Melanie Ward

Melanie Ward is a shiatsu practitioner, Shadow Work® coach and group facilitator based in Chagford, on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon. She specialises in supporting people through big transitions such as bereavement, relationship breakdown, career change and menopause. She believes that, with the right support, these times can be embraced as rites of passage, a chance to be "re-born" with a deeper understanding of oneself. She works with clients in person and online.

She has used shiatsu for around 20 years. She gained her Diploma in Shiatsu through the three-year training at the Bristol School of Shiatsu, completed post-graduate study there, and was a teaching assistant with the school for many years. She has worked as a shiatsu practitioner for the charities Naomi House and the Rosie Crane Trust. During the lockdowns she learned to adapt her shiatsu techniques for distance healing sessions held online.

Before her healing work, Melanie spent a decade as a freelance artist working in education with children, young people and adults. She first encountered Shadow Work® in 2009 and began training soon after. She is a qualified one-to-one Shadow Work coach and group facilitator, and she runs Shadow Work weekends with her partner and co-facilitator Tim Hall. Her work is also supported by training in Transformational Dialogue and Body Focused Enquiry with Keith Phillips, and by her own practice of 5Rhythms Dance, yoga and T'ai Chi.

Her approach to menopause comes from her own experience. She trained as a Menopause Wellness Practitioner and created The Menopause Journey, a one-to-one programme that uses the Five Elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine as a map. She has co-led a menopause retreat on Dartmoor with Emma Sampson. She describes her coaching as holistic, therapeutic and body-focused. Outside of work she enjoys drawing, writing, dance and time in nature.