Yoga & Movement Therapy & Holistic Pelvic Care™ in Ōtautahi, Christchurch & Online
Hi, I'm Ellen
and I want to change the culture
of care we offer our bodies, our creativity, our pleasure and pelvis.
And I want you to live life feeling awake to your innermost longings, with the presence, courage and resources to follow them into being.
I am a Yoga & Movement Therapist & teacher, Holistic Pelvic Care practitioner, Singer & Songweaver, Menstrual Cycle Awareness advocate & Somatic Pleasure and Intimacy nerd.
Earlier in life I was also a professional tennis player and played close to Grand Slam level. I loved this life in many ways but my body suffered at the time with the sustained intensity of travel, training and competition. I travelled all over the world, often alone, from the age of 14. For six years I managed several long term injuries and an auto-immune condition with little understanding of what or why; these went into remission when I chose to step away from this path, age 21.
It was a potent first hand experience of noticing how the symptoms we are taught to interpret as a sign of our own ‘failing’ are often our bodies way of signalling to a deeper fracture and path to repair.
It planted early seeds of working with health and healing from both a body and soul inclusive lens. This was supported through my first experience of yoga and deepened over the past 15 years through my own practice, study, trainings and Yoga Therapy diploma in London.
Around this time I also fell in love with Menstrual Cycle Awareness (MCA) and noticed as I returned to a natural cycle, an expressive range return to my body that I realised I had never previously had access to. Through MCA, I began to feel more interested and invested in understanding the relationship between our womb, creativity and Eros, the female nervous and hormonal systems, the pleasure anatomy of our pelvic bowls; and awake to the ways culture is shaping us to disconnect and disassociate from our pelvic centre; our creative intelligence.
For over 8 years now I have tracked my cycle closely and continue to be inspired and informed by what I learn here.
To deepen my study in these areas I completed a Somatic Pleasure and Intimacy Coaching Certificate and Holistic Pelvic Care™ training with Tami-Lynn Kent.
My 1:1 and group work is a meeting ground of embodiment, therapeutic yoga, and a holistic approach to working with pelvic health and sexual specific concerns from a female nervous system and trauma aware lens. I am fascinated by the way our body and pelvic tissues tells story and hold beautiful intelligence when offered space to articulate.
I also have a degree in music and am releasing my first solo EP of original songs in 2027. As part of my own creative practice I love to sing, write, play the guitar, autoharp and I find working with the voice a relevant adjunct to therapeutic work.
Trainings and Qualifications
- Pelvic Centred & Sexuality inclusive - Somatic Pleasure and Intimacy Coaching Certificate 80+ hours + continued study since 2024 Holistic Pelvic Care™ Practitioner & Provider 2025 - ongoing Nectar Vulva and Vaginal Mapping with Carly Rae Beaudry 2026 + ongoing
- Trauma informed trainings - 2 year Yoga Therapy Diploma London 2021 Somatic mentoring to adapt Yoga therapy for complex trauma 2023 Self directed study since 2023 ACC Trauma Informed Yoga Facilitator 2026
- Yoga Teacher trainings & study - 100 hour Hatha Yoga Immersion 2015 200 hour Anusara Hatha Teacher Training London 2017 Decolonising Yoga and Race Equity in Yoga 2020
- Embodiment Trainings & Experience - 13 years of experiential training as a professional athlete 1997 - 2010 Dance of Awareness (conscious dance) Certificate Brighton School of Embodied Therapy 2022
- Tertiary - Bachelor of Musical Arts, majoring in voice and composition 2012 -2014