About me
‘The gift you carry for others is not an attempt to save the world but to fully belong to it. It’s not possible to save the world by trying to save it. You need to find what is genuinely yours to offer the world before you can make it a better place. Discovering your unique gift to bring to your 'community' is your greatest opportunity and challenge. The offering of that gift – your true self – is the most you can do to love and serve the world. And it is all the world needs.’ (Bill Plotkin)
My background
I have been studying with Ya'Acov and Susannah Darling Khan, the founders of the School of Movement Medicine (UK) on an ongoing basis since 2009. I am a fully qualified Movement Medicine Teacher and Facilitator with CPD Level 1 Advanced Training in working with the Heart and the SEER Process (systemic essential energy retrieval), CPD 2 in Ritual and Ceremonial Leadership, CPD Level 3 in the Phoenix Process and CPD Level 4 in Initiation work. I am also a mentor for the School of Movement Medicine, supporting Apprentices on their journey.
Before discovering this kind of dance, I taught yoga and studied massage and other healing modalities, all of which, together with my own ongoing yoga and movement practice influence and inspire my teaching.
As part of my 'other' work in the international development context, I have been facilitating workshops internationally for diverse groups of NGO staff, government officials, researchers and community representatives for more than 13 years.
Having spent most of my adult life living in Brighton, in the UK, I now live in Knysna, South Africa, in the beautiful Garden Route which offers many opportunities to connect with and be nourished by nature in all its diverse forms: the sea, mountains, rivers and ancient forests. I also continue to spend time in the UK and Europe on a regular basis.
My commitment and intention
I bring to my practice, my teaching and facilitating my intense passion for life and my deep love for the Earth and all our relations. My intention is to inspire, to offer ways of finding support and nourishment, to bring us into connection with ourselves, each other, community, life and the big picture and from this place to act, be and live in ways that are in alignment with and help to contribute to the co-creation of the more beautiful sustainable just and fulfilling world for all that we wish to see and live in.
"When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world."
(Mary Oliver)
Interests
I have a strong interest in sustainable behaviour change, especially with regard to stories, values and relationships that create the word we currently live in.
Time in nature, poetry and movement in all sorts of different forms (dance, walking, running, yoga) are what nourishes, inspires and resources me.
My other work in international development takes me to many different countries in Africa and Asia. I work with people from many cultural, ethnic, social and professional backgrounds, including NGO and government staff, bilateral organisations and academics. I have been weaving more and more of my Movement Medicine work into my work context. I am passionate about introducing more embodied ways of working into facilitation, leadership, the development context and corporate world, making clearer the linkages between the micro of personal behaviour and the macro, i.e. the work we do ‘out there’ and finding ways to re-connect personal awareness and growth with activism.
Professional affiliation
I am a member of the Movement Medicine Association, the professional body that upholds the professional standards of Movement Medicine and follow its code of ethics.
