Ready to feel strong, steady, and unapologetically capable through perimenopause and menopause? We sit down with Charlotte, a Chiang Mai–based fitness and nutrition coach who specialises in midlife women, to unpack what actually changes as hormones shift and how to train smarter without turning your life upside down. No gimmicks, no “train by your phase” templates — just practical strategies that meet you where you are.

We dig into why strength training becomes non-negotiable as oestrogen declines, and how load helps protect muscle and bone health when sarcopenia and osteopenia start to creep in. Charlotte breaks down simple ways to pick the right weight using RIR and RPE, how to keep the training stimulus while swapping movements you hate, and why enjoyment is the secret to consistency. You’ll hear real talk on the hip thrust nemesis, unexpected confidence boosts, and the quiet “grit” that keeps you coming back, even when the music is loud and the excuses pile up.

Recovery takes centre stage. We reframe days off as recovery days, explore what active rest can look like, and explain why sleep, protein intake, and stress management drive progress more than one brutal workout ever will. Expect clear protein targets for midlife, pragmatic guidance on adapting training around fluctuating cycles without rigid rules, and a blueprint for getting started with a coach, a community, or a well-built program. By the end, you’ll have a grounded plan to build a resilient frame, better moods, and the kind of everyday strength that makes life feel easier.

If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a confidence nudge, and leave a quick review — your feedback helps more women lift well through midlife.

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Melanie is an experienced Soul & Shadow Worker, Womb Medicine Woman, podcast host, writer and trainer.

For over 20 years, she has supported individuals and healing professionals to restore connection with the body, repair attachment and separation wounds, and embody primordial wisdom rooted in the womb, heart and soul.

Melanie's approach blends somatic womb healing, shadow integration, shamanic healing and soul-level repatterning - offering a deep and lasting pathway back to the true self.

She hosts The Sacred Womb Podcast, leads The Womb Medicine Woman Training and is currently writing her first book: The Sacred Womb - a handbook for coming home to our true nature, along with Poems For Peri-Menopause.

We dismantle the Disney princess fantasy and show how to move from extraction and control toward sovereign, mutual, love‑centred relationships. We name the childhood roots, the subtle control strategies, and the grief work that restores agency and real intimacy.

• defining the princess fantasy and rescue myth
• why the programming lands on unmet needs
• how waiting to be chosen delays growth
• pedestalising partners and the ring illusion
• subtle control, overfunctioning and protest
• repairing trust and using conflict for growth
• grieving the past to return to the present
• shifting to what we bring into relationships
• practical steps for boundaries and agency

Feel free to email me if you've got any questions, or if you want some support with bringing more of 'you' into your relationships. Check out Sovereign Relationships, where I'll help you get from extraction, transactional, and fantasy-based relationships into mutual, sovereign, embodied love.

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Support the show

Melanie is an experienced Soul & Shadow Worker, Womb Medicine Woman, podcast host, writer and trainer.

For over 20 years, she has supported individuals and healing professionals to restore connection with the body, repair attachment and separation wounds, and embody primordial wisdom rooted in the womb, heart and soul.

Melanie's approach blends somatic womb healing, shadow integration, shamanic healing and soul-level repatterning - offering a deep and lasting pathway back to the true self.

She hosts The Sacred Womb Podcast, leads The Womb Medicine Woman Training and is currently writing her first book: The Sacred Womb - a handbook for coming home to our true nature, along with Poems For Peri-Menopause.

Become the frequency of this work and guide women home to their true, sovereign nature.

I’m truly delighted to share this with you. The Womb Medicine Woman Training® is back!

This training has run in different forms for seven years. I then chose to pause—to reflect, deepen my skills, get divorced, and move to Thailand… and then peri-menopause kicked in. To say I needed time to rest and recalibrate would be an understatement.

Now, with fresh eyes, in a new chapter of life, and with a clinically rooted, trauma-specialised approach, I’m bringing back this much-needed training—clearer, deeper, and more comprehensive than ever.

The Womb Medicine Woman Training® is a 12-month Certified Professional Training in womb healing and feminine leadership, alchemising deep personal work with professional development.

In this episode—celebrating the relaunch—I walk you through why women need specialised healing and leadership, why trauma-specialised womb work matters, and how the structure of the training—CORE · FLOW · STRUCTURE · LEAD—is designed to take us from stabilising core needs to sovereignty, self-responsibility, and heart-centred leadership.

