Elemental Women's Health 2023
Four days of exploration into female potential, empowerment and optimal health
WATER
Menstrual health, supporting our bleeds and reclaiming the feminine
Friday 13th January, 10.30am - 3.30pm
FIRE
Rocking the transition through peri-menopause and beyond
Friday 10th March, 10.30am - 3.30pm
EARTH
Gut health and how to optimise your female metabolism
Friday 5th May, 10.30am - 3.30pm
AIR
Nervous system healing and finding safety within
Friday 30th June, 10.30am - 3.30pm
Why this course?
Over the last 8 years of clinical practice, I have been busy observing, studying and helping guide women towards some basic physiological truths about the female body, and what we need to nurture ourselves as women in this modern age.
In the meantime, my own journey through young adulthood, reconnecting to my menstrual cycle and healing my own menstrual issues, then pregnancy, childbirth, the postpartum period and motherhood - has prompted me again and again to go back to basics and consider: what are the basic building blocks for a healthy life as a woman in this world?
One of my core beliefs is that good health is not complicated or difficult to achieve. As humans, we excel at the art of over-thinking, of complicating things beyond necessity. The challenge, when surrounded by so much conflicting health-related and nutritional “advice” in the modern world, is to keep dropping down into our intuition and connecting to our own truth, above all else.
I’m here to share my truth with you, to hear yours, to come together in community and add some spice to the collective conversation about how to achieve optimal female health and empowerment in a world that leads us astray from this basic birthright.
Why “Elemental”?
Modern life disconnects us from nature’s elements - from fresh spring water, proper sun exposure, being in a reciprocal relationship with the earth, eating seasonally, and breathing clean air. We have developed a distorted relationship to the elements that exist within us and around us, and along with it, we’ve developed a distorted relationship to our bodies, and lost touch of our most basic needs as women.
The four elements, Water, Fire, Earth and Air, form the basis of Eastern and Western traditional medical theories, helping us understand how the body works, how imbalance arises and how to bring our physiology back towards optimal health. In this 4-part workshop series, I draw from my training and experience in Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, Western herbal medicine and conventional medical anatomy and physiology to explore four pillars of women’s health - the menstrual cycle (Water), peri-menopause (Fire), gut health (Earth) and the nervous system (Air).
In each module we’ll explore the influence of the elements, the organs involved, and the lifestyle, nutritional and local plant medicine that can be drawn upon to bring each of the systems into balance. Within these four topics we’ll touch on many other areas - contraception, fertility, liver health, kidney health, heart health, thyroid health, sleep, respiratory health, trauma, mineral balance, and what foods to eat for optimal female vitality.
Each session will cover specific plant medicines, formulas and recipes that I have found most helpful with my clients over the years in treating women’s health issues.
These sessions are intended to be a celebration of female potential - an ode to women, our innate power and responsibility in creating and sustaining life. We will meander from one topic to another, from theory to practice, from meditation to active learning, from listening to sharing. There will be time to reflect, to be still and to integrate. My hope is that we can come together as our authentic selves, with an open mind and a willingness to unlearn, relearn and connect to our truth, individually and collectively.
Session overview
In Water, we delve into the female menstrual cycle and all things related. We’ll discuss:
-
The menstrual cycle, hormones, what’s normal and what’s not
-
The easiest and quickest way to success and enlightenment as a menstruating woman (menstrual cycle awareness!)
-
How to track your cycle and prevent pregnancy naturally.
-
Natural healing from different types of menstrual issues, specific to the needs of the group.
-
Eating for your cycle
-
Why to ditch your iron supplements, and what to do if you’ve been told you’re “anaemic”
-
Supporting our womb to release a monthly period, miscarriage or aborxion.
-
Healing from miscarriage or aborxion.
-
Local plant medicines that can support your health at each stage of the cycle.
The element of Fire brings us to the perimenopause, and the pathological expression of heat during this hormonal transition. How do we go about preparing our female bodies to welcome in the menopause with joy and ease? In this session we’ll explore:
-
The psychosocial aspects of menopause and how they influence women’s experience of it
-
Liver, kidney and adrenal health from a Western and Chinese perspective
-
Herbs and foods for cooling the liver, boosting Yin and improving resilience.
-
Proper sun exposure, bone health and the vitamin D connection
-
Radical rest and the many forms of it
-
Self massage techniques for hormonal and breast health.
-
Herbs for improving sleep during the peri-menopause
-
Nutrition for optimal hormonal balance
-
Local herbs for relieving common menopausal symptoms
Aranxta Joseph, your local somatic sexologist, will be joining us as a guest witch to talk about sexual health and empowerment during the peri-menopause.
Just as the soil provides the nourishment for plant life to thrive, the human body breaks down food into the nutrients we need to grow, develop and repair, through its own soil - the digestive organs and processes. Possibly the most fundamental aspect of human health, good gut health is based on a few important, inconvenient, non-negotiable facts. We’ll discuss:
-
Digestion from both a Chinese and Western point of view
-
The origin of autoimmune and inflammatory disorders
-
How to heal your gut using herbs, foods and lifestyle practices
-
What women and young girls really need to be eating for the optimal health and fertility of future generations
-
Why it isn’t a lack of iron that’s making you tired
-
Remineralisation and what it means for your health
-
Why you should throw away your vitamin D, vitamin C and synthetic B supplements, and what to take instead.
This session will be juicy, controversial, and meaty. Be warned :-)
Air pertains to the nervous system, which we have the capacity to regulate consciously via our breathing. Here we will touch on:
-
The development of the nervous system in early life, polyvagal theory and trauma
-
Strategies and exercises to practice resourcing ourselves and optimise self-regulation
-
Emotional health and how it relates to the internal organs
-
Herbs and strategies for improving sleep
-
Herbs and strategies for moving through grief and loss.
-
Herbs for increasing vagal tone and calming the sympathetic response
-
Nutritional and herbal approaches to ADHD in children and adults
Lorie Solis, somatic sexologist and trauma-informed bodyworker, will be joining us as a guest witch, to share her wisdom on all things trauma-related.
Pricing
€75 for 1 class (the average price of a 1:1 consultation with me)
10% off if purchasing more than 1 class (€67.5 per class)
20% off if buying all 4 classes (€60 per class)
We will take breaks for integration of the material presented, open sharing, and lunch. Please bring your own food and drink, and a notepad for reflections and exercises.
Get in touch with me via email at poppytheherbalist@gmail.com to reserve your space. I will send you an intake form to fill in, with the intention of making the classes specific to the needs of the group as much as possible.
Location
The Witchery, Aljezur
Look forward to meeting and connecting with you in 2023 :-)
WATER
FIRE
EARTH
AIR
Lisa Clark, UK
I attended Poppy's herbal workshop and it was exceptional. Poppy laid out the information clearly and the material was fascinating - apparently she was a teacher previously and it really shows. I learned so much! I fully recommend the workshops.
