What is your name & location?
I’m Dionne and i’m based between Brighton, UK and Bergen, Norway. And the internet.
How do you heal (or help heal) people?
I'm a creative coach, yoga, movement and meditation teacher, dj, writer, self care ambassador and above all, human being (exploring “being”).
I run community events, retreats and experiences in the UK, Norway and beyond (thank you, internet!) as well as working one-to one with my creative coaching clients all over the world.
Life is a bit of a mixup. I like to embrace that.
Polymaths unite!
I share yoga classes (online and irl), workshops, weekly love letters, radio shows, retreats, recipes, podcasts and creative coaching experiences with people. I love sharing combos of these things in ways that are REAL and FUN with GOOD people. Real people. Who are also curious and interested in ways to make life better, more inspired, more abundant, more in-flow and more spacious. In whatever ways that work for them.
What type of benefits does your method of healing provide?
Spacemaking on various levels: I help people get clearer, more focussed and inspired, and empower them to explore and make their goals real in their own way, carving out their own space to share their unique gifts and personality and make great things happen. I support people to recognise their value, to tune into the stuff that resonates, release blocks and encourage them to create their own path that doesn’t need to look like anyone else's.
I hold space for them on their journey, keep them accountable, share guidance and personal insights as well as self care offerings that they can implement and adapt into their own lives in a purposeful, meaningful and sustainable way.
When did you realize that you wanted to heal people/why did you start?
I´m not sure when it started, but I’ve always been a sensitive person, an empath, been aware of the power of energy and interested in ways of healing. Since i was a little girl, i had a really strong sixth sense (like so many kids do) and was able to sense deeply subtle energies so was drawn to music and books and the arts as a way to manage the traumas and challenging parts of my childhood. I guess those things never went away.
And then my best friend died when I was 16, and i guess it was a catalyst of sorts, into the darkness of anxiety and depression. I went deep into trying to get to the bottom of the layers of trauma that had brought me to that point, exploring and experimenting with all kinds of healing methods, research, tools and techniques. I was hungry for ways to manage my symptoms, but also to get to the root of it. To find a holistic solution.
It was around that time when I first tried yoga and meditation techniques, which were set to feature in and out of my life until I began to take it more seriously in my 20s.
And as I grew and explored different careers, hunger for studying healing tools didn’t go away. Over the last 25 years I've had a number of different careers (that intersected across media + arts), as well as worked in a fair few different spaces and places. From the UK to the Caribbean, the south of France, Monaco, Barcelona, Norway and beyond. Before starting my own business, i’d mostly been working within media, radio, music, film, wellness and arts, but in between, there have definitely been some sprinkles of randomness.
I didn’t set out with the intention of “healing others”, or even to make a career out of this work, however i realised that for the last 20 years i’ve been honing my skills, studying and experimenting with my own healing, and putting it into practice, and working with people, supporting them to empower themselves to create massive changes in their lives. It took me years to see that i was doing the work for a really long time, i just didn’t know it, or felt i could claim the space to really own what i do.
Think that´s a problem so many people struggle with. Which also drives what i do. I want people to feel they are entitled to take up space. To create pathways for their own healing. And to do it in their own way.
Why is what you do so important?
I think having access to tools and feeling empowered to heal yourself is tremendously impactful. It offers a sense of agency and challenges ideas about who is entitled or allowed to access those things.
I am not interested in delivering a model to people that creates co-dependency, a dogma that barks what they “should” do, rather, i´m interested in supporting people on their journeys towards a more spacious way of living. Offering and sharing tools that can empower them to adapt and create and experiment with their own rituals, and meet their own individual needs.Then to go deep with that. And to celebrate it. Making it for real life and not pretend - that is, something that they implement on the daily, into real-life situations, rather than this idea that healing is a separate thing, removed from the everyday. That´s the kind of real-life spacemaking which leads to transformation.
What is your inspiration to continue doing what you are doing? What is the fuel that keeps you going?
To keep representing and offering accessible and inclusive tools to the community.
That´s my inspiration and motivation to keep going.
I know i don´t fit the image of the stereotypical yogi. Or dj. Or coach. Or writer. Or the fact that i´m a mix of all of these things (we’re multifaceted beings!). So I´m into dismantling the boundaries and barriers and creating the things i want to exist despite resistance, and doing it in my own way, for the people that are interested in it. Real people.
In the past, I had a lot of resistance from the yoga community. The western “mainstream” idea of what I am supposed to do and be and say and look like etc. It´s nothing new and it echoes what happens in other industries too of course, I experienced a lot of the same in the music industry as well as other spaces. Sometimes, simply by existing you’re deemed radical.
