Hello, I’m Gabrielle (aka Gaye)
I was a headbanger in my cot apparently so the need to experience freedom and expression through the body and movement started early! I went to dancing classes before school. I loved it. I went to full time training, then danced professionally for about 15 years. I worked with several companies including Rambert Dance Company and the Cholmondeleys.
After much touring the UK and worldwide, I experienced my first state of inner stillness during a small and dimly lit basement in New York’s Yoga Sivananda centre. It was 1997. I was blown away. A sudden and profound awareness of the self within, a feeling of wholeness.
The relationship between movement and stillness drew me further into healing and bodywork.
I’ve been in private practice since 2002 as a Craniosacral therapist and yoga teaching since 2006.
Some relevant qualifications include:
Institute of Craniosacral Studies diploma.
2 years Scaravelli inspired therapeutic yoga course at Morley College.
2 years Aurolab experiential Yoga teacher certification.
Many post grad courses including:
Life Coaching.
Integrating somatic parts work.
Healing trauma, mental health and addiction.
Healing the body, healing the earth.
Neuroscience and mindfullness.
Nonviolent Communication.
I’m fully insured with Holistic Insurance.
My Story
My grown up son knocked on my bedroom door in the middle of the night, his voice urgent and concerned- “Mum, are you ok ?” I was crying out in my sleep, consumed by intense pain. The second downhill fall in the year, over and off my bike, breaking a second broken bone on landing and triggering widespread joint inflammation.
Overwhelming, raw and very real. I couldn’t walk or work much. It took several months for a severe hip arthritis diagnosis and year and a half for surgery. It changed me, my life and my work.
So I’ve been there. Months of enduring pain, despair and disbelief of feeling uprooted from the person I’d known myself and others knew me to be ie. a healthy yogi and therapist who tends to others needs and wellbeing - not someone barely managing my own.
Aargh it felt like an immersion in shame and plenty of it. And yet in spite of my harshest self critic part I stayed with the process. The vulnerability. The radical acceptance. Learning to ask for and receive help and support and gradually, gradually things shifted.
The story is ever unfolding, but I can stand now (and walk and dance) in truth and say that it is possible to come through awful situations, that the heart cracks open wider, and sometimes it may even be in the best interest for your soul and life.
My Approach
My way of working is to meet each unique person where they are. I bring various tools from my therapeutic and lived experience to support you in accessing a greater sense of self . I think we are all in ongoing process of integrating at each stage of life, our bodies needs a sense of purpose and meaning. I think we do this much better when we are resourced and connected.