Meet The Team
Tracey Mellor
In 2004 I heard a quote from Caroline Myss, which was to represent everything fascia is to me.
“Your biography becomes your biology”; or as I misquote it: ‘your biology is your biography’.
At the time, although I did not realise it, I was at one of life’s turning points. I had already yearned for, trained for, fought for acceptance in, been successful at and grown disillusioned with one career. I had been a chartered surveyor and fund manager for a global insurance company; living an adrenaline fuelled life and loving every minute of it until all of a sudden, I didn’t, so I left.
In 2004 I had two small children, a happy home life and I had discovered Pilates, trained (National certified Pilates Teacher) and was happily balancing teaching Pilates classes and family commitments. I used to say I had swapped looking for imbalances in building structures for looking for imbalances in human structures
I heard this quote on an Anatomy Trains inspired training course that introduced me to fascia, myofascial anatomy and Biotensegrity - it was a life changing week. I had moved heaven and earth to attend the course or in my case, had put together very complicated childcare arrangements. I had to be there, every fibre of my being told me so. By the end of the first day I was hooked and I started my association and fascination with all things Fascia and Fascial research. I can never thank my teachers enough for enlightening me and I realised very quickly that this was just the beginning and I had a lot to learn.
I had opened a small Pilates studio in my home and this is my core business and income, also the basis for my movement experiences and creative bedrock. I am always curious, wanting to know why and how, reading and researching anything I don’t understand. Fascia became my passion and focus. It felt so natural, I felt I understood it with my body as well as my mind. To further my fascial anatomy education, I joined a yoga teacher training (FYT500) by Joanne Avison and Alexander Filmer-Lorch, progressing on to train to teach meditation (FYT200).
I attended every course that Robert Schleip taught in the UK, I attended trainings and summer schools in Ulm, Germany and it was at there that I had my first experience of human dissection. I have attended conferences around the world and have every intention to continue doing so. I am a fascia junkie.
Everything I learnt, absorbed or intuited, I fed back into the Pilates studio for the benefit of my clients.
In 2012 I was one of the first Fascial Fitness trainers accredited by Robert Schleip and Divo Meuller, participating in international meetings with Tom Myers, James Earls and Wilbour Kelsick amongst others.
Fascial Fitness Training brought together my two passions, fascia and movement training (Pilates, yoga and Gyro).
I teach Fascial Fitness classes and as a master trainer for Fascial Fitness provide training courses to bring its principals to all movement professionals and body workers for the benefit of their clients.
I like to be creative, mixing fascial research inspired movement with meditation and bringing Fascial movement to the most vulnerable by incorporating it into my GP referral programme. I co-created Myofascial Movement with Laurie Booth in 2014, a hugely enjoyable collaboration, fusing modern dance with fascial research.
In 2014 I edited ‘Pilates for Children and Adolescents” (Handspring Publishing) and this began a relationship with the publishers of so many incredible fascia related books.
I have been guided by my intuition and it has rarely let me down. In late 2017, I again had that burning need to follow my gut and I applied to participate in the Fascial Net Plastination Project. I saw this as a way to bring fascia to a wider audience, a teaching aid to give everyone a way to see fascia. I didn’t have the money, the time or the huge amounts of dissection experience required, but I did have enthusiasm and my biography to draw upon. The project is still live, interrupted by the Global pandemic. The international group have created plastinated artefacts of fascial structures that are on public display. A full body fascia plastinate is to be revealed in Montreal at the Fascia Research congress in 2022.
In 2019 Yvonne Cervetti and I ran a Fascial Fitness Training course in Cumbria. Rachael was one of the awesome participants who made the training so much fun to teach. I was during COVID lockdown that we came together again to update out Fascial Fitness qualification, and because all classes were now ‘on zoom’ shared our particular fascia offerings. As someone who has a lifetime intolerance to dairy and avoids gluten and shellfish I have a real interest in what I put into my body. Nutrition is the missing link in fascia training and I am excited to learn more with Mary Reid.
