The Soft Rebellion Podcast

Flurina Thali
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Alternative Health
  • Updated Biweekly

A homecoming, a return, and a (re)discovery of the creative power of your female body. Our world uproots us from the gifts of the Feminine; the intuitive, the instinctual, the cyclical, the soft. What is the result? Patriarchal cultures of perfectionism, shame, and disconnect that leave us constantly running, never arriving.   Imagine a world of women softly rebelling; claiming our cyclicity, our weirdness, and our rest as we courageously cultivate a deep and delicious relationship to our female bodies.  My name is Flurina, I’m an Osteopath, dancer, writer and coach, I’ve been on my own journey sparked by an eating disorder to come home to the wild, poetic anatomy of my female body and awaken my creative power… and I invite you to join me and my guests, trailblazing teachers, healers and creatives as we each reclaim our own soft rebellion. flurinathali.substack.com

  1. Jul 6

    Ep. 87: Where are your words coming from? A conversation about grief, longing and homecoming - with Tanya Forgan.

    Dearest listener, dear community, Welcome back to the Soft Rebellion. I hope this message and new episode finds you in a good health and spirit and I wish you a WONDERful week ahead. The conversation I share with you today was one of those rare, deeply honest, intuitive exchanges where each question opened another door, and together we unearthed something neither of us could have planned. My guest is the brilliant trauma-informed embodiment guide, facilitator, and heart activist Tanya Forgan, whose work is rooted in the profound understanding that our individual and collective wellbeing depends on the quality of our relationship with ourselves and with one another. Guided by the wisdom of Ubuntu - I am because we are - we continue our exploration of what it means to know with and through our bodies, our wombs, our menstrual cycles, and the greater cycles of life. Along the way, Tanya offers one of the most potent questions I have ever been asked: Where are your words coming from? It’s a conversation that embodies what podcasting means to me: meeting heart to heart, trusting what wants to emerge, and allowing truth to reveal itself through relationship. In this conversation we explored and talked about … * Tanya`s story and upbringing as a mixed-heritage woman of Dominican and British ancestry through which she brings a lived understanding of belonging, identity, and the search for home. * Tanya`s menopause journey and what the experience of this rite of passage taught Tanya about creating belonging through circles, particularly across differences in race, gender, sexuality, ability, and power. * The process of grief and its seasons; how we can work with and through it and why grief is where we can find ourselves most in our belonging. * Tanya`s ritual work, her inspirations and influences; rooted in African spiritual traditions that honour ancestry and communal healing, and the Celtic wheel of the year, which teaches us to listen to the wisdom of the seasons and to trust the cycles of life, death, and renewal and how to engage in rituals is pure nourishment for the soul. More about Tanya: Tanya Forgan is an Embodiment Guide, Circle Facilitator, Mentor, and Ritual Holder. She draws on Yoga Nidra, breathwork, somatic practice, grief tending, and conscious relating. Her approach is trauma-informed, rooted in a deep trust in what emerges when people gather with presence and care. She is the founder of Devoted, a six-month training for women called to hold Circles and create meaningful spaces for others. Through Devoted, she supports women to grow the presence, confidence, and embodied leadership needed to facilitate with integrity and skill. Enjoy! With so much LOVE, Flurina --- This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit flurinathali.substack.com

    Ep. 87: Where are your words coming from? A conversation about grief, longing and homecoming - with Tanya Forgan.

  2. Jun 22

    Ep. 86: Notes on a Wild Fluidity: Rethinking Menstruation, Bodies, and Becoming - with Natalie Rose Dyer

