Helping women move beyond the struggle with food and body — and come home to themselves.
For many women, food feels like a secret struggle. Intelligent, capable, self-aware women who have read the books, followed the plans, started over more times than they care to count — and who have quietly, protectively, stopped believing that real change is possible for them.
Not because they lack willpower or discipline. But because hope has cost them too much, too many times.
I know that feeling intimately. And it's why I do this work.
“I wasn’t exactly sure what a coach did but I soon learned that I was on a learning journey where I would become aware of my true identity — and not the person I thought I was.”
My Background
I'm a midlife women's health and wellness coach with 15 years experience. I hold a PhD in social anthropology — which matters more to my coaching than you might expect.
In my late twenties I spent 16 months living in a small Himalayan village, doing my doctoral fieldwork. Living inside a community entirely different from anything I'd known, I learned something no classroom could have taught me: how to be genuinely present with another person. How to ask questions that open things up rather than close them down. How to understand someone's world from the inside — on their own terms, not mine.
I didn't know it then, but I was learning to be a coach.
That's what a PhD in anthropology brings to this work. Not academic distance — the opposite. A deep, practiced ability to listen without judgment, and to help you hear yourself more clearly.
My Own Journey
I also come to this work through my own long struggle with food, my body, and my sense of worth.
For decades I looked like I had it together on the outside while feeling like a mess on the inside. I was going to the gym, trying to reclaim a body I felt at home in — with little success and even less joy. I remember a moment, living abroad with three small children, when a friend told me it was possible to lose weight again after having kids.
My heart sank.
Because yes meant hope. And hope meant effort. And effort had always meant punishment — the restrictions, the treadmill, the grinding discipline that never quite worked and always left me feeling worse about myself than when I started. Part of me almost wished she'd said no. At least then I could stop.
What I didn't yet understand was that the struggle was never really about my body. It was about what I'd been told I was supposed to be. I was wearing myself out trying to be good — when what I was actually hungry for was simply to feel good.
The turning point came unexpectedly — as turning points often do. I stumbled into a taekwondo class in West Africa, almost by accident, and something shifted. For the first time in longer than I could remember I was doing something purely for the joy of it. Not to fix myself, not to punish myself, not to earn anything. I went on to earn my black belt. And slowly, imperfectly, everything else began to follow. My relationship with food shifted. The noise got quieter. I started to feel like myself again.
What changed wasn't knowledge — I'd always known what I was supposed to do. What changed was something felt. An embodied experience of what genuine self-care actually looked and felt like for me, in my body, in my life.
That's what I want for every woman I work with.
You can read my full story here.
My Approach
My work brings together evidence-based health and wellness coaching, mindful eating, neurodiversity-informed practice, and movement — all grounded in one core belief:
You don't need to be fixed. You need to be free.
My approach is neuro-inclusive and trauma-informed, ensuring a safe, supportive space where you feel genuinely heard. I work entirely online, with women across the world.
For details of my qualifications and training, visit my Professional Qualifications page.
“I think this meant I explored areas I hadn’t intended to focus on — with the added benefit that I let myself address areas that underpinned my struggles without me initially realising they were an issue. I’m very grateful to Joanne for that.”
Working Together
There are three ways we can work together:
1-1 Coaching — deep, personalised work that gets underneath the struggle and creates change that actually lasts. Find out more
Workshops & Group Programmes — going deeper on the things that matter most, in the company of women who get it. See what's coming up
Essentrics Movement Classes — gentle, full-body movement that helps you feel strong and at home in your body again. Currently in person in Brighton/Hove and Glasgow, with online classes coming soon. Find out more
If something in you recognises itself in these words, I'd love to talk.
No pressure. No agenda. Just an honest, human conversation about where you are and whether working together might help.
The call is 30 minutes, completely free, and there's no obligation whatsoever.
Have a question first? Get in touch here
“From my first conversation with Joanne, I knew I was in safe hands. Throughout this journey, Joanne guided me gently and professionally into finding the answer naturally myself. I truly believe that, having had numerous therapies throughout my 60 years, these sessions with Joanne have been the most effective and ultimately life-changing for me.”