I also share how Medicine Circles, partner practice, and sisterhood support real-world integration—repatterning the nervous system and bringing this work to women in a way that lights you up.

• Why women need specialised healing & leadership
• Why trauma-specialised womb healing matters
• The structure of the training — CORE, FLOW, STRUCTURE & LEAD, and why
• CORE — Restoring Core Needs and Orienting To The Love Within
• FLOW — Menstrual Cycle Embodiment, Rites of Passage and Womb Healing
• STRUCTURE — Restoring & Unifying The Divine Masculine & Divine Feminine
• LEAD — Cultivating Aligned Action, Value, Visibility, Internal Authority, Self-Responsibility and Sovereignty
• Medicine Circles — how we work
• Community — the field you’ll be held in
• Roots & Origins of this work
• Course outcomes — what you’ll be able to offer

I’m thrilled to invite you into this expanded and upgraded training—one that will equip you with the experience, healing, transformation, and clinical skills to embody your role as a Womb Medicine Woman®.

The training starts every September.

FULL DETAILS OF THE WOMB MEDICINE WOMAN TRAINING

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Melanie is an experienced Soul & Shadow Worker, Womb Medicine Woman, podcast host, writer and trainer.

For over 20 years, she has supported individuals and healing professionals to restore connection with the body, repair attachment and separation wounds, and embody primordial wisdom rooted in the womb, heart and soul.

Melanie's approach blends somatic womb healing, shadow integration, shamanic healing and soul-level repatterning - offering a deep and lasting pathway back to the true self.

She hosts The Sacred Womb Podcast, leads The Womb Medicine Woman Training and is currently writing her first book: The Sacred Womb - a handbook for coming home to our true nature, along with Poems For Peri-Menopause.

Women and MONEY! Why are so many women struggling to earn, receive and retain money?!!

Women are conditioned—subtly and overtly—to emotionally over-give, to feel guilty for charging for their time, to equate compassionate with “low fee,” and not to have “too much.”

Add attachment patterns that mean receiving can feel existentially loaded, generational trauma that women simply can’t survive without a man (and his money), plus a split from our true masculine nature and the distortions that comes with, and we’ve got a heady concoction of lack and struggle.

So where does it come from?

From my experience, the actual root is a perceived lack of ability and a rupture of trust in oneself, leading to a subsequent attempt to fill that void with someone or something outside of us. 

When it comes to money and women, we usually fill our perceived lack of ability to earn with a man (who provides money, but also has his own deficit, usually emotional intelligence, and the ability to care for himself, which women then make up for in exchange). 

So the problem isn’t “out there.” It's not 'the universe's' fault - it’s the unconscious patterns within—a blend of attachment templates, generational imprints, gendered socialisation and our own outsourcing vs resourcing across our Soul’s Journey—that runs how women charge, receive, retain, manage, and relate with money. 

In this episode, I talk through:

• Not working at the root, nervous-system override at the moment of charging/receiving, and the feast-and-famine cycle.
• Gendered programming (be small, be nice, be grateful, don't charge for caring) fused with attachment patterns centred around a longing to be truly cared for keeps the loop on rewind and repeat.
• Outsourcing vs resourcing through the soul’s journey – our rupture with self-trust and source, and unwillingness (for various reasons) to take self-responsibility.
• What creates real change: a direct, embodied process that restores stability and congruence so your relationship with money feels steady and safe.

I’ve created A FREE guided practice and worksheet to locate your personal glitches and core beliefs in the cycle of money. Download it here >

AND if you’re ready to stop patching symptoms, blaming ‘the universe’ and want to resolve the root, I have created a container where we can work through all of this together – the Money Patterns Rewired intensive, for women.

MONEY REWIRED FULL DETAILS

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Support the show

Melanie is an experienced Soul & Shadow Worker, Womb Medicine Woman, podcast host, writer and trainer.

For over 20 years, she has supported individuals and healing professionals to restore connection with the body, repair attachment and separation wounds, and embody primordial wisdom rooted in the womb, heart and soul.

Melanie's approach blends somatic womb healing, shadow integration, shamanic healing and soul-level repatterning - offering a deep and lasting pathway back to the true self.

She hosts The Sacred Womb Podcast, leads The Womb Medicine Woman Training and is currently writing her first book: The Sacred Womb - a handbook for coming home to our true nature, along with Poems For Peri-Menopause.

