Late bloomer

I came to embodiment, bodyfulness, bodywork rather late in life. Not through injury, or my profession. In fact I have a background in performance, writing, editing, languages and communication. These are largely ‘thinky’ pursuits. (Far too thinky for a well-rounded healthful person.) It got to the point where my body had become a vehicle to carry my brain around in. Life seemed to be happening to my body rather than in it or through it.

In my 30s I had migrated to a new country, gotten married, had trouble trying to conceive, experienced stillbirth and in my 40s we continued on with growing our family. I was getting further and further away from being able to connect with myself. It was like I was a stranger in my own skin.

Beyond words

I was a freelance copywriter, busy, with two tiny children and still grieving the loss of our middle child. I took on an assignment with a bodywork practitioner who wanted help writing a paper to keep her Feldenkrais certification valid. We had a briefing session and after I asked a lot of questions, she simply suggested I have an experience. I was baffled that words could not explain this work (because they were my bread and butter after all!). So I agreed to come along.

After just one lesson, I got it. I understood how words do not do this work justice. A sort of magic had coursed through me. It was as though I had changed at a granular level. I had stumbled upon a new awareness of my infinite possibility! (With zero words.) I embodied creativity. I knew right then that I was supposed to do this work, someday. Since that period I have changed how I move and how I see myself. I feel far more creative, find joy in movement, am a dancer, don’t get performance anxiety and I am a hands-on body aware person. A decade ago I would never have described myself as any of these things!

Home at last

I’m the child of migrants and have lived for long periods in three different countries so far in my lifetime, and am now based in Christchurch, New Zealand. I learned that I need to feel at home in my body first, before a land can give me that homeland feeling (yes, I genuinely get homesick for three different places now!). Learning to do this has been such a rewarding experience for me that I wanted to bring an ease of being in one’s body to other people. So I became a certified Embodiment Coach through Embodiment Unlimited in 2022 and an authorised teacher of Awareness Through Movement (New Zealand Feldenkrais Guild) classes in 2024. I teach group classes throughout Christchurch and online, and l give coaching and individual movement lessons (Feldenkrais Method Functional Integration treatments) to individuals.

I look forward to welcoming you in person or online: the all of you, just as you are.

Talk to me about both your challenges and dreams, so I can explain how working together could be for you.