    In this episode, I sit down with poet, essayist and academic Natalie Rose Dyer to explore the ideas behind her groundbreaking book The Menstrual Imaginary in Literature: Notes on a Wild Fluidity. We begin with Natalie's own journey into this work - what drew her to menstruation as a site of philosophical, political, and creative inquiry, and how her doctoral research evolved into a call to reimagine menstrual experience beyond pathology, shame, and silence. Together we explore the menstrual imaginary as a "wild zone of unacknowledged creativity," discussing menstrual knowledge, embodied knowing, feminist writing, and the cyclical body as a source of softly rebellious wisdom. We linger with writers such as Hélène Cixous and the tradition of women writing through and from the body, tracing how poetry, blood, creativity, and sexual difference intertwine. The conversation then turns toward Natalie's more recent work and the posthuman horizons emerging from her thinking. We explore what becomes possible when menstruation is understood not only as a bodily process, but as a site of connection with matter, ecosystems, non-human life, and new forms of becoming. A rich conversation on embodiment, creativity, feminist resistance, wildness, and the futures that become imaginable when we learn to listen to the wisdom of cyclical life. More about Natalie: Natalie teaches into the Creative Writing Program at The University of Melbourne where she is Honorary Research Fellow. Natalie is the recipient of The Peter Steele Poetry Award 2021, and was highly commended for the 2024 Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize. She is presently completing work on her first collection towards publication this year. Natalie’s poetry is widely published in literary journals including Meanjin Quarterly, Australian Poetry and Cordite Poetry Review. Her book Notes on a Wild Fluidity was published with Palgrave (2020). Nothing But a Fine Nerve Meter; New Maps at the Planetary Turn was recently published (2025) with Revolutionaries Press. Natalie issues a call to re-write ourselves as planetary players, tethered to place yet attuned to fault lines of poetic rupture, care, and resistance. Enjoy! --- 🌟 Join my softly rebellious on Substack - subscribe here. 🌟 Sign up here to receive a copy of my free workshop about The wild and poetic anatomy of the female body. 🌟 Book a Holistic Pelvic Care session with me in person in London or online, find out more here. --- 💛 The Soft Rebellion Podcast is created and hosted by Flurina Dominique Thali. I love hearing from you. To contact me, email softrebellion@flurinathali.com. --- Find out more about Natalia: - Follow her on Instagram @natalierosedyer - Visit her webpage here. Credits: - Intro/outro music – ‘Hymn for Jim’ by Aspyrian: Robin Porter –saxophone, Jack Gillen – guitar, Matt Parkinson – drums, composed by Robin Porter, listen to the full track here, graphic: Annina Thali, for more information click here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit flurinathali.substack.com

    Ep. 86: Notes on a Wild Fluidity: Rethinking Menstruation, Bodies, and Becoming - with Natalie Rose Dyer

  3. Jun 15

    Ep. 85: Untamed Pleasure: Unleash your true erotic nature - with Carly Mountain.

    “Our bodies are made for pleasure”, yet we are tamed and shamed into cages that domesticate our sexuality and relationships. - Carly Mountain I am so excited, grateful and honoured to welcome Carly Mountain back to the Podcast! Since our last conversation a year ago, Carly has completed her second book Untamed Pleasure: Unleash Your True Erotic Nature which launches THIS FRIDAY! Huge congratulations dearest Carly! In this conversation, Carly shares the story behind her new book and invites us into the world of Untamed Pleasure - a deeply moving, gently stirring, and invigorating journey into embodiment, desire, aliveness, and the untamed wisdom that lives within us all. More about Carly - Carly is a writer, psychotherapist somatic sex therapist and sacred space holder. She facilitates women and the people who love them, to remember, reclaim and reconnect with their sensual, emotional, embodied aliveness and instinctual knowing that is rooted in the earth. Drawing on more than twenty years of embodied practice, training, and space-holding experience, Carly brings a trauma-informed approach to her work. In this conversation we talked about: ❤️‍🔥 Carly's new book, Untamed Pleasure: Unleash Your True Erotic Nature—what it means to alchemise (internalised) shame, meet our unique untamed energy, and enter a wider space where we can be more fully ourselves. ❤️‍🔥 How this work is both disruptive and reparative. We live in a culture in which sexuality is often taboo, shrouded in shame and silence. And just as work with the menstrual cycle challenges outdated narratives, Untamed Pleasure invites us to dismantle the systems that disconnect us from our bodies and our pleasure. ❤️‍🔥 The cages—cultural and personal—that domesticate women's pleasure, and how to begin finding the keys to rewild and reveal your untamed pleasure. ❤️‍🔥 What eros and eroticism actually mean, and why they are so much bigger than sex. The difference between sensual and sexual energy. ❤️‍🔥 The wild, poetic nature of female anatomy—the incredible body of our clitoris, which, as Carly writes so beautifully, “when she is aroused, spreads her wings into orgasmic flight.” ❤️‍🔥 The commitment, devotion, and soft discipline untamed pleasure asks of us, and how, if we dare to say yes, we unearth a multiverse of embodied knowledge and a fiercely authentic way of being ourselves. Enjoy! --- 🌟 Join my softly rebellious on Substack - subscribe here. 🌟 Sign up here to receive a copy of my free workshop about The wild and poetic anatomy of the female body. 🌟 Book a Holistic Pelvic Care session with me in person in London or online, find out more here. --- 💛 The Soft Rebellion Podcast is created and hosted by Flurina Dominique Thali. I love hearing from you. To contact me, email softrebellion@flurinathali.com. --- Links mentioned during the conversation: - Listen to our first conversation here. - Carly`s first book Descent & Rising: Women's Stories & the Embodiment of the Inanna Myth → you can find out more and buy it here. - Pre-order Untamed Pleasure: Unleash Your True Erotic Nature → grab your copy here. - The Untamed Pleasure Sanctuary Course → Visit Carly`s website here. - Find Carly on Instagram → @carly_mountain Credits: Intro/outro music – ‘Hymn for Jim’ by Aspyrian: Robin Porter – saxophone, Jack Gillen – guitar, Matt Parkinson – drums, composed by Robin Porter, listen to the full track here, graphic: Annina Thali, for more information click here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit flurinathali.substack.com

