Hi, I'm Hayley
I live in South Devon with my fiancé and daughter. I’m trained as a sensory herbalist, birth story listener, solution focused therapist, natural family planning educator and regenerative horticulturist.
Before all else I am a mother. Becoming a mother was the most transformational and healing thing to happen to me. I am working to return the mothers and children of all species back to the centre of our awareness and culture.
I'm here for the messy, rich journey of living through times of collapse & transition.
I'm here for remembering who we truly are, for uncovering the medicine stories we're becoming & for the regenerative future we are longing for.
My story
Restoring life-sustaining relations between body, cycles, soul & the land that supports us.
A myriad of health conditions from childhood through into my 20’s became guides for understanding what it means and takes to be well in this culture as a highly sensitive, empathic being. I score on childhood adversity tests and understand how early trauma impacts adult health.
I have experienced anxiety and depression throughout life ~ the emotional root cause of which resulted in reoccurring skin conditions, IBS, cystitis, fatigue, insomnia, menstrual discomfort and migraines. I have walked the way in and out of the labyrinth of illness and dis-ease many times. I know that deep healing is not comfortable or easy.
Along my way, I’ve experienced how closely connected our physical symptoms are with our emotional life, psycho-spiritual health, relationships and lifestyle. I learned how to tend to physical symptoms by focusing on the emotional root causes of dis-ease. I learned about the herbs outside my door, ritual healing protocols, story medicine and many other holistic tools that I now share through my work.
My journey into offering my work was shaped by a 7 year initiation with bees that instilled a deep longing in me to be and work in relationship with land and the more than human. I arrived at the herb garden in 2016 with 2 precious colonies of honeybees in tow and my work with herbs grew and evolved from there.
In 2023, I was diagnosed with lyme disease with co-infections. I believe illness and dis-ease are our guides but the way these bacteria altered me has made them some of the greatest teachers so far. I learned a great deal about how to bring down chronic inflammation in the body holistically through my recovery.
I’m passionate about creating a menstrual health culture where the cycle is understood as an initiatory pathway to health, wisdom, cultural and ecological restoration. The challenges I’ve faced through experiencing the power of a menstrual cycle (from pain, migraines and severe mood swings to shame, isolation and discrimination in the workplace) alongside the incredible gifts the cycle also brings, continue to be a source of great transformation and healing for me.
I want to see our experiences and stories around fertility, conception, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, matrescence and menopause witnessed and received so they can be honoured for the power and significance they carry.
Powerful experiences during pregnancy and birth steered me towards a life with mothering at its centre ~ not just holding and caring for children but for all of life.
What do I bring that's different?
I arrived to this work steadily through illness & deep cultural, ecological grief paired with a wide eyed wonder for life & the natural world.
I am motivated by a deep reverence for our true selves, animal body, real feelings & innate belonging in the web of life.
My gift is to see the healing pathways we can walk to create the life & world of our deepest longing ~ one that we would be proud to leave to many generations to come.
Alongside my formal training, I draw from my own initiatory life experiences:
~ cultivating deep belonging and nourishment cultivated from childhood neglect
~ witnessing pregnancy loss and stillbirth from a young age
~ navigating this culture as a highly sensitive, introverted, empath
~ ecological awakenings from a young age; embodied experiences of innate membership in the earth community and greater web of life
~ experiencing 4 very different schools and 8 house moves to very different places by age 13
~ making it through ungracious parental divorce during challenging teen years
~ navigating and emerging from periods of chronic anxiety, depression, illness and burn out
~ recovering party girl, people pleaser, over-worker, over-giver, rescuer and co-dependant (phew!)
~ tending periods of wise estrangement within my family of origin
~ over a decade of menstrual cycle awareness, tracking, charting and menstrual wellness practices
~ negotiating rest days for my period as an employee within male dominated work places
~ a range of rural, village, suburban and city work/life experiences
~ departure from a male dominated profession to follow a calling
~ over a decade of conscious connection in partnership
~ over a decade healing through tending land: unlearning and decolonising alongside soil, plants and bees
~ lovingly inviting and ending pregnancy in my body
~ surrendering to months of debilitating pregnancy nausea & physical injury
~ retraining and building a business to work around motherhood
~ transforming birth trauma following on paper ‘perfect’ home birth
~ surviving postpartum in covid lockdown
~ raising a secure, wilful, spirited daughter
~ ongoing cultivation of self care alongside community care: showing up in sisterhood with village heartedness
~ experience being disabled, chronically ill and medically housebound
~ healing from lyme disease without antibiotics
Qualifications & training
Birth story medicine ® (BSM)
Trained Birth Story Listener working with the BSM process. Completed training in 2021 with Pam England as teacher and mentor. Member of the BSM school receiving regular ongoing advanced training and mentoring. Fully insured to offer BSM sessions.
Sensory Herbalism
Studied Sensory Herbalism with Karen Lawton and Fiona Heckels 2017-2020. Qualified as a Sensory Herb Practitioner in 2020. Guiding clients with this healing framework in mind since 2018. Fully insured to practice as a Sensory Herb Practitioner in the UK.
Natural Family Planning (NFP)
Became certified NFPTA teacher of the Sympto-Thermal practice of Natural Family Planning in 2017. Personally working with the method since 2016 both as both a form of natural contraception and to achieve conception. Mentoring menstruators and couples for greater menstrual awareness and fertility empowerment using this method since 2017. Fully insured to offer this work.
Regenerative horticulture
Apprenticed in Sustainable Horticulture during a 6 month residency at Schumacher College in 2014. Completed Permaculture Design Certificate in 2014. Forest garden training with the Agroforestry Research Trust 2014-2016. Worked as a vegetable and salad grower at School Farm CSA 2014-2017.
Beekeeping training with the British Beekeeping Association in 2012 and later, the Natural Beekeeping Trust 2014-2018. Too many bee books to mention, dedicated observation practices and years spent sit spotting, listening and being in the company of honeybee colonies and wild bees. I am forever indebted to the magic of bees.
Architecture and Design
2005 – 2019 worked in the field of architecture and design (qualifications: BA Hons First class, MArch Commendation and ARB registered 2013-19). Wide range of architectural, landscape design projects and natural playscapes. Architect for the community led development, Atmos Totnes 2015- 2019.
Associate design tutor, The University of Plymouth 2014-2019. Visiting tutor Portsmouth University 2010/11, Hooke Park, Architectural Association 2015/16.
Further training/ workshops with following people/organisations:
Wim Hoff Method. GAPs protocol at Regenerative Cooking School. Feminist Marketing with Kelly Diels. Patriarchal Motherhood with Dr. Sophie Brock. PMADs training with The Motherhood Centre, New York. Association for Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. Rewilding Mythology with Sophie Strand. Grief tending with South West Grief Rituals and Grief Tending in Community. Cyclical business with The Red School. Bond 6 with Upfront. Re-villaging with Beth Berry at Revolution from Home. The Orphan Wisdom School. Trauma Informed Parenting with Mama Manon. The Aware Parenting Institute. Activate your inner Jaguar with Kimberly Ann Johnson. Transformation through Mothering with Marion Rose. Extinction Rebellion. The Oxford Real Farming Conference. Wild Mother with Rachael Alaia. Bird language with Chris Holland. Shamanic journeying and drum making with Suzi Crockford. Forest gardening training with Martin Crawford at The Agroforestry Trust. Wild food and foraging with Ffyona Campbell. Tools for Conscious Collaboration training. Listening to the bees at Embercombe. Schumacher College. Friends Of The Earth volunteer. Studio In The Woods