About

Get To Know Me

My name is Fiona and I'm a mother, shiatsu practitioner, women's health mentor and BIRTHING FROM WITHIN® mentor and doula in Frome, Somerset.

I am a graduate of The Women's Quest apprenticeship, The School of Shamanic Womancraft, a mentor with The Journey of Young Women and a Womb & Fertility Massage practitioner.

I am on a life-long journey of learning and healing and I am passionate about sharing what I have learned with others. I love supporting people with their health and mothering journey and have been supporting women and their families for over 19 years; I am now expanding my work to supporting women with their menstrual health, fertility and pelvic floor health. I am committed to supporting you to have a positive and fulfilling menstrual cycle, pregnancy and birth experience and will share with you the information and snippets of wisdom that I have gathered over the years. I have a wide variety of skills that I am able to share with you to enable you to feel fully supported, nurtured, and empowered.

As part of my wide and varied training I have studied many areas of western medicine including anatomy & physiology, counselling and psychology. I have a long history of working with charitable organisations, both in the UK and overseas: I have worked in community drug & alcohol rehabilitation and homeless projects in the UK as a shiatsu practitioner and auricular acupuncturist, in a free hospital clinic in Sri Lanka during the civil war, and I am one of the founding trustees of Frome Birth Talk.

I am autistic and happy to offer my services to the neurodivergent community. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

I have a clear DBS check that is updated yearly.

Health

I am a shiatsu practitioner specialising in women's health and pregnancy and have also trained extensively with shiatsu teacher Suzanne Yates and women's health and leadership expert Alexandra Pope. Alexandra's work with Menstruality ("women's physical, psychological and spiritual wellbeing based on the cycle and the journey from menarche to menopause") is groundbreaking, and I feel honoured to have completed the Women's Quest apprenticeship training with her.

Abdominal womb massage

I have also trained in Womb & Fertility Massage and am now offering this profound form of healing in the Frome area. This abdominal massage may be beneficial to women in all stages of their lives as it can help to bring healing and balance to the reproductive organs and hormones. This service also includes holistic pelvic floor health education. I am really excited to be offering this service to women as I feel this deepens my practice and brings me back to my beloved roots of being a therapist and bodyworker.

I am available for menstrual health support (in person or online) to assist you in navigating the ups and downs of your cycle and finding your own personal gifts; please get in touch for more information.

Birth

After many years of infertility and loss I became the mother of two children who were born at home. I was lucky to have the support of the local La Leche League group when I had difficulties with breastfeeding both of my children, so I understand that although breastfeeding is natural, it can be challenging at times.

I believe that support is important for all mothers and can help us all to have a positive experience, whatever our parenting choices are.

I ran the home birth group here in Frome for many years, have strong links with the local branch of the La Leche League, and have been trained by the NHS as a breastfeeding peer supporter.

I am available to support women in Somerset, Wiltshire and Bath as a holistic menstrual or childbirth mentor, therapist and doula. I have been fortunate to have studied with leading birth professionals in topics such as Active Birth teacher training, breech birth, shiatsu for pregnancy and birth, Optimal Foetal Positioning, supporting sexual abuse survivors, water birth, shamanic work for women and Birthing From Within.

Supporting new mothers in the immediate postnatal period is of particular interest to me and I am constantly learning and gathering wisdom to share with you. My aim is to nourish and nurture women at this important time and I have a bag of useful skills to offer such as shiatsu, womb massage, and the beautiful postnatal massage and ceremony from Ecuador called "closing the bones". I encourage new mothers to rest as much as possible so that they can regain their strength and focus on bonding with their babies, as this helps women to begin their journey of mothering feeling empowered and cherished.

Spirit

I love to sing, and find I am always in awe of the power of a woman's voice. To sing is to open the heart, and to vocalise (or sing!) during birth allows the heart and the body to open, and to go with the flow. I am currently exploring writing some new songs and using my voice as a healing tool, and was delighted to be invited to sing at the 2015 "Whose Birth Is It Anyway?" conference in Bath.

I have been exploring healing techniques my whole life. I offer my services for women who wish to explore healing their menstrual cycle and celebrating their menarche or menopause with ceremony. I also offer mother blessing ceremonies and birth preparation based on the Birthing From Within model.

Graduation ceremony, School of Shamanic Womancraft 2016

Fiona & Alexandra Pope, 2012

The Women's Quest apprenticeship training with Alexandra Pope is an intense and transformational journey over the course of a year. I am fortunate to have completed this training during which we took a deep dive into exploring the relationship with our menstrual cycles on the physical, emotional and spiritual levels and I now share these insights with other women.

I first met Alexandra Pope at one of her Creating Menstrual Health workshops in 2009 and have been inspired by her work ever since.

Alexandra works as a women's leadership coach, facilitator and counsellor and is the author of a number of books. Along with her colleagues in Australia, for the last twenty–five years Alexandra has pioneered a ground–breaking approach to women's physical, psychological and spiritual wellbeing based on the cycle and the journey from menarche to menopause.

Vasalisa the Beautiful by Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin

I had the honour recently of being a guest storyteller on the Heathen Women United Yule storytelling podcast, a mixture of stories for children and adults.

Click here if you'd like to hear my retelling of the story of Baba Yaga and Vasalisa the Brave, or here if you'd like a slighty different version - there are many versions of this wonderful story!

If you'd like to find out more about the kind of services I offer, you might like to read about the experiences of some of the women I've had the privilege to support.

I love to travel, so if you'd like me to offer a workshop in your area, please get in touch.

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Demonstrating the physiology of pregnancy

Stewarding at the Midwifery Today Conference 2014