What is MMC ?
'MMC ~ Menstruality Medicine Circle. MMC is a 1:1, hour-long, facilitated session.
The session is an imaginal process, designed to help you drop below the everyday lived experience of your menstrual cycle.
The work is a Jungian approach, using visualisation to explore your cycle. You will be asked to picture your menstrual cycle as a map, in which you will imagine yourself moving around and exploring. I will guide you to uncover the gems which are worth pausing at for medicine, to bring healing.
Your menstrual cycle holds a wealth of profound insights.
Each and every monthly cycle has its own initiatory process.
Just as any cycle operates with an intelligence which can not be argued with, so does your menstrual cycle.
After your first session, you will have a much clearer picture of your own cyclical flow. You will be able to see your cycle as a map to help you discover the inner workings of your soul, to gain insights into the challenges of your cycle, and to find healing.
In subsequent sessions, you will build on your menstrual cycle practice.
THE MENSTRUAL MEDICINE CIRCLE PROCESS™ IS A FORM OF ENERGY MEDICINE.
The process works with the energetics of your being. While it is therapeutic, which is restorative and healing, it is not therapy.
You might like to see a therapist alongside receiving MMC sessions.
What will a session entail?
A session can either be in-person at my home in Pembrokeshire, or online. I find that sessions over zoom can work much better, to utilise the comfort of your own home.
Sessions are typically 1 to 1.5 hours long. We start discussing your current relationship with your menstrual cycle.
We then begin the imaginal process. You will be in a comfy position, eyes closed, while I guide you through a 45 minute process, in which I invite you to describe your thoughts and feelings.
After the process is complete, we will spend some time reflecting on what came up for you during the session, and discuss tools and practices to help you meet the challenges of your everyday lived experiences.
Do I need to chart before my session?
it is a good idea to arrive at your first MMC session with an idea of your own experience of your menstrual cycle. At the very least - how does it feel to menstruate? How does it feel to ovulate? What comes up for you at these times?
An MMC session can offer fantastic gateway into charting and a lifelong journey with menstrual cycle awareness. After the first session you will feel clarity around visualising your cycle as a map, with you as the external observer.
The more that you have charted, and continue to chart, the deeper the MMC findings are! It is not a bad idea to prepare yourself with a month or two of charts; however it is not essential.
You can find printable charts here.
How often should I receive a session?
This is completely up to you!
Sporadic sessions: Can help to enrich your overall menstrual cycle awareness. The occasional MMC session can be the perfect accompaniment to whatever you are already doing with your awareness practice.
A session to accompany a specific time or challenge: If you are in the midst of a creative process or have a big event or a transition in your life, you might like to use an MMC session with the intention of finding some clarity or direction from your cycle.
Deeper ongoing work: Receiving a monthly MMC session as an ongoing practice is an incredibly rich way to work with your cycle. For avid charters and people who are using their cycle as an ongoing spiritual or life practice, I can not recommend monthly MMC sessions enough. They are the perfect tool to keep you curious and engaged with your own cycle developments. The more you have them, the deeper you get to know your cycle, and the more opportunity you have to uncover gems, while also allowing old stories to pass and scope for wisdom to arise.
To find out more about how to relate to and chart your cycle, I recommend a group course of four sessions on menstrual cycle awareness.
This will give us time to explore every aspect of your menstrual cycle thoroughly.
How to prepare for the first session
Before meeting, I will ask you to fill out a pre-session form.
In many ways, this form is more for you than it is for me. It is an opportunity for you to get into the right headspace before mapping out your cycle. I will ask you about your current relationship to your own cycle and how you feel about each phase. From this I will have an idea about where you are at with your cycle.
When and how was MMC first developed?
The sessions were developed and designed by Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, founders of Red School. This work was first developed in 2019. Alexandra and Sjanie both have backgrounds in psychotherapy, as well as long careers of researching, teaching and practising how to live a life informed by the menstrual cycle.
Who would benefit from MMC?
Anyone who follows a cycle!
- Are you struggling with your cycle? PMS, PMT or PMDD?
- Are you wanting to reconnect with your cycle after years on hormone replacements?
- Do you want to reconnect positively with your body?
- Are you blocked creatively?
- Do you want to navigate your cyclical emotions?
Menstrual Medicine Circles are specifically designed for anyone with a cycle. The language used in the sessions is to guide a person around their menstruation, pre-ovulation, ovulation and pre-menstrual phases.
On occasion, I have adapted the language to work with people who do not have a menstrual cycle, but do follow the moon.
MMC sessions can also work well for peri- or post-menopausal people. However since I haven't yet travelled this journey myself, I will happily point you in the direction someone who has, to allow the expertise to come from someone with personal experience and understanding.
About Heather
Heather's first deep dive into working with the menstrual cycle was taking the MCA leadership programme with the Red School Italia in 2019. Subsequently, keen to continue and deepen her learning, she trained to facilitate visualisation work with the menstrual cycle.
Heather holds in-person women's circles in Bristol, Swansea and Pembrokeshire, and teaches Menstrual Cycle Awareness courses online.
Heather is also the founder and director of Libby Cup.
testimonials
Ness
My MMC experience with Heather not only supported me to understand my menstrual cycle, it also empowered me to access the deep wisdom and power within it and use it as a tool for transformation. Heather held our sessions with kindness, an open mind and also a great sense of humour.
Zoe
Heather inspired me to have an MMC and start charting my cycle through her passion and belief that this process can be deeply transformative to women of any age and at any stage of their lives. I can vouch that after 2 sessions I have felt the medicine and only wished I had started this earlier. It is a gift to have someone as intuitive, sensitive and generous as Heather to guide me and be my companion as I journey and delve deeply into my fundamental cyclical nature. It is a simple yet powerful process and I am grateful for gaining such insight already. Thank you Heather for your warmth, good humour and the safe space you provide.
Sarah
Heather has a rare talent for being deep and light. I am so grateful for her willingness to chaperone us back to our power by initiating us into the simple ancient and profound work of our blood as gold.
Elise
I didn’t know what to expect from my MMC session with Heather but it was so much fuller than I was expecting. It was such a unique opportunity to intuitively build a visual picture of my whole cycle and to therefore be in relation to it in a new way. The visualisation has stayed vividly with me and I’ve referred back to it regularly during my cycle. It was really my first step at getting to know my cycle and tracking my energies to I can align my action with my end and flows. I look forward to more sessions and deepening the relationship with my cycles and myself. I recommend MMC with Heather to everyone whenever I speak about it!
Emma
During my MMC with Heather I travelled deep into my winter. This part of my cycle is generally something I try to avoid looking at or thinking about as it holds a lot of anxiety and pain for me. I was able to look closely at the images and feelings I hold there within a very safe and supported space. Heather is a natural! She creates such a gentle, secure space and does it with incredible lightness and kindness. It was my first experience of MMC and I am looking forward to exploring further with Heather.
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