I aim for my work to be welcoming, inclusive, non-judgmental and non-discriminatory.

I affirm that it’s not just cis-gendered women who experience peri/menopause because trans, non-binary and genderfluid folk experience this too. And I also affirm that not all women menstruate or go through menopause.

(If you do not have a menstrual cycle but wish to connect to nature’s cycles then you may like to use the Moon and the seasons as your guide and template.)

I share from my own experience as a perimenopausal cis-gendered being in a female body.

I am also critical of gender essentialism and restrictive cis-heteronormative views of what it means to be “feminine” or “masculine”. While I don’t necessarily address these issues head-on in my writing, they do inform my thinking.

Since autumn 2022 I offer my work primarily to highly sensitive, midlife shes and theys.

My work is not aimed at cis-gender men.

*

Where I’ve spoken of the Sacred Feminine I mean this as an archetypal energy and presence which we all carry to varying degrees, regardless of biological sex or gender identity.

I believe to counterbalance thousands of years of God the Father we would benefit from restoring the concept and experience of Goddess the Mother to consciousness, She who patriarchal religions and cultures have suppressed.

That said, ultimately I believe the sacred is beyond gender. There is a delicate balance here between unpicking patriarchy by restoring an experience of the Sacred Feminine and reinforcing the gender binary, which is in itself an oppressive tool of patriarchy.

When I speak of patriarchy I am referring to the long-standing societal system of male supremacy – where (usually white and/or heteronormative, socio-economically privileged, ableist and religiously conservative) cisgender men hold the positions of authority and power, are the arbiters of the rules of morality and the law, and hold social and economic privilege, including controlling land and property. I am not anti-men: the system of patriarchy oppresses men too in its narrow view of what it means to be masculine.

*

I share from my own lived perspective as a cis-gendered woman who is in perimenopause and from having practised menstrual cycle awareness since 2015, as well as the training and study I have undertaken over the years. You can see my certifications and trainings here. I acknowledge the privileges I hold of being cis-gender, white, non-disabled, middle class, postgraduate-educated (and, and, and) and am committed to the ongoing work of examining and divesting from the unconscious biases in which I have been enculturated.

*

I am trying to do my best to welcome people of all genders, races, sexuality, abilities and socio-economic groups who are interested in or experiencing conscious peri/menopause, menstruation, cyclic living, nature-based spirituality, self-compassion, and tending to the inner lives of their emotions, mind, body and soul.

No doubt I shall make mistakes. When that happens I listen, learn and try again.

In these ways I am trying to play my small role in building a fairer, kind and more just society.

*

While I no longer consider myself to be a yoga teacher I acknowledge and offer gratitude to the thousands-of-years-old lineages of teachers and practitioners in all of the subjects I have studied, practised and taught over the years, particularly the yogins and yoginis of South Asia and its diaspora.

I acknowledge the damage to indigenous and marginalized peoples that cultural appropriation by people from colonialist and dominator-cultures has caused and continues to cause.