My battle with shame’s been a long one. It’s something that’s always been there in the background. It affects everything from decisions to behaviours, friendships to faith. As you’re here, I suspect you can relate:

A lightbulb moment for me a few years ago was discovering that the things that I hated about myself the most – things like boasting, perfectionism, difficulty loving others and excessive shyness – were almost all rooted in shame.

My story of starting to heal from toxic shame and trauma

I started on a journey to get free from shame in around 2017. I’d hit rock-bottom – a long-term relationship had just ended and with it I lost my home, my dog, my life savings, my dreams, my business, most of my possessions and, most significantly, my health (I became bed-bound with ME/CFS and POTS).

It was then – stuck in bed with no distractions – that I really started to heal.

Now you DON’T have to become bed-bound to recover from shame. There are other ways to heal and that’s what the Shame-Free Community is all about. I like to think that I went through all that so that you don’t have to. I’m still on my healing journey but I’ve come a long way and my role now is to point you in you the right direction.

About the Shame-Free Community

All this time of going through my own healing journey, my deepest inner longing has been to help others to get free from captivity to shame.

In 2024 I launched the Shame-Free Community: an online gathering of people who are experiencing shame – where they can get tools and support to help them on their healing journeys.

The focus of the resources in the community is to help you:

• Connect with yourself more deeply – through yoga, meditation, self-compassion and journaling
• Establish bonds with others in the community – through live meetups, a dedicated chat page and weekly discussion prompts
• For those who want it, help to connect with the divine – through imaginative prayer practices from the life of Jesus

I believe that these resources combined in a short daily practice can lead to deeper connections, more embodiment, a greater sense of belonging and a reduction in shame.

The resources in the community are not the same thing as therapy but can be used alongside therapy.

More about me

It’s always my aim to be vulnerable and write from the heart. That’s why I’m not putting my surname on here, but rest assured I am a real person sharing real problems that I deal with daily in my life. Here are some things about me:

I’m a child of God! I have a strong Christian faith which is what drives me and guides me to get free from shame. I talk about my faith sometimes in my posts because it’s an important part of who I am and I want to be authentic and show my true self. (By the way, you don’t have to share my faith to be welcome here).

I love to be outside and walking is my favourite thing to do, closely followed by drawing, writing, baking and watching wildlife, especially birds.

I love to spend time with my wonderful friends and family and have three precious nieces who are very close to my heart, and apparently my face lights up whenever I talk about them!

I’m blessed with some of the most wonderful friends that I could ever wish for. I know that relationships and making and keeping friends are a problem that so many of us with shame battle with (myself included) so this is a big area covered by the Shame-Free Community.

I’m passionate about justice for those who are oppressed and marginalised, especially those who’ve been abused in some way.

I’d love to connect with you. Feel free to get in contact.