Here’s the page where I try to give you a reasonable semblance of who I am and my experience. I’ve worn a lot of hats and I’m reluctant to pin myself down, but I’ll give it a go… I’m queer and non-binary, an animist, a feminist committed to practicing with an intersectional lens, a day dreamer, a reluctant writer, a parent and a dj who owns too many bomber jackets and is rarely seen without red lipstick.
My daughter tells me that if I could win any awards they would be for drinking tea and sleep – make of that what you will. I seldom accept ‘We’ve always done it this way’ as an answer and you’ll find that I bring a strong critical eye to models of health, wellbeing and care that fail to acknowledge the socio-political factors that negatively impact on individuals and communities. I live with my kid, my partner and our feline familiar in Bristol, UK.
Have a read below for a sense of the skills and experience that have woven together to shape how I work:
- From my early teens I grew up on the fringes of many radical spaces. Free parties, raves, DIY culture and temporary autonomous zones have all played a big part in how I view the world. I have massive reverence for people coming together to disrupt systems of harm and oppression. Resistance is fertile.
- I have had a deep engagement with animist, magickal and otherworldly studies since I was young, with a primary focus on folkways, rites and rituals from the British Isles. I have been described as a walker-between-worlds and I am happiest when I am working in collaboration with the unseen and the liminal.
- Spaces where people can come together to explore, inquire and learn together excite and renew me, so my thirteen years of facilitation and workshop-crafting skills feed into creating and holding these.
- As a student to my menstrual cycle since my twenties, over the course of a decade I have built my experience as a menstrual health activist and educator. Offering workshops and mentoring to folks who menstruate, I aim to support them to have a better relationship with their cycles.
- I have 16 years of working in voluntary sector mental health services as a manager, trainer, coach, and facilitator. I value approaches to health that centre community, co-production and collaboration. My two proudest moments over this period were as co-conspirator of Generation Snowstorm, a summer school exploring activism as a form of radical self and collective care and founding Resilience Lab. Lab is a youth co-produced series of workshops that support young people to draw from their strengths and navigate adversity, whilst encouraging participants to see mental health as a social and political issue as well as a personal one. Established in 2012, it continues to reach thousands of young people to this day.
- I still work as a freelance consultant and trainer – you can find out more about my experience here.
Training and study that has informed my practice:
- Green Fuse, Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy, 2020 – 2021
- Apprenticing to Elen Sentier, teacher and practitioner in Native British Folk Practices and Animism, 2016 – 2020
- BRIEF London, Certificate in Solution Focused Practice (specialising in group work, supervision and coaching), 2016
- University of West of England, Advanced Certificate in Counselling Skills, 2009
- Bath Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling, Listening Skills for a Diverse and Multi-Cultural Society, 2006
- I have also participated in various iterations of Joanna Macy’s The Work that Reconnects and resilience building praxis over the last decade or so, including workshops facilitated by Jenny Mackewn and Chris Johnstone, who is co-author of Active Hope with Joanna Macy.
Whilst the experiences I have had on the trainings below have informed my work, when I participated in these courses they centred cisheteronormative narratives about what it means to be in a body, of which I have very actively unravelled from.
- Red School, Menstruality Leadership Programme with Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlizter, 2012
- The Sacred Trust, Arte Triptych Melissae with Naomi Lewis and Kate Shela, 2012
- Celebration Day for Girls, Facilitator Training, 2011
Folks of Thisworld who have inspired me:
Silvia Frederici, adrienne maree brown, P L Travers, Meg John Barker, Nathan and Tavi Eisenstadt, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha, Cindy Milstein, Estelle Ellison, Breyer P Orridge, Björk, Monica Sjöö, Joanna Macy, Octavia Butler, Báyò Akómoláfé.
Folks of Otherworld(s) who have inspired me:
Bee, Spider, Snail, Snake, Blodeuwedd, Elen of the Ways, Arianrhod, Gwion Bach, Lemniscate, Mugwort, Lemonbalm, Clotho, Lachesis and Apropos, the fae folk.