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;
• Furious that you ‘did all the right things’ and have still ‘ended up’ in this difficult position;
• Ready for a Plan B but either convinced that you’ll screw it up, or scared that you’ll never find a meaningful alternative to a life centred on motherhood.

£250 Earlybird (by 13th February) //  £295 full price after // Book with a £100 deposit
(Go to the bottom of the page to book)

This Reignite Weekend is led by Liane Preston, who has been trained personally by Jody Day, the founder of Gateway Women.

Meet Liane Preston

Liane is 45 and lives near Edinburgh, Scotland. Having worked in the corporate world for a long time, most latterly as a Director of Human Resources, she has over fifteen years of experience in developing people. She came to believe that most of us, at some point, could benefit from professional therapeutic support in dealing with life’s curveballs, so she retrained and has for the past five years combined running a private psychotherapeutic counselling practice with corporate consulting. Her childlessness is due to a combination of factors – being a (recovered!) workaholic, not meeting her husband until she was 40, some gynaecological issues and a dance with cancer. Happily, she now has the all clear and is excited about embracing a new phase of her life, which includes running the Reignite weekend and supporting other Gateway Women on their journeys towards their Plan Bs’. You can contact Liane directly at liane@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; 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.

More details and to book

• Times: 9.30am – 5pm

• Cost: £250 Earlybird (by 13th February), £295 full price after. Places bookable with £100 deposit (which also reserves the Earlybird price if applicable). All balances due on/before 13th March. Once you have reserved your place, Liane will be in touch to arrange your balance payment method – either PayPal or direct bank transfer. If you wish to contact Liane about payment methods please email them directly at liane@gateway-women.com 
  Go to the bottom of the page to book.

• Lunch & Breaks: Lunch will roughly 1-2pm both days and is not provided.  There is a cafe on site where you can get coffee when you arrive and/or lunch/snacks. We’ll also take a morning and afternoon break of 15 mins and water/coffee/tea will be provided.

• Where: House for An Art Lover, Bellahouston Park, 10 Dumbreck Rd, Glasgow, Scotland, G41 5BW. Tel:: + 44 (0)141 353 4770 https://www.houseforanartlover.co.uk/visit/travel-information

• Accommodation: You can find private rooms from £14-50 near the venue via AirBnB. There is a Premier Inn walking distance away with rooms around £81. Alternatively, you can find good value top quality hotels in central Glasgow such as Abode Glasgow, for approx £99 per night.

• How Many Women: In order to create an intimate and safe atmosphere, the workshop is restricted to 14 women only.

• Who is the Reignite Weekend for? Women of any age, 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 biological children, it’s for you.

• What is the cancellation policy? Your £100 deposit is non-refundable.  If you cancel prior to 13th 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.

• Any other questions please contact Liane at liane@gateway-women.com 

Some feedback from women who’ve done the Reignite Weekend with Liane:

Liane was superb as a facilitator. I found it well organised and paced. Sharing our stories was one of the most powerful experiences that I have ever had – it was like everything else stopped and it was just us, in that room – it was incredibly powerful emotionally but in a healing way. I felt that I was in a well facilitated, safe space to share thoughts, feelings and experiences and to start the groundwork for a plan B. I felt lighter afterwards. Exhausted but lighter. Freer. I met some amazing women who I hope to be in touch with for a long time (Karla, 50, UK).

I thought the weekend was wonderful and so was Liane. There were some very emotional points but I’ve come away feeling much lighter and overjoyed to have met my tribe (Caroline, 43, UK).

Attending the the Reignite Weekend was the best thing I could have done. I simply had not realised the depth of unprocessed, unacknowledged feeling I was carrying, until the weekend. I feel as if a kind of depression or weight, which I didn’t really know was there – has lifted. One of the key issues for me was my relationship with my mother and sister, who has children. Since the weekend I have been able to find my voice and share with them the reality of my experience. Their response has been amazing and I feel we are on the way to healing all our relationships. I have to say, I think Liane was phenomenal in her facilitation. I am a therapist and work with groups myself, so know the level of holding that can be required. This was an intense weekend – and I thought that Liane’s grounded, empathic presence and her holding and containing of what might have been overwhelming – was just great. I think the fact that she knows, and ‘gets’ it and has done her own work must be a part of this as well. The careful structure of the programme and the quality of her facilitation, allowed the group to reach the depth we needed to. I am so grateful to have have been able to have this space and time with other childless women. It felt profound, like discovering feminism – all over again! (Belinda, 52, Scotland).

I found the Reignite weekend a really valuable, welcoming, and challenging experience. I don’t know if I thought much about my expectations beforehand but it far exceeded anything I’d anticipated or hoped for. I liked the mix of personal, group, reactive and reflective activities. I can’t fault Liane’s facilitation – she was brilliant. It’s a tough balance to remain professional, diplomatic, empathetic and kind while keeping to schedule and attending to the individual and collective needs of twelve women, while managing all your own stuff too! I feel lucky to have had the experience with her (Jo, 47, UK).