    Ep. 85: Untamed Pleasure: Unleash your true erotic nature - with Carly Mountain.

  4. Apr 1

    Ep. 84: Your Body Isn’t Broken: Decoding Vaginal Symptoms with Acupuncture - with Claire Dabreo.

    Have you ever wondered if your body is speaking a language you’ve just never been taught how to understand? And what if your hormonal or pelvic health challenges were actually an invitation into deeper alignment with yourself? In today’s conversation - the final round of the Healthy Vagina Project - I am sitting down with Claire Dabreo. Claire is a Five Element acupuncturist and women’s health specialist with over 15 years of experience supporting fertility, hormonal balance, pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and intimate wellbeing. Through the lens of Chinese medicine, she helps women better understand the rhythms of their bodies and restore balance with practical, holistic care. In this conversation we talked about: 💫 What led Claire to become the women’s health practitioner she is today; her first experience of Chinese Medicine when she experienced premenstrual tension as a teenager, and how acupuncture found her at a “transitioning threshold moment” in her life, supported her to “step out of the mess” and to unravel and find closer to her soul`s purpose and her creative flow. 💫 Chinese medicine and its map and principles “meridians”, what 5-Element Acupuncture is - which is Claire`s practice - and why it is such a potent holistic approach for vaginal and pelvic health. 💫 How physical symptoms are signals for something which is “disrupted” on deeper levels and how in acupuncture those symptoms can be seen as codes to find out where the energetic workings of the body need support - as ultimately this way of working is about creating conditions for the body to heal itself, not about fixing, it allows “everything to come into balance”, treating the whole person not just the symptoms. 💫 The importance to name the emotional aspect of health challenges, especially pelvic health, as much as the physical. Claire calls the the pelvic bowl and womb our “sacred witchy space”, which I love :-), and we talked about how pelvicchealth is about stepping into our creativity and yes to ourself and our soul s alignment. Enjoy! --- 🌟 Join my softly rebellious on Substack - subscribe here. 🌟 Sign up here to receive a copy of my free workshop about The wild and poetic anatomy of the female body. 🌟 Book a Holistic Pelvic Care session with me in person in London or online, find out more here. --- 💛 The Soft Rebellion Podcast is created and hosted by Flurina Dominique Thali. I love hearing from you. To contact me, email softrebellion@flurinathali.com. --- Links: - Flurina Dominique Thali & The Soft Rebellion: @flurina.thali / www.flurinathali.com - My guest, Claire Dabreo, you can find her webpage here and here,  follow her on Instagram and Facebook @thelondonacupuncturist and @TheHarmonyPrinciple This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit flurinathali.substack.com

    Ep. 84: Your Body Isn’t Broken: Decoding Vaginal Symptoms with Acupuncture - with Claire Dabreo.

  5. Mar 10

    Ep. 83: Birth is physical: What we’ve forgotten and how we can remember - with Natalie Meddings.

