As a child I had a keen, buzzing curiosity to understand myself, others and life, as well as I possibly could. So many things in the world and ways that people relate didn’t make sense. I didn’t understand why people were so unhappy, fought so much and why there were so many rules (both spoken and unspoken) people were expected to follow that meant we couldn’t be our honest, authentic selves.

I questioned and challenged the idea that it was “just how life is”, speaking up when something didn’t seem fair or didn’t make sense, and daring to explore and express who I felt I was, rather than accepting the ideas of who I was told I should be. I looked for ways to connect more deeply with myself and others, pondered the mystery of what this life is all about, and delighted in discovering and creating my own unique ways of being in the world.

Exploring my spiritual nature and what it meant for how I related in life was a huge part of my tween and teenage years. At the age of 15, I had an experience early one midsummer morning of complete belonging, deep peace, and indescribable joy and beauty. I knew myself as an integral part of everything that exists and felt the complete perfection of it all, no part excluded. For me, the question then became how to remember and integrate this recognition of my true nature into everyday life, with all of its struggles, suffering, confusions and paradoxes; a question that is as alive in me now as it was then. 

In my early twenties I took a masters degree in community development and began my professional career supporting the empowerment of local communities, soon realising that community empowerment was impossible without the individuals of those communities becoming personally empowered in their own lives and relationships.

Realising that life is all about relationships, I began offering an assertiveness course. I loved seeing how people’s lives transformed when they learned how to listen to themselves and say No and Yes clearly and kindly. Many reported being newly empowered to speak up and handle difficult conversations at work, communicate better with their partner and set healthy boundaries with their children and other family members, feeling freer to be themselves, happier and more at peace.

The personal relationship challenges I’ve faced and worked with in my own life led me to seek out training that would equip me to navigate them with more skill, love and kindness, and to support others to do the same. This includes training with Jan Day, Voice Dialogue training with Transforming Dialogue and a Year of Polyvagal with Deb Dana.

The huge shifts I’ve experienced in difficult relationship patterns means my life is now much happier, healthier and more fulfilling than I ever thought possible. I’ve learned and discovered a great deal since my early thirties that I wished I’d been taught at school; I believe life would’ve been so much simpler, happier and more peaceful. I have a huge passion for sharing with others what I have found most helpful, with a deep wish for us all to experience what we most long for in our relationships with ourselves, with others and with life.