Recently attend an amazing, life-changing weekend workshop in Edinburgh for women who don’t have children and have been struggling with that. It was the Reignite Weekend organised by Gateway Women and it was a real game-changer in terms of perception. We created a new phrase “non-parent” rather  than “childless” as the suffix ” -less” has so many negative connotations. And we learnt that acceptance can be a case of saying and feeling “I don’t like it, it’s not what I want, but I’m not going to fight it anymore”. This made me feel much lighter, as I’ve been fighting the idea, and living with the grief and loss, of not having children and being a mum for at least the last 15 years, and I can now feel the (heavy) weight of the energy it took to maintain. So, as I approach my 50th birthday next month, I’ve got a new outlook on life which is much more positive and open, and I’m willing to “let go” of all the child-orientated and childless-orientated things that have been holding me back. The weekend was in the company of 11 other women from all walks of life and ages, and we all bonded because of our situations. If anyone is, or knows someone who is, struggling with not having children, the Gateway Women Reignite weekend would be really helpful. Another helpful resource is Jody Day’s book – Living the Life Unexpected: 12 Weeks to Your Plan B for a Meaningful and Fulfilling Future without Children. I hope you can tell by what I’ve said that I really did find the weekend very inspirational. At first I thought it was going to be based on the book and that I wouldn’t get that much out of it as I’d read the book, but I was gladly mistaken as it not only brought the book to more life (if that was possible) but the engagement with new friends and sisters was physically and emotionally very empowering. So, I’m very glad I did the workshop in addition to reading the book. Liane was the perfect facilitator – wouldn’t change a thing. She was professional but warm, engaging but keeping us to time and focused when we needed to be drawn back on-topic, friendly and lovely and open and caring for those who were really struggling with their emotions. (Lana, 49, UK).

The Reignite weekend was great – a wonderful 50th birthday present to myself! The weekend was powerful and hearing everyone’s stories so moving. To realise that all these other women- and so many more still silent ones out there – were carrying the weight of all those emotions was very humbling. Liane ‘s facilitation was gentle and kind, supportive and safe. She shared enough of her story to show she was a part of us but retained enough distance to preserve herself and her role. All in all, though, it was great and the WhatsApp chat after has been good too. Thank you, Jody, for leading on this, and Liane for sharing it with us (Cat, 50, Scotland, UK).

Liane made everyone feel at ease immediately and facilitated the two days wonderfully, ensuring everyone was able to engage in their own way.  Liane’s own personal circumstances as a non parent made her delivery natural and authentic, meaning she was able to understand and empathise with us.  The weekend itself was mind blowing for me. I really didn’t know what to expect, but finding Reignite at the time I did, came at exactly the right time for me. To have found the support of 11 other ladies, from all walks of life, all with one common struggle, is something you cannot put a price on.  I loved every single bit of the weekend and have taken so much away – I think the biggest thing is this amazing support network I now have that I can tap into to say ‘hi’ or to say ‘help’. Reignite has allowed me to bring to the fore something I have chosen not to speak openly about before. Fertility treatment and childlessness is not a taboo subject and I am now speaking to people about it and how it has effected my husband and me – it is at the core of our relationship – and how can we expect people to understand what we are going through if we do not speak to our family and friends about it? I have a long way to go yet, however Reignite has reignited the fire in my belly to start living and not existing. Yes there’s going to be challenges and curve balls, but knowing I am not alone is the biggest thing I will take away from the weekend.  Thank you Jody – without you and Liane, I would not be where I am now (Kelly, 42, Scotland).

Everything about the Reignite Weekend was perfect! I felt perfectly at home & comfortable from the first moment. The size of the group was ideal; enough that it felt like a community but not too many that there was a problem being heard. As a result of the weekend we already have a fantastic WhatsApp group which is so uplifting & supportive & is a source of great strength for me & a living legacy of the Reignite Weekend which I will always carry with me. The course material/content & activities throughout the weekend were excellent: powerful, varied, perfectly challenging & nurturing. It was so evident how much time, effort & thought had gone into running the weekend & all by ladies who just “get it.” It was seamless & at no point was there a lull or low point but neither was the challenge too great. And now I come to the best thing about the course, my fellow Reignite ladies, especially Liane. I had met Liane previously at a Gateway Women Meetup & knew instantly that I wanted to attend a Reignite Weekend because of her. The very fact that she totally & entirely “gets it” through her own personal experience makes her facilitation so impactful. She skilfully, sensitively & subtly led us through the experience, allowing space & time for us to express all of our emotions yet kept things moving smoothly, keeping us on track. She is a wonderful advocate for the Reignite Weekends! Since attending I have recommended it to numerous women, urging them to take a leap of faith & attend one. It is without doubt one of the best things I have ever done in my life & I will always be grateful that I have experienced it (Nicola, 40, Scotland, UK).