    Dear Listeners, The Healthy Vagina Project is gradually cycling itself to an end … but not quite! Today I have the great joy to introduce you to Natalie Meddings! She has been supporting women through birth for over twenty years as a mother, doula and active birth teacher. She is also the author of How to Have a Baby and Why Homebirth Matters. Natalie approaches birth with deep respect for the body’s innate intelligence and sees it as an ongoing journey of learning and trust. In this episode, we explore why birth support matters so deeply - not only for how we give birth, but for how we come to trust ourselves in the process. We talk about birth as an initiation: not just into motherhood for our babies, but into a deeper relationship with ourselves. We also touch on the very physical reality that the way we birth, and how we experience our births, can influence the health and state of our vaginas and pelvic bowls. In this conversation we explored: 💫 How modern life can leave us disconnected from our bodies - “heads on walking sticks”- and how this affects the way we approach birth. 💫 The tendency to theorise about birth while remaining disconnected from its true physicality and intensity. 💫 Natalie’s perspective that a healthy birth is in the mother’s gift, and that the mother’s body is designed to work on the baby’s behalf - giving women every reason to trust themselves completely. 💫 How to navigate the negative narratives surrounding childbirth today, and how understanding the anatomy and physiology of birth can help women and birthing people approach birth with confidence and common sense. 💫 A deeper (and delightfully geeky) dive into the science and mechanics of childbirth - from oxytocin and the brain–womb connection, to the importance of movement in labour, and how birth is a process of releasing tension so the baby can mould its way out of the mother’s body. 💫 The role of a doula, and how our respective work - doula support and holistic pelvic care- intersect and complement one another in supporting women through birth and beyond. Enjoy! BIG LOVE, Flurina This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit flurinathali.substack.com

    Ep. 83: Birth is physical: What we’ve forgotten and how we can remember - with Natalie Meddings.

  6. Mar 1

    Ep. 82: How Medical Herbalism can support your menstrual health and beyond with Melinda McDougall.

    If you’re curious to explore natural approaches to support menstrual health challenges today’s episode is for you. My guest, Melinda McDougall, is a registered Medical Herbalist specialising in women's health and runs a busy online clinic seeing patients across the UK and beyond. She combines the latest scientific research into botanical medicines with the traditional knowledge women have used for centuries to manage their health. Melinda shares a treasure trove of herbal information about how to improve irregular periods, heavy and painful menstruation, endometriosis, as well as how to reduce stress, and help your body to feel better overall! In this conversation we explored: - Melinda`s story and what led her to become a medical herbalist and why she decided to specialise in the field of women’s health. - The roots of medical herbalism in indigenous practices and knowledge and how plants have always been “the people’s medicine”. - Why medical herbalism is such a profound and potent holistic model to understand health and support our female and menstruating bodies beyond symptom management. - Various menstrual health challenges as well as endometriosis and how medical herbalism can be of support in these situations. --- 🌟 Join my softly rebellious on Substack - subscribe here. 🌟 Sign up here to receive a copy of my free workshop about The wild and poetic anatomy of the female body. 🌟 Book a Holistic Pelvic Care session with me in person in London or online, find out more here. --- 💛 The Soft Rebellion Podcast is created and hosted by Flurina Dominique Thali. I love hearing from you. To contact me, email softrebellion@flurinathali.com. --- Links: - Flurina Dominique Thali & The Soft Rebellion: @flurina.thali / www.flurinathali.com - My guest, Melinda McDougall: You can find her webpage here Credits: Intro/outro music – ‘Hymn for Jim’ by Aspyrian: Robin Porter – saxophone, Jack Gillen – guitar, Matt Parkinson – drums, composed by Robin Porter, listen to the full track here, graphic: Annina Thali, for more information click here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit flurinathali.substack.com

    Ep. 82: How Medical Herbalism can support your menstrual health and beyond with Melinda McDougall.

  7. Feb 25

    Ep. 81: Periods Aren’t Meant to Bloody Hurt: Reclaiming Menstrual Health with Gemma Barry

