Illuminated with Ellie Loves Ellie Loves

This week I’m talking to friend and guest SYDNEY Zwicker, a Holistic Pelvic Care practitioner based in Colorado.

Syd's one of those people who has that time traveller quality about her - wise beyond her years and has an ability to push boundaries and facilitate healing for women of all ages. We met when we were both doing our Qoya teacher training and she felt I’d known forever.

Sydney came to her work through her own healing from sexual abuse in her late teens. In her words, she tried it all. From alcohol and meaningless sex, to talk therapy, dance therapy, jade eggs, energy healings, hitting a giant foam block with a baseball bat, screaming into a pillow, and everything in between. Though each time she removed a layer of the hurt, she always felt like there was something she couldn’t reach physically.

Then she discovered Holistic Pelvic Care, and her world opened. She was finally able to de-armour and heal and for the first time, she was able to release it from the physical body.

Sydneys mission is to shed the stigma around the female lived experience through awareness, education, and holistic healing. Sydney shares with us the power of holistic pelvic care and the value of de-armoring ourselves. How society teaches us that our female bodies are dangerous and dirty yet as women of age we are expected to be empowered, godesses! We discuss the effects this has on fertility and how we can heal our relationship with our body - end the war with our physical self and teach our daughters to the same.



We talk about:


The journey to healing from sexual trauma
Pelvic care, how it can help and what treatment looks like
The fertility path
Myofascial release, yoni massage and yoni eggs
Starting the conversation with your daughters

Sydney Zwicker - https://zwickerhealingarts.com

Yoni Egg course - https://zwickerhealingarts.com/yoni-egg-online-course

Lois Bickerton, Womankind Health (based in Poole, Dorset) - https://www.womankindhealth.co.uk

Welcome part 2 of my conversation with Jillian Redrow, an intuitive eating and living coach based in Texas.
I could talk all day about this subject, as someone who has consciously yoyo dieted most of my life and has worked hard on self love, and healing my relationship with my body.
We began in part one talking about what lead Jillian to the work - her relationship with food and alcohol and how she found healing. 
In this episode we talk about how we don't 'become worthy' - we are born worthy. How diet culture is a 7billion pound industry - and yet it's the only product that's sold to us with a 97% failure rate and when it doesn't work - we blame ourselves - how nuts is that? Industries thrive on us playing the 'when then' game. Us versus our bodies..
When you lose weight, longer hair, better skin, smaller waist, a new wardrobe - then you'll be happy - so we invest in more and more - yet the truth is that when we have a core belief that we are not worthy - happiness is hollow. 
Jillian talks about how we can shift from body shame to body neutrality and body acceptance and then to body love. How shifting to gratitude and acceptance really starts to reroute our inner pathways, helping us come into trust.. moving from judgment to acceptance. 
Jillian shares valuable tools on how to dial in and listen and be in relationship with your body - to stop seeking happiness outside of ourselves and using food as a drug. 
What we metabolise/ ingest/ digest - is more than food, its words, beliefs, patterns of behaviour, experiences and daily choices. Waking up to this we get to be the ones that break the pattern for ourselves and future generations.
This is a really powerful episode and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
We talk about: 

How to be in communication and at peace with your body
How people pleasing is attached to the belief that by putting others first with make you more loveable
The power of inner child work
The 'when then game'
How dieting works against the wisdom of our body
How feelings and emotions are signals to listen more closely to your body
How we can't change others - only do the work ourselves and choose what we engage with
Recognising the patterns and beliefs we inherit
We are as developed as the least developed part of our parents - but when we take our power back - that's where we get to rewrite our story
Guilt is never a part of what our bodies want or desire or deserve.


CLICK HERE >> for Jillians' website
CLICK HERE >> to sign up for the free webinar on June 25th 2021
CLICK HERE >> to be the first to hear about the She Heals Society - launching July 2021
CLICK HERE >> to contact Jillian

Before we start, this episode contains some subjects that may be triggering for some listeners. If that sounds like that could be you, do check the show notes for more detail
This week I’m talking to Jillian Redrow, self love coach and healing facilitator - Helping women ditch the diets for good and heal our relationship to our bodies and ourselves.
Like my conversation with Nas - it was so juicy, I’ve split it over two parts - you won’t want to miss a thing!
In this powerful and personal episode we talk about how growing up she was athletic and strong, but how comments from others at a vulnerable point in her teens, along with a experience at a High school party, left her self esteem in pieces - and how she began using food to regain some control.
She shares really vulnerably how it the eating disorder derailed not only her teens but her college years.
With eating disorders skyrocketing during the pandemic, this conversation speaks not only to that but to people with a complicated relationship to food - emotional eaters, dieters, carb ditchers, etc.
In part two Jillian shares what helped her heal and how she helps others do the same
If you, you are based in the UK and you or someone know is affected by any of the subjects we discussed - please check out all the resources for seeking support and guidance in the show notes.
Enjoy!

