ABOUT ME & MY CLASSES
How I got here...
I got sick. Really, really sick thanks to a medical mishap. Two years on the couch riddled with symptoms of inflammation, cognitive impairment, mental health issues, chronic pain and a body that simply couldn't function.
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And this was after decades of pretty average health to begin with. Something just wasn't making sense and it took an enormous amount of perseverance and the right practitioners to figure out why my health was the way it was (spoiler alert, calories had nothing to do with my health issues). So thanks to my dedicated Nutritionist, Naturopaths, Psych and Chiro, things started falling into place. Turns out, gut issues and long-term trauma can cause absolute havoc on the body!
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Once I started to feel a faint spark of vitality, I took my sore, tired body to the public aqua classes and quickly started feeling stronger and more confident - which was significant, as I'd always been terrified of water. I'd never really learned how to swim and had a trauma response every time I had to put my face near the water. This took some serious courage, especially feeling self conscious in bathers...at the public pool!
As I got more and more out of the sessions, I started going twice a week and finally built up the nerve to seek out adult swimming lessons. In the post-lockdown world, I discovered a swim instructor shortage that meant the public pool had a waitlist of over 300 people. And adults weren't the priority.
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Newfound confidence in overdrive, I decided to be part of the solution instead. With incredible support from the team at MNGSC, I spent the last three months of 2022 getting swimming lessons. I practiced every day, did regular PT, got my AUSTSWIM certification and started my aqua aerobics instructors course.
Here I am now - a swimmer, a swimming instructor, an aqua instructor and business owner. All in less than a year.
Thanks to the right support networks and a healthy dose of determination, I completely turned my life, career, and health around. Which means I can now I can support you.
This thrills me to bits. I'm finally where I was meant to be, doing what I was meant to be doing all along.
Why Private Aqua...
I'm passionate about creating a safe space for us middle-aged (or thereabouts!) women to exercise with maximum support in every sense of the word. Small classes, private pools, women only.
I have created this business because it's what I was looking for. I felt vulnerable exercising in public. Especially in a public pool environment - in my bathers (cannot emphasise the awkwardness enough!) - with the audience of bored swim-lesson parents watching, the old blokes complaining about the amount of space we occupied, the squealing swimming lessons, the large bright echoing space.
I desperately wanted to be able to work to my maximum potential, but really struggled to do so in this environment.
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So I decided to change the game and got qualified.
Macedon Ranges Aqua Aerobics will only ever be run at private swim centres, and will always be supportive, body positive and welcoming.
With thanks to my pit-crew...
Shoutout to the following dedicated professionals that I owe my health to:
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​Beck O'Farrell, Nutritionist at Big Bowl of Happy
Irene McGowan and Nicole Woodcock, Naturopaths at Gisborne Health Essentials
Brett Mannix, Chiropractor at Total Body Health
Samara Hodson Remedial Massage
Serene Psychology Sunbury
Robyn Patton - Life Coach at Midlife Rebel
​Kelly & Lou at Change it Up Personal Training
The team at Macedon New Gisborne Swim Centre