2023 UK Retreat Programme
For the last couple of years, due to the Pandemic, I have not been offering retreats and courses. Taking the time to focus on my arts practise, to rest and rejuvenate.
If you would like to know when I start offering Retreats again please sign up here for updates (please scroll down the linked page to sign up for my email list).
My Mindfulness Journey
I have been practising meditation and mindfulness in the Buddhist tradition since 1993 and a graduate of the year-long residential course in Buddhist Studies and Contemporary Inquiry at Sharpham (which was offered between 1996-2001). My professional creative career spans a wide range of experience including teaching and community arts.
Drawing from my personal experience of the therapeutic qualities of mindfulness and creative expression (which supported me through critical illness and major life trauma) I have been developing and facilitating mindfulness and creative inquiry retreats since 2007.
My Healing Journey
In 2001 I began training as a Drama Therapist but unfortunately after a year had to give up the course as I fell critically ill and had to have life saving surgery. The next seven years was a roller coaster of major life stress and trauma culminating in the sudden death of my husband in 2007.
Needless to say I was knocked off my feet. My usual strategy of picking myself up and getting on with life wasn’t working, my body just wouldn’t let me. I had no choice but to stop and in this time I learned that healing is a journey, like the seasons, has its own momentum and cannot be rushed. My foundation in the Buddhist teachings, the practice of mindfulness, and my capacity as an artist to be creative and solution-focused in my outlook have without doubt been the essential anchors in my healing journey.
Yoga, Five Rhythms Dance, meditation and journaling, creating art and ritual, and spending time on the land were no longer just hobbies; given priority and space they became my medicine. On my journey I have discovered an unimaginable treasure trove of inner resilience and forged new pathways to sustainable inner peace and wellbeing.
Here’s why I do what I do
Life is short and I want to spend my days being happily engaged with what I love doing, what inspires me and gives my life purpose. I want to live this one precious life with passion and presence, keeping my creative fire burning and lighting up others along the way.
I want this for you Having tasted the honey available to women deep within our sacred feminine source I want to help you drink from this divine wellspring of creativity and wisdom. To find your creative voice, and heal your life.
I want to be the change: Gandhi said ‘be the change you want to see in the world’, and I want to live a sustainable life of a human being and not a human doing! A life lived in balance and harmony, healthy in mind and body with a work/life balance that allows for the heart to breathe in the beauty present in every moment. This is what I want for each one of us, a world in which we are at peace with ourselves and others, living in harmony with the Earth.
