Course Tutors

 

Dominique Sakoilsky

 

Dominique trained as an Active Birth teacher 18 years ago at the Active Birth Centre

in London with Janet Balaskas, Lolly Stirk and Yvonne Moore. She has been running classes and workshops ever since, both within the NHS and privately, and attending many births. Dominiqe has a thirst for learning, and loves the way that birth touches

so many different aspects of humanity.

 

Dominique then trained with Sophy Hoare and John Stirk in yoga and later studied as a Craniosacral Therapist, qualifying in 1997. She also trained with Relate, first as a Couple Therapist, then as a Family Counsellor and Systemic Practitioner. Dominique works both privately and at Relate with couples and families, also running a private practice in Craniosacral Therapy.

 

Dominique spent five years working for the Holistic Birth Trust Foundation training Doulas and Childbirth Educators. More recently she became a certified 7 Words Practitioner. The 7 Words is a system of authentic communication that enable us to gain greater clarity in our lives.

 

She is a mother of three. Two sons aged 20 and 17, and a 13-year-old daughter, their births have all deepened her journey, love and understanding of birth. She has had a premature labour in hospital, an unattended homebirth (he was in a hurry!) and a water birth at home.

 

When not working, Dominique enjoys spending time with her family, riding, walking the dog, yoga,
camping and generally being outdoors.

 

Louise Bennett

 

Louise Bennett is an Active Birth Teacher, aromatherapist and Mother. Over the past 16 years she has worked independently and within the NHS, as well as for community projects. Louise is currently creating training packages utilising her expertise in the antenatal/post natal field within the Walsall, West Midlands area.

 

Louise initially became inspired to teach English while travelling in Asia in her early twenties. She found her passion for birth through a challenging birth experience
on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Her second son was born in water and
benefited from all she had learnt on the Active Birth Teacher Training Course
with Janet Balaskas.

 

Louise has co-written Best Buddies, a breastfeeding peer support course and currently works as a Breastfeeding Peer Support Development Coordinator within Walsall Primary Care Trust.

 

Louise has worked within the NHS developing innovative approaches to mainstream alternative service delivery. She has worked in partnership with diverse communities developing women centred antenatal approaches, including the Sanpad South Asian Project in which music and relaxation were used as tools to help mothers and their unborn babies connect and bond. This has resulted in a CD of music for use in pregnancy, birth and beyond. 

 

She also runs a Baby Palace at the New Art Gallery Walsall, which is a sensory project that invites mothers and babies to explore touch, sound and communication through a loving and relaxed way of being.

 

Louise has been described as a 'champion of women', and her commitment to a woman-centred approach is always at
the heart of her work. Outside work, Louise enjoys cooking, gardening, dancing, walking her dog, hanging out with
friends and camping.

 

Suzanne Yates

 

Suzanne has been developing a holistic approach to maternity since 1989. Motivated by her first pregnancy, she began to deepen her professional shiatsu and massage work to specialise in maternity care. She established Well Mother in 1990, teaching shiatsu, massage and exercise to women and their partners in Bristol to help them connect with the wisdom of
their bodies.

 

Following the success and demand for her work, in 1998 Suzanne set up courses for health professionals (midwives, shiatsu and massage therapists). She now teaches internationally, regularly visiting North America, Australasia and Europe. She has written numerous articles on the subject and has spoken at many international conferences ranging from midwifery conferences to shiatsu conventions. Her first book 'Shiatsu for Midwives' was published by Elsevier in 2003. Her second
book 'Bodywork for pregnancy, birth and postpartum: an eastern and western approach' was accepted for publication by Elsevier in 2009. She is currently working on further books both for professionals and parents.

 

She continues to work with mothers as well as professionals and this guides her to deepen her knowledge and expand her skill base. She works with women trying to conceive as well as women going through the menopause. Her passion lies with integrating eastern and western approaches to offer a complete health care system for women at all stages of their lives.  Suzanne served on the National Health Service Maternity Services Liaison Committee from 1995 to 2000 and was involved with a practice audit on shiatsu for post-term pregnancy at her local maternity unit in Bristol, which was published in 2005 in the 'Journal for Complementary Therapies in Medicine'.

 

Jenni Meyer

 

Jenni started her career as a nurse and then trained as a midwife. She worked as a midwife for 17 years mainly in the community. She worked for several years in a team specialising in midwifery for women with mental health problems and women wanting home births, where she helped to signifcantly increase the home birth rate.

 

Jenni has always been interested in Holistic health and so has studied various aspects of natural medicine, massage, naturopthy and yoga. Jenni is also trained as an Okido yoga teacher (Japanese Zen tradition).  Jenni has a BSc. Hons. in human biology and is a qualified Craniosacral Therapist.

 

At present Jenni works full time as a Craniosacral Therapist and sees many pregnant women, mothers and babies and families in her practice.

 

Rachel Wheeler

 

Rachel has been working as a health professional for the past 17 years, mainly focusing on women's health. She started attending her friends' and clients' labours to provide them with support. After the pregnancy and birth of her first son she realised that her calling and particular interest in women's health was in and around the childbearing year, and this was where her future and continuing career lay.

