Hilary Curtis

7

Meet Hilary

Hi, I’m Hilary. Since I was very young, I’ve been fascinated by what it is to be a human being; how we can live life to the fullest and what gets in the way of feeling truly happy and fulfilled. After years of practising meditation and mindfulness, I trained and qualified with Breathworks in 2015 to become a mindfulness facilitator. From there, I have gone on to create the Breathing Space birth preparation course, and mindfulness based Breathing for Birth workshops, as well as offering workshops and courses in Somatic Mindfulness for general health and wellbeing.

A pivotal point in my life was becoming a mother. It challenged everything I thought I knew about myself! As I emerged from the intensity of those first years of parenthood, I was very drawn to working with families around the time of pregnancy, birth and the first year postpartum. Coming from a background in teaching, I was delighted to find that I could train to be a birth facilitator with the National Childbirth Trust. I completed my HND in Antenatal Education in 2008 and continued to facilitate courses for expectant and new parents until last year when I decided to concentrate my energy on mindfulness based teaching. For the last 14 years I have also been offering my services as a doula and have had the immense privilege of attending over 90 births and supporting many new families in those first tender post- birth weeks.

Underpinning all the work I do is a commitment to holding a safe and authentic space for ‘just being’, whether that space is a group birth preparation session, a mindfulness workshop or course, or supporting a birthing mother and her partner. When we feel safe enough to slow down and drop a little more into what’s happening in our bodies, minds and hearts we begin to sense where we are bracing against life and how we might reconnect with ourselves to find more ease and peace.

Somatic mindfulness invites us to tune in to our present moment, embodied experience and become curious and interested in the constant flow of messages being communicated to us from body and breath. This flow of information remains largely unconscious unless we practise tuning in to it, as we are conditioned from early childhood to pay attention instead to the world of our thoughts and ideas. The practices I have absorbed and developed over the years offer an amazing resource for increasing resilience and wellbeing and living life to the full.

I look forward to meeting you and sharing some of these wonderful practices together!

 

Mindful practices to be aware
and awake to the present

Growing Space
Breathing for Birth
Somatic Mindfulness

Testimonials

“I loved the session with Hilary, making the time to mindfully connect with my body and my baby . I now feel more relaxed about the labour and confident that I have a range of techniques that really work for me and can bring to the birth”.

Edlira, Hove

“Hilary’s approach is gentle, compassionate and playful but at the same time got me dropping into my body in a really profound way. I have taken so much from these few hours and am feeling inspired to apply this kind, gentle explorative approach in helping me with my insomnia and general burnout”

CT - Brighton 

Find out more

To book a workshop with Hilary, please email umebe@umeusfoundation.org

Visit Hilary's Website - balm.network

Her Page on Facebook

Hear what she's saying on Twitter @BalmBrighton