So, back to that quote. My biology will reflect all of this biography, years of commuting by train to London, working at a desk, driving for hours, standing at bars in London in the 1980’s (at the time a lot of business was done in the pub), carrying and giving birth to two large babies, years of Pilates, yoga, Gyro, swimming, netball, skiing, sailing and mediation, returning to my desk to write courses and watch hours of educational video, travelling to conferences, teaching and being there for my clients. All of these events will be recorded, for good or for bad, somewhere in my body. My fascial net responds to every movement or lack of movement choice I make, every injury is recorded there. This body-wide sensory organ has noted all decisions made, emotions and experiences. I am my biography. The most amazing thing is that I will keep on changing as my life continues. I will continue to seek out knowledge, teach and hopefully bring fascia to that wider audience, my body will continue to keep the record -and I just love that thought.
“Your biography becomes your biology”; or as I misquote it: ‘your biology is your biography’.
At the time, although I did not realise it, I was at one of life’s turning points. I had already yearned for, trained for, fought for acceptance in, been successful at and grown disillusioned with one career. I had been a chartered surveyor and fund manager for a global insurance company; living an adrenaline fuelled life and loving every minute of it until all of a sudden, I didn’t, so I left.
In 2004 I had two small children, a happy home life and I had discovered Pilates, trained (National certified Pilates Teacher) and was happily balancing teaching Pilates classes and family commitments. I used to say I had swapped looking for imbalances in building structures for looking for imbalances in human structures
I heard this quote on an Anatomy Trains inspired training course that introduced me to fascia, myofascial anatomy and Biotensegrity - it was a life changing week. I had moved heaven and earth to attend the course or in my case, had put together very complicated childcare arrangements. I had to be there, every fibre of my being told me so. By the end of the first day I was hooked and I started my association and fascination with all things Fascia and Fascial research. I can never thank my teachers enough for enlightening me and I realised very quickly that this was just the beginning and I had a lot to learn.
I had opened a small Pilates studio in my home and this is my core business and income, also the basis for my movement experiences and creative bedrock. I am always curious, wanting to know why and how, reading and researching anything I don’t understand. Fascia became my passion and focus. It felt so natural, I felt I understood it with my body as well as my mind. To further my fascial anatomy education, I joined a yoga teacher training (FYT500) by Joanne Avison and Alexander Filmer-Lorch, progressing on to train to teach meditation (FYT200).
I attended every course that Robert Schleip taught in the UK, I attended trainings and summer schools in Ulm, Germany and it was at there that I had my first experience of human dissection. I have attended conferences around the world and have every intention to continue doing so. I am a fascia junkie.
Everything I learnt, absorbed or intuited, I fed back into the Pilates studio for the benefit of my clients.
In 2012 I was one of the first Fascial Fitness trainers accredited by Robert Schleip and Divo Meuller, participating in international meetings with Tom Myers, James Earls and Wilbour Kelsick amongst others.
Fascial Fitness Training brought together my two passions, fascia and movement training (Pilates, yoga and Gyro).
I teach Fascial Fitness classes and as a master trainer for Fascial Fitness provide training courses to bring its principals to all movement professionals and body workers for the benefit of their clients.
I like to be creative, mixing fascial research inspired movement with meditation and bringing Fascial movement to the most vulnerable by incorporating it into my GP referral programme. I co-created Myofascial Movement with Laurie Booth in 2014, a hugely enjoyable collaboration, fusing modern dance with fascial research.
In 2014 I edited ‘Pilates for Children and Adolescents” (Handspring Publishing) and this began a relationship with the publishers of so many incredible fascia related books.
I have been guided by my intuition and it has rarely let me down. In late 2017, I again had that burning need to follow my gut and I applied to participate in the Fascial Net Plastination Project. I saw this as a way to bring fascia to a wider audience, a teaching aid to give everyone a way to see fascia. I didn’t have the money, the time or the huge amounts of dissection experience required, but I did have enthusiasm and my biography to draw upon. The project is still live, interrupted by the Global pandemic. The international group have created plastinated artefacts of fascial structures that are on public display. A full body fascia plastinate is to be revealed in Montreal at the Fascia Research congress in 2022.
In 2019 Yvonne Cervetti and I ran a Fascial Fitness Training course in Cumbria. Rachael was one of the awesome participants who made the training so much fun to teach. I was during COVID lockdown that we came together again to update out Fascial Fitness qualification, and because all classes were now ‘on zoom’ shared our particular fascia offerings. As someone who has a lifetime intolerance to dairy and avoids gluten and shellfish I have a real interest in what I put into my body. Nutrition is the missing link in fascia training and I am excited to learn more with Mary Reid.
