About Sophie Messager
Perinatal and spiritual educator, author and healer
My Story
Pregnancy and early parenthood are such an exciting time and you love nothing more than supporting expectant and new parents.
You want to learn everything there is to know to help support your clients.
You do worry about getting it right, though. There is so much to learn, so many skills, so many courses to do… Your friends are talking about this or that course – but what is it right for you?
Then I can help!
My online courses and face to face workshop will leave you feeling confident and competent, having developed not only new skills, but also more trust in your own abilities, as well as ways of making the technique your own.
How do I do that?
It breaks down into three areas: skills, intention, and trust in yourself.
Skills and Intention
Skills
Skills are a huge part of the story. All my trainings have a large chunk dedicated to practising practical skills, so you’ll leave confident that you can do what you have learnt.
But this isn’t enough. Learning a new skill is like learning to drive a car: you get your licence, sure, but you don’t really know how to drive the car until you get confident enough to drive without having to think about it all the time. So I’ll encourage you to practise, and because I know we cannot remember every single detail of every technique, all my online courses or trainings come with with pictures and video links, so you can refresh your memory and practise your new skills as many times as you need. You also gain access to a private Facebook group to ask questions and exchange knowledge with others.
The way I pass on skills is quite unique. Because of my background and experience, I build a bridge between scientific and traditional knowledge in everything I create.
For example, the closing the bones and rebozo techniques have all been validated by an osteopath, which means that you’ll know what they do on the various joints and organs, as well as what they do energetically.
Intention
I cannot stress enough how important this is. I explain this in all my trainings. What is your intention before you start working with someone? What do you want them to get out of the treatment/support? You need to be very clear about that, because focusing your attention on people to feel your love, your support, changes everything. We discuss examples of this in the training, and as well as practical skills, we practise real-life situations as role play to make sure you know how to go forward when facing tricky situations, and how to always support your clients mindfully.
All my trainings involve a deeply healing element – it’s difficult to express in words because it is often something people don’t “get” until they have experienced it for themselves (a bit like being doulaed!) – but my goal is for you to experience the same experience that your client will get when you treat/support them.
Trust in yourself
I’m just here to help facilitate your growth. I’m no guru, and I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I’m on the journey myself, and there will always be people who know more and people who know less than we do.
I want you to be able to trust yourself and develop your own skills, in a way that feels right for you. So at the heart of all my teachings, whether online courses or face to face workshops, is the idea that there is no one size fits all. Nothing is prescriptive, you need to tune into your client, and you need to develop the techniques to make them your own, to really own them and develop your own unique style of teaching, treating and supporting. The work I share is geared towards being able to facilitate and support in a way that we feel comfortable with. It is subtly woven into every aspect of the facilitation.
This is discussed this at length during each training, and you will also have access to a whole community of supportive, like-minded people once you have completed training with me.
Developing your intuition is also part of this self-trust development process, and the courses are also designed to encourage you to develop this aspect further.
If this resonates with you, if developing your skills with a blend of science and spiritual stuff appeals to you, then feel free to check my blog or my online courses page.
Feel free to contact me with a question too.
My background
I left my native France in 1997 to pursue my career as a biology research scientist after gaining a my PhD in Physiology of Reproduction. I never expected to stay in the UK this long, but I got offered a job then I met my husband, Chi. We moved to Cambridge in 2001, got married, and had two children. Their births (both positive experiences supported by a doula), changed my direction completely, so after much soul searching and retraining, I left my scientific career behind to dedicate myself to my new passion, which is supporting expectant families and birth and perinatal professionals.
I’ve experienced tremendous amounts of personal growth since I became an antenatal educator and a doula, and I was lucky to meet some awesome mentors along the way and I want to pay it forward.
I’ve been working in the birth and perinatal field since 2010. I have supported over a thousand families in these various capacities, and trained over 1500 birthworkers in workshops and online courses. I worked as a birth and postnatal doula from 2012 to 2022. I was also a doula mentor for 4 years.
As well as my PhD, I have a DiPhe in antenatal education. I taught NCT antenatal classes from 2010 to 2016. I am a trained babywearing instructor and I also ran a sling clinic for 6 years. Learning the closing the bones ritual led me to become a passionate advocate of having a nurturing postpartum, and led the the publication of my book, Why Postnatal Recovery Matters, published by Pinter and Martin.
Being present at births reignited my taste for energy work, and the need to bring more spiritual practise and ritual in my life. I am a both a Holy Fire Reiki and Reiki Drum practitioner and teacher. I love to support others to develop their spiritual side and bring more rituals into their lives.
My favourite ways to spend my time when not working as practises that connect me to nature, my body, and my spirituality. I walk my dog by the river daily. I swim all year round in the local river including in winter, I take part in weekly shamanic drumming gatherings in the woods, and I am a member of the Cambsdance community, with whom I dance 5rhythms and other mindful movement practises every week.