Summer 2023
Hello every one, old and new
A year ago today I was undergoing surgery to remove a small group of cancer cells in my right breast. I’m grateful to be writing this a year on, on a good day, the sun is shining, I was up early singing with the birds, walking in the valley and my boobs feel good!
I do not arrive like this everyday, some days the resistance wins, procrastination pins me down, so I take this chance to write to you, gently allowing the humility of this past year to ripen me, to teach me new ways to enjoy rest and tend to my own nourishment so that I may be of service to you.
I have slowly been picking up the reins to make a living once more. This year has been financially very difficult and I am looking forward to doing the ‘money dance’ I learnt recently from my friend Skyla to celebrate as more money flows in.
The Voice Sanctuary
The first Voice Sanctuary was a quiet success. My first offering along the lines of Collaborative Vocal Improvisation in the local Stroud community, my version more on the healing side of this kind of work than the rigour of the music room. Thank you to all those who showed up, making us an intimate group of 6. The beautiful studio at Stroud Sky Yoga held us well, we had a gorgeous alter created by one of the participants and we explored some somatic practices, vocal expressions, sounding and melodic mantra.
Here’s what another of the participants had to say:
“It was just what I needed, it inspired me to get back to a gentle voice practice in the mornings which I feel is what I need at this time. I really appreciated the gentleness of the approach and it seemed to be the missing step between other vocal improv work i’ve done and what my body (with historic trauma) can manage. It felt like it was pitched exactly right for my system”
I have just booked 3 more dates at Stroud Sky Yoga for the Voice Sanctuary Autumn series.
The Voice Sanctuary is my little piece of the global Vocal Improvisation jigsaw, and compliments other offerings coming up in the Stroud area influenced by Collaborative Vocal Improvisation. I’ll share more as the details come through.
A final note on this, I’ve been offered a beautiful space in Iffley Village, Oxford to host a Voice Sanctuary sometime around the Winter Solstice. If this is something you could be interested in please get in touch.
Holistic Massage & Listening Touch
I am opening up some limited slots for holistic massage and Listening touch sessions. These will take place at Stroud Sky Yoga in one of their treatment rooms, or at Days Mill in the centre of Nailsworth. You can find more details on my website.
Open to Life Through Your Voice (online)
I have some spaces available for online one to one sessions to ‘Open to Life through Your Voice’. I suggest 4-6 sessions initially to deepen your relationship to your voice and try out the trauma informed voice practices for yourself.
Here’s what one of my previous clients had to say about her experience of Open to Life Through Your Voice sessions:
“ I wanted to tell you personally that I have recently joined a Musical Theatre group, and I feel this has been a direct result of the work we did together. I feel much more confident in my voice (for reasons I wrote in my feedback) and am loving exploring my voice more! I'm not singing solo yet, but am singing in a chorus which is challenging but very enjoyable”.
You can find out more about Open to Life through Your Voice here or get in touch for an informal chat.
Art
The cover art work was inspired by the summertime, rose and elder, thunderstorms and the Wild Soul Woman & Birth Keeper Gathering that I’ve attended as a Village Sister (preparing spaces, serving food etc) for the past couple of years. It’s a place of great beauty, womb massage and deep womb wisdom, yoni steaming, fire and story telling, wild loss, wild singing and keening, ancient rituals and practices and a vision of how we all might live in the villages of the future together. Embracing the mothers, holding them at the centre and their vital role in birthing new life.
My broader experience recently of entering (a slightly premature and considered artificial by the medics) menopause due to anti cancer drugs and the grief of saying goodbye to my biologically fertile years made my attendance at the gathering all the more poignant this year. Noticing the times in my life when I’ve described myself as childless, child free, or simply a woman without children. Finding my place in a pro-natal culture hasn't always been straightforward. When you want to have a child and for whatever reason you can’t, there is a certain kind of pain. My heart goes out to anyone in this pain right now.
My more current experience of the culture that views menopause as merely a list of symptoms rather than the emotional, psychological and spiritual transition that i’m discovering it to be, has found me reaching for books like Wise Power and Hagitude which have become faithful companions. I can recommend for anyone at this threshold.
So here we are, my creative juices are returning, my self mothering becoming deeper and wider, my birthing new life in the form of the Voice Sanctuary, healing spaces, art, singing and movement, following the threads into the village.
A plea for your support:
The cost of living really is a crisis for me and other artists/therapists right now. If you have been moved by anything that I’ve shared and would like to support my work please do, and if you are able to be especially generous and make a donation you will be supporting me to establish my work and generate health and happiness for the benefit of all. Thank you so much.
