Let’s get in contact!

This completely depends on what your favourite foods are, as well as the severity of your symptoms. For some, we might need to shake things up quite a bit, while for others, it’ll be a matter of tweaking a few things here or there. Either way, we show bland the backdoor – our aim is always to get you eating as great a variety of nourishing & delicious food as possible, and adapt your 4 x week-long personalised meal plans accordingly. We also anchor into your desires for your body, appreciating the magnificent role that food plays in helping you make these a reality – and, in the very same breath, creating awareness that food is still only part of this picture. In summary: we’re not about hard rules, but rather expansive empowerment when it comes to food & your relationship with it.

This depends on the type of social life that you currently have. If (pre-Covid) you were used to spending Saturday nights dancing on bar tops and clubbing into the early hours of the morning, then changing your nutrition & lifestyle will probably have a pretty big impact on your social life. But if it’s a big impact that allows for big healing, and living a more full & satisfying life, then as clients who have made these changes have said, it’s totally worth it.

I’m also not here cracking some kind of whip – I’ve fully got your back and I’m here to help you figure out ways that we can support you through this. We find solutions to club scenarios that don’t reduce you to hiding in your cupboard for the next 6 months and we chat through what to do when you eat out, visit friends or travel. We always anchor back to what healing would mean to you, and we’re guided from there. In summary, I’m here to help you with the practicalities of navigating social aspects while still honouring your desires for your body.

If we really want to make space for transformation, tracking is key. Beyond the ease of an app, the benefit of doing it this way is that you don’t have to make sense of all your symptoms & how they relate to your life & your food all on your own – that’s what I’m here for! We make it as fun & simple as possible, and I’m always reminding you that my starting point is one curiosity with zero judgement – in time, this becomes your starting point too.

One of the many benefits of working as closely as we do is that I get to understand what your everyday looks like – I meet you where you’re at. That way we ensure that any changes we make are realistic & sustainable to your given situation, while simultaneously allowing for the desired shifts in your PCOS symptoms. And I always say, rather than waiting to get to breaking point where you’re then given no choice but to find the time, trust yourself enough to make the time now, knowing that with high-level, personalised support it’s totally possible.

When we’ve been dealing with symptoms for two, three, five, ten + years, six months is but a relative drop in the ocean. Absolutely, there are instances where we sometimes see significant shifts in a couple of weeks, but more often than not, your body needs solid time to respond to the changes you make. We’re not about quick fixes here at Marula Wellness, and I want to help you untangle from any such thinking that “it’s been 17 days and you’re not completely better already so why isn’t this working?!”. The blame, shame & bucket loads of disappointment that comes with quick-fix promises is what keeps us stuck in the “nothing is working” cycle that simply doesn’t serve you. I’m well aware of the patience required for this though – something that many of us aren’t familiar with in this day and age, especially when it comes to the body – so I provide you with tools & resources to strengthen your patience muscle (while also reminding you that cultivating patience requires patience too!). With a six month time-frame, we give you time to make realistic changes, we give the changes time to take hold, we give you time to establish a trusting relationship with your body and we give your body time to respond – and in doing so, we honour you entirely.

The short answer is no. The slightly longer answer is that over the years, I personally have not found doing one-off sessions to be of the best benefit to the clients that I work with. There are many other practitioners who work in this way though, and if that’s the kind of support that you’re after then I’d be more than happy to put you in contact with them.

Side note: for clients who have been through Bloom, ongoing support is often offered afterwards in the form of monthly or quarterly follow ups – we decide together if and what level of support is most needed for you.

Various factors come into play but what I’ve found is that it’s usually around the 3 month mark where there’ll be a noticeable shift in certain symptoms. Having said that, I’m also here to help you ease the pressure on time frames by helping you step into relationship with your body rather than placing unrealistic & demanding deadlines on her.

And from a period perspective, it’s always helpful to remember that the egg that’s released at ovulation takes 70 – 100 days to mature so that means that anything you do now, can impact your period in 3 months time and anything you did 3 months ago can impact the health of your current period.

Coming back to the Marula Tree: if the Marula fruit had issues, we wouldn’t focus on the fruit alone – we’d look at the whole tree and its environment, in order to understand how best to support it. And the same is true for PCOS – we don’t just focus on your sex hormones alone. Through a functional medicine approach, I appreciate that all systems within your body are connected and can therefore impact on each other. In fact, when it comes to PCOS, we’re often dealing with other issues such as digestion, blood sugar, thyroid and/or chronic inflammation that all contribute to or exacerbate your PCOS symptoms. So when we work together, I factor in your whole body. However, if I feel you’d be better off supported by another practitioner, I’ll be totally open about this and I have a great network of colleagues who I can put you in contact with.

Many of the women I work with often do get pregnant but because imminent fertility is not my primary focus, if it is yours, I’ll tend to refer to other practitioners who specialise in this area.

Only you can answer that question for yourself. To me, growing a trusting relationship with your body is one of the most important things on this journey.

Here’s why:

Firstly, I see time and time again that many women will reverse their PCOS symptoms but because they haven’t been intentional about growing a trusting relationship with their body, when flare ups happen (because life happens), they’re back to square one of being overcome with fear & frustration. Whereas for the women I work with, they’re able to anchor into understanding what their body is communicating with them, and from a place of care & kindness towards themselves & their body, respond accordingly. In time, they’re also able to acknowledge how flare ups can even be appropriate responses to given situations, thereby providing profound information.

Secondly, in restoring a trusting relationship with your body, you’ve then got an ally & a sovereign guide for life. Through ongoing practice, you’re able to tune into your body for making both big & small decisions in life – I cannot underscore the enormity of this gift.

I’ll review any recent tests that you’ve had and if indicated, we may look into additional testing. There are loads of tests out there and while I’m very thankful for many of them, I also don’t look to them for silver-bullet answers where we then end up chasing test results rather than viewing you & your body as a whole. Through Bloom, we focus on nutrition and lifestyle factors that will make a difference to your PCOS symptoms regardless of test results, and if and when indicated, we use testing to optimise your overall health even further. Wherever possible, I offer practitioner rates on testing.

Yes! Slightly on the sourer side but still really delicious.