About Me
Hi there, I'm Zoë (pronounced Zo-ee) and you can refer to me as Zoe/she/her.
I'm Sussex (UK) born and bred, and when I'm not learning about the human body, I'm writing songs or making videos.
My Story
When I was 26, each time I took a step forward after standing, sitting, or lying down, a sharp pain (the sciatic nerve being pinched) would flare up my back and take my breath away. This was my everyday experience for four years, and I was only in my mid-twenties.
People recommended Yoga and exercise, but that only flared it up and made it worse. The doctors referred me to a Physio, but the muscle focused exercises didn't seem to change anything, and without on-going contact and accountability it was easy to forget to do them.
My chronic pain was affecting my life in a big way but it wasn't 'bad enough' for expensive tests and treatment. Who knew if they would even help anyway.
I knew something needed to change, I clearly needed help, but I wasn't sure what or from who. Then one day, a friend recommended I take a look at the Get Into Your Body Programme, by The Ixchel System.
At a Get Into Your Body Level 1 workshop in Brighton
(Victoria Salomon bottom right)
After speaking with the creator of the programme, Victoria Salomon, about how it could potentially help me heal my sciatica and perhaps even help with my ADHD (an aligned body is a more regulated body), I enrolled onto Level 1.
The programme is 7 weeks long but it went by in a blur as life tended to do back then. My favourite part was having 1:1s in person with Victoria - I always thrive in 1:1 situations with practitioners where I feel really cared for.
Having ADHD and not much of a daily routine made remembering to do the exercises each week a challenge, and I found the most change happened in my body in the following months after finishing the programme, as I continued to do the movements when I could - in the sauna, walking to the shop, standing as the bus stop, brushing my teeth. I soon realised the work is in the everyday, not in acing the movements in the 1:1 session and then not doing them outside of that.
I also switched to barefoot shoes in this time (and accidentally bought cheap crappy ones which gave me a bit of a foot injury but more on that in my blog another time...), which, once I got good ones, really helped me connect to the ground and put everything I was learning into practise when walking around.
Helping out at Get Into Your Body workshops as a trainee
I knew I had to do Get Into Your Body Level 2 - to see how much better my back could be, and also what else could improve - I was getting a neck hump and had a forward head posture from being on my phone and laptop for work every day - could I reverse that? I was also getting acid reflux quite often, had digestive issues, thought of myself as an 'anxious person', and felt very chaotic in my brain (ADHD) - Victoria was adamant that if I kept up my journey with her those symptoms would improve.
Going through Level 2 really kicked things into gear. Victoria often uses the analogy that Level 1 is like learning how to use the steering wheel, the gear stick, and the pedals separately, and that Level 2 is putting it all together and actually driving the car, and I couldn't agree more!
I started learning the movement 'cogs' - how the major joints work with each other to create body-wide movements such as breathing (yep, that uses and affects many joints in the body) and walking. It was in this level of the programme that I started experiencing some 'releases' - pockets of adrenaline stored in the body that are released during a movement.
Repping for The Ixchel System at Birmingham Therapy Expo 2025
In one session I suddenly felt very dizzy and had to sit down, I then promptly burst into tears. Victoria expertly guided me back into my body and held the space for me whilst I worked through whatever it was that needed to come out. Some people may remember things during moments like this, or feel it is attached to a particular time in their lives, but I had no idea where it came from or why, only that I felt better afterwards.
After Level 2, Victoria asked if I'd like to train to become a practitioner. Part of me wanted to, but I wasn't yet ready to take that leap. I spent a year fully integrating what I had learned from Levels 1 and 2, going to Ixchel workshops every now and then. One day I was complaining to Victoria about how I wanted to change careers to something more 'hands-on', and she said 'well why don't you do the practitioner training?' and my answer was 'I don't know. I don't have any excuses or things holding me back anymore. Okay!'
And this is where you find me - halfway through my training and taking on case studies.
It's a whole new beautiful and challenging chapter for me, and I am so glad I took that leap!
If you feel inspired or motivated by my experience, reach out!
Email me to schedule in your free discovery call, where we can talk about what you're struggling with and how I can potentially help you.