Exploring Holistic Approaches to Postpartum Healing, Birth Preparation, Women’s Circle Wisdom, and Village Support: Topics Include Birth Trauma Healing, Perinatal Mental Wellness, Art and Mindfulness as Healing, Seasonal Living, Rituals, Womb Healing, Traditional Folk Medicine, Ancestral Reverence, and Other Pathways to Healing and Connection.
The Lost Art of Postpartum Care: Cross-Cultural & Historical Perspectives
For most of human history, postpartum care was deeply valued, woven into the fabric of community life. Across cultures, new mothers were nurtured, rested, and cared for by those around them. Yet, in many modern Western societies, this crucial period of recovery and...
Healing Birth Trauma with EMDR
Childbirth is often portrayed as a joyous event, but for many, it can be deeply distressing. In Australia, one in three women report experiencing at least three trauma symptoms within 4-6 weeks postpartum, particularly following physical birth injuries (COPE, 2023)....
Songs!
I've been wandering along on some kind of musical and self-discovering odyssey since 2021. I hadn't played guitar for years before that, but I loved to when I was younger. I occassioanlly share some songs on youtube/instagram because that's the kind of cracked-hearted...
How Pregnancy Counselling Can Help You Prepare For Birth And Postpartum
Pregnancy is an incredible time of transition in our lives, whether this is your first pregnancy or you’re already a parent. There are many reasons why seeking emotional, psychological and social support can help you cope during pregnancy, as well as better prepare...
Reclaiming Yourself After A Challenging Birth (Part Two)
You can read part one, BIRTH AS INITIATION GROUND FOR DEEP HEALING here. “Our job is not to deny the story, but to defy the ending—to rise strong, recognize our story, and rumble with the truth until we get to a place where we think, Yes. This is what happened. And...
Birth As Initiation Ground For Deep Healing (Part One)
“Women are not the cause of unnecessary and unwanted medical intervention in birth. Interventions are rising because the maternity system was never set up to promote physiology or support evidence-based, woman-centred practice. It evolved to sustain medicine...
Birth Trauma Awareness Week Reflection
It’s Birth Trauma Awareness Week (2020) and there are so many things I could say about birth trauma it’s hard to know where to start. Do you start at the systemic level, where we have a culture of ‘care providers’ with so much unhealed vicarious trauma and...
Seeds of Emotional Birth Trauma
"By courageously diving into your wounds, patiently allowing the suffering to do its work, neither indulging nor repressing the pain, you reach the deeper levels of the psyche where you encounter your larger (soul) story." - Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of...
Postpartum Doula FAQ
I have a history of anxiety, depression, PTSD, trauma, sexual violence, or other mental health issues - how would a postpartum doula help me? Mental health challenges can be difficult to manage during a vulnerable time like birth and early parenting. As much holistic,...
Just had a baby? Why you need a Postnatal Doula!
Why Every New Parent Deserves a Postnatal Doula When preparing for birth, we often focus so much on labor that we overlook what comes next—the intense, beautiful, and sometimes overwhelming transition into parenthood. While birth doulas offer support during labor,...
Radical Self-Care & Collective Care for New Mothers
Radical Self-Care & Collective Care for New Mothers Let’s talk about self-care. Yes, you’ve heard it before—"put your own oxygen mask on first." But let’s be real. Most of us struggle to do it. And for good reason. We have little ones (and others) depending on us,...
Placenta Remedies: 3 Ways to Use Your Placenta Without Eating It
Honoring the Placenta: A Ceremony of Connection Much has been said recently about placenta encapsulation and smoothies as ways to support postpartum recovery. While these practices have helped some, they weren’t for me. When preparing for my son’s birth, I knew I...
Calling for Visions: Womancrafting in the Wilderness
It’s a sweet feeling when all of your being sinks into remembering. A deep, in-the-bones kind of remembering. A state of knowing who you really are and what you need to do. This is how my visions came to me. As a series of awakenings that I felt so viscerally in my body that came during dreams and meditations over this time.
What is Womancrafting?
I study with the School of Shamanic Womancraft, and this is a wonderful explanation of what that's all about! From the website, What is Shamanic Womancraft. Shamanic Womancraft is the art of facilitating transformation. The School of Shamanic Womancraft creates the...
Can Castor Oil Help Heal my Womb?
Castor oil packs for womb health are for women who are NOT currently pregnant.Do not use castor oil packs during pregnancy.Castor oil can stimulate the uterus and may induce labour. Supporting Your Womb Health with Castor Oil Packs How is your womb feeling right now?...
Anne Castles, BSocWk
ABN: 72 648 150 387
Medicare Provider Number: 494 282 3X
AASW Member Number: 439847
I pay my respects to the Turrbal and Jagera people, the First Peoples with an ongoing connection to the land I create and offer my work from in Meanjin (Brisbane). Always was, Always will be Aboriginal Land.
info@annecastles.com.au