Our Practitioners

Ana became the world's first Advanced Clinical Massage Therapist to specialise in Transgender Bodies and their work in Trans anatomy is currently used internationally to support Transgender patients.  They co-wrote on the qualification for LGBTQ+ inclusivity in manual therapies and were awarded Inclusive Therapy Business of the Year 2021-2022. They are the proud founder of Silk!

Their work focuses on providing a safe and inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ people to reconnect with their body, experience the deep parasympathetic nervous system and explore touch safely.  They believe in reducing the body's pain levels through downregulating the nervous system and are experienced working with chronic pain pathologies and disability.  Their original background was in front line SA trauma and they continue to bring this awareness and understanding into their work.

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They are embarking on this next chapter as Founder of Silk and continuing their practice from within her walls.  Their favourite muscle is still the sternocleidomastoid.

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You can read more about Ana's story here. 

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Lou runs Body Bits Brighton, is a yoga teacher, massage therapist, and creative arts facilitator, who helps people connect with their bodies, themselves and their communities through playful embodiment and radical rest. They specialise in trauma-informed, accessible, and therapeutic approaches to wellbeing, and working with LGBTQIA+, disabled, and neurodivergent communities. They work slow, soft and gentle, to help people feel taken care of, as a tonic for the nervous system, and to build trust and reconnection with the body.

Zelda is an astrologer and sound healer who offers Airstrology: Harmonic Healing.

"As someone who is neurodivergent and chronically ill as well as being trans, I've frequently found that many approaches to healing don't account for my own unique needs, experiences and circumstances. Astrology enshrines our uniqueness - just as you're not quite like anyone else who's ever existed, so your astrological charts are also unique.

Airstrology is a personalised and directed approach to sound healing. Through looking at the unique ways that your healing needs show up in your astrology, I can select the musicians who bring about the exact healing effects you're desiring. Anything from being able to focus better or feel more motivated and confident; to being better able to manage stress, process challenging emotions, get more grounded or get better rest; and anything else you could think of.

This works because the ways in which the work of different musicians affects each of us is as unique as we are. Through analysing how their astrology interacts with yours, I can direct and predict the effects you'll experience from them, helping you to access all parts of yourself and meet them with love."

Gabi is a yoga and movement teacher specialising in accessible and trauma informed yoga for LGBTQIA+ people. She has a particular focus on pregnancy and the postnatal period and offers birth and postnatal doula support around Brighton and Hove. Gabi is interested pain science and the rich history and ethics of yoga which informs all of her classes. Gabi loves to dismantle systems of power and centres consent, autonomy and equity in her work. She wants to empower you to find ways to move your beautiful, unique body that feel good and bring you joy.

Alongside teaching yoga, Gabi works as an educator and consultant for yoga studios and wellness professionals who would like to make their work more welcoming for LGBTQIA+ people. 

Tommy is a LGBTQ+ Inclusive Acupuncturist, Naturopath and facial enhancement acupuncture practitioner. In his work he incorporates the philosophy and tradition of Chinese medicine to meet his patients where they are at now, in a modern and urban world.

​Quartz is an LGBTQ+, neurodivergent and disabled rope practitioner, performer and teacher. They blend Japanese-informed rope bondage with trauma-informed touch, biomechanics and grounding techniques. Quartz teaches at Brighton Rope and offers private rope classes and tying sessions. They also lead non-rope workshops on exploring intimacy for couples, thruples and polycules. Quartz’s work is not therapy, but they believe that in the right context, touch (alone or with trusted partners) can be therapeutic.

Nyssa is the founder of The WellNyss Tree, offering inclusive, holistic therapies that nurture every stage of life. A specialist in womb health and clinical massage, she provides a compassionate and affirming space where all bodies are welcomed, honouring the fundamental principle that neither the womb nor wombspace are inherently gendered.

Nyssa’s journey to holistic practice is deeply personal. In addition to learning to journey with the additional demands of a queer, fat, neurodivergent, and disabled body which kept her bed-bound for the best part of a decade; she channelled her background in medical research and quantum physics into crafting a unique healing approach. By integrating scientific understanding with a holistic mindset, she reclaimed her health and uncovered a profound passion for empowering others to do the same. This journey of transformation became the foundation of The WellNyss Tree, where Nyssa shares her expertise and lived experience to support others on their paths to wellness.

