This event has been cancelled due to Coronavirus.

There is life after childlessness, despite what the media, your friends, your mother and your inner bitch would have you believe! A meaningful and fulfilling life that makes sense to you because you custom-made it for yourself.

This Gateway Women Reignite Weekend is for you if you’re:

• A woman who wanted to have children but it didn’t work out for any reason: infertility; didn’t meet a willing or suitable partner; your partner didn’t want (more) children; a chronic illness; a badly timed breakup, etc, etc. There are so many ways this can happen;
• Struggling with relationships with friends and family as ‘the odd one out’ and really missing having a supportive group of women friends to journey through life with;
• Wondering where your mojo went and where the hell to start looking for it!;
• Lonely and confused about your place in society when all you can see around you are mothers and families;
• Knowing that you need to make some changes to your life but feeling too tired, sad & uninspired to know what to try next;
• Worried about growing old without children and grandchildren;
• Furious that you ‘Did all the right things’ and have still ‘ended up’ in this difficult position;
• Ready for a Plan B (C, D or Z!) but are either convinced that you’ll screw it up, or scared that you’ll never find a meaningful alternative to a life centred on motherhood.

£295 Earlybird (by 25th March) //  £350 full price after // Book with a £100 deposit
[This event has been cancelled due to coronvirus]

This Reignite Weekend is led by Lauren De Vere and Debbie Norman, who have both been trained personally by Jody Day, the founder of Gateway Women.

LAUREN DE VERE is a licensed Gateway Women workshop facilitator (GWS) and lives with her cat, Mr Marvo, in Greater London. A solicitor by training, Lauren has undertaken in-depth personal development to heal the wounds of a difficult childhood, including attending and then facilitating The Essence Process. She first came across Gateway Women several years ago via Google, desperate to understand whether her struggle to recover from involuntary childlessness and a failed adoption process was unique to her and/or if she was going crazy. She’s been active both at a local level with GW Meetups in Chorleywood, as well as attending Gateway Women’s 2017 year long Plan B Mentorship Programme. Lauren has a special interest in supporting those childless women for whom a challenging childhood has been a contributing factor in their childlessness. You can contact Lauren by email:lauren@gateway-women.com

DEBBIE NORMAN is 50 and lives in Rugby Warwickshire with her second husband and two cats. Childless herself due to spending most of her fertile years recovering from the traumatic domestic abuse of her first marriage, Debbie found Gateway Women after reading about Jody’s work in a women’s magazine in June 2014. Wasting no time, she attended her first workshop with Jody shortly thereafter and continued her healing by attending private sessions with Jody. Since then, Debbie has studied to deepen her practice of self-compassion and has also taken part in the ‘Online Bee’ a year-long mentorship programme run by Jody and in 2017 was invited by Jody to be one of the first women to train to lead the Reignite Weekend. Debbie has been an active and passionate member of the Gateway Women community both on and offline, organising and attending local GW Meetups whilst continuing her path personal healing and growth. A hospital healthcare practitioner, Debbie sees the opportunity to lead others through the Reignite Weekend as a way to share with others the healing that childless women can offer each other as we support each other with kindness and compassion to heal our lives and create new futures.  You can contact Debbie directly on debbie@gateway-women.com

Over the course of this Reignite Weekend you will:

• Unpick the assumptions that the culture has about motherhood (and non-motherhood) and let go of what doesn’t ‘fit’ you;
• Look at where you are holding onto unhelpful ideas and shame about the life choices you’ve made (and the non-choices too) which have led you to ‘ending up’ without the family you hoped for;
• Explore and express unresolved grief about your childlessness – a grief which our culture neither acknowledges, understands nor allows (and consequently, neither do we, sometimes);
• Reexamine the dreams and goals you had for your life before you became convinced that having a baby was the only thing that mattered;
• Reignite your passion for your life and start thinking what your ‘Plan B’ might be for a meaningful and fulfilling life without children;
• Meet your new tribe – the wonderful, powerful, wise and funny Nomos (not-mothers). There are more of us than you realise and we’re not the bunch of ‘weeping weirdoes’ you might fear! In fact, we’re a pretty amazing and courageous bunch of women.

This event has been cancelled due to coronavirus.

