Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer of Red School, whose pioneering work in Menstrual Cycle Awareness opened the first doorway and continues to expand my sense of menstrual cycle potential.

 

Dr Lara Owen, whose scholarship in Contemporary Menstrual Studies has deepened the intellectual and cultural roots of my understanding.

Jane Hardwicke Collings, who has illuminated the spiritual dimensions of menstruation with clarity and integrity.

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Vanessa Tiegs, mentor and visionary menstrual-blood artist, whose creative practice has broadened my sense of menstrual expression.

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The Menstrual Cycle Support Advisory Board, whose interdisciplinary guidance — spanning clinical practice, research, technology and organisational leadership — has strengthened the rigour of this work.

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Justin Francis OBE, UK Government Advisor on Nature — whose mentorship shaped my understanding of whole-system responsibility.

To all the menstrualists who have come before me, and to every person who has shared their menstrual story in interviews, workshops, circles and one-to-ones — thank you.

 

Your courage is the ground on which this work stands.

I have been able to learn from my menstrual cycle,  follow its rhythm and address menstrual stigma thanks to the  support of those around me. Thank you to:

 

Mandy Adams (1970–2021), Red School graduate,  who first placed the practice of menstrual cycle awareness in my hands during the hardest years of PMDD. 

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The Red School alumni, the Earth Women Rising network, fellow students and graduates of Contemporary Menstrual Studies - Your presence and openness to collaboration has reminded me that this work is, thankfully, never walked alone. ​​

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Trudi Holden - dear friend, colleague  and  local medicine woman, who has been there to support me with her shamanic healing practices when I plunge into the shadows.

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To my family: my three daughters and my partner: the compassion and peace activist, poet, theologian and Buddhist of the Karma Kagyu lineage, Simon Cohen. 

As a Welsh woman living in Cornwall, I recognise the imprint of a cyclical worldview — a reverence for natural rhythms, the turning of the seasons, and the interconnectedness of all life.​

 

The Celtic Wheel of the Year has been a quiet and steady teacher in my work in menstrual education — a framework through which I understand cyclical time, renewal and return.  I celebrate the ways its rhythms meet and resonate with other wheels, other cosmologies, and other systems of knowing.

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I acknowledge the influence of Indigenous ways of being, which have emphasised the significance of relationality, reciprocity and deep listening to land, body and community.

 

I offer respect to the many cultural traditions and lineages whose teachings intersect with, and enrich, our collective understanding of the menstrual cycle experience.

 

. I remain committed to intercultural dialogue grounded in humility, care and ethical engagement

May I continue these lineages with the compassion, steadiness and kindness that I have received, and which have transformed my relationship with the menstrual cycle.

May I meet menstrual injustice with the strength drawn from my lineage and our community.