Summer Newsletter
My internal is reflected in my external.
S u m m e r
I am 9 weeks postpartum (when writing this) with my new little baby girl.
A girl!!! Can you believe it!!!
I just keep thinking… Gosh, I’m so glad I didn’t rush this postpartum… There were still moments I tested the stretch into the world. But truly, only in the last few weeks has there been a notable shift of the energy to be there (in the world).
I really feel like I squeezed and fully bathed in the magic of my end of pregnancy and early postpartum. A peak life experience, truly. Better than any mushroom. I still can’t believe I am now a mother to a son AND a daughter!!! She is wrapped around my belly, using my left breast as a pillow as I write.
But yes, I am now fully in the world now. And I feel both an inward and outward push of expression.
Summer feels like this too.
Full. Lush. Almost too much at times. The sun high in the sky. Asking everything to grow. To bloom. To be seen. Nothing hiding. Nothing dormant. Life exposed in its ripest form.
This postpartum post the first 40ish days feels different to my first. With my first, I was taken deep inward. Cracked open. Surrendered. Dissolved. It was winter inside me even if the world outside was warm. He (my first) asked me to slow down, to soften, to meet my edges and be remade there.
But now, I feel summer in my body. Not frantic heat… but generative warmth. A hum of yummy yummy creation. Tulsi, my daughter’s arrival has not only asked me to mother, she has asked me to expand. To trust the visions rising. To bring them into form. To step into discomfort and growth with steadiness.
Summer right now feels like a responsibility to what has been sowed and is now blooming.
There is milk.
And sunlight.
And ideas.
There is devotion and direction.
There is sweat and sweetness.
My internal is reflected in my external.
S u m m e r.
A season of fullness. Of being seen. Of allowing what has been growing quietly to finally ripen and show itself.
And I am learning to trust that this, too, is mothering.
Summer seasonal wisdom
The air has been thick and muggy lately. It smells like my childhood. I listen to cicadas in the afternoon and the sun goes down just before bed. The great Bunya Pine cones are dropping and the local Gubbi Gubbi lake is meeting our skin almost every day.
Summer in the Body
In the body, Summer reflects the ovulation phase of the menstrual cycle.
Hormones are rising and peaking, particularly oestrogen and a surge of luteinising that triggers the release of an egg. Oestrogen is at one of its highest points in the cycle, and with it comes increased energy, confidence, sociability and magnetism.
You may notice:
More outward focus
A desire to connect
Clearer thinking
Increased libido
A glow in your skin and eyes
Greater tolerance and generosity
Biologically, your body is primed for connection and possibility. This phase can feel radiant and productive. There is a natural reach toward the world. But, its deeper power isn’t doing more.
It’s being seen as you are.
But it’s also important to note, this vitality is built on what has come before.
The deep inner listening of menstruation (inner Winter). The slow emergence and creativity of the follicular phase (inner spring). Summer is not separate from those seasons, it is their flowering.
And Gentle Reminder: There is no single “right” way to experience your inner summer/ menstrual cycle.
Hormones influence the terrain, but your lived experience is what matters most. Some cycles will feel expansive and bright. Others quieter. Both are valid.
The invitation is not to force yourself into radiance, but to notice what naturally wants to bloom.
Summer Myth & Archetype
La Loba – The Wolf Woman
This is a shortened retelling of the story I first encountered in Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés.
It is a tale that has stayed with me. One that speaks to the quiet, instinctual work of gathering what has been lost, tending to the bones, and singing life back into what once ran wild.
There is an old woman who lives in hidden places. Places everyone knows but few have ever seen. She moves quietly through the mountains, deserts, and dry riverbeds, seeking what is lost. Her work is the collecting of bones. Her specialty, they say, is the bones of wolves.
When she has assembled a complete skeleton, she sits by her fire and listens for the song she must sing. Then she raises her arms and sings a song so deep, so alive, that the bones begin to flesh out. The wolf grows fur, stretches, breathes, and finally leaps up, running wild and free. Somewhere along the way, whether in a ray of sunlight or the splash of a river, the wolf transforms into a laughing woman, running toward the horizon, radiant and untamed.
The incredible artist above, and treasured friend, Carly Rose, is on substack via her publication SEALSKIN KINDRED
La Loba shows us that the work of gathering, preparing, tending, and caring for the bones of our soul, the perhaps forgotten or hidden parts of ourselves, leads to radiance, movement, and freedom. Like the wolf, a women’s inner summer is the time to sing our soul into existence, to step fully into our power, voice, and vitality. She is the Wise Wild Woman. The Soul Keeper and Animating Force, who takes the hidden, nurtures it, and brings it fully alive, embodying the freedom, creativity, and radiant vitality of inner summer.
Summer Professional Update
I’ve just sent out the first round of “nourished mothers, nourished world” Tees. I’ve been so delighted with the response on this creation and messege.
The tee is a quiet devotion to holding the mother. Always, but especially in the tender portal that is postpartum. A time when being truely held, seen, rested, and nourished is essential. From this care, the mother and families root more deeply, and healthy generations are shaped forward.