• Dates: Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th April 2020
• Times: 9.30am – 5pm
• Cost: £295 Earlybird (by 25th March), £350 full price after. Places bookable with £100 deposit (which also reserves the Earlybird price). All balances are due on/before 25th March. Once you have reserved your place, Lauren will be in touch to arrange your balance payment method – either PayPal or direct bank transfer. If you wish to contact Lauren about payment methods please email her directly at lauren@gateway-women.com
  
• Lunch & Breaks: Lunch will roughly 1-2 pm both days and is not provided but there are plenty of places nearby and you can also take a refreshing walk in Regents Park which is right outside the venue. We’ll also take a morning and afternoon break of 15 mins.
• Where: One Park Crescent, 229 Great Portland Street Marylebone, London W1W 5PN (30 seconds from Great Portland Street tube station). Please note the correct postcode to use to find the front door is W1W 5PN not the one on the website. Click here for a map. When you get to the venue the correct door to use is opposite Pret a Manger and Great Portland Street Tube Station, to the right of “Pizza Express.” It looks like the photo shown here and says “International Students House” above it. The entrance on the Park Crescent-side of the building is closed at weekends.
• Accommodation: The cheapest option is a simple student room at International Students House, which you will be allowed to book as you are attending an event at the “One Park Crescent” Conference Centre which is in the same building. Make sure to ask for a room as far away from the student bar as possible! Contact the conference team here and tell them you attending a Gateway Women weekend. Slightly more expensive, but still very reasonably priced for central London is the Quaker-run B&B The Penn Club, about 15-mins walk away. If you don’t mind a 5-stop London Underground Tube journey to the workshop, the London Central City Road Travelodge (which is based in the ‘City’ Financial District) has very reasonably-priced rooms (around £50) at the weekend. This is when the area is very quiet but ask for an upper floor room facing the Inner Courtyard for maximum quietness. You can also find very affordable and central rooms to stay in on AirBnB
• How Many Women: In order to create an intimate and safe atmosphere, the workshop is restricted to 16 women only.
• Who is the Reignite Weekend for? Women of any age or sexuality, partnered or solo, who wanted to have children and for some reason, it didn’t work out. If you’re keen to move forward and create a meaningful and fulfilling life without children, it’s for you. If you are childfree by choice or still hopeful of creating a biological or adoptive family, this won’t be a good fit for you. Childless stepmothers welcome. If you’re not sure if it’s right for you, we’d be happy to discuss that with you before you book – just contact one of the facilitators above by email and/or they’d be happy to arrange a time for a quick chat on the phone.

• What is the cancellation policy? Your £100 deposit is non-refundable.  If you cancel prior to 25th March you may request a refund of any payments made (minus your deposit).  After that date, we can only refund your payments (minus your deposit) if we can resell your spot. THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO CORONAVIRUS

• Any other questions please contact Lauren or Debbie at lauren@gateway-women.com or debbie@gateway-women.com

Some feedback from women who’ve taken part in previous Reignite Weekends:

It was a stimulating weekend. Lauren and Gen were welcoming, empathic & ran the event with care – they are great role models too. I have taken away many positive vibes and ideas (Caroline, 60, UK).

Anyway, I did want to say a massive thank you to the really great facilitators for the workshop – I got a lot out of it (realizing this more as time goes on and I reflect back). I was in touch with Lauren before the weekend and she really did provide loads of much needed reassurance about attending the weekend, which helped to ensure I went and didn’t back out at the last minute! It was really powerful hearing everyone’s’ journey and finally realising that I wasn’t alone in the way I felt about being childless. The first day was really emotional, although I recognise needed to be done in order to let things out, address buried thoughts and understand about the whole grief thing which was very enlightening. I found the second day much more refreshing and helped provide some positivity to work on – I had hoped for a magic solution, but the workshop made me realise it’s just small changes in mindset that can make the biggest difference. We’ve since had 2 Meetups which I’ve found quite liberating really and hopefully can work on establishing some new friendships (Susan, 45, UK).

It was such a supportive and brilliant course – so great to meet and share time with other Gateway Women, and it allowed me to challenge myself and see my way forward to my Plan B (Tilly, 48, UK).

I was very daunted (as I’m sure everyone is) about the workshop itself, but adding in the money and the distance it was definitely taking a chance and a risk for me, and it more than paid off. The facilitators were so lovely and welcoming and really helped to create what felt like a very safe, warm and loving environment. They gave us the time we needed to speak and really be heard and responded with such empathy. Being childless is something most of us can’t speak to our nearest and dearest about because nobody “gets it” so it was very refreshing to be in a room where everybody was in the same boat (albeit different circumstances). It was the first time I had ever been amongst a group of women where I didn’t feel alien-like or inferior. I even told the ladies how surreal it was to be there in a room with them knowing we all have this factor of our lives in common (Nicola, 34, Australia).

