Welcome, I'm Ellen, a long term lover and student of the body, and a facilitator of the healing arts based in Ōtautahi (Christchurch), Aotearoa.

 

My evolution into therapeutic work has been an interesting one that started a long time ago on a tennis court.

 

As young elite athlete, I was fortunate to learn that what looks like success on the outside, is mostly an illusion if it mis-aligns with our sense of who we are, or leaves us feeling depleted and disconnected.

 

I had an exciting international sports career and received a lot of praise for it, yet inwardly my health was fragile. I was burnt out, experienced chronic stress that developed into an auto-immune condition, had many injuries, and a growing sense of discontent from something I had always thought I wanted, and worked hard for.

 

In my early twenties I made a bold decision to stop competition and felt my health and symptoms improve instantly. It was a potent first teaching on understanding that there is wisdom in our bodies symptoms, if we can learn to listen.

 

I began what I now recognise as a descent into the heroines journey; a lesser known quest that is different in nature to the hero’s adventure; a creative labyrinth of remembering, reclaiming and reconnecting with the life-giving aspects of the feminine and female embodiment.

 

What started in a yoga class, where I felt myself come into relationship with my body for the first time, has continued over the past 14 years, through in depth study of yoga and trauma informed yoga therapy and other experiential movement modalities; yet it wasn’t until I began to learn the intelligence of my menstrual cycle in my thirties that I felt something really shift; a sense of belonging and creative range in my body that I hadn’t felt before. 

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Which is why the past several years, I have deepened my practice and study to specialise in supporting pelvic and menstrual health, as well as  connection with our intimate body and sexual specific concerns.

 

In title I am a Yoga Teacher and Therapist, but I also like the terms Embodied Guide and Way-finder.

 

I have traversed much uncertain ground in my own life and am very comfortable sitting alongside others in this space. Uncertainty can be one of the scariest parts of illness and transition, and we are not meant to walk these times alone. I am hugely grateful for the teachers I have found along the way, who have helped guide and resource me through the tenderness of change, the heart-break of loss and the exciting vulnerability of new beginnings.

 

Outside of my therapeutic offerings, I am also a singer and musician, song writer, obsessed with dogs, own too many books (is there such a thing?) am drawn to the darker months, water sources and find medicine in good food, poetry and close, human connections.