Tanya Desfontaines

I am a mother and grandmother, living and working from my home in beautiful South Devon, UK. Of mixed Irish and Mauritian ancestry, I travelled extensively before settling with my family in Devon.

My career began in the late 1980s at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, where I lived and worked for four years alongside medical and nursing staff, gaining experience across many London teaching hospitals and access to the medical school library and anatomy labs. These formative years inspired a lifelong fascination with the human body and its mysteries. I went on to explore many traditions of holistic health while working as a physiotherapist in the NHS across a range of clinical disciplines, before retraining in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy at the Karuna Institute in 2007.

I studied extensively with Franklyn Sills and Katherine Ukleja, and later had the privilege of assisting, teaching and being mentored by these elders in the field of BCST. I co-ordinated and led the BCST foundation training at Karuna Dartmoor, culminating in the graduation of our final cohort in June 2020. My love of travel has taken me to teach across Europe, the USA and South America.

My personal journey—including motherhood, relocation to Devon, illness, bereavement and shamanic apprenticeship—has deeply informed my understanding of healing and embodiment. I love creating spaces of potential, weaving together heart-centred presence, mindful awareness and a deep appreciation of the Intelligent forces and processes of Life.

I maintain a small, vibrant clinical practice when I am not travelling, which—along with my three grandchildren—keeps me grounded and nourishes my heart. At this stage of my life, I am deeply grateful for my teachers and love to share what I have embodied through my journey so far. I continue to learn through collaboration and through the group fields we co-create. When I am not working, I enjoy reading, walking in nature and making things with clay.

Anita Lewis

I work from a small cabin by a river on Dartmoor. 

The placing of this space was a long-held dream of mine to practice within the holding and support of nature.

A regenerative space that fosters possibility.

My interest in health began over 35 years ago when I was studying for a BA Hons in adult nursing, later specialising in palliative care for people with HIV and cancer.

I then went on to train in yoga therapy, cranial sacral therapy and, more recently, Integrative Baby Therapy with Conscious Embodiment Training. 

My work is informed by my studies of embodied practices and somatic movement explorations including dance, continuum movement, sounding and singing.

I offer a relational approach that supports sensitive and compassionate engagement with our embodied and dis-embodied experiences.  

Having worked and trained for several years in a residential centre for people living with the legacy of complex trauma injury, I have a deep understanding of working alongside people experiencing the effects of survival responses and continuous traumatic stress.

I have a special interest in pre and peri-natal experience, working with babies, small children and adults exploring how our birth and prenatal life imprints and shapes us.

I currently work in-person with cranial sacral therapy and integrative baby therapy and online, offering somatic movement sessions and embodied awareness with individuals and groups. I have over 20 years of experience facilitating workshops and residential retreats.

When I’m not working, I love swimming, walking and foraging, making textiles and reading.