Women’s health, said out loud
We’re a nurse led women’s health clinic and strength studio just off Wickwar high street, and we exist because far too many women have been told that leaking, pain, prolapse and exhaustion are just part of the deal. They might be common, but that doesn’t make them normal, and it certainly doesn’t mean you have to put up with them.
Why Holora?
Holora is made from two words, holos, the Greek for whole, and ora, meaning moments, and together they describe exactly what we do, which is look after the whole woman at the moments that matter. That might be pregnancy and the months after birth, recovering from surgery or cancer treatment, or the menopause arriving and rearranging everything, but it might just as easily be the day you realise you’ve developed a loo radar that would impress a sat nav and decide you’ve had enough.
Why the asterisk?
Our logo is an asterisk, and we chose it on purpose. It’s the symbol that gets dropped into a word when it’s considered too rude or too awkward to print, and for a very long time that’s exactly how women’s health has been treated. Vulva, vagina, periods, leaking, prolapse and menopause are words that still get bleeped, blurred, flagged by social media algorithms and swapped for euphemisms, as if the parts of the body they describe were something to be ashamed of rather than something to understand.
That silence has real consequences, because when we can’t name something we can’t ask about it, research it, fund it or treat it, which is exactly why so many women live with symptoms for years after being told, either out loud or by the silence around them, that this is just what happens to women. Our asterisk is our way of calling that out, and in our clinic you can use whatever words you like, the real ones very much included.
Its six petals also stand for the six pillars of our whole woman approach, so a symbol that has spent years standing for silence now stands for everything we think women deserve to talk about.
Pelvic health can no longer be ignored
Each petal of our asterisk represents one of the six pillars of our whole woman approach, with pelvic health sitting right in the middle, and the lines joining them are there because none of these things happen in isolation. Sleep affects strength, stress affects your bladder and hormones affect your mood, so we never look at one piece of you and ignore the rest.
Improving one pillar usually gives you a head start on the others, so wherever you start, the whole of you benefits.
Where it all started
I’m Emily, a registered nurse, continence nurse and strength coach, and I started Holora six years ago because I was tired of watching women’s health be underfunded, dismissed and squeezed into appointments far too short to get to the bottom of anything. Holora is my answer to that, a place where we take the time to listen, look at the whole woman and treat the things women have been told to just live with as things that are worth fixing.
The team behind you
Holora brings together nursing, women’s health physiotherapy, nutrition, counselling and strength coaching, working from our clinic and studio just off Wickwar high street as well as online. Because we work as a team, you tell your story once and we do the joined up thinking, which saves you repeating yourself to a string of professionals who never speak to each other. We’re also a certified Mummy MOT clinic, which means we can offer the thorough postnatal check that every woman deserves and very few are ever offered.
Emily Spillman
Director — Nurse & Strength Coach
Lydia Leighton
Dietitian & Nutrition Consultant
Katie Ferraby
Women's Health Physiotherapist
Rachael Barnes
Assistant & Administrator
Rachel Beesley
Counsellor
What to expect when you come to us
Our care is trauma informed, so feeling safe and in control comes first and you’ll always decide what happens and at what pace. We start by asking about the two things you most want to change and then track them as we go, so you can see your progress in black and white rather than just hoping things are getting better.
We also think good care shouldn’t depend on what’s in your bank account, so every workplace we work with helps fund free and low cost support for women in our community. Our strength membership includes concession places and a Fallow season you can use when life gets busy or money gets tight, because nobody should have to choose between looking after their health and getting through the month.
Come and see us
Whether you know exactly what you need or you’ve simply had enough of putting up with it, we’d love to meet you, and booking online only takes a couple of minutes.