Hello, I’m Alice, founder of Songbird Sanctuary.
From starting out working for Virgin Management and Channel 4 Television in London, I quickly found my way to entrepreneurship and the health space.
I trained as a Life Coach setting up my first business, Ignite Coaching, when I was just 23.
In 2014 I co-founded a strength & conditioning gym in Leeds, coaching members of all ages over a period of 8 fun years.
I got my yoga, breath work and chronic pain recovery practitioner certifications, working with groups, individuals and national organisations like the NHS, and founded The Return Movement helping older adults become stronger and more resilient through functional movement and mindset coaching.
I’ve been a teacher for the last 5 years on the Insight Timer meditation app and taught 1000s of people around the world about nervous system regulation and how to sleep better and stress less through my role as Head of Content for a global workplace wellbeing platform.
Songbird Sanctuary is the next evolution of my work, bringing together many of the simple things that can help us live with more ease in mind and body.
And more joy and confidence as we get the privilege to age and embrace a purposeful life.
My story.
The backdrop to everything was the early deaths of my parents when I was in my mid-twenties, and this fundamentally changed my life and informs much of my work.
Being busy and creating was my coping strategy, but my body was constantly letting me know this wasn’t sustainable. Years of chronic IBS, fatigue, two burn outs and a short bout of depression were warning signs that my nervous system was at its limit.
I made the connection between my history and my health and discovered how much therapy of many kinds can help to process grief and trauma. I studied and practiced yoga, meditation, functional movement and breath work and qualified as a teacher. I felt I had some really helpful tools and thought I was doing pretty well…
In 2020 I caught Covid and this morphed into 8 months of Long Covid. I ‘knew’ I would get Long Covid if I caught the virus. My body just ‘knew’.
If you’ve had a debilitating or chronic illness, of any kind, you’ll know that it requires both physical and mental healing to take place to return to full health. The enforced rest due to my symptoms, along with the lockdowns which showed us all a different way of life, finally made me properly stop and focus on truly healing.
I fully recovered from Long Covid and continue to nurture my physical and mental health every day. What were once tools to heal myself from symptoms which were drastically impacting on my quality of life are now habits and an essential part of my daily routine.
My health is the most important thing I have and why I am able to do this work.
The key to my recovery and learning to thrive was nervous system regulation. How to balance and regulate the nervous system, using a range of techniques, is part of what I now teach to individuals, groups and businesses through my 1:1 coaching, meditation tracks, group classes and the Songbird Sanctuary space with sauna, cold plunges & movement studio here in Leeds.
If this resonates with you, I’d love you to get in touch to see how we could work together.
Hear more of my story on these podcasts.
Join me on Insight Timer.
Some of my work.