    Painful, heavy, chaotic periods have become so normalised that many women are told to simply “get on with it.” But what if that narrative is wrong? In this powerful conversation, I sit down with Gemma — former NHS nurse, herbalist and founder of The Well Woman Project — to challenge the deeply rooted cultural and medical narratives around menstrual pain. We explore why period pain has been normalised, how shame and silence have shaped menstrual health care, and what it really means to reclaim agency over your body. If you’ve ever been told your symptoms are “just part of being a woman,” this episode is for you. In this conversation … 💫 We name the historical — and present — menstrual landscape shaped by shame, silence and an illness-based narrative. We unpack how this narrative formed and why it needs dismantling. 💫 Gemma shares her own menstrual journey — how her experience of “chaotic cycles” and various diagnoses sparked a deep question: How can I support myself beyond the conventional allopathic route? That quest ultimately led her to specialise in menstrual health and write her book. 💫 We redefine menstrual health and examine why painful periods are not “normal.” Pain is a communication tool. When we understand the physiology behind it — particularly the role of inflammation — we begin to see what may worsen symptoms and what can genuinely help ease them. 💫 We discuss why and how menstrual health matters for vaginal health and overall mental wellbeing! 💫 Tracking your cycle isn’t just about fertility — it’s about gathering meaningful data. Gemma shares how women and menstruators can resist medical gaslighting, advocate for themselves and feel more confident in conversations with healthcare professionals. More about Gemma: Gemma is a former NHS nurse, herbalist and founder of The Well Woman Project. With over 20 years’ experience in health and wellbeing, she specialises in helping women decode painful, heavy and chaotic periods that have too often been dismissed or minimised. She is the author of Periods Aren’t Meant to Bloody Hurt and an outspoken advocate for better conversations around menstrual health and conditions such as endometriosis, adenomyosis and PMDD. Blending clinical insight with holistic practice, Gemma challenges medical gaslighting, empowers women to understand their bloodwork and symptoms, and teaches them how to reclaim agency over their bodies. Her work sits at the intersection of feminism, physiology and practical action. She is known for her grounded, straight-talking approach, depth of knowledge, and refusal to accept that debilitating periods are “just part of being a woman.” --- 🌟 Join my softly rebellious on Substack - subscribe here. 🌟 Sign up here to receive a copy of my free workshop about The wild and poetic anatomy of the female body. 🌟 Book a Holistic Pelvic Care session with me in person in London or online, find out more here. --- 💛 The Soft Rebellion Podcast is created and hosted by Flurina Dominique Thali. I love hearing from you. To contact me, email softrebellion@flurinathali.com. --- Links: - Flurina Dominique Thali & The Soft Rebellion: @flurina.thali / www.flurinathali.com - My guest, Gemma Barry: You can find her webpage here Credits: Intro/outro music – ‘Hymn for Jim’ by Aspyrian: Robin Porter – saxophone, Jack Gillen – guitar, Matt Parkinson – drums, composed by Robin Porter, listen to the full track here, graphic: Annina Thali, for more information click here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit flurinathali.substack.com

    Ep. 81: Periods Aren’t Meant to Bloody Hurt: Reclaiming Menstrual Health with Gemma Barry

  8. Feb 22

    Ep. 80: How to Transform Menstrual Shame and Reclaim Your Blood Mysteries - Jane Hardwicke Collings

    Yes, how do rites of passage shape women’s lives? In this episode, former homebirth midwife, teacher, writer, and menstrual, childbirth, and menopause educator Jane Hardwicke Collings joins me to explore how menstrual shame, birth trauma, and menopause have shaped women’s identities for generations — and how we can reclaim these rites of passage as sources of power rather than pain. Together we explored and talked about … 💫 Jane’s journey — the breadcrumbs she followed that led her to become the woman and leader she is today, and how “suddenly everything made sense” when her midwifery practice met the art of shamanism. 💫 A powerful teaching Jane shares: “How we move through our rites of passage directly influences how we live our lives.” She speaks in depth about the blood rites and the women’s mysteries, guiding us into a deeper understanding of these sacred transitions. 💫 We also explore the negative cultural narratives surrounding menstruation, childbirth, and menopause — the medicalisation and pathologising of the female body and its life phases. Jane shares what happens when we do not consciously honour our transitions — from menarche (our first bleed) to motherhood and menopause — and how these experiences silently teach us what our culture believes about women’s value and worth. 💫 As Jane says, “The menstrual cycle is running your life, whether you pay attention to it or not.” So we might as well turn toward it. We might as well listen. We might as well learn to move with it instead of against it — allowing it to guide us into deeper self-trust and embodied wisdom. Enjoy this episode. If you have ever felt disconnected from your cycle, confused about your transitions, or longing to reclaim the sacredness of your body, this conversation is for you. BIG LOVE and happy Sunday! Flurina This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit flurinathali.substack.com

    Ep. 80: How to Transform Menstrual Shame and Reclaim Your Blood Mysteries - Jane Hardwicke Collings
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About

A homecoming, a return, and a (re)discovery of the creative power of your female body. Our world uproots us from the gifts of the Feminine; the intuitive, the instinctual, the cyclical, the soft. What is the result? Patriarchal cultures of perfectionism, shame, and disconnect that leave us constantly running, never arriving.   Imagine a world of women softly rebelling; claiming our cyclicity, our weirdness, and our rest as we courageously cultivate a deep and delicious relationship to our female bodies.  My name is Flurina, I’m an Osteopath, dancer, writer and coach, I’ve been on my own journey sparked by an eating disorder to come home to the wild, poetic anatomy of my female body and awaken my creative power… and I invite you to join me and my guests, trailblazing teachers, healers and creatives as we each reclaim our own soft rebellion. flurinathali.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Flurina Thali
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    88
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Flurina Thali
  • Show Website
    The Soft Rebellion Podcast

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