With expertise spanning pre-conception care, pregnancy and birth support, and postnatal recovery, Nyssa’s approach blends advanced clinical massage techniques with holistic practices like yoni steaming and placenta remedies. Her tailored treatments are designed to ease transitions, restore balance, and deepen the connection between body and self.

Emma is a Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist and sound therapist. She joins us at Silk as a LGBTQ+ ally and advocate for inclusive wellbeing.

On joining Silk, she says:

“I am a second generation Ayurvedic practitioner following in my grandmothers footsteps. She was an ayurvedic healer from India, who helped others to heal and achieve their balance and herself lived until she was 100 years old.

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I absolutely love what I do and seeing people transform and regain their glow and heal is such a wonderful privilege to witness. I am dedicated to making my practice as inclusive as possible because that’s where my heart is.

As someone who is half-Indian there were times when I felt that I didn’t fit in anywhere. When you experience racism from both sides you think deeply about why these labels placed upon loving beings even matter. I have always felt accepted, understood and loved within the LGBTQIA+ spaces.”

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Brighton Rope is a local CIC who offer regular classes and events teaching Japanese-informed rope bondage.​ They are LGBTQ+, disabled and neurodivergent led and centred. They strive to create an environment where people of all identities and bodies can feel safe to explore their vulnerability. Brighton Rope are passionate about consent, emotional and physical safety, and they believe that anyone (18+) can tie and be tied. As long as you follow their principles of mutual respect and consideration, you are welcome.

"Although rope bondage isn't a therapy, we passionately believe that learning how to hold and be held and explore vulnerable emotional states in a trauma-informed way can be therapeutic. This is in the same way that cuddling your friend, partner dancing or mindful movement can be therapeutic. We make no claims about rope as a healing practice.

The Japanese-informed rope bondage we offer is derived from shibari/kinbaku, which developed in the mid 20th century in Japan and was adapted and evolved by western practitioners. Our training is handed down from Japanese bakushi (restraint experts), however we do not adhere to any specific school of rope, but draw influences from biomechanics, grounding techniques and theatre.

Our hope is to enable a shared experience, in which the boundaries and needs of both rigger and rope bottom are honoured, and the rope bottom feels safe and cared for whilst exploring their desires and capabilities."

Marie-Louise has been practicing as a soft tissue therapist and personal trainer in London since 2005 and is excited to bring their work to Brighton. She has a holistic and realistic approach to helping people feel better. Using practice that suits each individual body, sometimes combining therapies, and all according to client need. She is always happy to work alongside other professionals to give clients best overall care. Having an LGBTQ+ community focus, and achieving superior results brings joy to her work.

Currently studying Somatic Bodywork Trauma Therapy. Through safe, mindful techniques, sessions will aim to address trauma stored within the body. She is looking forward to adding this skill set to her clinic here at Silk as soon as she is qualified.

Christian is an LGBTQIA+ neurodivergent massage therapist and yoga trainer with a lifelong dedication to education, training and holistic health. Offering a variety of massage specialisms including the more functional (such as Deep Tissue massage and Remedial Sports massage) to the more deeply holistic such as Chavutti Thirumal (an Indian massage involving a flowing massage by the practitioner’s feet), Lomi Lomi (Hawaiian) massage and Bodyflow (a sensual body to body flowing massage journey).

Trained with British Wheel of Yoga and offering one to one and small groups for Astanga yoga, Scaravelli-inspired yoga and meditation.

He brings a love of the work, a wealth of training, an intuitive touch, and an interest in embracing all intersectionalities of the individual. Particular ongoing research interests include neurodiversity and hyper mobility.

Hello! My name is Moss and I'm a queer and disabled artist from Brighton!
I started making art as a way to express myself when my health began declining, and most of all during the pandemic when I felt lost and scared for myself and every other disabled person in the world.

I create wearable and fun art that empowers and uplifts fellow disabled people, in a way that I think a lot of people don't expect. I love when people come across my art and are like "oh my god that's so me!" or "I've never seen representation for my condition before!". I want everyone to feel represented by my work, no matter how small of a way it may seem!

I am so incredibly excited to offer a more artistic approach to wellbeing to Silk, and I can’t wait to meet some of you at some exciting pop up events!

