Staying in the Experiment as The Well-Being Alchemist

“We heal out loud so others don’t have to suffer in silence.”

That’s the image I chose to accompany this piece, because it holds the heart of why this shift happened at all.

In January 2026, I made a conscious decision to change how I show up; online, in my work, and in my own voice.

Not because something broke.
Not because I discovered a new strategy.
But because I wanted to feel more aligned, more honest, and ultimately happier in how I live and express what I do. This shift also came as I began emerging from autistic burnout, a period that quietly reshaped how I understand energy, voice, and sustainability.

Around that time, I shared an abridged version of this decision in a social media post; a shorter declaration of the same truth. This piece is the fuller context behind that moment.

I’m The Well-Being Alchemist, loudly.
And I’m done performing well-being instead of living it.

For years, parts of my work lived in one place while the truth of my life lived somewhere quieter. That separation looked professional on the outside, but it came at a cost. At 54, neurodivergent, and standing on the edge of an almost empty-nest season, I’m choosing coherence over presentation.

This next chapter is less about teaching and more about practicing, in public, imperfectly, honestly.

A Body With History

My well-being isn’t theoretical. It happens inside a body that has lived a lot of life.

I was born with a kidney defect, which meant a childhood shaped by illness, hospital visits, and more antibiotics than I could ever count. At 30, I experienced M.E./Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; a period that absorbed three years of my life and quietly set me on the path that would eventually become my work as The Well-Being Alchemist.

I live with lipedema. I am fat. My legs carry stories, including burns from an accident, and an ankle that still niggles years after a fall down the stairs and months of enforced stillness. Some days that ankle feels steady; other days it reminds me that healing doesn’t mean “gone.” It means “different.”

I’m not sharing this as a before-and-after story or a recovery arc.
There is no triumphant ending to arrive at.

This is simply the material of my alchemy.

Well-being, for me, is not about fixing the body I have. It’s about learning how to live inside it with honesty, curiosity, and regulation, even when the rules change.

Why I Heal and Practice Out Loud

Quiet nearly cost me too much.

For a long time, I held things together silently; professionally capable, personally stretched, always adjusting to what was expected. Practicing well-being out loud is not about being performative. It’s about refusing to disappear inside my own life.

The quote on the image says, “We heal out loud so others don’t have to suffer in silence.”
For me, that doesn’t mean having all the answers. It means being willing to let my real life be visible; the regulated days, the messy ones, the pauses, the pivots.

Loud, for me, means clear.
It means honest.
It means allowing lived experience to exist without turning it into a lesson.

I’m not here to convince anyone.
I’m not here to curate inspiration.
I’m here to inhabit my life.

Staying in the Experiment

One of the truest things I can say about myself right now is this:

I’m an alchemist who stays in the experiment.

That means:
I work with what is real, not what is ideal.
I listen when my nervous system asks for change.
I allow well-being to look different from one season to the next.

Recently, that has meant choosing to work with clients only Tuesday to Thursday. Not because a productivity system told me to, but because my body and brain asked for a different rhythm as I rebuilt after burnout.

It has also meant letting go of my own internal “shoulds.”
Not the expectations others placed on me, but the rules I quietly created for myself; how productive I thought I needed to be, how visible, how consistent, how strong.

Those internal rules once helped me survive.
But they don’t get to run my life anymore.

Letting go of “should” now means listening inward before looking outward.
It means allowing well-being to be a lived practice rather than a polished concept.

What This Space Is and Isn’t

This blog lives here on my website as part of my work. It isn’t a sales page.

It’s a place where I practice alchemy on my own life, in real time, and, with permission, occasionally reflect on themes that emerge from my work with clients or patterns I witness across lived experiences.

I don’t use social media to sell.
If you feel drawn to work with me, you can explore the ways to do that elsewhere on this website or simply book a curiosity call. The door is open; it just isn’t the centre of these conversations.

If you’re here to walk alongside lived, imperfect well-being, welcome.

Both can be true.
I am a professional.
And I am a human practicing what I believe.

Alchemy First

I don’t have all the answers. I don’t even want that role anymore.

What I do have is a willingness to stay present with a body that has history, a nervous system that values honesty, and a life that is still unfolding.

This isn’t a rebrand.
It’s a return.

Alchemy first. Always.

I’m Not Rebranding. I’m Re-Inhabiting