Sarah - Not Your Typical Physio
For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in the human body and movement. As a youngster I was known for constantly being upside down in a handstand & exploring movement.
I undertook a Bsc Physiotherapy in UCD. After my undergraduate degree I gathered qualifications in personal training, mat and reformer pilates and undertook a year of learning in India studying with several different lineages of yoga. I have qualifications from sivananda yoga (hatha), Rolf Naujokat (Ashtanga), Sarah Powers (Yin), Uma-Dinsmore Tuli (Pregnancy/Nidra), Tami-Lynn Kent (Holistic Pelvic Care),
Jeanie Jyanti (Restorative), DMA Clinical Pilates, Polestar Pilates, APPI, British Medical Acupuncture Society to name a few.
My career has been varied and unconventional (a bit like myself!). I started in the Mater Hospital in Dublin (it took me a long time to understand why hospitals were a sensory nightmare for me). Quite quickly, I switched to working in private practice and sport both at home and abroad and ran my own clinical practice in my 20s, Delta Clinical Pilates. I worked in camps with the IRFU national men’s rugby team over 2 consecutive seasons (RWC2015 and 2015/16 six nations) as well as with other professional sports athletes and professional teams while also undertaking my Masters in Sports Physio in UCD part-time. This was my ‘energetic’ 20s - and I gave it my all!
In 2015 I travelled to the Palestinian Territories where several other volunteers and myself organised a one month yoga teacher training for female healthcare workers in refugee camps in Bethlehem. It was this experience aswell as my repeated visits to India that inspired a drastic career change. I left working in professional sport after one last stint working on tour with Cirque du Soleil in Australia where I finally acknowledged that pushing myself this hard was not sustainable or healthy for me.
I returned to working for the HSE in primary care, first in Dublin and then Cork, from 2018-2024. Quite a change. I worked part-time for the first time in my life and during this time I had my two daughters. Reflecting on my ‘efforting’ 20s and having my kids completely shifted my perspective, priorities & learning focus. I still focused on understanding the human body but moved away from high performance and towards highly sensitive bodies, Neurodivergence & Women’s health. I became fascinated with understanding how living in a 'finely-tuned' body means how we experience our bodies, our hormones and the world is vastly different. And to be well and healthy it is crucial that we understand how to care for our sensitive bodies.
So throughout my 30s I became very focused on distilling all I had learned and looking at bodies through a lens of 'high sensitivity' and/or neurodivergence and what it means to inhabit a female body. My own and my kids bodies became my perfect learning ground. By my mid 30s a lot was becoming very clear. I was identified as an autistic woman and to have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hypermobility), fibromyalgia and dysautonomia and to have entered perimenopause by 37. (*Just to note, I self-identified as autistic for several years before seeking out a professional identification. This is not necessary nor is it a luxury everyone affords. Self-identification is absolutely valid.)
I have changed my lifestyle, work and perspective radically since my 20s. I practice what I preach as it is the only way I can stay healthy & well. These days for the most part I am pain & anxiety free and I know what I need to do daily to calibrate my sensitive body & senses.
Those who are dyspraxic or hypermobile or suffering with chronic pain, migraines, burnout, sensory dysregulation, anxiety, brain fog, hormonal disruption (pmdd/endometriosis), eds, (and more) I get it, I've been there, I am you.
I am also passionate about supporting parents of highly sensitive and/or neurodivergent kids. I walk the path myself. I have also navigated the public healthcare system both from the inside as a healthcare worker and as a parent stuck on long waiting lists trying desperately to get my kids services. I see you. I believe wholeheartedly that the best place to start is with regulating yourself and getting your own body back to 'feeling safe' first before you throw the kitchen sink of interventions at your child.
So Moss & Sand Studio has been born of this lifework, passion and midlife manifesto. I want to create a safe place for people to feel understood, valued and validated. It is a place to explore your body and be really greedy about that. Come and take up space. Be seen as exactly who you are. And know you are so welcome. It is a space that all are welcome. You do not need to be neurodivergent or highly sensitive or a woman to join us. What is good for us is good for ALL bodies.