So, back to that quote. My biology will reflect all of this biography, years of commuting by train to London, working at a desk, driving for hours, standing at bars in London in the 1980’s (at the time a lot of business was done in the pub), carrying and giving birth to two large babies, years of Pilates, yoga, Gyro, swimming, netball, skiing, sailing and mediation, returning to my desk to write courses and watch hours of educational video, travelling to conferences, teaching and being there for my clients. All of these events will be recorded, for good or for bad, somewhere in my body. My fascial net responds to every movement or lack of movement choice I make, every injury is recorded there. This body-wide sensory organ has noted all decisions made, emotions and experiences. I am my biography. The most amazing thing is that I will keep on changing as my life continues. I will continue to seek out knowledge, teach and hopefully bring fascia to that wider audience, my body will continue to keep the record -and I just love that thought.
Rachael Shreeve
I have had three main careers in my life so far; marine biology, smallholding and massage and yoga. They have hung together in various ratios over the years, feeding, surprisingly at times, into one other.
As a marine biologist I worked in locations from Ireland to Antarctica. Over two decades I worked my way up from lab assistant, through a PhD, to teaching abroad in Peru and leading a multidisciplinary science cruise in the Southern Ocean. After having essentially moved on from that career 14 years ago I was head hunted to set up a plankton research team on St Helena in 2018. It was wonderful to use my skills in a warm setting for a change, the highlight being swimming with a Whale Shark on my 50th birthday. A big tick off my bucket list.
Essentially though my life changed when we moved up to Cumbria in 2007. Having dabbled with smallholding ventures over the years I wanted to go the whole hog, quite literally. So the next decade saw me keeping pigs and dairy sheep as well as the chickens and honey bees we’d brought up with us. Milking the sheep by hand, we made the full array of dairy products, and offered cheese making courses as a Quirky Workshop in Greystoke.
Wanting to be ‘part of the landscape’ where we now found ourselves living, I worked as a shepherdess on a local farm. Although I didn’t realise it at the time, helping a lot of ewes deliver their lambs I was really honing my palpation skills for massage, and getting the feel for working with fascia. In the case of triplets that are all mixed up, you have to feel, without being able to see, which leg is attached to which body and make sure you start to pull only on one animal at a time. It is that long, slow, patient traction that will successfully get a lamb out: at the end of the day we are working with fascia a lot here.
In 2014 I took part in what was advertised as the ‘worlds hardest half iron triathlon’. Swimming in Wast Water, Cycling over Hardknot pass and running (well walking in my case) over Scafell Pike in the Lake District. As part of the training I had a sports massage, and that was it, I knew what I wanted to do next – train as a massage therapist. Seven years on I love my new career, having specialised in working with Fascia. Although I have practised yoga since I was 14, it wasn’t until I found Yin yoga, or ‘fascial’ yoga that I eventually got around to training as a teacher. This element made so much sense to me, it just felt like the essential missing link in so many ways, to a health body and free mind.
During the retreat I will be teaching you my version of Yin or Fascial Yoga. These are classically long slow melting stretches that encourage you to work within your skeletal variation, and to be inquisitive about how it all feels. Always working on the edge on any sensation to get the most from each stretch. I will combine this with some self help massage and breathing techniques and mediation. Yin yoga helps you to release restrictions within the fascial tissue, rehydrating the gliding layers so important for pain free, graceful full range of movement.
Yvonne Cervetti
‘Dancing through life’
Finding ‘fascia’ felt like reliving my childhood; barefoot dancing and running, climbing trees, building shelters in the woods, hanging upside down, walking and camping out under the stars in the Lakeland fells with the 4 A’s - Ambleside Area Adventure Association and writing and performing on stage exploring my creative mind, body and voice. Full of sensory stimulation, vibration, textures, creative movement, explorations and feeling connected with body, mind, soul and Mother Earth, which is what we hope you will enjoy on The Fascia Retreat.
However, my first degree in languages led me into 10 years working in export sales. It wasn’t until I started attending Yoga classes that I realised the impact that stress and seated posture was having on my body and mind. A Reiki training (Energetic Medicine) weekend made me reconnect with the power of touch, which my mum found so beneficial following her surgery for bowel cancer. That’s when I knew I needed to explore the world of therapeutic touch.