 

Rachel trained for two years with the Active Birth Teacher's Association under Lolly Stirk, Yvonne Moore and Janet Balaskas. She continues to expand and update her knowledge through professional development and membership of Yoga Birth and Active Birth Associations. She attends regular study days for midwives and other health professionals and continues her own personal yoga development through regular practice and attending classes with other teachers. She works closely with other antenatal teachers, yoga teachers, midwives, physiotherapists, health visitors, doctors and complementary therapists.

 

Rachel has been teaching in Bath since 1997, and as her children have grown older she has been able to get increasingly involved with her own practice and expanding what she can offer to the extent of now taking on an apprentice. She is passionately committed to what she does and continues to enjoy and feel honoured to share in such a special time in women's lives.

 

In 2005 Rachel embarked on her long term ambition of midwifery training, and has now recently qualified. She is really excited about and happy to be able to combine midwifery with the work she loves.

 

Tracy Holloway

 

Tracy is a clinical hypnotherapist and psychotherapist having trained with the Essex Institute of Clinical Hypnosis.
A Licentiate Member of The Hypnotherapy Society, The National Council of Psychotherapists and The Association for Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy. Tracy has studied advanced clinical hypnosis for childbirth, has attended training
in hypnobirthing and is one of the countries leading certified hypnofertility specialists, having trained with American pioneer birthing and fertility hypnotherapist Lynsi Eastburn.

 

As a teacher of metaphysics and quantum healing, working with the beliefs systems of the body, Tracy has worked to develop an understanding of the mind body connection and how to increase its power and efficiency for pregnancy,
childbirth and parenting.

 

Tracy is an Advanced Theta DNA Healing teacher, practitioner and medical intuitive. She has been working in the field of healing and self-development for over 15 years and specialised in childbirth after studying emotional and physical health difficulties in adults Tracy Hollowaywhich stemmed from birth trauma or lack of love during gestation.

 

With a great deal of experience in witnessing changes in adult health by removing old birth trauma and pre-birth patterns, Tracy was inspired to create a model for pregnant women/couples that would program the cells of the body with the information necessary for easy natural childbirth to occur and for their healthy, happy children to have the
best possible start in life.

 

Hypno-babies classes have helped many mums to be to release all fear of birth, resolve emotional issues and prepare for the celebration of bringing in new life. Tracy believes that the information we receive from the time of conception is stored within the cells of the body and along with our ancestral memories create the blueprint for life, health and happiness.

 

Tracy's work is focused on reprogramming this cellular information and instilling into our children, before they are born, a belief that they are loved, wanted, safe and protected and that the world is welcoming, accommodating, nurturing place in which they can flourish to be all that they wish to be. This is the foundation for health, success and happiness in adult life.

 

Eva Fernandes

 

Eva's passion for natural parenting led her to establish her first retail shop Born in 2000 when she became frustrated at the lack of availability of natural baby products on the high street. "I wanted to use washable nappies and carry Maya in a sling but the only place I could find those products were from mail order companies. I am passionate about the environment so I gave talks on using washable nappies and set up the real nappy campaign in Bristol, which is now run by the council. The problem was we created a lot of demand for nappies but like me, mums wanted to see and feel what they were buying before they bought, so my sister Georgina and I set up Born to fulfill that demand." The Bristol shop soon became very successful and by 2004 the sisters were able to open a second shop in Bath. This was followed by a third shop in Stoke Newington North London in 2005.

 

The success of Born is largely due to the fact that it is regarded so highly amongst healthcare professionals. "We wanted to offer more than just a place to buy organic baby clothes or chemical free toiletries; we believe that new mothers need support from other mothers and professionals such as antenatal yoga teachers, complimentary therapists and breastfeeding counselors. We keep all this information in our stores and on Born Together and get to know who is doing what in the field of pregnancy and birth around our shops. We want to transform birth and parenting instilling unconditional love into families and where a mothers need's and her babies needs are met by the whole community." To help make this dream a reality Eva is also involved in the Relaxed Birth and Parenting training with Dominique Sakoilsky: "Our goal is to have a Relaxed Birth and Parenting teacher in every neighbourhood to bring back into the community the mother-to-mother support that our society desperately needs."

 

As well as Directing the Born retail business, Eva also assists Alison Baum, founder of Best Beginnings and the Breastfeeding Manifesto Coalition. As part of this support Eva set up the Precious Drops Fundraising Campaign to raise funds to set up a Human Milk bank at Southmead Hospital in Bristol. "I believe passionately in the physical and emotional benefits of human breast milk for human babies, my own children were long-term breastfed and I want to contribute to making breastfeeding the norm in our culture."

 

Amanda Rayment

 

Amanda works as a herbalist in the field of pregnancy, birth and childhood. She is also co-founder and principal tutor at the Holistic Birth Trust Foundation and owner of the herbal tea company Welcome World, which produces the popular pregnancy wellbeing and breastfeeding support tea, among others. At the heart of all Amanda's work is the intention and desire to communicate that we can raise our children with the awareness that happiness is our shared true nature. Amanda is delighted at the opportunity to participate on the Relaxed Birth and Parenting trainings.