About Raina
(c)RAS Photography
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Raina creates and teaches classes and workshops for women and girls. She also supports mothers and families during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.
Raina lives with her family in the forest near Winlaw, British Columbia (not far from Nelson), where her husband also runs a timber framing and natural building company TRC Timberworks. When not connecting with girls, women, and families, Raina loves to belly dance, camp, and spend time in wild spaces, enjoying the peace and wonder of nature. ~ Co-Founder & Facilitator of the Maiden Star* Girls Coming of Age Programs
~ Coordinator & Facilitator of the Girls Empowerment Movement (GEM) Program ~ Founding Director & Chair of the Mentorship and Rites of Passage Foundation ~ Graduate of the Red Moon School of Empowerment for Women & Girls ~ Graduate of the Journey of Young Women Mentoring Girls Training Program ~ Certified Holistic Doula, Advanced Studies, The Matrona ~ Certified Instructor of Sacred Pregnancy & Dancing For Birth™ Classes |
I have been involved in learning women's wisdom since 1995, when I read an old legend retold from the perspective of strong women characters - women who had voices, who made choices, and who lived vividly according to their integrity. Three years later, a journey to India opened my eyes to a whole new world of female goddesses - women archetypes who embodied the broad spectrum of empowered femininity.
Returning to Canada, I saw around me many girls and women who lacked self-esteem, who viewed themselves as somehow not good enough, and who hated aspects of themselves. So at the age of 24, I dedicated my life`s work to offering girls and women the opportunity to connect with positive experiences of the feminine, as a guide to their own sacred nature. When we have models of empowered female archetypes who are speaking their minds, listening to their hearts, honouring their bodies, and affecting their world in powerful ways, it gives us permission to do the same.
I became a doula at the age of 26, and I was lucky enough to be at the births of some of my best friends' sweet babies, all of whom I now have the pleasure of watching grow up. As I began supporting women in childbirth, and as I grew and birthed my own children, I was surprised about how much women's bodies innately know about the birth process. I knew instinctively what I needed to eat, how I needed to move, and who I needed to be with. And so I became passionate about helping women trust themselves and their own inner knowing, starting not just in pregnancy, but in young womanhood as well as in girlhood.
As girls and women, we have access to gifts of wisdom that stem from our connection to our bodies, our emotions, and our inner guidance. Accessing these gifts is joyful and fulfilling, and I am overjoyed every time I see a girl's eyes light up or a woman letting her creativity shine.
I work with rites of passage, as these are moments in life when we naturally move into the vulnerable state of transformation - which is the perfect space to open to our inner guidance and bring more of our essential nature into the world. Birth, coming of age, marriage, parenthood, elderhood, and death are some of the major life transitions that provide us with the opportunities to blossom into living a more joyful, authentic life.
In my programs and my services, I love using the form of a circle, because it reminds us that we are all equal. We can all listen and be listened to. We all have something to share. And we are all in this together.
Returning to Canada, I saw around me many girls and women who lacked self-esteem, who viewed themselves as somehow not good enough, and who hated aspects of themselves. So at the age of 24, I dedicated my life`s work to offering girls and women the opportunity to connect with positive experiences of the feminine, as a guide to their own sacred nature. When we have models of empowered female archetypes who are speaking their minds, listening to their hearts, honouring their bodies, and affecting their world in powerful ways, it gives us permission to do the same.
I became a doula at the age of 26, and I was lucky enough to be at the births of some of my best friends' sweet babies, all of whom I now have the pleasure of watching grow up. As I began supporting women in childbirth, and as I grew and birthed my own children, I was surprised about how much women's bodies innately know about the birth process. I knew instinctively what I needed to eat, how I needed to move, and who I needed to be with. And so I became passionate about helping women trust themselves and their own inner knowing, starting not just in pregnancy, but in young womanhood as well as in girlhood.
As girls and women, we have access to gifts of wisdom that stem from our connection to our bodies, our emotions, and our inner guidance. Accessing these gifts is joyful and fulfilling, and I am overjoyed every time I see a girl's eyes light up or a woman letting her creativity shine.
I work with rites of passage, as these are moments in life when we naturally move into the vulnerable state of transformation - which is the perfect space to open to our inner guidance and bring more of our essential nature into the world. Birth, coming of age, marriage, parenthood, elderhood, and death are some of the major life transitions that provide us with the opportunities to blossom into living a more joyful, authentic life.
In my programs and my services, I love using the form of a circle, because it reminds us that we are all equal. We can all listen and be listened to. We all have something to share. And we are all in this together.