Meet Susanna Edwards, a former university programme leader, created The School of Creative Wellness at the end of 2022 after experiencing poor mental wellbeing after caring for her father through a long period of ill health and finding that her life lacked balance and joy. After re-training as a yoga teacher and rekindling her love of letterpress, Susanna has created ‘Back to You’ and ‘Breathe then Reach’ programmes to help women to find clarity, balance and joy; providing self-care practices & wellbeing services.
During her time on the Accelerating Women’s Enterprise (AWE) programme, Susanna initially explored and defined the concept behind her business in a group setting that was kind and collaborative. “The format of the workshops were dynamic and interactive with an amazing team going above and beyond to nurture, educate and enable us to pursue our passions with realism and care.” says Susanna.
In a nutshell:
● Founder: Susanna Edwards
● Organisation Name: The School of Creative Wellness quest is to help women reset and manage their lives with self-care, whilst facing transformational challenges in their busy lives.
● SSE programme: Accelerating Women’s Enterprise Hampshire – Sofa Sessions and Nuts & Bolts workshops
● SSE location: Hampshire
“The School for Creative Wellness’ quest is to help women reset and manage their lives with self-care, whilst facing transformational challenges in their busy lives. We work collaboratively with businesses and individuals to open conversations about wellbeing and menopause in the workplace and provide wellness practices.”
About the Programme.
Susanna attended the Accelerating Women’s Enterprise Sofa Session workshops in 2022, which helped her explore her vision and purpose to develop her business idea in a supportive group of like-minded women. Susanna has progressed to the Nuts & Bolts workshop sessions, which teach practical skills on how to run a business and how her work can achieve positive change. Since the beginning of the course, she has left employment and launched her business and the nuts and bolts is really keeping her on track in every aspect of delivery.
One of the most useful aspects of the course according to Susanna were the in person dynamic workshops which fostered collaborative working and sharing, the volume of support and resources and the community and networks built. The Project lead Jen has a theatre background and her approach enabled us to work in a highly engaging, inspiring and productive way. There is so much content, and it was delivered with care, innovation, and aplomb. The guest speakers were so well curated and left me feeling inspired and full of ideas to implement. The learning environment was vibrant, and I could really open up in a safe caring space about my ideas, my feelings and felt so much support. I loved contributing and listening and sharing in person and the VLE introduced in the nuts and bolts gives me time to digest and continue learning and interacting outside of the in-person sessions. The Motivational maps uncovered deep behavioural and attitude insights that were revelationary and tied them to how to operate understanding my strengths and vulnerabilities to work in the best way possible.
Top tip for entrepreneurs:
Be you. Make friends and connections by being you. Pace Yourself. Get good sleep eat well. Embrace your strengths and know your weaknesses. Be realistic. Keep it simple. Survey your landscape, get informed. Do what feels good. Trust your instinct. Value yourself. Anything is possible. Be prepared for ups and downs. Get a mentor/ people you can talk through things with. Define your boundaries and set them with clarity. Check in with yourself. Be kind to yourself as you would a friend.
To find out more about Susanna and The School of Creative Wellness, visit her website via this link or follow her on Instagram @schoolofcreativewellnessltd
Accelerating Women’s Enterprise (AWE) is a collaborative project to help women living either side of the English Channel to increase their skills and develop their business ideas and knowledge.
If you’re an experienced social entrepreneur, we’re now recruiting to our Accelerator Weekend programme, which focusses on how to increase impact or grown your business. If you’d like to be considered for the Accelerator, please express your interest by completing our enquiry form via this link. We’ll get back to you with info and updates as soon as they’re released.
