ABOUT

I spent years building what looked like success before I finally asked myself: is this even mine? I'd trained at art school wanting to be a maker, but ended up in luxury interiors management instead. When my mother died in 2008, I had a prestigious career managing Viscount Linley's store in London, but I'd been so busy fulfilling everyone else's vision that I'd lost touch with my own…

I left everything, my career, the city, the life I’d built, and went seeking. I followed what I loved: photography, yoga, cooking. I went first to India, then Thailand, trying to understand what a more meaningful life might look like.

I landed in rural Southwest France, in the old farmhouse my mother had bought just before she became ill. I knew no one and spoke no French, but my intuition was showing me the way: this house, with its quiet and silence, was where I needed to create a space to support others. Over the next decade, I built Little French Retreat from the ground up, hosting residential retreats, leading annual groups to India, running seasonal workshops in the UK. The retreat was featured in The Guardian and The Times as a trusted wellness destination.

I noticed early on, that when guests arrived at the retreat and finally relaxed, the real questions emerged. Questions about their lives, their work, whether any of it still fit.

I’d done a counselling course before moving to France, and my management background meant I could hold those conversations. It felt natural to support people through what was surfacing. So I trained, first in a coaching modality for conscious conversations, then Ayurveda to understand personality types and individual needs, then cognitive behavioral skills. My retreat guests were almost always women in leadership roles.

Eventually, I felt the need to move from hosting to deepening my own practice. Letting go of the Little French Retreat name took courage - I’d built a strong community around it. But I knew it was time to focus on the practices themselves. Many from that original Little French Retreat community are still with me, some for all fourteen years.

What I learned through all of it is that you take yourself wherever you go. When I first came to France, I tried to force and strategize my way forward. It caused stress and kept real change out of reach. The shift came when I stopped thinking my way through and started listening to my body - following ease rather than effort.

I’m not suggesting you need to leave everything behind. I happened to because my mother’s house in France was calling me, and I was single without family to consider. Your path doesn’t require dramatic change. Reconnection is an inner process that can happen exactly where you are.

Now I support women who are where I was - accomplished but exhausted, successful but questioning whether any of it is actually theirs. I work with coaching, yoga, and Ayurvedic principles because that’s what worked for me - and what I’ve seen work for the women I support.

I don't live by anyone else's structures anymore, only my own. I wake at 5am and some days can be complete by 10am so I can go off with my camera. Not because I work less, but because I've restructured everything around when I'm most effective. My work now includes coaching clients, teaching yoga online, making pottery, and walking my dog Edie.

My offering

I also make slipware pottery, that you can find HERE.