dwelling in your uterus: an emotion-focused gynecology

Maud Renard

(Tana Éditions, 256 pages, 2021)

***German rights sold to Arkana***

Pain, lack of pleasure, acute or chronic discomfort—these are common troubles in the sphere of gynecology, and visits to the gynecologist do not always provide all the answers. What if we tried to reconnect with our bodies in a whole new way so we can better decode the signals they are sending us? This is what Maud Renaud proposes in Dwelling in Your Uterus. Her goal is not to discount conventional medicine but more to offer a life-changing method that teaches us to better understand where these problems may come from.

Renaud begins by guiding us through a rediscovery of female anatomy, hormones, and emotions to unveil the links that connect them. Like a second brain, the uterus is an emotional reservoir that possesses a physical as well as an energetic function. Our bodies tend to hold on to experiences from the past, and, often, intentional effort is required to bring them into our consciousness. In the subsequent chapters, she initiates us into the emotional decoding of menstrual imbalances and gynecological disorders to better understand what our bodies want to tell us. She provides powerful tools to help women connect not only with their uterus but also with their menstrual blood and sexuality through movement, ritual, and visualization exercises to help find confidence, power, and serenity.

Renaud considers that we are often depleting our energy fighting these various gynecological symptoms at the expense of using that energy to live the life we desire. More important, from the outset Renaud clarifies that her book is not solely aimed at cisgender women but also non-binary and transsexual persons. The feminine is not just a uterus, she emphasizes, and, conversely, the uterus is not just feminine. Dwelling in Your Uterus embraces the view that there are as many diagnoses as there are patients, and that it’s up to each of us to embark upon the discovery of our own emotional body.

Maud Renard was trained as an architect and classical dancer. She learned about emotional gynecology while living in Columbia. Encouraged by her teachers, she returned to France and created “Gyn’emotion,” a method combining natural and emotional gynecology, anatomical learning, and energetics.