about me
I am a singing artist-poet with a lifelong commitment to the amplification of women’s voices.
Sometimes I think I have spent my entire life clearing
the mouth of the river of my own creativity.
Some rocks needed careful handling.
How did I get here?
For the first 25 years of my working life I worked in the financial services industry. Eventually I realised I needed to find a more creative way of working.
NLP training was the key to making the changes I needed to make. I recognised that I held a limiting belief about work. Changing that belief was the first step to life change. After a lot of hard work and determination, I arranged for myself to be made redundant and have been self-employed ever since.
My three main areas of influence are singing,
NLP and the Alexander Technique.
Singing
I have always loved singing. In 1990 I went to my first singing workshop and my life was never the same again. After a few years of going to singing workshops with all sorts of people, I decided I would like to become a singing leader. I trained in Natural Voice and in 1995 I started my very first group, called Shaking the Grass.
I have been running singing groups and workshops continuously since 1995. Find out more, including the reason behind the name of my first group HERE
In 2007, I set up Singing for the Brain groups in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society in Sheffield. Over the next 12 years I led several groups in Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster.
In 2014, I completed an MSc in Dementia Studies at the University of Bradford. My dissertation evaluated the effect of a regular singing group on the social wellbeing of people with dementia and their carers.
I continue to sing regularly with people with dementia.
NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming)
Through training in NLP in 1999/2000 I realized that I held unhelpful beliefs about the world of paid work. I changed these beliefs, negotiated redundancy for myself, took a gap year and have been self-employed ever since.
Read more about NLP HERE
Alexander Technique
After my gap year I trained as an Alexander Technique Teacher, graduating in 2004.
Read more about the Alexander Technique HERE
In 2017, I committed to exploring my own creativity. This led me to many places, including an MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2020. Read more about poetry HERE
In 2021, I completed Connie Solera’s nine-month IGNITE Teacher Training intensive
Now in my mid-60s, I am ready to live as an artist
who supports other women on their creative paths
Ways to work with me
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Art of poetry
hearing your voice
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Art of change
finding your way
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Art of expression
sounding your truth