Agnieszka Drabek-Prime weaves the cyclical wisdom of goddess archetypes into a rich map for navigating life’s transitions — from menstruation to motherhood, through perimenopause and beyond. 

Her new book, Dancing With Goddesses: An Archetypal Journey Through The Menstrual Cycle, offers women a way to embrace their natural rhythms and seasons with reverence.

The book arrived in a single, luminous moment of inspiration while Agnieszka was camping — a fully-formed vision blending her work as a doula, womb medicine woman, and celebrant with deep archetypal goddess wisdom.

In our conversation, we explore:
• How goddess archetypes can act as mirrors for women’s lived experiences
• A five-season approach to understanding the menstrual cycle
• Why each woman’s cycle has its own unique nature and rhythm
• How life transitions can be fertile ground for growth and transformation
• The wisdom encoded in women’s bodies and experiences
• Agnieszka’s personal perimenopause journey
• The healing power of being heard without judgment

You can find Agnieszka at primetherapy.co.uk on Instagram and Substack, and her book is available at all good bookshops and Amazon.

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Support the show

Melanie is an experienced Soul & Shadow Worker, Womb Medicine Woman, podcast host, writer and trainer.

For over 20 years, she has supported individuals and healing professionals to restore connection with the body, repair attachment and separation wounds, and embody primordial wisdom rooted in the womb, heart and soul.

Melanie's approach blends somatic womb healing, shadow integration, shamanic healing and soul-level repatterning - offering a deep and lasting pathway back to the true self.

She hosts The Sacred Womb Podcast, leads The Womb Medicine Woman Training and is currently writing her first book: The Sacred Womb - a handbook for coming home to our true nature, along with Poems For Peri-Menopause.

The journey through perimenopause is unique for every woman, yet the unsolicited and contrary advice remains universal. 

This was the inspiration for my latest poem, which is part of a book of poetry in which I’m documenting the entire perimenopause journey from beginning to end.

What makes perimenopause so challenging isn’t just the physical symptoms – the hormonal fluctuations, the muscle mass changes – but the barrage of contradictory advice from people who often have no personal experience with it. 

From well-meaning friends suggesting I drink my own piss, to fitness bros blindly prescribing calorie deficits and skipping meals, the poem highlights the absurdity of simplistic solutions to this multi-faceted physiological transition.

The journey through perimenopause, like other significant life transitions, ultimately belongs to the person experiencing it, and external perspectives – however well-intentioned – need to be filtered through our intuition.

Ugh, where do I start….?
The flurry of advice
From uninformed folk
Who all have their price

Estrogen is dropping
Your bones will crumble!
Drink loads of milk
Or take a tumble

Ingest creatine now
Or lose all your muscle
You should intermittent fast!
There’s no end to this hustle

Eat chunks of protein
At every single meal
Eventually, it’ll kill you
All that dairy, tofu and veal

“Hey” someone whispers
“You should drink your own piss“
So I squat over a glass
*Gulp*
Alright then, come give us a kiss!

But my all-time favourite
Is from the 30-something bro
You wanna lose weight?
His face starts to glow

Ah, he squints,
Like he’s about to shit gold
You just need to be in a calorie deficit!
Seriously, this never gets old?

Oh! I exclaim
Why didn’t I think of that?!
Thank you so much bruh
You dumb little twat

He no longer exists
That poor, sweet boy
Who made the mistake
Of thinking I was old & coy

But seriously though
This is not about bro’s
It’s the not-so-miracle advice
That you can stick it up your……nose

To give you a vague idea
Of what it’s like to be in peri
Put a blindfold on
And navigate the contrary

The vitamins, the supplements
The creams and the sprays
Can all just f**k off
I don’t care what anyone says

My body is my body
My age is my age
My intuition rules
And THAT’S my primary gauge

BY MELANIE SWAN

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Support the show

Melanie is an experienced Soul & Shadow Worker, Womb Medicine Woman, podcast host, writer and trainer.

For over 20 years, she has supported individuals and healing professionals to restore connection with the body, repair attachment and separation wounds, and embody primordial wisdom rooted in the womb, heart and soul.

Melanie's approach blends somatic womb healing, shadow integration, shamanic healing and soul-level repatterning - offering a deep and lasting pathway back to the true self.

