Physical Empowerment Case Studies 

The youngest of two daughters, an authoritarian father and a schizophrenic mother. A volatile and unhappy home, a loveless childhood with time spent in care.

After yet another spell in hospital, my parents divorced. Despite the mother’s illness, she had custody of the girls and moved away from the small village where they had some friends to a small town where they knew nobody. Unable to understand the mother’s strange behaviour and not doing well at school, life didn’t improve.

When the girl was 15, the mother remarried, a controlling man took over the home and attempted on several occasions to sexually assault the girl.

Not being able to feel safe at home, at 16 the girl left home. She was seeing a boy who was two years older and moved into his home with his parents. Once again, she was controlled, then beaten, then raped.

She ran away and found a squat to live in. There she met the person who she married, another controlling man, who alienated her from her remaining family; she didn’t see them for thirty years.

Financially, physically, sexually abused, controlled in every aspect of her life. Four children and twenty three years later, she had him arrested and pressed charges for assaulting her and two of the teenage children.

After a very acrimonious divorce, she managed to maintain a stressful job in the insurance industry. Seventeen years on her own, she tried to rebuild her life supporting her children, travelling abroad and living independently. However, the stress of family, work and where she was living became too much.

In early 2019, she moved to Wales. She did contact a few local agencies for help and then the pandemic struck and lockdown happened so help was nowhere to be found. She spent much of the two years on her own with her dog Poppy for company.

She was then lucky to be offered a place with Physical Empowerment, the first time she tried to attend the course it was too much and after two sessions she stopped going but something told her she needed to try again. She signed up for the next course and has never looked back!

At first, she was unsure what to expect, however the combination of the physical, emotional and mental training, being treated holistically as a whole person, the combination of mindfulness and physical training, the sense of sisterhood and support, her life started to change.

She improved her diet, exercising more (attending local aqua-fit classes, trying new things), wanting to improve mind and body, giving her the courage to accept the past and look to the future.

If it wasn’t for Physical Empowerment, she would still be a solitary figure drinking too much, not wanting to leave the house. Now the future is brighter. Her life has changed immeasurably thanks to Physical Empowerment, the women she has met there and the skills she has learned.

“It totally changed my life and my future.”