Frequently Asked Questions
What Can You Help Me With?
I specialise women with any kind of womb related health issue. I mostly work with women who are having period issues, but I with women who are looking to optimise or improve their fertility, pregnancy, birth, post partum recovery and preparation for menopause.
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Whether your have painful periods, irregular periods, heavy periods, PMS, PCOS, endometriosis, amenorrhea, fibroids, or fertility issues, this is the right place for you.
Why Is Your Approach Different?
I have come to believe that every sign and symptom your body is giving you isn't a sign that your body has given up or isn't working Instead, these are all signals from your body that she is trying to communicate with you and let you know something needs your attention. Infact, when your periods go haywire, that is a sign that you need to look at your health and actually, by having a period, we get a unique window into our current health.
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Did you know that the colour of your period alone can tell you a lot about your hormones and womb position?
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I now use a functional or root cause approach to working with clients. We work systematically through all the possibly root causes of their issues are and they get to learn their bodies, how they adapt to different lifestyle habits, food and environment.
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This is hugely different to trying to just suppress symptoms because when you go down that path, often when you stop doing something to suppress that symptom, the problem comes back, or something else goes wrong.
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I am also a specialist in women's health. After regular training in various modalities, I became fascinated with the female body, in particular the period and started doing specialist training in that area.
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It turns out women's unique physiology (and particular hormones) mean that often women respond to different environments, foods, stressors and medications to men. This is widely known and for that reason medical trials are often done on men only to cancel out the variability of the menstrual cycle. This means that many current health care practitioners, regardless of their modality are actually specialists in men's health.
I have had to go back and learn all the interactions of the ovarian hormones with different body systems, even after a woman has had a hysterectomy or menopaused. I have literally spend thousands of hours training and researching in specialist areas of women's health to ensure that I understand the way women's bodies work. I have come to realise that unless you have specifically trained in women's health, you have trained in men's health.
Why Did You Specialise In Periods & Women's Health?
Periods always held a certain fascination for me, even as a little girl. So imagine my horror when I started what was supposed to be a sacred right of passage into womanhood and I ended up with crippling period pain and flooding every time I had a period.
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I was very soon diagnosed with Poly Cystic Ovaries (PCOS) and soon came to hate my body. My health deteriorated for years and I was so unhappy.
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When I finally reached a health crisis in my mid 20s, I knew it was time to do something about it. I ended up studying a lot about anatomy, physiology and nutrition, and after discovering Fertility Massage Therapy realised that rather than focussing on the bigger issues, I needed to focus on my womb.
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The healing journey finally began. I then learnt about how to chart my cycle and qualified in Natural Family Planning (NFP) and Fertility Awareness (FAM), mostly because I wanted to know more about periods and the mechanisms behind them. And teaching these methods was so rewarding, as other women started to learn about their bodies.
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I did some advanced training in reflexology techniques specifically for women's health and then finished my Nutritional Therapy qualification. I then went on to become a Women's Health and Nutrition Coach at the Integrative Pelvic Health Institute and I am currently doing the Women's Health Coach specialty course at the Integrative Women's Health Institute. I am also studying Traditional Chinese Nutritional Therapy which offers a fascinating insight into women's health from a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective.
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I am now fascinated in how so much of our health is affected by what we eat, how much we sleep, our environmental exposures, relations affects us as women and how it impacts our health, either positively or adversely and I am regularly reading research that is finally being done to further understand the female body.
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I love learning how different women are to men physiologically and how this impacts us from birth right through life, even if you have your womb removed or go through menopause. To me, everything is related to and comes back to your periods.
What Are Your Credentials?
I have done a lot of specialist training including:
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Women's Health & Nutrition Coach - Integrative Women's Health Institute, Integrative Pelvic Health Institute
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Women's Health Coach - Integrative Women's Health Institute
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Apprenticeship with Nicole Jardim
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Natural Family Planning & Fertility Awareness Method Teacher - Natural Family Planning Teachers' Association
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Fertility Massage Therapy
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Women's Health Reflexology
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I also have formal qualifications in a number of therapies such as: Massage, Reflexology, Meditation, Aromatherapy, Reiki Master Teacher, Natural Facelift Massage, Seated Massage, Indian Head Massage, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
I'm Not Sure What I Need or Which Therapy To Choose
You don't need to choose, in the first session we discuss what your goals are and what the best course of action would be for you, including with therapies are likely to be more helpful in you situation and what appeals to you.
