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Whole Person Fertility Care Guide

Exciting announcement!

We are collaborating with Alberta Reproductive Centre (ARC) to offer Whole Person CARE Guidance.

At ARC, they understand the importance of personalized and comprehensive support throughout the emotional and medical process of your fertility journey.

That is why we have teamed up with them to offer fertility care including the following services to all ARC patients.

Introducing WFH’s Alda Ngo, the ARC Whole Person CARE (Coordinator and Reproductive Education) Guide: your Compassionate Coordinator on the Path to Parenthood at ARC.

Embarking on the journey to parenthood can be both exciting and challenging. At ARC, they understand that fertility care is not just a medical process; it is also deeply personal and emotional. That is why they are proud to introduce a dedicated Whole Person CARE Guide, a compassionate coordinator committed to supporting you every step of the way.

Together, ARC and WFH recognize that growing your family is a profoundly meaningful human experience. We are also aware that trying to create a healthy pregnancy can bring up challenging thoughts & emotions, as well as a sense of loss of control.

We want to nurture your sense of agency throughout the process, because we see that you should be in charge of your fertility journey.

Your Personal Advocate:

As your personal advocate and liaison at ARC, Alda brings a wealth of experience and a genuine commitment to holistic fertility care. She will ensure that your journey to parenthood is physically supported and emotionally empowered.

Alda is not just a guide; she is your trusted advocate throughout your fertility journey.

Comprehensive Support Tailored to Your Needs:

The Whole Person CARE Guide goes beyond the traditional role. Alda will help you identify your fertility wellness goals as well as explore & navigate all the additional care options that are available to you.  

Tailored Key Services offered by our Whole Person CARE Guide at ARC:

  1. Personalized Care Plan: She will work with you to create a personalized fertility plan that addresses all aspects of your unique fertility wellness needs & goals.
  2. Information & Education: She will provide clear information about fertility treatments, procedures, and potential challenges, to ensure you are well-informed and empowered to make confident decisions.
  3. Wellness Integration: She will provide you with information about curated supportive service options that are accessible to you. For example: counselling, acupuncture, Registered Dietitian, support groups, mindfulness, massage & yoga.
  4. Coordination of Care: She will serve as a liaison between you and your holistic medical team, streamlining communication and ensuring a seamless experience throughout your fertility treatment process.
  5. Empowering Emotional Support: She will offer a compassionate ear, ensuring you feel heard and supported, while helping you navigate your treatment plan options to create a positive experience.

How to Book

If you are a patient at ARC, please call the front desk at (587) 442-0461 to book a FREE appointment with your Whole Person CARE Guide.

Finding Hope in Healing

Embarking on the journey of healing after a pregnancy loss can feel like navigating uncharted waters. We want you to know that you’re not alone, and there’s a supportive community here to walk with you through the process.

Time and space 

Allow your time yourself to grieve: there is no right or wrong way to grieve and there is no timeline for healing. It’s okay to feel a wide range of emotions from sadness and anger to confusion and numbness. Give yourself permission to mourn.

Be patient with yourself: healing is unique and an individual process. Be patient and gentle with yourself as you navigate this difficult journey. Your strength is immeasurable.

Connection and community support 

Lean on your support system: Reach out to your partner, family, and friends. Share your feelings with those you trust. Talking about your loss can be a crucial step in the healing process.

Connect with others: Reach out to support organizations, online communities, or local groups that focus on pregnancy loss. Connecting with others who have similar experiences can provide comfort.

Seek professional help: Consider speaking to a therapist, counsellor, or support group specializing in pregnancy loss. They can provide valuable guidance in a safe space to express your emotions.

Take Care

Take Care of Your Physical Health: Ensure you’re getting proper rest, nutrition, and hydration. Your body needs time to recover, both physically and emotionally. 

Self-Care Is Essential: Take time for self-care, whether it’s through meditation, gentle exercise, reading, or simply resting. Prioritize your emotional and mental well-being.

Memorialize and Remember

Create a meaningful way to honour your baby’s memory. This could be through a memorial service, planting a tree, lighting a candle, or keeping a journal of your thoughts and feelings.

