For May, wellness is not simply about treatment. It is about lived experience, understanding, and helping women realise they are not alone when their body, confidence and identity start to feel unfamiliar.
There is something very powerful about speaking to a practitioner who has not only studied her field, but has walked through her own version of the very thing she now helps other women with.
That is what makes May’s work at Calma Healing Space feel so grounded. She is not trying to shout the loudest in the wellness space. She is not building a business around buzzwords or quick fixes. She is building it from a place of lived experience, professional skill and a genuine mission to help women come back to themselves.
Her route into holistic therapy started early. May trained in holistic therapies at college, but, like many women, she did not feel ready at that point to step straight into self-employment or build a business of her own.
“I just felt like I was too young to start a business,” she says. “So I did the usual thing and went into employment, but I kept up my skills at the weekends.”
That employment path took her into a very different world. After university, May spent years working with teenagers with disabilities, helping them build independence and confidence, particularly around public transport and day-to-day life skills.
It may sound far removed from the clinic room, but May now sees how much of that chapter shaped the practitioner she is today. She learned to network, to communicate, to work alongside other professionals, to lead workshops and, perhaps most importantly, to understand people as individuals.
Much of her work during that time was with young people with autism and ADHD. It was long before neurodivergence became the widely discussed topic it is now, and through that work, May began to recognise traits in herself too.
“I was just the weird kid,” she says, with complete honesty. “People actually called me weird. But I quite liked my weird.”
It is a line that says so much about May. She is self-aware, quietly funny and refreshingly real. She understands what it is to feel different, to process the world differently, and to have a mind that can feel like it has multiple tabs open at once. In business, that brings creativity, ideas and excitement. It can also bring overwhelm.
In 2024, a series of events pushed May to finally set up on her own. She had reached a point where she was tired of working under someone else’s business and being told how she should operate, what she should charge and how she should show up.
“I knew my worth,” she says. “I just thought, that’s it. I’m walking out. I’m going to set up on my own and do it my own way.”
It was a brave move, but it came at a time when life was already heavy. Like so many women, May was carrying more than people could see. Family loss, the aftershocks of the pandemic, pressure, grief, business stress and the emotional weight of trying to keep going all collided.
At the same time, she was moving through perimenopause.
“It was like a volcanic eruption,” she says. “I had all the symptoms and I just felt so alone.”
For May, there was no option to step back quietly, pause her career or take the pressure off. She was building a business, and the choice felt stark: crash and disappear, or keep pushing forward while dealing with the emotional overwhelm in the background.
She describes that time as one of the darkest places she has been. It is not something she has shared widely before, because she is naturally private. But now, she feels ready.
“I went through that journey for a reason,” she says. “It has made me the practitioner I am today.”
That is the heart of her work now. May understands what it is like when a woman looks in the mirror and does not quite recognise herself anymore. When she does not dress like herself. When confidence disappears. When anxiety creeps in. When professional women, capable women, women who have held everything together for years, suddenly feel as though the person they knew has gone.
“That loss of identity is something women don’t always talk about,” she says. “You look in the mirror and think, yes, that’s my face, but I don’t look like me anymore.”
Through Calma Healing Space, based in Cheadle, Stockport, May now focuses on supporting women experiencing hormonal dysregulation. She uses that language deliberately. While perimenopause is a huge part of the conversation, she knows many women do not yet connect with the word menopause, or they push it away because it feels loaded, ageing or negative.
Instead, May talks about what women are actually experiencing: burnout, overwhelm, anxiety, pain, inflammation, poor sleep, loss of confidence, emotional dysregulation, and that awful feeling of not being themselves.
Her clients are often women who have already tried a lot before they reach her. They may have spoken to GPs, specialists or other practitioners. They may have bought supplements recommended online, followed influencer advice, or spent money on products without really knowing whether they are right for their body or their symptoms.
May is careful not to promise a magic wand. In fact, her approach is very much about partnership.
“I say to people it is 70% you and 30% my clinic,” she explains. “The treatment is there to give the body a nudge, but for it to work, you have to take things on board too.”
That honesty is important. May no longer focuses on one-off treatments as her main offer, because in her experience, the women who come to her are often dealing with symptoms that have become chronic or layered. One session may offer relief, but it is rarely the full answer.
Her packages are multi-layered, designed to work across the physical body, the nervous system and the deeper emotional impact of stress and hormonal imbalance.
Treatments can include fire cupping, which many people associate with sports massage or physical pain relief. May explains that while it works on a muscular level, it can also support deeper layers of the body through acupressure points on the back, fascia and the nervous system.
She also uses deep medical abdominal massage, working directly with the body at a point where so much stress is often held. For women who have lived in fight-or-flight for too long, May sees how the body can become tight, inflamed and unable to process or release properly.
Facial acupuncture and facial lifting massage also form part of her work. While some may see these as beauty treatments, May views the face as a powerful access point to the nervous system. It is where emotion often shows first, and because it sits so close to the brain, treatment there can help the body shift into a calmer state more quickly.
She also uses LED and infrared therapy, again not simply as a beauty tool, but as part of a wider approach to nervous system support and relaxation.
Another part of May’s toolkit is ear seeds, which have become increasingly popular, but which she believes should be placed properly by someone trained. She describes them as a kind of remote control for the body, offering a point of access for pain relief, hormonal support and nervous system regulation after the client leaves the clinic.
What matters most to May is that her clients feel a noticeable difference as early as possible. Not because she believes everything can be fixed instantly, but because women who have felt lost, exhausted or dismissed need hope. They need to feel that change is possible.
May offers an initial Discovery Clarity call to make sure the fit is right and that expectations are clear. At the moment, her treatment work is in person at her clinic in Cheadle, although she can see how a virtual hormonal optimisation consultancy service- remote support, home protocols, supplement advice, nutritional principles and a tailored prescription for her body may become part of her future offering.
What is clear is that May’s work is not just about easing symptoms. It is about helping women reclaim prime years of their lives.
She talks about clients who are successful, intelligent, professional women, including those who have had to step down, retreat from visibility or reduce their career ambitions because their symptoms became too much. Women who once walked into meetings with confidence can suddenly find themselves anxious, overwhelmed and unsure of their own voice.
That is what May wants to change.
“My mission is to help women realise they are not alone,” she says. “When they lose their identity, it is not lost forever. There is nothing scarier than thinking the person you knew yesterday has gone. I want women to know they can come back. I have done it, and I can help them come back too.”
There is a quiet strength in the way May speaks. She is not trying to be the loudest voice in the room. She is not interested in sparkle for the sake of it, or the kind of wellness marketing that can make women feel inadequate if they are not doing everything perfectly.
Instead, she is stepping into her own power in a way that feels steady, authentic and deeply needed.
Her final words are the ones that stay with you.
“These aren’t just health years she is losing,” May says. “They are prime years. Once lost, they cannot be recovered.”
And that is exactly why this work matters. Because women should not have to disappear from their own lives. They should not have to step back from careers they have worked so hard for, or accept feeling unlike themselves as an inevitable part of ageing, stress or hormones.
With Calma Healing Space, May is creating a space for women to be heard, understood and supported by someone who truly knows what it feels like to find your way back.
About Calma Healing Space
Calma Healing Space is based in Cheadle, Stockport, and supports women experiencing hormonal dysregulation, stress, burnout, perimenopausal symptoms and the emotional impact of not feeling like themselves. May offers an initial Discovery Clarity call before inviting clients into the clinic for in-person treatment packages. Her approach blends holistic therapies, bodywork and nervous system support, with a focus on helping women feel a noticeable shift and a renewed sense of hope.
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