Of all the human relationships the twin relationship is the most intimate….

Science used to believe that the most painful of relational loses was that of a mother losing a child. We now know that the twin relationship is the most intimate of all relationships and the experience of loosing a twin can create such a void as to interfere with the surviving twin’s capacity to grow an flourish.

Twin loss can happen anywhere along the lifespan including during the earliest weeks of pregnancy. This early form of twin loss is known as the Vanishing Twin Syndrome because the death of a twin or triplet occurs during the first 4 weeks of pregnancy before there is any visual record of their presence. It is believed that 30-80% of those of us who think we are singletons may have been conceived during a multiple conception and that somewhere in the first 6 weeks twin(s) died.

Whether one’s twin dies before birth or after birth the effects on the surviving twin can be the same. Traditional Psychology has, for years, been working with the emotional, psychological and physical consequences of twin loss with surviving twins. Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology has also been working for years with these same dynamics with surviving embryonic and prenatal twins. Now, Identity Oriented Psycho-Trauma Therapy (in Germany and Norway) has developed a methodology that can directly access these early wounds in adults. Please read about it the the ‘Other Services’ tab.

What makes prenatal twin loss more challenging than later twin loss that occurs after birth is that no one on the outside is aware of what happened and so these surviving twins live in greater isolation and loneliness as they grow up. The deepest part of their reality goes unacknowledged by the world around them and buries itself below conscious awareness.

When these experiences of prenatal twin loss are explored and integrated, life opens up, deep internal connections are made and the capacity to reconnect with one’s true identity unfolds. When this happens life becomes a new journey of discover, unfoldment and self connection.