Contact us

Whether you’re here for guidance or to extend a comforting hand to those in need, we’re honoured to be a part of this compassionate and supportive community.

Contact us to explore options for gentle next steps towards healing.

National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month

In the gentle embrace of October’s autumn, we pause to acknowledge a profound and often silent journey that touches the hearts of countless families. October is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month—a time to unite, remember, and offer solace to those who have faced the unimaginable.

For those who have known the depths of loss, we want you to know that you are not alone. Your grief is valid, your pain acknowledged, and your precious babies remembered.

In our acupuncture clinic, we witness the incredible strength of those who walk this path and the unwavering love that forever connects them to their little ones. We stand with you in your grief and in your healing journey.

To those who have experienced the loss of a pregnancy, a child, or a dream of parenthood, we extend our deepest compassion and support. Your stories, your courage, and your resilience inspire us daily.

This month and every month, we honour the memory of the little souls who left us too soon and stand alongside those who continue to carry them in their hearts.

If you or someone you know needs support during this challenging time, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Our clinic is here as a safe and nurturing space for you.

Let us create a world where love and empathy shine brightly, where healing is not a destination but a continuous journey, and where the strength of our community knows no bounds.

If you have had a recent preganncy loss, contact us for more information about how we can support you.

Practice Yoga with Friends

Summertime is ideal to practice communally. It is a time to get out and spend time with others, teaching and learning from each other through observation and insight. Summertime is joyful and uplifting! This is the polar opposite of winter, which is interpersonal and reflective.

Some postures to incorporate into a summer practice are dynamic movements, standing postures, and pranayama (breathing exercises) to lighten up the heart.

Summertime can bring about bitterness emotionally if one does not allow heat to come in and flow out of the body. Any extra heat in the body has a cascading effect on sleep, digestion, and mood. Using techniques to flush out excess heat will benefit during the summer months, and also prepare the body for autumn.

Contact us for a free 15-minute consultation call to find out more about how we can support you throughout every season with individualized one-on-one yoga.

Chinese medicine Nutrition for Spring

Spring is the season of the beginning small yang and is characterized by growth, movement, and expansion.

After winter, the body’s qi energy begins to flow strongly again and seeks to expand freely. Food during this season should supplement qi energy, allowing it to course freely, and support Chinese medicine spleen and liver functional systems.

Recommended Spring Foods:

Mildly warming foods with upward movement: Fennel, rice, buckwheat; possibly pungent flavours (garlic, paprika, ginger) in case of accumulated dampness left over from the colder months.

Sour flavours, because they stabilize liver yin energy and can regulate upbearing liver yang.

Foods from the wood phase, green in colour with neutral, cool, or warm energy: Green tea, spinach, celery, a little more raw foods and sprouts.

Wind is often the dominating seasonal factor during spring and causes recurring external wind disorders (like colds & flus), which can be balanced with the mildly pungent flavours of green onions and ginger.

Foods to Avoid During Spring:

The following foods can block Liver Qi energy:

Energetically hot and fatty foods
Excess sour flavours

Tip:

🌱 Choose foods that are local and in season!

Source: Chinese Nutrition Therapy: Dietetics in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by Jörg Kastner

Contact us to find out more about how we can support you on your wellness journey!

Christina & ARC’s Dr. Ariadne Daniel on CTV Morning Live

Watch Whole Family Health fertility specialist, Christina Pistotnik and Alberta Reproductive Centre’s Reproductive Endocrinologist, Dr. Ariadne Daniel on CTV Morning Live – speaking to Canadian Fertility Awareness Week 2023.

Dr. Ariana from ARC on Global Health Matters

Listen to Dr. Ariadne Daniel from Alberta Reproductive Centre speak with Global Health Matters host, Su-Ling Goh about Canadian Fertility Awareness Week (CFAW), her new IVF clinic’s vision of Whole Person Fertility Care and our joint event offerings for CFAW’23.

WFH & ARC on CBC RadioActive!

