“Remember: doing things at your own pace – however fast or slow – is how you make your contribution to the world.”
I have been an ordained Interfaith Minister since 1998. I have a wide-ranging professional background in adult education, community development and youth work, organisational and business development, social research, complementary therapies and storytelling.
My own life with chronic illness has led me to bring all of that knowledge, skill and experience to bear on the issue of how chronically ill people can live more fulfilling lives, and make our contribution to the world, whatever our symptoms. I offer this work through We Make The Path, a community interest company I founded in 2021.
We Make The Path offers a free online community, ongoing paid membership programmes, and one-to-one support, with members from around the world. We focus on self-care, managing capacity, building resilience, self-advocacy, and taking action balanced with reflection. You can find out more about our work at https://www.wemakethepath.org/
I also offer reflections on connecting with ourselves, one another, the world, and the Divine at https://buttondown.email/onlyconnect/archive/
I started working with Elinor when I needed support to write my PhD dissertation. They combined compassion and kindness with consistency and academic rigor. They gently pushed me towards more clarity, and held me through the really messy parts. And I got my PhD! What I especially loved was Elinor’s ability to hold both the intellectual and magical parts of the process at the same time. If you’re thinking of working with Elinor, DO IT! You’ll be so glad you did. Elinor knows their stuff, and will hold your hand firmly yet gently so you can know yours too!
Thanks to working with Elinor, my personal development process has sped up quite a bit – not in a way that’s unmanageable or unsustainable, but in a manner that’s very focused, grounded, and clear. I feel less apologetic about my existence, desires, and choices, and feel more confident and willing to examine my personal responsibility and my relationship with the choices I am making. At first, I was concerned that the work would be a bit too much and that I would over-commit and overextend myself and then fall short/fall out. But Elinor holds these containers so well, and the work has matched my pace and bandwidth – I’ve been surprised how relatively easily and fluidly I’ve slipped into the flow of things. It’s refreshing to have a mentor with a healthy sense of ego who knows how to be transparent and accountable, too. It’s both excellent for supporting the container of my learning, and also just a helpful example for me to role model after. Elinor teaches and transmits with clarity and purpose, and is a very attentive, insightful listener and guide, and you don’t bullshit. Elinor is incredibly wise, thoughtful, and knowledgeable, and working with them has challenged me to grow intellectually, spiritually, and personally. As a storyteller and mentor, Elinor is wonderful at what they do and deeply tuned into the spirits and patterns of their work in the world. To anyone thinking of working with Elinor, I say, Go for it. No seriously, go for it. If I – queen of the stubborn ******** assembly – can find myself making tangible, coherent, and sustainable shifts to part of my identity and sense of self + practice that had felt solidly set in stone, you, too, can do the work and get whatever results you’re looking for with Elinor.
I love the qualities of caring, nurturance, awareness, and clarity that Elinor brings to their work. I felt cared for. I felt seen. I felt appreciated. I had a lot of fear of taking up space, and a lot of judgements about myself. Elinor approached all of that in ways that helped me see that that’s okay. They gave me strategies and tools, and new ways of looking at the situation that were really helpful. Elinor’s approach was, “Hey, we’re not going to fix the trauma necessarily. We’re going to work with it. That’s part of who you are and so let’s work with that.” That was really helpful, instead of saying, “Hey, you’re wrong and you need to change,” and putting their own agenda on me. It was a pleasant surprise after my experiences working with other people. To anyone thinking of working with Elinor, I’d say that Elinor has a lot of experience in a lot of different areas. They have a lot of sensitivity and caring around helping people, and listening, and tools that are helpful. They are really good about holding a container, and holding space for a person to do what they need to do. Elinor\’s integrity, genuine care for people, kindness, and how they show up… they made it so easy to do the work.