Yoga for Women’s Health
Women’s health & yoga
Women are constantly transitioning through the cycles of menstruation, possibly pregnancy and birth and the changes brought on during perimenopause and menopause.
Society’s expectations and life’s demands do not necessarily support her to honour or harness the power within these changes. And yet, the adjustments required of women to constantly move through the cyclic changes at all stages of her life fosters one of women’s greatest strengths - adaptability.
Understanding how to cultivate this adaptability through the practice of yoga provides women with the tools to accommodate what her body and mind may need at any given moment and enable women to honour her cyclic and life stage changes instead of resisting them. In doing so, cultivating a sense of feeling nourished, centred and connecting to a deeper sense of herself and creating a sense of empowerment and freedom within.
Using yoga to support the unique cyclic needs of your body is offered for menstrual health and difficulties, promoting fertility, pregnancy and birthing, postnatal recovery and adjustment, perimenopause and menopause and into post menopause.
“I have never felt so supported or safe to move my body and feel into my emotions.”
— Rebecca - women’s health yoga participant 43 years old
Menstrual Health
The ever changing cycle of menstruation creates waves of varying influence on your physical body, your energy levels, your fertility and often your mental wellbeing. Recognising these changes and influences, understanding your unique rhythms and combining them with embodiment practices, I offer an opportunity to cultivate overall menstrual wellbeing, practices to assist in reducing menstrual disorder symptoms and nourish your nervous system.
Supporting you to find your unique rhythms, I work in collaboration to understand the ebb and flow of your body, hormones and life phase to learn how to acknowledge and respond to these cyclic changes from a foundation of empowerment. Engaging trauma informed somatic and yoga practices, as well as drawing on a background counselling in women’s mental health, we develop a personalised approach to support the changing energy in your body, cultivating adaptability and embodiment to uphold a sustained and regulated nervous system.
Pre-Conception, Fertility & IVF
Navigating the path of conceiving can be an unknown journey for many. Fertility challenges and/or travelling the road of IVF can be a complex web of hope and grief creating tension, stress and feelings of fragmentation and isolation. Understanding the connection between your mind and body and the impact of stress on the systems of your body offers opportunities to engage supportive self care practices.
Offering women’s health focussed and trauma informed yoga practices alongside compassionate emotional and mental health support, I provide an integrated therapeutic approach to reduce stress and regulate your nervous system. Drawing on evidence based trauma sensitive embodiment and yoga practices and compassion focussed, perinatal mental health qualifications, sessions provide an adjunct to your conception care, fertility treatments and ART, inviting experiences of safety within your body, nurturing and empowerment.
Pregnancy, Birth & Motherhood
The birth of every baby signals a transition of motherhood as a woman’s world changes. Your body alters, your identity evolves with new roles, and from your changing hormones, both physiological and neurological changes transition you through this phase called matrescence.
Pregnancy can be a time of anticipation, excitement and joy. It may also be a time of stress, uncertainty or fear. Feeling supported and empowered through your pregnancy can create a foundation for you in navigating your baby’s birth and your adjustment to the unpredictability of early parenthood.
Embodiment practices of yoga offer you an opportunity to safely connect to sensations within your body, and to notice emotions and thoughts. Compassionately connecting with an empowered sense of yourself you are offered a safe, non-judgemental space to nurture yourself through trauma informed prenatal and postnatal yoga practices, alongside my extensive experience in perinatal mental health. I support you in managing the stress of change, offer strategies to nourish and regulate your nervous system and navigate adjustment to motherhood whilst building your attachment and attunement with your baby.
Postnatally you are offered yoga practices designed to safely strengthen your body after birth supporting gentle pelvic floor restoration together with practices to nurture your mental and emotional wellbeing in the unpredictability of postnatal recovery and motherhood. Sessions can also include baby to nurture connection and attachment.
I also specialise in working with women who have a history of trauma including birth trauma, anxiety and depression, infertility and perinatal loss, engaging evidence based practices to support your mental and emotional wellbeing and healing through this time of change.
Perimenopause & Menopause
As women start to move into the second half of life, just as in adolescence and pregnancy, women’s hormones go through a massive change igniting another developmental phase. As your cycles of menstruation come to an end you are undergoing what is formally known as perimenopause and menopause, which can also be reclaimed as your Transition. The changes occurring hormonally, not only create physiological changes, but also immense neurological changes with resulting shifts in your sense of identity within the world.
Historically not a stage celebrated in an often ageist society, you may be feeling isolated, deeply unsettled and navigating a wilderness of potentially debilitating symptoms. Riding a potential roller coaster of unpredictable hormonal change, emotional upheaval, and a myriad of physical changes, you may be left evaluating your purpose and sense of self during this period which can last anywhere from two to 14 or more years. Just as in other developmental phases, your experience can be vastly different from other women, but for all, an opportunity arises to embrace change and with support, emerge empowered.
Yoga is one such support which can offer different practices to assist in managing symptoms, regulating your nervous system as it is buffeted by hormonal change and arising stressors. Drawing on a feminine based approach which respects the ever changing nature of the Transition, I explore with you how different yoga forms (asana), breathing practices (pranayama) and mindfulness practices focus can offer an anchor through the turbulence. Working from a foundation of self compassion, I support you to nourish your nervous system, assist in managing symptoms and strengthening your body and mind to navigate this phase. Combining these embodiment practices with extensive experience as a trauma informed social worker, I hold a safe space to cultivate and nurture your authentic self, navigate healing and embrace your wisdom into the next phase of your life.
