Carly St John
Carly is founder of Amma wellness a female-led practice offering guidance from the heart, based in the Crystal Palace triangle, mother of two boys aged 2 & 7 and a stepmother to a teenager.
Carly offers treatments to women as a holistic therapist with over 20 years’ experience, She’s passionate about women’s complex relationships with their emotions & physical comfort within the body, in a world where stress and fear-arousal leads to adrenal fatigue and exhaustion, creating overwhelming emotions, dysregulation of the nervous system, body pain, discomfort and physical fatigue.
Her intention is to provide a safe space for self-exploration, physically, mentally and emotionally, and a chance to mother ourselves and listen to our inner voice whilst honouring the birth, death and rebirth stages of life with awareness and ritual.
Find Carly @amma_wellness // @carlyholistictherapist
“MY PERSPECTIVE ON: “Saying no:
I practiced cycle awareness for years prior to my births, NO & SPACE its an important part of my communication both verbally and non verbally, it’s important to me when bleeding so I applied it in my postnatal period with ease. I’m also teaching my children boundaries when I practice this.”
HOW WAS YOUR POSTPARTUM EXPERIENCE?
Very different from my first, Aether was born on the 25.04.21 when the world was starting to shift its focus away from covid restrictions and move towards social events and time together in shared spaces. It felt is if the world was opening and I was going in.
My healing and recovery was different with my second birth, I experienced a prolapse from prolonged pushing, Aether was born star gazing staring straight into the eyes of his dad.
This meant life was slower than my first postpartum experience, luckily, I’d planned to take the first 40 days of rest, invested in postpartum care and was resourced with remedies, a loving partner and web of women.
“REDISCOVERING WHO YOU ARE:
So unspoken about but a HUGE part of a mothering journey . My advice would be to enjoy it!
Second time round I was excited to witness who’d I’d become. I made time for the surrender ( Death & Rebirth) ”
WHAT DID YOU FIND MOST CHALLENGING?
The isolation within community settings and face masks, it didn’t align with me for Aether to be around masks, so I stayed mainly at home for the first 6 months.
I also found I was more adrenal fatigued with the constant fear arousal around covid, trying to protect my family was priority. My energy felt very open after Aether, it surprised me how much I absorbed despite my disconnection from the media.
HOW DID YOU PREPARE FOR YOUR POSTPARTUM?
From my experience after the birth of my first, my own knowledge as a therapist and my advice from my wider web.
I hired Laura Swann to heal me with her loving touch and placenta remedies, received massage and reflexology regularly, leaned into Women’s Osteopaths, pelvic floor therapists, Acupuncture and Chinese herbs.
My partner cooked me healing Asian food and broths and because we’d done so much work on planning for the postpartum period, I really felt like he and I deepened in trust and surrender to life as new parents in a blended family.
I made healing my priority as a mum of 2 boys and a step mum to a teenager.
IF YOU WERE TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN S THERE ANYTHING YOU WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY, WHAT LESSONS DID YOU TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE?
If it were an option I’d hire a birth & post-natal hut in the woods and live off grid for the first 40 days.
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 3 TIPS THAT YOU WOULD PASS ON TO MOTHERS SOON TO BE POSTPARTUM?
Invest time into your self-care ahead of the birth, give your self-space and time for your rebirth and the unknown, be open and honest about your expectations and needs of what you will need and desire to support your healing, physically, mentally and emotionally.