I’m Jess, the founder of Onwards Healing, a space devoted to helping you reconnect with your body and rediscover a sense of inner safety and vitality through education, embodiment and connection.

My path into this work began through my own health struggles. For years, I lived in a constant state of hyper-vigilance. I was trapped in my mind, disconnected from my body and battling chronic fatigue, gut issues, autoimmune symptoms and pain. I tried to think my way to healing, diving deep into therapy, nutrition and functional medicine, yet I more unwell, more exhausted and more anxious.

It wasn’t until I took a step back to realise that constantly trying to fix my health was in fact keeping me stuck and in fact it was an avoidance strategy preventing me from feeling deeply held emotions. Early childhood experiences had taught me that emotions were not safe to express, so I had spent a lifetime bottling everything in, walking around like a ferocious volcano about to erupt at any point. What I didn’t realise then which I know now, is that our most vulnerable thoughts and fears will drive us into an action or behaviour we have always done in order to override the emotion we are avoiding feeling. This perpetual state of avoidance is where stress compounds as the body holds what the mind cannot process. I discovered that so much of my pain, anxiety and exhaustion wasn’t just physical or mental, it was manifesting in the patterns my body had learned to survive. Through somatic enquiry, gentle presence, curiosity and compassion, I began to experience what true healing feels like and slowly everything started to melt away.

Today as a certified coach & practitioner, I bring together everything I’ve learned on this journey including Somatic Alignment, Mind-Body coaching and how to curate and step into a life that aligns with how you want to feel. My goal is now to support others through embodied transformation so they too can find that same freedom within themselves.