We talk about:

That we can’t shift what we are in resistance of.
Changing your body alone - won’t heal the beliefs
About being in a toxic relationship in college and being jailed for 77 days
That the one thing we all seek is to be seen and heard. And how to shift from being disconnected and numbed out to reconnecting to our heart and bodies and feeling empowered.
How connecting to our inner child - and addressing our pain with love and compassion is the key to healing
And finally how she found sobriety through AA, re - met her now husband but it wasn’t until she had a relapse that she was finally able to face healing her whole self and that included her relationship with her body.
And finally how mindfulness and facilitate can reconnect you to your body and heart


Resources:
Jillians website - jillianredrow.com
Follow Jillian on Instagram
The freephone UK, 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000 247
Womens Aid - https://www.womensaid.org.uk
Holly Whitaker - https://www.quitlikeawoman.com
Laura Mcowen - https://www.lauramckowen.com
Home Podcast https://soundcloud.com/thisishomepod/
Hungry for happiness - Samantha Skelly

Welcome to part 2 - where my guest is Nasreen El-Mariesh. Naz is an Empowerment + relationship Coach: helping professional women fall back in love with their life and their relationship - Her unique style of transformational coaching,  helps women to change their belief systems, connect with their heart and and take the starring role in their life. She's also the Co-Founder of Tonic Retreats and Events Director at Wellbeing by The Lakes - an annual boutique wellness festival in Dorset.

We talk about reaching that point in life when your body/mind is screaming at you to do something different. When you accept that you need to make changes in your relationship, job or life.

I share my own experience of therapy and getting help when I most needed it.

Naz talks about how transformational coaching can empower you to listen to your heart and do what's right for you whether that's to stay in the relationship and to find happiness AND to get your needs met, to leave knowing your worth and to be a peace with your decision and how to navigate co parenting with compassion and confidence.



We talk about:


How when making a decision feels impossible - don't make it until you feel like you're making it from a solid place.
The transformational power of coaching and how it can really help you in all areas of life.
A simple but powerful exercise to get a visceral yes or no in the body.
If one person in a relationship is unhappy - it's likely that they both are.
That by one person in the relationship doing the work - you can both benefit.
Esther Perel describes that in a relationship, you are in a constant evolution and that you go through many versions of yourself over the years.
That the growth is in the discomfort and as we step out of the shadows and into our truth - that's where the magic happens.
The joy of skinny dipping, Qoya and breathwork, cold water swimming and how a daily practice however short is so valouable.
Finally Naz shares a powerful meditation exercise for getting clarity.



Website: https://www.nasreenel-mariesh.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/secrettolovinglife

This week’s guest is Nasreen El-Mariesh. Naz is one of those friends who will lift you up, inspire and remind you of your limitless potential - she's an Empowerment + relationship Coach: helping professional women fall back in love with their life and their relationship - but really she can coach anyone on anything.  She's one of a kind.

She's also the Co-Founder of Tonic Retreats and Events Director at Wellbeing by The Lakes - an annual boutique wellness festival in Dorset

Naz and I met originally, when she was working in PR, Marketing and Events and I was working in another job in a familiar pattern - frustrated and being called to speak up and recognise my worth!

She shares how she got into coaching and was invited to learn with Jayne Jewell, a renowned Tony Robbins Platinum and master trainer.

And how coaching transformed her own life and how she's passion about sharing the ways of how we can do the same.



We talk about:


Growing up in Dubai and her parents separating
How a family tragedy shaped her life irreversibly
How she rescued her dad from China - and how supported you are when you let go and trust
The connection to our parents/caregivers and how that relationship often shapes what you choose in a romantic partner
About her relationship: how taking ownership for her part, releasing control, the never-ending list of hoops to jump - they went from THAT couple  (constantly bickering) to THAT couple, that people admire and come to for relationship advice! And they recently got engaged!
You can't go back into the darkness when you've seen the light.
The difference between coaching and therapy.
How we tell ourselves such stories and how coaching is about undoing them
Your heart is the compass, which you use to make the decision and your brain is the tool that you use to get you there.

Website: https://www.nasreenel-mariesh.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/secrettolovinglife

Donna Lancaster is a coach and therapist with over 25 years of experience working individuals, couples and groups and she's co founder and a facilitator of The Bridge Retreat - a six day personal development experience offering life transformation through deep healing.
She’s passionate about the subject of grief and the grieving process which she believes offers the missing link for many, in our search for wholeness. This interest stemmed from her own personal experience of ‘depression’ which she suffered from for many years and later recognised as unprocessed grief.
She talks about going through life - like so many of us -as a ‘warrior woman’ with a focus on strength, tenacity, and being ‘indestructible’! And how her body literally shutdown, forcing her to re-evaluate life and explore new ways of being.
Donna suports people ‘to return to the truth of who they are’.
“Through allowing and supporting the natural order of the grieving process to flow, people find themselves remembering who they really are and living from this true place. When there is ‘unfinished business’ in our lives, it is very hard to move on and engage with life fully. Grieving allows us to cross the bridge from past hurts and sorrow into a place of lightness and joy.”
We talk about:

How healing is a return to wholeness
How she worked as a child protection social worker for many years
How carrying on warrior style may keep you feeling safe in the short term, but it's not sustainable
The physical manifestations of mental pain can be ME, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia..
The deeper you go in healing, the more joy you can access
That mental health is still shrouded in shame, but it's changing and we can all be a part of the change
That to move forward - we have to deal with the painful parts of our past 
How important space is to do the grief/ soul/inner work.
Her upcoming first book The Bridge, a practical, supportive, seven-step programme empowering you with the tools needed to gain clarity and learn how to release the pain, fear and anger keeping you trapped and  move towards whole-hearted living.


The Bridge retreat - thebridgeretreat.com
The Love(d) documentary - https://www.loveddocumentary.com
Find Donna on instagram @donnalancs