Whilst helping my parents run the family guest house, I first retrained in Aromatherapy, loving the powerful blending of nature’s gifts with massage and then being able to offer this and later Reflexology at a local Hospice. It now makes sense to me that touching all the sensory receptors in the feet is like tapping into the motherboard of an electrical system to help restore body-wide homeostasis, not to mention our connection with the earth. Whilst attending one of the many training courses at The Christie hospital, I was introduced to and subsequently trained in
Healthy-Steps, a fun exercise and movement programme to music, originally designed for women with breast cancer but adapted also for general wellbeing. I still teach this to 50-90 year olds, including weekly zoom sessions during the Covid pandemic.
Eager to expand my clinical knowledge I discovered the wonderful world of Myofascial bodywork training to degree level (BTEC 6) with the Jing Institute of Advanced Massage Training for whom I was a tutor for 5 years. I was fascinated about this tissue called Fascia which, if all else was removed from your body, would mean that you would still recognise you as a person! Enticed by the intriguing web of fascial movement, I then qualified as a Fascial Fitness Trainer in 2016, a Barefoot training specialist in 2018 and then created my own initiative; FunKi Fascia - move to your groove in 2019 encouraging people to explore creative, multi-directional movement and self expression to music. I continue to offer bespoke myofascial treatments and one to one training for local clients as well as weekly classes in all of the above.
Teaming up with Tracey, Rachael & Mary to offer bespoke Fascia Retreats is a dream come true and I can’t wait to share my knowledge and enthusiasm and get you moving and grooving barefoot!
Finding ‘fascia’ felt like reliving my childhood; barefoot dancing and running, climbing trees, building shelters in the woods, hanging upside down, walking and camping out under the stars in the Lakeland fells with the 4 A’s - Ambleside Area Adventure Association and writing and performing on stage exploring my creative mind, body and voice. Full of sensory stimulation, vibration, textures, creative movement, explorations and feeling connected with body, mind, soul and Mother Earth, which is what we hope you will enjoy on The Fascia Retreat.
However, my first degree in languages led me into 10 years working in export sales. It wasn’t until I started attending Yoga classes that I realised the impact that stress and seated posture was having on my body and mind. A Reiki training (Energetic Medicine) weekend made me reconnect with the power of touch, which my mum found so beneficial following her surgery for bowel cancer. That’s when I knew I needed to explore the world of therapeutic touch.
Whilst helping my parents run the family guest house, I first retrained in Aromatherapy, loving the powerful blending of nature’s gifts with massage and then being able to offer this and later Reflexology at a local Hospice. It now makes sense to me that touching all the sensory receptors in the feet is like tapping into the motherboard of an electrical system to help restore body-wide homeostasis, not to mention our connection with the earth. Whilst attending one of the many training courses at The Christie hospital, I was introduced to and subsequently trained in
Healthy-Steps, a fun exercise and movement programme to music, originally designed for women with breast cancer but adapted also for general wellbeing. I still teach this to 50-90 year olds, including weekly zoom sessions during the Covid pandemic.
Eager to expand my clinical knowledge I discovered the wonderful world of Myofascial bodywork training to degree level (BTEC 6) with the Jing Institute of Advanced Massage Training for whom I was a tutor for 5 years. I was fascinated about this tissue called Fascia which, if all else was removed from your body, would mean that you would still recognise you as a person! Enticed by the intriguing web of fascial movement, I then qualified as a Fascial Fitness Trainer in 2016, a Barefoot training specialist in 2018 and then created my own initiative; FunKi Fascia - move to your groove in 2019 encouraging people to explore creative, multi-directional movement and self expression to music. I continue to offer bespoke myofascial treatments and one to one training for local clients as well as weekly classes in all of the above.
Teaming up with Tracey, Rachael & Mary to offer bespoke Fascia Retreats is a dream come true and I can’t wait to share my knowledge and enthusiasm and get you moving and grooving barefoot!
I was very lucky to train with Dr Emily Splichal on the last face to face training course she taught in London in 2019. She is an inspiring podiatrist and human movement specialist and founder of Naboso technology (insoles, mats and neuro balls designed to stimulate the feet).