She hosts The Sacred Womb Podcast, leads The Womb Medicine Woman Training and is currently writing her first book: The Sacred Womb - a handbook for coming home to our true nature, along with Poems For Peri-Menopause.

Today is my 49th birthday, and peri-menopause is in full swing. My last period lasted 26 hours. As my blood started to flow, I felt love and bliss emanating from my womb.

I lay on my bed for 4 hours, riding the waves of energy that flowed through the fibres of my body.

The last time I wrote a poem about my stage of womanhood was January 2021, at that point I was standing at the edge of the lake >

This poem captures the nothingness and everythingness of my current state of being.

The boat has set sail
I’m on the lake
Most of the tether has frayed

I hear…
Leave that world behind
It’s done

The fog starts to settle
Let them enjoy it
It’s no longer for you
You’re no longer for it

I know there’s land the other side
I don’t know what’s there
I know what’s there

It feels more like home
A familiar welcome signals me
It feels like a return

I have questions that don’t need an answer
Questions that aren’t really questions
I don’t have questions
There are no answers

There’s only a strand of rope left
Leave her behind
Make peace with her 
It’s noise fades, I can hear the water

Nothing matters
Everything matters
Nothing exists
Everything exists

I am the boat
I am the lake and the land
I am here
I am everything

The final strand tenses
It stretches
I pause
Watching the strand
Wondering if my heart will break.

By Melanie Swan

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Support the show

Melanie is an experienced Soul & Shadow Worker, Womb Medicine Woman, podcast host, writer and trainer.

For over 20 years, she has supported individuals and healing professionals to restore connection with the body, repair attachment and separation wounds, and embody primordial wisdom rooted in the womb, heart and soul.

Melanie's approach blends somatic womb healing, shadow integration, shamanic healing and soul-level repatterning - offering a deep and lasting pathway back to the true self.

She hosts The Sacred Womb Podcast, leads The Womb Medicine Woman Training and is currently writing her first book: The Sacred Womb - a handbook for coming home to our true nature, along with Poems For Peri-Menopause.

Have you noticed the huge rise in the diagnosis of ADHD?

It’s everywhere — in adults, in children, on social media, in therapy rooms. And while it’s often discussed through the lens of ‘neurodiversity’ or executive dysfunction, there’s something deeper going on that rarely gets named.

The Root Cause of ADHD
ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, but in many cases, what’s really going on is the result of unresolved, early attachment trauma, and for the majority of people, it’s more accurate to describe it as:

ATTACHMENT DEFICIT

In a very small nutshell:

• The psyche developed without a secure attachment figure — someone who could consistently regulate, attune, and protect.
• There were multiple sustained periods of intolerable pain or stress, so the system fragmented in order to survive.
• These fragmented parts became hyper-vigilant, and being still or at rest felt unsafe.
• By adulthood, this becomes a way of life — fast-paced, scattered, always ‘on’.

As a culture, we like to give palatable names to things we don’t want to face — and mental health diagnoses have become a socially acceptable way of masking deeper truths.

Even ‘neurodiversity,’ while helpful in some contexts, can sometimes act as a palatable blanket for what is, at its core, profound and unresolved attachment trauma.

Real Healing Is Possible

Therapies that address the root — not just the symptoms — can support us to come back into the body, out of self-preservation, and into the present moment. Modalities like:

• IFS (Internal Family Systems)
• CRM (Comprehensive Resource Model)
• DBR (Deep Brain Reorienting)
• SE (Somatic Experiencing)

It does take time. But the nervous system is designed to heal.

A great resource is Gabor Mate’s Book: – Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder

You’re Not Broken — You Adapted

I invite you to pause, take a deep breath, and notice what part of you is speaking if you say, ‘It’s my ADHD,’ as if that defines the whole of who you are.

Part of what’s affecting attention, focus, and emotional regulation is physiological, and often tied to industrial and pharmaceutic

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Support the show

Melanie is an experienced Soul & Shadow Worker, Womb Medicine Woman, podcast host, writer and trainer.

For over 20 years, she has supported individuals and healing professionals to restore connection with the body, repair attachment and separation wounds, and embody primordial wisdom rooted in the womb, heart and soul.

Melanie's approach blends somatic womb healing, shadow integration, shamanic healing and soul-level repatterning - offering a deep and lasting pathway back to the true self.

