1pm workshops:

  • Fatchance Belly Dancing
  • “Find your Voice”
  • Poetry Workshop
  • Yoga
  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for hot flushes and night sweats

3pm workshops:

  • Fatchance Belly Dancing
  • “Find your Voice”
  • Poetry Workshop
  • Yoga
  • Nutrition for a Healthy and Happy Menopause

Fatchance Belly Dance (1pm and 3pm)

Join Liz Box in a FatChance BellyDance taster session where you can shake that belly and shimmy those hips in a safe and friendly environment. Bellydance is one of the oldest dance forms for women, by women. FatChance BellyDance is a group dance style, with music and dance moves inspired by flamenco and the dances of the Middle East and India. You will have fun finding this fabulous way to get fit with shimmies, hip bumps and bodywaves, leaving behind the cares of the everyday world, as you become immersed in the beautiful mesmeric movements of the dance.

Liz Box

Liz Box’s dance style is Fatchance Bellydancing. She has studied this wonderful dance style with teachers from Scotland, the United States, Australia and India. During the pandemic, Liz has enjoyed keeping fit, mentally and physically through dancing on-line, delivering dance sessions and joining other Fatchance Bellydance dancers across the world.

“Find your Voice” (1pm and 3pm)

In this workshop, stand-up comedian Pauline Eyre provides an opportunity to get your creative juices flowing, listen to others and speak up! The aim is to build confidence in a safe space, and to have fun. Instead of worrying about making a fool of yourself or being put down, we’ll spend the time building each other up, letting go and having a laugh.

And if that translates into speaking up for yourself outside the session, so much the better! We have so much to say – it’s about time the world listened – so take yourself off mute and Find Your Voice.

Pauline Eyre

As well as a stand-up comedian, Pauline is an antenatal teacher, voiceover and occasional actor.  She’s been leading workshops in various nonsense like this for 30-odd years. Semi-finalist Funny Women Awards 2019, 2018; BBC New Comedian of the Year nominee 2018; Finalist Yellow Comedy Golden Comedian of the Year 2018.

Poetry Workshop (1pm and 3pm)

Poet and menopausal woman, Patricia Ace, will be asking you to explore your thoughts, feelings and responses to the menopause through the written word. Whether your experience of this important life transition is one of challenge, empowerment or contradiction, we’ll take inspiration from other poets to create writing of our own that expresses the realities of being a mid-life woman today – the good, the bad and the ugly! Whether writing is already a part of your routine or you have never written creatively before, all are welcome to join in, as we pick up our pens and give voice to our lived experience of all things menopausal.

Patricia Ace

Patricia Ace is the author of the collections First Blood, Fabulous Beast and In Defiance of Short Days. Her poems have been published in a great number of magazines and anthologies and have found success in many poetry competitions. A new pamphlet, The Lido at Night, appears from Red Squirrel Press in 2021.

Yoga Workshop (1pm and 3pm)

This workshop will be an introduction to the ancient practice of Yoga. The word Yoga translates as union, and through combining calming pranayama (meditative breath awareness) and asana (postures), we will gently work as many muscle groups as possible. We will end our session with a guided relaxation.

All the above will be adapted to work in a chair, to promote inclusivity for those who may be less physically able – it’s not the getting down that’s a problem, it can be the getting back up! Yoga is not just for the young, fit or flexible, yoga is for those willing to be so! The benefits become more vital as our bodies change and begin to age.

Carol Barbieri

Carol Barbieri is a Yoga Scotland certified teacher, having completed their 500 hour training course in 2012. Until Covid-19 struck she taught 4 general classes a week, but specialised in chair yoga and yoga for those with disabilities and long term health conditions.

CBT for Hot Flushes and Night Sweats (1pm)

Dr Melanie Smith is a Clinical Psychologist who was involved in the initial development of cognitive behaviour therapy for menopause symptoms. Using a biopsychosocial approach, Melanie will help you to identify psychosocial factors that impact problematic symptoms and outline practical strategies to help reduce the impact they have on your daily life. There will also be an opportunity to practice some of these strategies to improve your confidence to navigate the menopause transition.

Dr Melanie Smith

Dr Melanie Smith is a Principal Clinical Psychologist working in Physical Health. She worked as lead therapist on MENOS 1&2, the initial trials of CBT for menopause symptoms with Professor Myra Hunter. She has co-authored 3 books on CBT for menopause symptoms with Professor Hunter and works at Salford Royal Hospital.

Nutrition for a Healthy & Happy Menopause (3pm)

In this workshop, Nutritional Therapist Jackie Lynch presents a diet and lifestyle approach to help reduce the impact of hot flushes, anxiety, insomnia and other typical menopausal symptoms. The session will explore the role of diet in balancing hormones; nutritional strategies to reduce stress; and key nutrients for health in midlife and beyond. You’ll leave with a series of practical tips that will make a tangible difference to your long-term health and wellbeing.

Jackie Lynch

Jackie Lynch is a Registered Nutritional Therapist and founder of the WellWellWell nutrition clinic where she specializes in the menopause. She is the host of the popular diet & lifestyle podcast The Happy Menopause, and her new book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish is out now.