Our feet are our foundation and only connection to the ground but keeping them in socks and shoes dampens the connection we were designed to have in order to stimulate natural movement. Concrete or tarmac completely removes any ground connection. Please don’t worry, I am not going to tell you to suddenly ditch your footwear and socks but daily barefoot stimulation and foot to core strengthening can help us ‘maintain the ability to walk, run, dance and enjoy life - all from the ground up!’.
Weather permitting we will explore this practice barefoot on the ground outside. If not the natural wooden floor in the St. Marks Stays studio is the next best thing.
Our feet are our foundation and only connection to the ground but keeping them in socks and shoes dampens the connection we were designed to have in order to stimulate natural movement. Concrete or tarmac completely removes any ground connection. Please don’t worry, I am not going to tell you to suddenly ditch your footwear and socks but daily barefoot stimulation and foot to core strengthening can help us ‘maintain the ability to walk, run, dance and enjoy life - all from the ground up!’.
Weather permitting we will explore this practice barefoot on the ground outside. If not the natural wooden floor in the St. Marks Stays studio is the next best thing.
Mary Reid
I am a nutritional therapist, trained at the Institute of Optimum Nutrition in London for 3 years, during the 1990’s, keeping up to date with Continuous development updates.
I was born and brought up in the middle of the mountains and glens of Scotland, experiencing all the benefits of living in the quiet and freedom of the countryside.
I studied for 3 years at Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology specialising in food and nutrition, then a further year at Aberdeen College of Education, for teacher training in secondary education, becoming a teacher in Home Economics, teaching in two schools in the Scottish Highlands.
I also became a ski instructor teaching at the weekends and holidays.
I became very ill while teaching. For the next 7 years, I could hardly walk nor think, spending most days struggling to live any kind of normal life, not knowing what had happened, after having had a flu-type virus. The doctors had no idea what was wrong. On better days I began reading, trying to understand the body and the relationship of nutrition, targeting food at tackling illnesses. I developed a particular protocol for myself and rigorously followed initially for a year. At 3 months, no difference, at 6 months, I thought that a few symptoms had decreased, at 9 months there was a big positive jump in my health and quality of life. I could walk finally walk down the road in the mornings, with my son to meet the school bus. A hugely emotional achievement. Year on year after that I grew better, fitter, I could go hill walking again and skiing.
I became a Mum to two lovely children and a reason to keep up the struggle to stay well. I finally found I had chronic fatigue, M.E.
Feeling much fitter and healthier I set up an outside catering company in 1989 called ‘Juniper Catering’. I ran this business for approximately 20 years, doing private dinners, parties and weddings. During that time I also decided to study nutrition at another level. I knew I had done something with food and using additional supplements of vitamins and minerals to make myself better, but I didn't really understand the mechanisms of why they had made me well again. I also had family and friends t telling me they or someone they knew was ill and asking for advice about how I had used nutrition to improve my health. I kept feeling that if I just understood things better then I could possibly help them too. So eventually I discovered the course that was perfect for the type of information I was looking for, The Institute of Optimum Nutrition (I.O.N.), London, this was a 3 year course, part in house and part remote, perfect for me with my children being quite young and trying to continue my outside catering business.
I eventually became a nutritional therapist working in Cambridge with private clients and joined the Sanger Centre Cambridge, during the incredibly exciting project, mapping the human genome.
I continued working in Scotland as a private nutritional therapist. Recently I have taken time out to ‘enjoy' building a new house and enjoy life on the sea with our boat in the north west of Scotland.
Covid arrived. Rachael, my friend began zoom yin yoga classes, even though 300 miles apart I could share Covid lockdown joining the classes. Realizing the importance and links of movement, health and food. Rachael and I began to chat about it, then realised we had joint skills that may benefit clients if we merged our skills.
This we are now doing, joining together with Yvonne and Tracey forming the retreat experience. I hope you enjoy, discover and have fun with us.
I was born and brought up in the middle of the mountains and glens of Scotland, experiencing all the benefits of living in the quiet and freedom of the countryside.
I studied for 3 years at Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology specialising in food and nutrition, then a further year at Aberdeen College of Education, for teacher training in secondary education, becoming a teacher in Home Economics, teaching in two schools in the Scottish Highlands.
I also became a ski instructor teaching at the weekends and holidays.