She hosts The Sacred Womb Podcast, leads The Womb Medicine Woman Training and is currently writing her first book: The Sacred Womb - a handbook for coming home to our true nature, along with Poems For Peri-Menopause.

In our conversation, Anthony shares the essence of Singing in the Wild, his five-day retreat that I've been on twice (17 years ago and more recently just a few weeks ago).

I had such a transformative time that I invited Anthony onto the podcast to share the genuine magic of this work!

Many of us were told, somewhere along the way, that we couldn’t sing. Maybe we were asked to stay quiet, to lip-sync or not to make too much noise; these moments can go deep and restrict us - that is, until we decide we want to go beyond those limits.

This retreat gently meets that wounding, offering a space where each person's natural, unique voice is welcomed, just as it is.

It’s not about performance or hitting the right notes. It’s about remembering what it means to express rather than perform, and reconnecting with the sacredness that lives in sound, loving presence, and connection.

What emerges is nothing short of magical. 

When we step beyond judgment and self-consciousness into pure expression, something shifts fundamentally in our nervous system. 

'The voice is not just a musical instrument,' Anthony explains, 'it actually IS the person.'

Through practices he calls 'radical relating', participants learn to be fully present with each other without fixing, advising, or turning away - creating moments of profound connection where the boundaries between self and other begin to dissolve.

This conversation vibrates with the truth that transformation happens not through technical improvement, but through authentic connection. 

Whether you've been silenced or simply yearn for deeper relationships with yourself and others, this work offers a pathway home to our most natural and authentic expression.

CONNECT WITH ANTHONY

Find out more about Singing in the Wild Retreat or learn more about Anthony's overall work, Real Voice >

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Support the show

Melanie is an experienced Soul & Shadow Worker, Womb Medicine Woman, podcast host, writer and trainer.

For over 20 years, she has supported individuals and healing professionals to restore connection with the body, repair attachment and separation wounds, and embody primordial wisdom rooted in the womb, heart and soul.

Melanie's approach blends somatic womb healing, shadow integration, shamanic healing and soul-level repatterning - offering a deep and lasting pathway back to the true self.

She hosts The Sacred Womb Podcast, leads The Womb Medicine Woman Training and is currently writing her first book: The Sacred Womb - a handbook for coming home to our true nature, along with Poems For Peri-Menopause.

have you ever tried to ‘let go’ of behaviors that no longer serve you, only to find yourself repeating the same patterns? 

You're not alone. 

The popular advice to ‘release what no longer serves us’ or burning our troubles away on the full moon simply doesn't work—and there's a profound psychological reason why.

What we're actually doing when we try to ‘let go’ is pushing away parts of ourselves that have been working diligently to protect us. These patterns began as vital coping strategies during times when our emotions felt overwhelming. By trying to reject these aspects of ourselves, we create further internal fragmentation and erode trust within our own psyche.

The healing begins with a simple but powerful shift: instead of pushing away, try welcoming these parts with curiosity and gratitude. 

By locating where we feel these patterns in your body and extending compassion to these aspects of yourself, you create an internal atmosphere of acceptance. When we ask these parts how they've been trying to help us and what fears they hold, something remarkable happens—they begin to feel recognized, valued, and integrated rather than isolated and rejected.

This internal shift doesn't just heal fragmentation; it creates a ripple effect that extends to your external relationships. As you generate more self-acceptance, you naturally begin to vibrate at a frequency that attracts more authentic connections. When we stop seeking validation externally and instead create that environment within, others feel drawn to our genuine presence. It's the ultimate paradox—by fully welcoming ourselves, we create the connection we've been seeking all along.

Ready to experience this transformation? I've created a guided practice available in the Sacred Womb shop for just £3 to help you to dissolve old patterns with love 

Send us a text

Support the show

Melanie is an experienced Soul & Shadow Worker, Womb Medicine Woman, podcast host, writer and trainer.

For over 20 years, she has supported individuals and healing professionals to restore connection with the body, repair attachment and separation wounds, and embody primordial wisdom rooted in the womb, heart and soul.

Melanie's approach blends somatic womb healing, shadow integration, shamanic healing and soul-level repatterning - offering a deep and lasting pathway back to the true self.

She hosts The Sacred Womb Podcast, leads The Womb Medicine Woman Training and is currently writing her first book: The Sacred Womb - a handbook for coming home to our true nature, along with Poems For Peri-Menopause.