the Vodcast on YouTube
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Know the status of your fertility health. Take our FREE Fertility Quiz now: https://healthyouniversity.co/fertility-quiz
Fulfill your dream of a family. Know your best options for a healthy pregnancy:https://www.healthyouniversity.co/programs
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Lisa Manca is a licensed professional clinical counselor and board-certified dance therapist who helps people with anxiety and depression reconnect with themselves and their bodies. With a compassionate approach grounded in movement therapy and attachment theory, she creates space to process emotions, ease overwhelm, and feel more at home in their lives.
Website: https://www.lisamanca.com/
Medical Disclaimer:
By listening to the Health Youniversity podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition for yourself or others. Consult your healthcare provider for any medical issues you may have. This entire disclaimer also pertains to any guests or contributors to any Health Youniversity podcast.
