About Working With Me
I see working together as a collaboration.
​
You are in the driver's seat. I am here to teach you how to be your own scientist. How to observe your body, be systematic about your recordings, and let your body tell you what is going on.
​
I am not here to guarantee that you will have a perfect cycle, or be pregnant by the time we conclude our work together. I cannot make your body magically do what you want!
​
What I can promise you, is that you will walk away after working with me with:
​
-
Greater knowledge of yourself
-
Information about how your body is doing, and areas where you need attention
-
Assessment of menstrual cycle health
-
Information for how to tackle menstrual health concerns and expert referrals
-
Mastery of the practice of fertility awareness, which will empower you for a lifetime!
​
Learning Fertility Awareness is learning a new skill. Like picking up a new instrument or learning a new language.
​
The learning curve can be steep. You might feel uncomfortable. It might sound complicated at first.
Because this is about your reproductive body, you might even realize you have never paid attention to yourself in this way, or that there are things you need to process. It might bring up big feelings.
​
I am here to support you every step of the way.
Your job is to show up authentically, ready to receive the information your body is giving you, and be true to yourself in your reproductive intentions.
​
Only YOU know what is best for you. I am not here to tell you otherwise.
My 4 Pillars of Teaching Fertility Awareness
Empowered Body Sovereignty
By using Fertility Awareness you will gain knowledge about your body.
​
I want you to know that your body is your own, and no one can tell you that your experience of it is not valid, or that it doesn't matter.
​
You know yourself best.
Fertility Awareness will give you one tool to learn about your menstrual health, and understand what your cycle can tell you about your overall health.
​​
I work within a harm reduction approach to hold space for your reflections of your life, and encourage you in any changes you might want to make that will nourish your body and support your overall health.
​
I am not here to tell you what to do, make decisions for you, or push you to make changes you are not ready to make.
You are the boss of your own body. ​
Body Literacy is for Every Body
I teach Fertility Awareness to create the world I want to see.
​
A world where people can feel at home in their bodies. Where we allow each person to express themselves without telling them how they should be because of what their body looks like.
In my practice I explicitly divest from the gender binary.
​
Practicing Fertility Awareness is not about connecting to the divine feminine for everyone.
I teach this practice as a tool for building a relationship to your body that feels most authentic to you and how you express yourself.
I teach from a gender neutral perspective, and encourage every person to connect to their own body, and explore their relationship with their gender with openness and curiosity (if that's what they want to do). Everyone has a personal relationship to their body, to their reproductive organs, and to their gender and sexuality. This process of (re)connection can be difficult, especially for survivors of sexualized or gender-based violence.
With a trauma-informed approach, I am here to hold space for whatever comes up for you. ​
You are welcome here if you align with the divine feminine. You are welcome here if you are masculine of centre. You are welcome here if you are non-binary. You are welcome if you are gender expansive, or if your gender expression is often in flux.
I believe that building a better relationship with our bodies is best done within a supportive community of people who are invested in you feeling your best, whatever that looks like for you.
​
As a queer person and parent, I am not invested in telling people who they are, or how they should be based on what kind of body they have. I don't presume to know about the nature and existance of your spiritual connection is with your body and your gender, and I won't impose mine on you.
​
I teach Fertility Awareness from a secular, intersectional feminist framework. I teach and celebrate menstruating people of all genders and sexualities, centering Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour (IBPOC), non-binary, and 2SLBTQ folks in my practice.
​
I see each person from a holistic perspective, and I value your intuition about yourself. If you are looking for someone who will teach you based on faith-based values, or to learn among women or married heterosexual couples only, I am happy to refer you to other educators.
Radical Compassion and Community Care
When you join the Bodywise community, you will be entering a space where folks will be supportive of your journey towards knowing yourself better.
Learning about your body can bring up big feelings, and everyone deserves a place where they can be open and received with tenderness and care.
​
Entering the community means that you agree to confidentiality, to withhold judgement, and use your words carefully to support, affirm, and elevate others. I created this virtual community as a liberatory and loving space to surround myself with progressive queer or queer-allied folks.
​​
​I live and work in Indigenous lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, and Missisaugas of the Credit peoples (also known as Toronto, Canada). Wherever you might physically be, this is an explicitly anti-oppressive and anti-racist virtual space, where we actively untangle the legacies of colonialist and sexist thinking that disconnect cyclical people from their bodies.
As a Treaty person, I am deeply committed to decolonizing health education through teaching bodily sovereignty.
​
In this community we affirm people wanting to feel their best, to make their own reproductive decisions, and to express themselves authentically. I invite direct communication between members, openness, curiosity, and respectful conflict resolution.
If you engage in disrespectful communication or harm, I will create space for direct dialogue and repair.
Those who refuse opportunities for personal accountability, and do not adhere to group agreements, may be removed from the community.
Personal Accountability
Fertility Awareness is a practice of fertility management that is highly user-dependent.
​
Your success in achieving your intentions depends on how well I teach you, and how well you understand the rules of the method. It also depends on your clarity regarding reproductive intentions and the decisions you make about sexual activity when you're fertile.
Many people know when they feel a strong desire to avoid pregnancy, or a strong desire to conceive. Sometimes people do not have a strong preference either way, or are not looking to achieve pregnancy within a thought-out timeline. ​
We will work together to clarify how strongly you feel about achieving or avoiding pregnancy, so that this desire is top of mind when you decide how to manage times of fertility. This means sorting out your feelings about your reproductive capacity, and taking actions that align with what you determine is best for you.
Practicing Fertility Awareness entails practicing deep self-accountability.
​
My goal is to give you evidence-based information so you can make informed choices, and support your decision-making about contraceptive and pregnancy options.
As a practice of birth control, Fertility Awareness is highly effective. You can successfully avoid pregnancy with more than 99% efficacy by strictly following the rules of the method. As a practice to achieve pregnancy, Fertility Awareness will give you the knowledge necessary to time sex or insemination to dramatically increase your chances of success.
​
Moving through the program and carefully applying your charting skills is completely up to you.
You are responsible for sharing about your learning style, asking questions to ensure your understanding, and using the method to the best of your knowledge.
When in doubt, reach out! Each package includes office hours for charting questions, and everyone has the ability to book more time for one-on-one support.