When we care for the mother, we care for the baby, the father or partner, and the whole family. When families are well, we contribute to a healthy and thriving society and a better world.
Click here to pre order for a June delivery.
Over the past year, I’ve felt a quiet but steady pull to bring my women’s work more fully into my profession as an occupational therapist.
What has lived in intimate sessions with women: supporting their cycles, tending to their bodies, and holding the reorganisation of identity through postpartum and transition, is now being expanded and formally integrated into my professional body of work.
I am developing the foundations of a depth-based professional development program for women OTs called:
The Occupational Landscape of a Woman
This work invites women occupational therapists to develop internal literacy: understanding how female biology, nervous system patterns, cyclical rhythms, identity transitions, and intuitive intelligence shape the way we function, relate, and practice.
It is structured, substantial learning.
Participants explore systemic shaping, menstrual cycle intelligence as an organising framework, rites of passage as processes of occupational reorganisation, inner parts and protective patterns, energetic boundaries, and embodied intuition within clinical reasoning.
The aim is not simply to reflect, but to deepen how occupation is interpreted and how care is delivered.
From this foundation, clinical reasoning becomes more nuanced, presence more regulated, and support for women more attuned and sustainable.
The inaugural cohort will begin in February 2027 and will be offered by application.
If you are an occupational therapist who senses that this lens is missing, and feel drawn to explore it more deeply, you are warmly invited to join the waitlist below to receive early details and application information.
Explore and Join the Waitlist Here
Summer Recipe
The most delightful Kale salad you ever did have.
This recipe is curtesy from my postpartum meal train from dearest Bailee. I kept a daily postpartum diary for the first 2 weeks and wrote this in it the day I received it.
We receive our first meal drop from Bailiee. Her partner drops it off as it’s day one of her bleed. Hearing this is medicine in itself and connects me to the honouring of sacred women times, bleeding, postpartum, menopause and how wonderful it is to have our men respect and support this for us. Bailiee’s fiancé, Nick greets the door open to a naked Soli and my partner with a towel around him. They just got back from fishing and had a shower. It’s a little mayhem and he says congratulations and asks how I am going from the door. Bless these men and noticing/ holding the mother. It’s spring but feels like summer and we recieve the biggest most beautiful kale, cranberry, sweet potato and feta salad and loco love chocolate. Bailiee said she massaged the kale lots to help with digestion. Wazzy says it’s the best salad he’s ever eaten.
Ingredients
• 1 large sweet potato, cut into small pieces
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt & Pepper
• 1–1½ cups nut of choice
• ¼ cup tahini
• 2–3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 small clove garlic, minced (optional)
• Salt, to taste
• Water, to thin dressing.
• 1 large bunch of kale, stems removed and chopped
• ¼ cup dried cranberries
• ½ cup crumbled feta
Method
Prepare the kale first
Place chopped kale in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and massage with your hands for 1–2 minutes until softened.
Leave to rest for at least 15 minutes. It can sit for a few hours at room temperature, or up to 24 hours in the fridge. Kale holds dressing well and won’t go soggy.
2. Roast the sweet potato
Preheat oven to 200°C. Toss sweet potato with olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread on a lined tray and roast for 25–30 minutes, until golden and tender. Allow to cool slightly.
3. Toast the nuts
Place nuts in a dry pan over medium heat. Toast for 5–7 minutes, stirring often, until fragrant. Remove from heat and cool.
4. Make the dressing
Whisk together tahini, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, garlic, and salt. Add water gradually until smooth and pourable.
5. Assemble
Add roasted sweet potato, toasted pecans, cranberries, and feta to the rested kale. Drizzle with dressing and toss gently to combine.
Summer Community Spotlight
This Summer, I’d love to shine a light on a fellow Occupational Therapist, Ashlee Novy, founder of OT in Bloom, and how grateful we are to have her work rooted locally here with us on Gubbi Gubbi Country, on the Sunshine Coast.
OT in Bloom is a specialist occupational therapy service supporting mothers and babies through the tender season of early parenting. With a focus on perinatal and infant mental health, Ashlee works under Mental Health Care Plans, NDIS and private referrals to support identity shifts, nervous system overwhelm, and the daily realities of life with a baby.
Her holistic, trauma-informed approach blends mental health support, practical regulation strategies, and pelvic and postnatal body care to address pain, restriction, incontinence, intimacy and daily functioning — gently supporting reconnection with self.
Grounded in evidence-based knowledge of infant neurodevelopment, crying and sleep, sessions honour both mother and baby together. Appointments are available in Pacific Paradise, via Telehealth or home visits. If you need an ear and a shoulder — she’s your gal. Visit her website or Instagram to learn more, or reach out anytime to connect.
I loved reading this! Summer is always a tricky season for me, but your reflections and stories reminded me of all the juicy stuff that happened too. So happy to hear that you've been enjoying a spacious and rich postpartum 🤎
Absolutely obsessed with the seasonal newsletter Lex. It has me reminiscing on my own postpartum (I am 9 weeks PP as I read this as you were writing). Thank you for sharing my art - I love the story of La Loba X