Where have I been this last year...

Hello lovely people,

I’m very aware it’s been almost a year since I last reached out, and I just wanted to pop my head up to say hello, share a bit about where I’ve been, what’s going on, and where I’m heading next.

I’m currently working in community physiotherapy within the NHS, which I absolutely love. Being out and about, visiting people in their homes, seeing what they need and how I can help has been eye-opening and humbling. It’s a privilege to offer support to people at vastly different stages of life and with a range of health challenges. This work has really made me reflect on my own health and how I engage with my life in new and meaningful ways—it’s been a real gift.

However, I’m really missing being in my own practice with clients. I’ve been offering very occasional appointments for energy-based bodywork, which is starting to evolve into journeying and dreaming through Reiki. I recently completed my drumming training to bring vibrational work into these sessions, both in groups and one-to-one, and it’s been really lovely. Clients have had some beautiful and transformational experiences through the drumming.

I’ve stepped back from massage for now, simply because of the physical energy it requires to offer sessions in a way that feels present and nourishing for you. I hope to return to it with a focus on being held and cared for with a ritual based element to the work but realistically, that likely won’t be until next year. I’m edging closer to the top of the waiting list for surgery for my endometriosis—some of you will know I’ve been waiting for a hysterectomy. This past year, I’ve also entered perimenopause more dramatically, although I can now see it’s been creeping in for some time.

This transition has been big—grounding, confronting, but ultimately journey to acceptance. In many ways, it feels like the beginning of a new chapter: showing up fully again, embracing my identity as someone who has lived with a long-term health condition for many years. I’m no longer treating it as something to fix or push away, but something I live with. That shift has been hard, and also very beautiful to experience.

It’s also brought into focus a long-standing knowing that I’m neurodivergent and being able to accept and vocalise it. I’m on a waiting list for diagnosis—as so many women are—with no clear timeframe. I feel more and more I am stepping into my authentic self and becoming the woman I was always meant to be.

I’m still travelling to Edinburgh once or twice a month to support the somatic therapy training course. It’s been so valuable—not just for my own growth and grounding—but also for the work I do in my NHS role. I’m definitely feeling called back to working with clients one-to-one and in groups through somatic therapy practises.

The biggest practical update is that I now live in North Shields and have found a beautiful new space to work from called The Green Door. It’s run by a wonderfully community-minded woman and is currently expanding. When I sat and spoke with her, it truly felt like coming home. I have longed for that community element in my work and I am grateful I have crossed paths with her.

As I reflect on my private practice over the past year, it’s become clear that my deepest passion lies in supporting women through life transitions—whatever they may be. It’s about sitting with clients in that uncertain, in-between muddy space, helping them to keep moving forward at a pace that is appropriate (sometimes staying still is needed most). It’s about connection: to ourselves, to nature, and to the wider world. That feels even more important during these globally turbulent times.

I’ve been working with the wonderful practitioner Toko Pa Turner in a 6 week dream lodge looking at how we engage with the metaphorical realm when we sleep. Through drumming, I’ve been seeing beautiful journeys unfold for clients—entering that liminal space, energetically held, letting the mind drift into the surreal and symbolic.

So—what am I doing now?

I’ll soon be running a women’s group once a month in North Shields. The focus is on learning to feel at home in our bodies, grounding, stepping away from technology, sitting with discomfort, and connecting as a group. I’ve run it a few times already. We explore somatic practices, Reiki, and drumming—but more than that, we practise how to give and receive support. The underlying intention is to build a felt sense of connection and shared presence.

I’d love to take this group format into organisations, especially for people in caring roles who often need care themselves. The idea is to create spaces where we don’t have to mask our humanity to be in a professional role but to foster the idea that both elements can co-exist without loss of identity.

I’ll also be offering one-to-one sessions for those interested in self-inquiry through Reiki—supporting connection to self, to the imaginal, and to something larger. For me, this work has brought deep reassurance in a destabilised world. It helps me feel grounded in myself, in my community, and in the things I can influence—without denying those that I can’t. As a neurodivergent woman in perimenopause, this has been vital.

I will also be offering somatic work online for people who can’t access my new workspace. Please feel free to ask about this if it is of interest.

At the heart of all this work is reflection, curiosity, and allowing ourselves to sit with the unknowable—without trying to solve it. This gentle, patient approach often leads to personal clarity through the process of allowing, not forcing. It’s the ethos that has always underpinned my work—but only now do I feel truly able to articulate and embody it.

I am currently reworking my website and booking platform. And for now going old school and taking bookings via email and message.

If you would like to have an informal chat about any of the work I am offering please feel free to get in touch and if you would just like to connect then please do reply and let me know how you are.

I would also love to give space to anyone who no longer wishes to be contacted through my newsletter and please feel free to unsubscribe below or let me know and I can remove you manually. I have huge gratitude for each and everyone of you who I have worked with, it has been an absolute pleasure and I also want to honour that as my work evolves it won’t be for everyone and that is absolutely ok.

Sending huge love and hugs, I think about my practise almost daily and all of the people who have come in and out of it over the last couple of years. I wouldn’t be who I am today without it and you. So heartfelt thanks.

With much appreciation

Anna x