Char Haylock (they/she), is a queer and nonbinary person, psychologist, and LGBTQ+ wellbeing workshop facilitator working predominantly with gender, sexuality, and relationship diversity. Their work utilises compassion focused and person-centred approaches with the aim to foster self-compassion, empowerment, and resilience with and for queer people.

Char is enthusiastic about the potential for powerful changes that can happen when we are able to feel safer with ourselves and with other people in our communities. They are highly relational, warm, playful, and non-judgmental in their work, working on the basis that relationships are a crucial part of wellbeing.

My name is Edie. I am an artist, illustrator, and freelance creative based in Brighton. I use my online platform to share illustrations and videos aimed at empowering, educating, and inspiring others. I focus on themes around mental health, chronic illness, nature, connection and my journey with queer identity and body acceptance as a disabled person. Inspiration finds me everywhere!—from galleries and museums, the nick nacks in my flat, to the everyday conversations that shape my perspective. I believe it's incredibly important to connect with people through art.  I know from my own experiences as a chronically ill and neurodivergent person, it can be stressful to attend a creative workshop or class. I hope to foster an environment at SILK that brings the community together in a fun, inclusive and uplifting way. Providing a space where everyone feels comfortable and at home. I try to keep it pretty experimental and use a variety of mediums such as painting, clay and digital.

Clare (she/her) is a Somatic Experiencing (SE) trauma therapist, supporting people to release stored survival energy, process emotion and memory via bodily sensation. She’s also a neuroqueer artist with lived experience of chronic illness and has been a participatory artist, arts for health practitioner and community worker for over 20 years, working specifically in LGBTQ+ community spaces for the last 5 years with a focus on cultivating sensory experience. 

 

Her offer here at Silk is Somatic Experiencing. SE helps to access emotion and memory via sensation, suppporting meaning to come up from the body rather than down from established thinking patterns. Clare helps people to feel bodily sensation so that their instincts can begin to circumnavigate brain or cognitive processes which may have been compromised by unskilled early caregivers or cultural/political messages not delivered with our best intentions at heart. She recognises states of fight, flight and freeze as they arise and supports the body to move through and discharge some of the stored survival stress that sits beneath them. This process is about slowing down and titrating (taking one small piece at a time) in order to feel into the nuance and wisdom of the nervous system, and sessions contain plenty of resourcing in order to support this deep work. 

 

Clare also offers ecosomatics which combines ecotherapy with SE, inviting the aliveness of all that’s around and within us as a resource. If you’re interested in learning more please visit her profile on instagram @interpl8 or email clare@clareplumley.co.uk 

A chronically ill and neurodivergent nerd, Ella has had an interest in the occult for years and has been exploring witchiness and its intersection with self care, mental health, pleasure and empowerment since 2020.

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Furnished with a tarot hyperfixation, Ella likes to collect decks as well as use them as a tool for self-reflection and mindfulness.  She is also a professional writer and loves storytelling in all forms from weird fiction to tabletop roleplaying games.

Amy is redefining nutritional therapy, focusing on health, not weight. She believes that all bodies can be healthy and never bases her approach on weight loss or BMI. Instead, Amy helps you make sustainable lifestyle changes, supporting you in becoming your brightest, happiest self. Through education and addressing psychological blocks, she aims to lift the self-shame society has imposed.

With a person-centred approach, Amy creates personalised food and lifestyle plans tailored to individual needs, including those with food sensitivities. As a qualified nutritional therapist with a psychology degree, she integrates mental well-being into every plan.

Amy specialises in supporting the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly in areas of mental health, energy work, hormone regulation, and digestive health. She's thrilled to join the talented team at SILK and is ready to help with any nutritional therapy questions you have.

Rebecca (she/they) is a creative arts & somatic psychotherapist (MA Dance Movement Psychotherapy) providing support to queer, trans, or neurodivergent folx with worries connected to mental health, identity, or your relationship to your body.

She is passionate about making the therapy room accessible for everyone, especially people that may have had a bad experience with therapy or counselling in the past. She brings a sense of humour, geek knowledge, and neurodivergent empathy to her work, along with over 10 years’ experience of supporting people from all walks of life.

Rebecca has a particular interest in working with people with health issues – before/after a surgery, with illnesses including cancer or HIV, or with skin conditions such as eczema, scars, alopecia.

Sessions are available at Silk on Monday mornings.

For more information & to book a free 15-min welcome call with Rebecca, visit: https://www.rebeccawilsongreen.com/lgbtq-therapy

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