Gazillions of pounds are generated out of making women feel bad about themselves. I believe that you are just fine as you are; even when you feel horrible you can heal and find your own way to live contentedly and creatively. If you need it, I can hold space for you to let go and find threads of joy and ease within yourself, so you can start to accept and heal.
I am a menstrual and menopause mentor and workshop facilitator and have been a therapist for more than a quarter of a century. I’ve featured in Time Out, The Evening Standard, the London Metro and written for well-known well-being publications, like Well Doing, Juno Magazine, Counsellors Cafe, Mind Body Green and Massage Magazine, you can scroll to find more articles here. I’m in second spring, which means post-menopause, and have deep gratitude for the education that the menopause process has gifted me.
My mission is to change the way we regard menopause and show women how to relax into their own, inner authority through their cyclical nature and menopause process.
I refuse to take myself too seriously and try to never take anything on that is not pleasurable and delicious.
The long story
I am constantly deepening my understanding of healing and growth with personal research into falling on my face and getting up again, you can read some of my more personal reflections in these articles.
I started to massage professionally in 1993, running a successful on-site massage company, working with Reiki and with women affected by HIV and AIDS at Body and Soul and in private practice. After training in Biodynamic methods with Gerda Boyesen I deepened my understanding by studying at Chiron gaining a certificate in Body Psychotherapy and Biodynamic Massage.
I have worked in many settings teaching, practising and writing about massage, usually focusing on women’s health and am still fascinated with the process of empowering women by supporting body awareness.
Having loved massage during my own pregnancies, I was inspired to study Shiatsu with Suzanne Yates at Well Mother where I gained a credit for my diploma and specialised in pregnancy massage.
I brought a bloody brilliant gang of women together supporting each other in PAPA, a birth network in Watford. Some of the connections made at PAPA created businesses and projects that are still vibrant today.
I trained in abdominal massage in 2013 with Helen Petch and Clare Blake. It makes the perfect bridge between the energetic healing of Biodynamic work and the issues that arise from the cyclical nature of being a woman. My fertility massage and rebozo massage skills have been developed further by studying fertility massage with Clare Blake in 2014.
For many years I also supported therapists to feel relaxed about their marketing with online training.
The movement and exercise I started to learn at Well Mother has brought me to train in Womb Yoga with Uma Dinsmore-Tuli.
Having come across the film ‘Moon Inside You’ by chance, I became aware of the awesome, luminous figure that is Alexandra Pope and finding that she was teaching in the UK attended her workshops in menstruality and took the Women’s Quest Apprenticeship Leadership Training in 2016. I’ve been following her around ever since.
My training with Red School continues and I was the first graduate in Menstrual Medicine Circles in June 2018.
In partnership with Leora Leboff, I run Woman Kind retreats, facilitating virtual and real-life retreats for groups of menstruating and menopause women and therapists to build more kindness into their lives.
Organisations, Insurance & Privacy
I am a member of the ABMT (Association of Biodynamic Massage Therapists) and hold full insurance. I have professional supervision and keep my skills updated, you can find a full list of my qualifications here. It is very important to me that I hold safe, respectful spaces for women and you can find my privacy policy here.
What I do
Offering space for sensitive women to heal
Woman Kind
With Leora Leboff I offer retreats for women at Woman Kind, we create space for women to explore how to live life with greater energy, increased creativity, and a deeper understanding of their own needs.
We guide women in their exploration by inviting them to use their cyclical nature, whether through the menstrual cycle or menopause journey to discover the kindnesses that will nourish them for an authentic and flourishing life.
Menopause Mentoring and Medicine Circles
I specialise in 1-2-1 menopause and perimenopause mentoring. My practice is in Watford, Hertfordshire or we can connect online, the sessions are a deeply soulful way of exploring how your cyclical nature can create a better life for yourself and how you can navigate menopause with style.
Pants of Empowerment
This project offers space for women’s stories about their deepest femininity and sexuality to be heard; their wombs, ovaries, clitorises (clitori?), vaginas, vulvas and the stories of trauma and joy they have to tell.
There is nothing as powerful as women coming together to share their stories of loss and triumph.
In response to the stories, I make pants of power, fantastical garments made with love and playfulness to help repair the wounds.
Intuitive Bodywork
I offer Intuitive Bodywork for highly sensitive women who want to re-connect with themselves and heal. A specialist in menopause, menstrual issues, fertility and personal growth my work is grounded in Biodynamic, Abdominal-Sacral, Fertility and Shiatsu traditions.
