Meet Hayley
My life has been a regenerative journey of noticing and restoring life-sustaining connections between body, cycles, soul and the land that supports us.
A myriad of health conditions through my teen years and 20’s became my guides for understanding what it means to be well as a highly sensitive, empathic woman in this culture. For 15 years, I experienced chronic anxiety and regular spells of depression ~ the emotional root causes of which resulted in reoccurring skin conditions, cystitis, fatigue, insomnia, menstrual discomfort and migraines.
In healing these conditions and learning how to live as someone who is well, I experienced how closely connected our physical symptoms are with our emotional life and lifestyle. I learned to heal physical symptoms by treating the emotional root causes of dis-ease with the herbs outside my door and story medicine alongside other holistic tools. My own journey to wellness accompanied by a 7 year long initiation with bees, instilled a deep longing in me to be/work in close relationship with land. I arrived at the herb garden in 2016 with 2 precious colonies of honeybees in tow and my work grew and evolved from there.
I’m passionate about creating a menstrual health culture where the cycle is understood as an initiatory pathway to wellness, purpose, wisdom, elderhood, cultural and ecological restoration. The challenges I’ve faced through experiencing the power of a menstrual cycle (from pain, migraines and severe mood swings to shame, isolation and discrimination in the workplace) alongside the incredible gifts the cycle also brings, continue to be a source of great transformation and healing for me.
I want to see our experiences and stories around fertility, conception, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, matrescence and menopause witnessed and received so they can be honoured for the power and significance they carry. The powerful experiences I had during pregnancy steered me towards a life with mothering at its centre (not just holding and caring for children but for all of life) and I bring this quality to all that I do. It was during my pregnancy in 2019, that I ended my career in architecture to commit fully to what I do today.
Over time, my experience and training has become the services and products I offer you now to guide you to healthy menstrual cycles and matriarchal post-birth experiences so you’re more resourced to live a joyful, meaningful life.
What do I do?
I’m trained as a birth story listener, sympto-thermal fertility awareness method educator, sensory herb practitioner, solution based therapist and regenerative horticulturist. Within these roles and the space between, I bring presence, active listening, knowledge, courage, sensitivity, myth and ritual to whatever needs holding and tending.
I walk with you wherever you are on your path; to support a remembering of who you are and guide who you are becoming.
I offer 1:1 sessions online, at the herb garden in Dartington (South Devon) or in your home. I hold a brave, trauma informed space for clients where transformational work can be done safely and respectfully.
I’m committed to my work being accessible to everyone. Have a read of my financial accessibility statement for more information about prices and concessions and also get in touch to request additional support.
If you’d like to work together or have an enquiry, please email me at hello@pellarandpollen.com.
What do I bring that's different?
I’m a listener and guide. I see complexity and what’s needed with ease. My approach brings together knowledge based understanding with embodied instinct, intuition, story and forgotten, sensory languages.
I arrived at this work steadily through ecological and societal grief, hand in hand with a reverence for our original selves, wild bodies, real feelings and innate part in the living world. The work is my grief endorsed action.
Alongside formal training, I draw from a rich personal journey, my own messy rites of passage and a range of life experiences including:
~ cultivating deep belonging and nourishment cultivated from childhood neglect
~ witnessing the impacts of pregnancy loss and stillbirth at a young age
~ navigating this culture as a highly sensitive, introverted, empath
~ ecological awakenings from a young age; embodied experiences of innate membership in the earth community and greater web of life
~ experiencing 4 different schools and 8 house moves by age 13
~ making it through ungracious parental divorce during challenging teen years
~ emerging from periods of chronic anxiety and burn out during 20s
~ recovering party girl, people pleaser, over-worker, over-giver, rescuer and co-dependant (phew!)