I can’t describe the massively positive effect finding GW and attending a Reignite Weekend has had on my outlook, my life, my relationships, my ability to smile at babies and their mums again! (Kate, 43, UK)

I really only had emotional room for the therapeutic side of the workshop and, for me, this was largely about the group discussion which took place, which was as powerful as I’d hoped.  However, I was also surprised to find myself feeling more comfortable than previously (through the day 2 exercises) about the thought of embarking on a possible plan B mainly through the new understanding that this is actually largely about internal shift; my previous efforts have all focused on external change and have felt forced and I now understand why (Katie, 51, UK).

After getting to a very low point I thought I’d try the workshop. It was a great weekend. Just having the chance to think and explore my feelings with likeminded people was so helpful (Leila, 39, UK).

The weekend was a moving, enlightening and powerful experience. I was so moved by the stories of all the other women. There was lots of crying and lots of laughing too. I feel an amazing (almost miraculous) connection with them which is alive and well on our post-workshop WhatsApp group… The weekend has helped me to embrace my grief in a way which I hadn’t allowed myself to before, and has given me lots of strategies to work through it. The weekend has also released a massive creative block which I didn’t even realise was there. Writing and drawing about my experiences seem to already be part of my ‘Plan B’. I am also thinking a lot about self-care and putting it into practice as much as possible – not a habit that I have been very good at previously. The facilitators were wonderful – they structured the days very skilfully and listened beautifully to everyone – holding everyone’s stories, emotions and reactions in such a supportive way. Being part of this sisterhood feels amazing. Thank you. (Carla, 42, UK)

The course was excellent; well structured, clear and relevant and which helped me to understand the trauma I’ve been struggling though after finding out that we can’t have children. I met some amazing women on the course whose stories of facing difficulties with so much dignity and courage will stay with me. Thank you for giving me hope (Janet, 47, UK).

I wanted to let you know that I thought both the faciliators were absolutely fantastic – I honestly couldn’t have wished for better for the weekend. Both had exactly the right balance of empathy, listening skills and (importantly for me) humour. They made us all feel very safe and able to share as much or as little of our stories as we felt comfortable sharing and they created a very open, warm environment for us to operate in (Sabina, 46, UK).

I attended the Reignite Weekend and I wholeheartedly recommend it. If you are feeling unsure about whether to go, I would say definitely do it. You will be in safe hands and in a very safe environment, sharing with other Gateway Women really helps and the exercises really get you thinking – in a good way (Laura, 42, UK).

I had ideas about what my plan B was, but thought they weren’t worthy enough. The weekend has made me realise that there’s nothing wrong with my plans. As one of the faciliators said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with living an ordinary life’ and that’s the one thing that’s stuck with me – but both faciliators were amazing. Thanks to the weekend I’ve now got some great women I know I can talk to now and who will understand. I hope the Reignite Weekend will continue to help women all over the world for many years to come (Lisa, 39, UK).

I have been stuck in grief for a long time that hasn’t been shifting. [The weekend] helped me to understand exactly what I was feeling and why. Home now – I feel lighter, more positive and more gentle inside than I have felt for ages (Becky, 52, UK).

The weekend was supported and held with love. The faciliators guided with care and gentleness and the activities flowed seamlessly and easily allowing each of us to find our way into acceptance, grief and moving on. Nothing was forced, unnecessary or rushed. It was surreal being in a room full of women who had very different stories but had the same thing in common. For this I am truly thankful to have experienced as it was so empowering to feel that I am not alone anymore. I am excited at the prospect of this group flourishing into long lasting friendships and it’s made me feel great that I’ve suddenly acquired a new set of friends after just 2 days! (Anna, 48, UK).

It was amazing to realise I wasn’t alone, other women shared the pain, anguish, fear that I did, each with their unique story and each wanting their life to move on, but not sure how or where.  I took the plunge and signed up for the workshop not knowing what to expect, or if it “was my sort of thing” – and it was the best thing I could have done. (Kristian, 42)

I attended this weekend with some ‘butterflies’ but it’s ended up being one of the best things I could have done. I’m more equipped than before I attended the event for moving on and getting to grips with my plan B. Best thing though was meeting the other Gateway Women and seeing I’m not alone… (Faye, 41)