“Birth reflects how we live—what we believe, how we trust, and the ways we’ve come home to ourselves.”
-Hannah Alley
Sonderbirth // a philosophy of wholeness. A practice of trust.
SONDERBIRTH Mission
To honor birth as a threshold—a mirror of how we live and who we are becoming.
Sonderbirth exists to support women and birthworkers to meet this rite of passage with reverence, clarity, and deep embodiment. We believe that birth is not something to manage or control, but to unfold—through trust, awareness, and a return to the innate wisdom of the body.
Our work bridges the somatic and the symbolic, blending nervous system literacy with depth psychology, archetypal awareness, and relational fieldwork. We don’t pathologize the body—we listen to it. We don’t rush transformation—we honor its rhythm. Through The Unfolding Method™ and Birth Constellations™, we illuminate the unseen layers surrounding each birth story: personal, ancestral, energetic, and spiritual.
Whether you are preparing to give birth or holding space for others, Sonderbirth is here to restore sacredness, sovereignty, and support to the birth experience—so that we can arrive at birth with open palms.
coming soon
ATTUNE TO BIRTH
ONLINE SUMMIT
A 3-Day Global Online Event
June 2026
Join over 20 experts in physiological birth, body literacy, partner intimacy facilitation, birth trauma therapy, medical unwinding and advocacy, and nervous system regulation for a first-ever holistic celebration of birth & transformative online summit.
ATTUNE TO BIRTH
ONLINE SUMMIT
A 3-Day Global Online Event
June 2026
Join over 20 experts in physiological birth, body literacy, partner intimacy facilitation, birth trauma therapy, medical unwinding and advocacy, and nervous system regulation for a first-ever holistic celebration of birth & transformative online summit.
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childbirth education & pregnancy support
step into the birth portal with full trust in your body
This birth coaching offering is a sacred container for you (and your partner) to engage in as you prepare to enter the birthing portal & welcome your baby earth-side. I will be a resource, loving advocate, and unwavering accountability sister for you as you step into the portals of birth empowered, informed, and ready to surrender to the waves of birth.
this includes LIVE calls or in-person meetings where we’ll dive into:
-natural physiological birth
-milestones in labor
-cardinal positions
-surrendering practices
-birth plan/preference exploration
-nervous system regulation + practices
-birth as ceremony & facilitating deeper intimacy in your partnership
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birth keeping / doula services
it’s with deep gratitude i walk with women
i attend births as a labor doula through my relationship with Cherry Blossom Doula Services. This is such a nourishing partnership in which I am able to support all birth settings - home, birth center, or hospital with a full team of backups and resources to walk alongside you.
-on call resources throughout pregnancy + early labor
-on call during your birth window
-labor support in home or at place of birth
-postpartum visit
If you’re looking for this full-service support, you can review our services & fill out an inquiry on the Cherry Blossom Doula website. Please put my name as your referral.
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Somatic Birth Workshop Series
your birth experience can nourish the roots of your partnership.
expanding your family is the most intimate decision a couple can make, and birth is an invitation to dive deeper into partnership & connection.
This is a great foundational course for the couple seeking a connected & intimate birth experience with their partner, and want to learn some practices to deep their connection and tools to transform their relationship & birth experience.
As a special bonus, I’ve partnered with sexuality + relationship coach Kendal Merritt, who will guide you through some embodied practices to ignite presence + intimacy throughout pregnancy and as a tool in labor.
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Maternity, Birth & Newborn Photography
from behind the lens, i see beauty.
I’m a birth photographer and person who documents the most sacred & the mundane. It’s all one in the same. You can hire me for blessingways, baby showers, births, or just whenever you want to memorialize a season in life with you &/or your family.
-maternity photo shoots
-birth photography
-newborn photoshoots
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systemic family constellations
attune to truth & unfold into love
energy is a river, ever-flowing. The constellation works with the energetic field to identify what may be creating entanglements or blocking the flow of love in the system. When we enter the field and clear these interferences, we ride the waves of our parasympathetic response and unwind our nervous system, but also merge into the sea of truth that resides in the heart.
The key principles of the constellation work are inclusion, belonging, equilibrium, reciprocity and orders of love within a system.
-patterns of resistance & control
-family healing
-creative blocks
-birth trauma, abortions, miscarriages
hi, i’m hannah
Founder of SONDERBIRTH®
I didn’t set out to become a somatic birth doula. I’ve spent years moving between worlds—academic and intuitive, corporate and creative, Western and ancestral—always sensing that birth was never just a clinical event, but a mirror of something far deeper.
Like many women, my own births opened something ancient and electric in me. They restructured my body and spirit in ways no book or training could have prepared me for. In the quiet hours of postpartum, in the nonlinear waves of grief and awe, I began listening differently—not just to my own body, but to the stories women carry in theirs.
This listening became the foundation for Sonderbirth™, and later The Unfolding Method™—a somatic, archetypal approach to birth that honors the nervous system, the unconscious, and the body’s inner intelligence. Over time, I developed Birth Constellations™ to map the emotional and relational imprints surrounding a woman before labor even begins—revealing that how we birth is how we live, and how we live is reflected in how we birth.
This work is not about performance or perfection. It’s about presence. It’s about coming home to ourselves—especially in moments that feel most unraveled. It’s about tending to the unseen.
I now walk with women, doulas, and therapists through this terrain—offering tools that support coherence in the body, self-trust in the unknown, and reverence for the full spectrum of human experience. I also teach somatic and emotional literacy to high school students through the Upward Bound program, where we explore what it means to feel safe, seen, and empowered in one’s own skin.
What I’ve learned—whether in a birth room, a classroom, or my own inner landscape—is that healing doesn’t come from fixing. It comes from witnessing. From loving what’s been exiled. From remembering we are never separate from the sacred.
This is the heart of my work.
a few sweet words from families i’ve walked alongside …
The origins of my work with Family Constellations
One of my favorite places is at Silver Horse Ranch in Ranchita, California where I’ve trained in Family Constellations, a modality brought to the field of therapy by German psychologist Bert Hellinger, but originally adapted from a ceremony performed by the Zulu people of South Africa as a way to better understand one another.
Constellation is german for position. In other words, the order of things matter ~ and when we there is disorder or entanglements in our life, we impede the flow of love that runs through life, connecting us all. This work is highly effective on clearing blockages / stories that keep our river of love from flowing freely. Horses are beautiful companions to this work because of their energetic presence and capacity.
Here is a video of a closing ceremony from a past trip, where I entered the field and danced with horses to a song that, at that time, had been nourishing in my grief journey. Love Letters to God by Nakho.
here are a few videos to give greater insight into the work I do and the trainings i’ve completed with Sara and her herd:
Mentorship Program (with horses)
Advanced Family Constellation Facilitator Training
a testimony of my experience receiving from Sara & her herd.
in case you care about these things …. here are a few of my trainings & certificates
Bachelor’s in Communication & Psychology from the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
Master’s from ASU’s School of Social Transformation in Social & Cultural Pedagogy.
Certified Holistic Birth Doula, Whapio & The Matrona, trained by Whapio (founder & midwife).
Spiritual Midwifery, Birth Educator Whapio & The Matrona, trained by Whapio (founder & midwife).
Full-Spectrum Doula Training, Carriage House Birth
Trauma-Informed Somatic Guide, The Self Holding Method, Soma Mystica®, instructed by Sojourney Belle (founder & somatic practitioner)
Family Constellations Advanced Facilitator Training, Silver Horse Retreat, led by Sara Fancy (founder & facilitator).
Certified VBAC Pro, VBAC Academy
Spinning Babies® Workshop instructed by Gail Tully (founder and midwife)