From PCOS to chronic pain, can emotional healing transform women's health?

Khaleej Times

a day ago

The womb, in ancient cultures has been revered as a sacred centre of creation. It is in a mother's womb that the seeds of entire humanity are first planted. But for the woman herself, the womb is more than a reproductive organ, it is also her emotional centre, balancing her hormones, nurturing her identity and fuelling her power. So, listen to the messages of your womb, says Sarmistha Mitra, Dubai-based psychologist and wellness expert. Womb healing, she reveals, can have a deep transformative effect on a woman's health. In her recently released book Whispers of the Womb, she offers a holistic approach to address the mind-body connection behind gynaecological conditions such as PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, menstrual pain and infertility.
The book was born out of her lived-in experience as a woman and a therapist. For years Mitra had watched her aunt live through the silent pain of infertility and her cousin endure years of exhausting IVF cycles, leaving her body emotionally and physically depleted. 'Even the first client who walked through my door was a woman navigating the emotional roller coaster of IVF. During the therapy sessions, we began uncovering her deeply buried beliefs, her feelings of not being enough, generational shame, ancestral grief that even she was unaware of holding on to for years,' says Mitra, who is also the founder of The Wellbeing Sanctuary, Dubai, a holistic health centre.
As the client healed, something incredible happened — she conceived naturally soon after. 'That moment stirred something in me. I realised our wombs are not just physical organs, they are emotional archives. The womb is where life begins and also where unhealed pain hides. It carries the emotional residue of generations, stories we have inherited, shame we have absorbed and parts of ourselves we have forgotten,' she adds.
Womb healing, is a process of reclaiming this sacred space from pain, trauma and suppression. Combining years of research based on personal and professional experience, Mitra chose to write, Whispers of the Womb, to explore the sacred feminine, ancestral healing and subconscious reprogramming to help women reclaim their feminine power. Through her writing she urges women to embrace their inner wisdom, sensuality and creativity to restore their physical and mental wellbeing through acceptance and practical everyday healing rituals.
Generational trauma, a lesser explored factor, is an integral part of Mitra's book. She writes that just as physical traits are passed down from one generation to the other so are emotional experiences and societal conditioning. 'Ancestral trauma especially around gender roles, sexuality and oppression are inherited not just through stories but also through biology. Science calls it epigenetics. Our grandmother's grief, our mother's shame, their unspoken sacrifices live in our bodies, especially in our wombs,' points out Mitra.
Through her work as a psychologist she has encountered a rising number of women struggling with womb-related disorders including fibroids, PCOS, endometriosis and early menopause. The more she listened to their stories, the more she realised that they were not just medical conditions but messages. 'I asked myself 'what if that what we are so desperate to fix, is actually trying to protect us.' That idea blew my mind and I began to see that these disorders were not random. The body, in its wisdom, was shielding us from perceived threats encoded over generations through angst, suppression and disconnection from our true nature. Imbalance, pain and disorders, are not flaws, they are reminders and signals.'
The modern woman is often suppressing her feminine energy. While navigating her way through a highly competitive world, she often overcompensates by taking on masculine traits. Mitra calls it the masculine overdrive. She describes how many women are constantly pushing, proving, achieving and performing. 'The truth is that women today are exhausted because they are stuck in a constant tug of war between who they were programmed to be and who the world expects them to become. They were told to be caregivers, be selfless, quiet, accommodating, but today they are also called to be leaders, decision makers, breadwinners while still being expected to maintain emotional grace, beauty and balance.' The internal conflict between their outdated subconscious roles and the modern external demands, is not just stressful but it also dysregulates the nervous system showing up as anxiety, hormonal imbalance, burnout, thyroid issues, fertility struggles and emotional fatigue. 'A woman does not need to choose between her ambition and softness. She just needs to feel safe enough to be who she is.'
Turning inwards through stillness and reflection, feeling instead of clamping down on emotions, and beginning a conscious dialogue with the womb are some of the ways, the author suggests that women can heal themselves. She retells the instance of one of her clients who was diagnosed with PCOS and was struggling with irregular menstrual cycles. During the counselling sessions, Mitra was able to help her client unburden her beliefs around self-worth and release her suppressed emotions. 'Over time her menstrual cycle was naturally regulated and her hormone levels became balanced,' shares Mitra. 'What changed was not her body but her relationship with herself.'
Readers will discover several daily rituals in the book that can be practised including womb breathing, pelvic bowl journaling, warm castor oil compress, dancing or hip circles and mirror work.
The author's own journey of healing and transformation began over a decade ago. As a stay-at-home mum, Mitra's world collapsed when her only son went abroad for college education. Her empty nest triggered a deep emotional upheaval. Eventually, she healed her pain by training to be a wellness practitioner, learning transpersonal psychology, clinical hypnotherapy and several other therapeutic modalities. A firm advocate of building one's mental muscles, she has designed the DecodeYou therapy, a KHDA accredited course, to help people recalibrate their subconscious mind. 'As a stay-at-home-mum, I was outwardly fulfilled but inwardly unravelled,' she adds. 'My healing was not just about learning psychology, it was about rewiring the nervous system. In doing so I was able to become the woman, my younger self needed. The woman who finally birthed the truth and now teaches others to do the same because when we heal our womb physically, emotionally and spiritually it not just bears life, it also gives your life back to you.'