~ tending periods of wise estrangement within my family of origin
~ a decade of menstrual cycle awareness, tracking, charting and menstrual wellness practices
~ negotiating rest days for my period as an employee within male dominated work places
~ a range of rural, village, suburban and city work/life experiences
~ departure from a respected, male dominated profession to follow a calling
~ a decade of conscious connection in partnership
~ over a decade healing through tending land closely: unlearning alongside soil, plants and bees
~ lovingly inviting and ending pregnancy in my body
~ surrendering to months of debilitating pregnancy nausea
~ retraining and building a business to work around motherhood
~ transforming birth trauma following on paper ‘perfect’ home birth
~ surviving postpartum in covid lockdown
~ raising a secure, wilful, spirited daughter
~ ongoing cultivation of self care alongside community care: showing up in sisterhood with village heartedness
Qualifications & training
Birth story medicine (BSM)
Trained Birth Story Listener working with the BSM process. Completed training in 2021 with Pam England as teacher and mentor. Member of the BSM school receiving monthly advanced training and mentoring. Fully insured to offer BSM sessions.
Sensory Herbalism
Studied Sensory Herbalism with Karen Lawton and Fiona Heckels 2017-2020. Qualified as a Sensory Herb Practitioner in 2020. Guiding clients with this healing framework in mind since 2018. Fully insured to practice as a Sensory Herb Practitioner in the UK.
Natural fertility
Certified NFPTA teacher of the Sympto-Thermal practice of Natural Family Planning. Working with the method since 2016 both as both a form of natural contraception and to achieve conception. Mentoring menstruators and couples for greater menstrual awareness and fertility empowerment using this method since 2017. Fully insured to offer this work.
Regenerative horticulture
Apprenticed in Sustainable Horticulture during a 6 month residency at Schumacher College in 2014. Completed Permaculture Design Certificate in 2014. Forest garden training with the Agroforestry Research Trust 2014-2016. Worked as a vegetable and salads grower at School Farm CSA which is now the home of my herb garden.
Beekeeping training with the British Beekeeping Association in 2012 and later, the Natural Beekeeping Trust 2014-2018. Too many bee books to mention, dedicated observation practices and years spent sit spotting, listening and being in the company of honeybee colonies and wild bees. I am forever indebted to the magic of bees.
Architecture and Design
2005 – 2019 worked in the field of architecture and design (qualifications: BA Hons First class, MArch Commendation and ARB registered 2013-19). Wide range of architectural, landscape design projects and natural playscapes. Architect for the community led development, Atmos Totnes 2015- 2019.
Associate design tutor, The University of Plymouth 2014-2019. Visiting tutor Portsmouth University 2010/11, Hooke Park, Architectural Association 2015/16.
Further training/ workshops with following people/organisations:
Kelly Diels, Dr. Sophie Brock, The Motherhood Centre, Association for Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health, Advaya/Sophie Strand, South West Grief Rituals, The Red School, Upfront, Revolution from home, Orphan Wisdom, Pam England, Trauma Informed Parenting, The Aware Parenting Institute, Kimberly Ann Johnson, Marion Rose, Aware Parenting Institute, Sensory Solutions, Grief tending in community, Extinction Rebellion, The Oxford Real Farming Conference, Rachael Alaia, Chris Holland, Suzi Crockford, The Agroforestry Trust, Ffyona Campbell, Tools for Conscious Collaboration, Embercombe, Schumacher College, Friends Of The Earth, Studio In The Woods.
Influence
Expressing thanks for the mentorship, teachings, healing, education and influence from the following people who have guided and enriched my work. In no particular order ~
Polly Higgins, Stephen Jenkinson, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Joanna Macy, Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, Marion Woodman, Dr Christine Northrup, Sobonfu Some, Ina May Gaskin, Fiona Heckels, Karen Lawton, Jane Hardwicke Collings, Caroline Myss, Jane Pickard, Beth Berry, Julia Robinson, Nicky Bell, Toni Spencer, Gemma Mallol, Pam England, Julia Duthie, Matthew Wood, Ian Siddons Heginworth, David Hoffman, Patrick Holford, Pip Waller, Elaine Aron, Dave Goulson, Tom Seeley, David Abram, Gabor Mate, Lyla June Johnson, Charles Eisenstein, George Monbiot, Robert Macfarlane, Bill Plotkin, Sharon Blackie, Sarah Durham Wilson, Michael Meade, Francis Weller, Pat McCabe, Claire Dubois, Nikita Gill, Desiree Wegner, Manon Dupree.