So I chose not to try to meet expectations of what i was supposed to be, and instead, over the years, tried to take my work outside of those oppressive spaces and create new ones. Physically and ideologically.
Over the years I’ve created events that used spaces that weren’t often utilised for yoga/music projects: I’ve taken over art museums and culture houses and fro-yo warehouses and chicken shops and galleries and composers homes and schools and offices and basically anywhere that lets me in, to hold events combining wellness, personal development, yoga, music, art and self care, trying to challenge stereotypes and expectations around these subjects. For me at least, it makes sense that they overlap, and sometimes there is this weird snootiness that tries to keep them exclusive and inaccessible. I want to continue to break down those walls and create spaces and environments and experiences for people to feel empowered and to feel better. It can be political to be a woman of colour leading and sharing these kinds of offerings, especially because i use non-standard physical and online spaces. But to me it makes sense, deconstructing and redefining boundaries and spaces too. It’s political to be a polymath. To not fit into a box. But hopefully that’s changing. And I want to support others to redefine and design their own lives in ways that feel good - balanced, real and meaningful. Everybody deserves access to transformational tools that are authentic and accessible and it’s my mission to empower other humans to adapt and “take home” these techniques so they can create their own versions of self care in creative and sustainable ways.
How does it make you feel when you are healing people?
I don’t see it as me healing them, rather, as me offering something that they can adapt and implement into their own lives.
Sometimes i pinch myself in moments where i’m leading a self care session for example. There’s a moment in class, or a moment in conversation with a client, where i feel - i guess, an amazing energy. It’s so powerful and i’m always humbled by it. Cause it’s not me - it’s the connection and the energy we are cultivating together. Making shit happen. Creating something. Releasing something. It´s wonderful and i feel so very lucky to do what i do.
I love what i do, and there´s nothing like that feeling when folks get in touch who have practiced with me online, or enjoyed a book I’ve recommended, or tried a technique I’ve suggested, or reacted to one of my weekly love letters and have told me they are using the tools to feel better and create more space for themselves. It´s an energy and a connection that goes beyond physical spaces. It’s amazing to connect to a global community.
What are your visions &/or goals?
Crumbs! How long do you have? (Jk!)
More creative coaching - it’s been powerful to work 1-1 with people in an official capacity after doing it unofficially for so many years. The possibilities for transformations are bonkers.
I currently run retreats in the UK and Norway in the summer and new year which are great opportunities for people to go deep on a journey with me. So i’d like to offer more retreats expanding outside of the UK and Norway. I’ve been manifesting going back to Morocco and some of my fave parts of Greece and Italy possibly Portugal too, as well as returning to the Caribbean- one of my homelands - Latin America is dear to my heart, the deep ancestral lines and connections. As well as exploring Nola for a wellness collaboration- it’s a place i´ve longed to go for an age - have only managed to drive past on the motorway/highway though (sadface).
It can often feel lonely when you are a creative entrepreneur and nomadic with it. I’ve always longed for community but i realise that i’m very fortunate to have a global family of great people that i feel connected to. So i’d love to build on that and make things happen together, collaborating with other creative entrepreneurs, amazing healers and good people doing incredible work in the world.
Tell us a fun fact about what it is that you do, or something people may not know.
...Like that i take bathroom discos most days to “brainstorm”?
I spent a long time working in music and radio and have moonlighted on a number of podcasts and radio shows. I guess djing is quite a big part of my life that many don’t necessarily know - I run lots of events like silent discos and late nights at museums and galleries and general “shake your pants” moments. I also have a radio show called FEELINGS which you can listen to via my website ( dionne.space/FEELINGS).
I also have a communications agency that supports people to build and express an authentic and real and accessible digital presence. So far it’s only been launched in Norway, but have recently been opening that up to support more people who are setting up their businesses and putting their work out into the world.
You can see some of the random projects i’ve worked on at ( dionne.space/portfolio )
In one sentence, what is your message to the world?
Do you, make your own rules (then eat them).
Is there is anything else that you would like to share about yourself or what it is that you do?
My podcast - Space is the Place (in honour of our beloved Sun Ra) will be launching real soon, you can get info about it via my letters which you can find on my website (dionne.space)
In fact you can find everything on Dionne.Space :)
Coaching, yoga videos, music, words and the rest!
If you want to reach out on social media, i tend to lurk via
Instagram: Instagram.com/dionne_______ (seven underscores!)
Youtube: youtube.com/dionneyoga (weekly yoga vids mostly and curating musical inspo and 70s/80s style icons)
Facebook: facebook.com/dionne.space
Twitter: twitter.com/dionne_