I became very ill while teaching. For the next 7 years, I could hardly walk nor think, spending most days struggling to live any kind of normal life, not knowing what had happened, after having had a flu-type virus. The doctors had no idea what was wrong. On better days I began reading, trying to understand the body and the relationship of nutrition, targeting food at tackling illnesses. I developed a particular protocol for myself and rigorously followed initially for a year. At 3 months, no difference, at 6 months, I thought that a few symptoms had decreased, at 9 months there was a big positive jump in my health and quality of life. I could walk finally walk down the road in the mornings, with my son to meet the school bus. A hugely emotional achievement. Year on year after that I grew better, fitter, I could go hill walking again and skiing.
I became a Mum to two lovely children and a reason to keep up the struggle to stay well. I finally found I had chronic fatigue, M.E.
Feeling much fitter and healthier I set up an outside catering company in 1989 called ‘Juniper Catering’. I ran this business for approximately 20 years, doing private dinners, parties and weddings. During that time I also decided to study nutrition at another level. I knew I had done something with food and using additional supplements of vitamins and minerals to make myself better, but I didn't really understand the mechanisms of why they had made me well again. I also had family and friends t telling me they or someone they knew was ill and asking for advice about how I had used nutrition to improve my health. I kept feeling that if I just understood things better then I could possibly help them too. So eventually I discovered the course that was perfect for the type of information I was looking for, The Institute of Optimum Nutrition (I.O.N.), London, this was a 3 year course, part in house and part remote, perfect for me with my children being quite young and trying to continue my outside catering business.
I eventually became a nutritional therapist working in Cambridge with private clients and joined the Sanger Centre Cambridge, during the incredibly exciting project, mapping the human genome.
I continued working in Scotland as a private nutritional therapist. Recently I have taken time out to ‘enjoy' building a new house and enjoy life on the sea with our boat in the north west of Scotland.
Covid arrived. Rachael, my friend began zoom yin yoga classes, even though 300 miles apart I could share Covid lockdown joining the classes. Realizing the importance and links of movement, health and food. Rachael and I began to chat about it, then realised we had joint skills that may benefit clients if we merged our skills.
This we are now doing, joining together with Yvonne and Tracey forming the retreat experience. I hope you enjoy, discover and have fun with us.
GUEST PRACTITIONERS
Laura-Jane Clare of Effortless Yoga.
Laura-Jane has a lifetime of experience sharing her passion for Yoga, Breathwork and Sacred Meditation and now combines these skills with vocal training and the harmonic vibrations of seven Quartz Crystal ‘Singing Bowls’.
“The sound of the quartz Crystal Resonates deeply in the fluid cellular structure of our body allowing harmony and coherence to be re established. Cutting edge medical research at Stanford University is now finding evidence of the capacity of sonic waves to both repair and rebuild human tissue”.
She will be delivering a Sound Bath for us on the morning of our last day as a perfect way to bring this first retreat to a close.
“The sound of the quartz Crystal Resonates deeply in the fluid cellular structure of our body allowing harmony and coherence to be re established. Cutting edge medical research at Stanford University is now finding evidence of the capacity of sonic waves to both repair and rebuild human tissue”.
She will be delivering a Sound Bath for us on the morning of our last day as a perfect way to bring this first retreat to a close.
Ruth Kirk of At Natures Pace
Ruth is a biophiliac, not as weird as it sounds! It’s a Greek-derived word meaning ‘love of life or living systems’. She believes as human beings, we’re intrinsically part of and innately drawn to seek a connection with the natural world around us to thrive, and nature is where Ruth thrives best.
With many years’ experience, and a degree in Outdoor & Environmental Education, Ruth is now on a mission, through her business – At Nature’s Pace – as a Nature Connectedness and Forest Bathing Guide, to reignite our child-like sense of wonder and awe at the natural world, tapping into the incredible, scientifically-proven benefits of nature connection to improve people’s mental well-being and physical health.
With many years’ experience, and a degree in Outdoor & Environmental Education, Ruth is now on a mission, through her business – At Nature’s Pace – as a Nature Connectedness and Forest Bathing Guide, to reignite our child-like sense of wonder and awe at the natural world, tapping into the incredible, scientifically-proven benefits of nature connection to improve people’s mental well-being and physical health.
THE FASCIA RETREAT
Copyright 2021
