What I do
I’m Hayley (she/her), a sensory herbalist, herb grower, birth story listening therapist, mentor, menstrual cycle awareness guide and natural family planning educator based in Dartington, South Devon.
Over the last 10 years, I have been helping highly sensitive women / menstruators and mothers / caregivers reframe their story, embrace their cyclical nature and restore their health. I am passionate about offering holistic support through life’s transitions and challenges relating to our health, menstrual cycle and fertility.
I am experienced helping with irregular cycles, amenorrhea, conception, abortion, pregnancy loss, postpartum, matrescence, motherhood/parenthood, separation, navigating diagnosis/ chronic illness and peri-menopause.
My work is rooted by the herb garden I’ve tended since 2016 on the Dartington Estate, where I grow the herbal medicine I offer.
Wondering if I can help?
Unsure of your support options?
Let’s work together to find the support that’s right for you. Schedule a free 20min connection call to explore a tailored package designed just for you.
We will discuss what you’re experiencing and where you’d like to be. Whether we decide to work together or not, you will learn something about where you are at from our conversation.
What I do ~ the bigger picture
I spend a lot of time wondering how we can return caregiving, mothering and embodied cyclical understanding to the centre of our lives, values and culture for a more sustainable, earth centring way of life. I’m energised by discovering ways we can restore connection and relationship with our body, soul, cycles and the land that supports us.
I’m working to create a menstrual health culture where the cycle is understood as an initiatory pathway to health, wisdom, cultural and ecological restoration.
I want our threshold experiences related to fertility, conception, pregnancy, pregnancy loss, birth, postpartum, matrescence, motherhood/parenthood and peri-menopause tended so they can be honoured for the power and significance they carry for us all.
Powerful ecological and ancestrally assisted experiences through my own experience conception, pregnancy, pregnancy loss and birth steered me towards a life with mothering/caregiving at the centre ~ not just the holding and caring for children but the centring the caregiving/mothering for all of life.
I am here for the messy, rich journey of living through troubled times, in service of remembering of who we truly are, to play a part in co-creating the life-giving future we all need.
How did I get here?
I arrived to the work I’m offering steadily through my own journey with crisis and healing whilst navigating the modern world as a highly sensitive, neuro-divergent, empath. It has been a journey of learning to value and cultivate my sensitivity, staying with ecological grief whilst cultivating a wide eyed wonder for life and connection with the natural world.
A myriad of health conditions throughout my life, invisible disabilities and neuro-diversity led me to explore what it really means and what it really takes ‘to be well’ in this culture as a highly sensitive woman. This is an ongoing unlearning / healing journey that continues to bring me into deeper relationship with myself, my body, my cycle, community and land.
My journey teaches me that our physical symptoms are interconnected with our emotional life, psycho-spiritual health, relationships and lifestyle, as well as the wider cultures, systems and ecosystems we live within.
I’ve walked my way in and out of the labyrinth of dis-ease, grief and crisis myself many times. I learnt that deep healing (when we tend to the emotional root causes) is not comfortable or easy.
I’ve also learnt that times of dis-ease, challenge and discomfort can be some of our greatest teachers and thresholds for inner growth.
Formal qualifications
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 & experience
2024 – now
Motherhood. CPD Webinar about risks and causes of miscarriage up to 14 weeks with Wild Nutrition. ‘Initiations; a life of ritual’ course with Ancestral Medicine. Ocean song of sorrow; grief tending for the middle passage & embodied decolonisation for white folks with Sophy Banks & Fran Andre. Launching Cyclical Motherhood CIC and podcast. Where do we go when healing becomes ill? course with Bayo Ackomolafe. Ancestral lineage healing practices following the framework of Ancestral medicine with Daniel Foor. Mothers as Natural Leaders course with Looby Macnamara. Mother Nature Circles holder training with the Mother nature project.
2019 – 2023
Motherhood. Co-hosting self Employed Mums support group (ongoing). White women book club (anti-racist group enquiry for white women). Activism with South Devon Parents for Peace. Wim Hoff Method. GAPs protocol at Regenerative Cooking School. Red Tent women’s group. 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. Trauma Informed Parenting with Mama Manon. The Aware Parenting Institute. Transformation through Mothering with Marion Rose.
2013 – 2018
Activate your inner Jaguar with Kimberly Ann Johnson. The Orphan Wisdom School. Extinction Rebellion. The Oxford Real Farming Conference(s). 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. 6 months living at Schumacher College. Friends Of The Earth volunteer. Studio In The Woods. Shelter volunteer.