Join us for this Queens around the World webinar, where we are discussing what the childless journey has been like, positive and negative, and even if there have been some personal gains. What has it been like?
DATE: Saturday 21st September
TIME: 7pm BST - See your timezone HERE
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Please note: Whilst the panellists will be recorded, your camera and audio will be turned off. If you are unable to attend the webinar live, you DO NOT need to register to watch the replay. Just subscribe to the World Childless Week YouTube channel and you’ll be notified when new recordings are added.
Story
Story is an important part of our lives. We all create stories from our experiences. Identities are a story, all cultural narratives and belief systems are a story, and all attitudes are a story. These various kinds of stories are our way of making meaning, and our feelings tell us a lot about whether the story is working or not.
Stories connect us with the world as it has been created and are how we learn about it. They do not tell us, though, about the world as it is becoming. They tell us what “reality” is, at least the reality that our social group or culture thinks it is. These stories are an important part of our connection with others and how we see ourselves. They can be constructive but too often fail us by not seeing or relating to us in a limited way. They can also be rejecting when life throws us a curveball and we do not fit the “story” we have been assigned, which, of course, happens for childless women.
Stories keep us connected, and that is a beautiful thing. Sometimes, though, we discover that the stories are not working. When you discover that you will be childless, the stories about life, what it is like, what it should be like, and what it could possibly be like are all put on the table. When the story does not work, we have to release it and discover a new one. No one knows that better than childless women.
The journey of childless women is not only a grieving process but also a journey to a new way of being. It is a journey to a new story, one that we create out of the ashes of a lost dream. Interestingly, childless women are making this journey while the human race is journeying to a new way of being as the old ways fall away.
No group is better prepared for the challenges of change than childless women. Our journey as childless women invites us to reground, change our perspective, and develop new skills. We have to release the old and find a new path for ourselves. It is a very challenging journey that helps us develop the skills of the emerging wise Queen.
Our purpose in our conversations about this Queen is to illuminate the ups and downs, the discoveries, and shifts that have helped us discover this new Queen energy in ourselves, invite her to the table, and help others do the same.
Stories can support us or keep us trapped in the past. In this webinar series, we explore how the childless journey challenges old stories and invites a new story for ourselves, others, and the times we live in as we discover the new emerging mature Queen in ourselves.
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Who is the Queen?
The Queen and our Queen conversations are about our becoming. It is not a stage of life, not an age. It is where we arrive after going through something; in fact, you have to go through something to activate the grounded, wise energy of the Queen. She has seen what is not true and discovered what is. She has questioned what matters and where she wants to put her energy. She is no longer just a role; she has become a person, and as a result, she has recovered her own agency and learned how to direct it wisely. She has learned to trust herself, her feelings, and her experience.
The purpose of these conversations is to explore this process of becoming, which is a current and ongoing journey for all of us. What is important is what you have noticed, experienced, and rethought and what you have changed for yourself. What is the inner change creating an outer change, and what does that mean for your life? We will be exploring using the theme of stories because we can reimagine our lives most easily that way.
Your Queens for this webinar are:
Maria Hill - US
I have worked in health care and the computer industry, and have an MBA. But when my life started falling apart, I took an opportunity to go to art school and then started Sensitive Evolution, an online platform for sensitive people, most of whom are childless, just like me.
I came to Gateway Women, now Lighthouse Women, about ten years ago, and enjoy supporting other childless women including our group for sensitive childless women. I have additionally trained in coaching, cultural and other frameworks, Reiki, and Theta healing.
My online work has become a transformative coaching practice teaching energy and cultural discernment skills to sensitive and/or childless women. I also participate in Jody Day’s Fireside chats as part of her Gateway Elderhood Project.
I believe women are being freed to come into their power in a way impossible in the past.
Stephanie Joy Phillips - UK
Stephanie spent a large part of her twenties in an abusive relationship and took the contraceptive pill to ensure children would not be born into that situation. In her early thirties she met her husband to be but they didn't try to conceive until nearing forty.
At the age of 39 she was told by an unsympathetic doctor "if he manages to get you pregnant it is highly unlikely you'll carry full term". She knew in that moment, she would never be a mum.
In 2016 Stephanie Joy Phillips founded three childless support groups on Facebook: Childless Path To Acceptance, Childless Chit Chat and Childless Perks!!
In 2017 after realising there was no national recognition of the childless community she founded World Childless Week.
Steph lives in Worcestershire with her husband and two rescue cats, Storm and Tea-Cup. She enjoys gardening, arts and crafts, a good book, dining out and relaxing in front of the television with a puzzle book and one of her two cats snuggled up beside her.
Catherine-Emmanuelle Delisle - Canada
At the age of fourteen, I was diagnosed with unexplained early menopause without having reached puberty. I learned I would never be able to have biological children. I also knew right away adopting was not the path for me: grieving was.
In 2012, I decided to be vocal about my experience as a single childless woman through my bilingual blog (French/English), Femme Sans Enfant. I am now a TRA, Therapist For Relationship Assistance ™ and World Childless Week Ambassador based in Montreal, Canada and I help childless women accept and embrace their lives through one-on-one therapy and workshops.
Judy Graham - Australia
Judy is an Australian therapist and advocate for childless women. She is a World Childless Week Ambassador, a Gateway Women Reignite Facilitator and Founder of WomenHood Counselling where she provides support for women who are childless not by choice.
Many factors led to her own childlessness - precious years finding her way as a young woman, not finding a suitable partner soon enough, recovering from relationship losses, endometriosis, infertility, and the finality of surgery at 42. Finding herself as a childless woman and facing those layers of grief has been the most difficult and revealing process of her life.
Navigating this unexpected path deepened her appreciation and curiosity about transitions, diversity and the uniqueness of our lives. Miraculously, when motherhood felt so big, and its loss so empty, she’s found healing from the smaller precious moments of connection and sharing and being present enough to witness to life’s unfolding.
Sandra McNicol - Spain
WCW25/25 People’s Champion
Sandra, the founder of Childless.Life, is an ICF Coach with a Master's in the Psychology of Coaching and a Postgraduate in Grief Therapy. Permanently childless, not by choice, Sandra has experienced the multi-layered losses of this journey.
She faced challenges in finding a life partner, freezing her eggs, multiple miscarriages, and failed IVF. The process of becoming permanently childless left her feeling lost, alone, and utterly empty.
Finding World Childless Week was a turning point, showing her she wasn't alone. Since 2020, Sandra has supported the childless community by offering individual grief therapy, running “Healing horseshoes” (CNBC grief circle), and helping women find new purpose through her "Embracing Us" Community. She offers safe, non-judgmental support from her own lived experience, empathizing deeply with this challenging journey.
Anna Lundin - Sweden
Anna is a member of the Swedish network for Permanently Childless Women. "Eight years ago, after several failed IVF treatments and egg donations, I faced the tough decision to stop trying to become a parent. As this decision also includes daring to radically accept all my thoughts, self-doubt and stormy emotions related, it is my ever bravest and most adult decision.
Today curiosity is my faithful guide in the ever ongoing exploration of how to create more space for what makes my heart sing, and increase the sense of belonging - to myself and in the world. Outdoor adventures, no matter how small, is one helpful way, authentic conversations another. Both makes a healthy sense of life ownership and freedom to choose how and who I want to be in the world sprout in me, even if I did not have the privilege of choosing a life as a mother.
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