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Of course, if you have something in particular in mind, then that is fine too, just let me know.
What's The Difference Between Health Coaching & Nutritional Therapy?
Surprisingly to most people these are very different disciplines. Nutrition and nutritional therapy are about making an assessment of a client's status and making appropriate recommendations based on that evaluation. This could be a meal plan, or supplement plan or even just some guidelines. In theory, you give someone a meal plan and she complies, then you follow up and re-assess.
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Health coaching assumes that the woman knows many of the answers within herself. And let's be honest, most of us know we are stressed, that we could eat more vegetables, that we could move more. But it is the getting that thought into action can be tough. It might be you have a meal plan but don't know what half of it means. It might be that you have goals but just can't seem to action them. Or you may just need help with your vision of what good health and wellbeing means to you.
Health coaching is about helping you achieve changes, usually small ones to get you where you want to be long term. This is a long term relationship. It could be half an hour a week every week for years as you work through each of your health goals.
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I like to combine the two disciplines, so we are working with your goals, but I can and will make therapeutic suggestions when appropriate. But more importantly rather than a list of instructions and sending you on your merry way expecting compliance, we break it down in to clear achievable steps that help you move into these new habits and routines.
Can You Guarantee Results?
As much as I wish I had a magic wand that could fix everyone's issues, it doesn't exist. I can make no guarantees on any kind of result as everyone is different.
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Working with me or embarking on my programmes will help you get your body into a better state of health and increase your body literacy. These are all the things you need to do to improve your reproductive health and hormones.
Do You Work With Men?
I have spent so much time, money and energy training to understand women's physiology and it's effect on health and how to work with the female hormones, that it would be a waste of a man's time to work with me. Especially as if someone hasn't specialised in women's health, they are actually by default a specialist in men's health (as most studies and interventions are based on men only).
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I do however, work with male partners for couples who are looking to actively trying to conceive as that is one area where there is some overlap.
Do You Do Free Sessions?
As much as I would like to be able to offer free sessions, I can't and don't for a number of reasons.
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Firstly, I had to pay a lot of money and invest a lot of time into learning and researching and I have found that people who I did case studies on without payment, didn't value my services and rarely did any of the work they needed to do in between. Also, they didn't realise that I had to do other things with my time and would constantly cancel. I have come to learn that people need to invest in their health in order to buy into working towards the outcome and taking some responsibility towards their health and wellbeing. I want women who work with me to get results. Have you ever bought something on sale because it was cheap and then not used it? Your health is more important that something to dip into and out of and something you should value.
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Secondly, every session I do incurs overheads and it will be a long time before I make back my tuition and study fees.
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Finally, this is my job. Good will and happy feelings don't pay my mortgage or bills (although wouldn't it be awesome if it could?)
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For all these reasons, I do not offer free sessions.
I Just Have A Quick Question...
Great, I'd love to answer it, if it is something personal to your health then book in a session and we can look at it properly. If it is generic post it in the Facebook Group and I can answer there as it is likely that if you have wondered about it, someone else has too.
I Sent You A Private Message On Social Media...
I don't answer messages or friend requests on social media for legal and ethical reasons which are too long to post here.
I also haven't installed any messaging app which means I cannot see many messages in most cases either.
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Please do not send me any personal information via e-mail or social media. If you book in a session with me, you will get a link to a form which will take the information I required in a secure and encrypted way that protects your data and information.
Do You Mentor Other Therapists?
I offer individual mentoring and group webinars. If you wish to talk about particular clients, please be aware that you are legally required to gain their permission in writing before sharing their details. If you want to get on the practitioner training and webinar lists, let me know or join my practitioner Facebook Group.
What Is Your Cancellation Policy?
Any cancellation less than 48 hours before the appointment will not be re-imbursed. Any other cancellation will be subject to an administration fee.
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Please read the terms and conditions when booking in.