WFH’s Dr. Alda & ARC‘s Dr. Ariadne had the pleasure of speaking with CBC RadioActive Host Jessica Ng about Canadian Fertility Awareness Week and our collaborative events for supporting the 1 in 6 this year. What a pleasure and honour it was – we are very grateful to CBC Radio for hosting us!

Katonah Yoga for Fertility

Katonah Yoga is based upon the principles that yoga is designed to improve the function of the organs.
The practice creates space within the body, thus creating room for the organs to function well.

Chinese Medicine Organ Systems and Fertility

The primary organ systems related to fertility in Chinese Medicine are the Kidneys and the Heart, as well as the Liver. A yoga practice focused on improving functionality of these organ systems will improve chances of conception, as well as overall wellness and vitality.

Yoga for the Kidney System

To access the Kidneys, one must work with the lower body. Our two legs relate to the two Kidneys and
represent the root system of the body. Using tools and postures to access the lower parts of the body
will give space and comfort to the Kidneys, flush out any stagnation within them, and keep their energy
reserves flowing well. These include pigeon, bound angle, shoelace, and standing folds.

Yoga for the Heart System

Working with the Heart system means working within community. It relates to the articulation of the practice and needs held within the body. The Heart is meant to feel all emotions fully, but then is designed to let them move through and release these emotions as well. A practice focused on clarity of needs and communal guidance and support gives nourishment to the Heart system and brings joy to the
practitioner! Breathwork (pranayama) helps move stagnant energy out of the Heart.

Yoga for the Liver System

A happy Liver system is a well functioning with no stagnation or Heat held within. Guiding the
practice to include supported backbends and twists will open up the Liver’s capacity for movement and
expansion.


Katonah Yoga provides archetypal patterns and fits for a well-informed practice. A good practice holds
up and provides clear evidence of improvements and expansion within the body and mind.

Contact us for a free 15-minute discovery call to find out more about how we can support you on your fertility journey with individualized Katonah Yoga.

What Is Katonah Yoga?

What is Katonah Yoga

Katonah Yoga is a formal technique that informs and reforms your yoga practice.

It’s about listening to the body through alignment & measures.

It is a specially designed technique that provides information and insight to your yoga
practice. It focuses on alignment and measures to ensure that you are working through formalized
movement and not falling back into habits that can lead to imbalances in the body.

The reason for moving away from a “feelings” based practice is to get out of your own way. Emotions are wonderful tools to guide and process life’s experiences, but can be biased and full of judgement. By shifting the focus onto the measures and fits within the body, knowing that the body cannot lie, one is better able to access information that is useful and measurable.

The 3 Principles of Katonah Yoga Technique

The Katonah Yoga technique revolves around three principles: all polarities are mediated by trinity; the universe has intelligence implied through pattern; and by virtue of repetition there is potential for
insight.

1. Polarity

First, polarities lie in all worldly things, and the beauty of polarity is when you put yourself in the
center there lies the opportunity to mediate and modulate your experiences.

2. Pattern

Second, pattern provides information about habits and tendencies to lean on strengths, while overlooking weaknesses.

Understanding pattern gives power to the practitioner because the Universe runs on pattern through
seasons, moon cycles, tides, and so much more. By understanding patterns, one can better learn how to align with Universal intelligence and become a more well-rounded human.

3. Practice & Repetition

Finally, the practice of yoga is just that: a practice. It brings about learning to manipulate time by repeating techniques to eventually master one’s own domain. Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it makes sense. It guides the practitioner to continue to explore the Self and unravel any narrative threads that no longer serve, thus giving space to rewrite one’s story.

Katonah Yoga Instructor

Working with a Katonah Yoga instructor will provide outside information to help guide your yoga
practice. The instructor can observe where you like to go and where you don’t, and can reorient your
yoga practice with verbal cues and hands-on adjustments.

Many props are also used to help support the postures, provide better framework, and create good boundaries.

I love to incorporate one-on-one individualized Katonah Yoga practice into sessions. Contact us to book a combined yoga and acupuncture session or a free 15-minute discovery call if you have any questions about it!

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