About me.
Consider me a woman intent on freedom.
I’m Erika and I run Your Right to Be. I help women break free of the female conditioning to ‘be nice’, and escape the prison of fears it creates so that they can live their truest, most beautiful, daring lives and share their talents with the world.
My whole life I’ve been intent on freedom.
I grew up in a very poor area, in a stigmatised community and experience the injustice of that through my childhood.
I never understood why some people’s lives seemed to be less important than others.
So I went onto study it in every way possible. I hold an MA in Human Rights, Identity and Citizenship. I worked for UK parliament and world leading NGOs before spending 10yrs as a community organiser/social worker in one of the poorest parts of the UK.
I want women to be free - legally, politically, economically, socially.
Disillusionment with the limits of socio-political change led me to Buddhism in my early 20’s and have been practising ever since. From here I went on to train with some of the world’s leading experts in embodiment and trauma.
I want women to be free - mentally, emotionally, spiritually.
Living in India among a lower caste community, taught me that no amount of legal or political change works unless the way in which we think, perceive, and experience ourselves and the world changes. Caste based discrimination has been illegal since 1950s, but it’s never gone away.
Same as racism, sexism, ableism etc.
Social norms are carried in our bodyminds, in the way we relate to one another, day in - day out. It’s a complex, ever-changing web of power dynamics. Which we carry inside of us.
And I don’t believe it’s an either/or.
I believe in systemic change - legal, political, economic.
I believe in personal change - trauma healing, undoing embodied conditioning, transforming our bodyminds.
And I believe in the necessity of community for both.
We need all three to really create change in the lives of women.
Your Right to Be is my small contribution to that work of freedom.
It’s born out of my own struggles and the lessons I’ve learnt along the way.
I help women get free, so they can help others, as I have been liberated by others before me.
It’s my imperfect activism.
I hope you’ll join me.
For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted people to be free.
Growing up among poverty and social inequality, I thought the answer lied in global policy change.
I have a Master’s degree in International Politics and Human Rights, and I previously worked for the UK Parliament and International NGOs on initiatives addressing systemic prejudice and discrimination.
I quickly realised that systemic change needed be underpinned by individual change, and decided to focus my talents on transformative frontline community work.
Here I worked for 10 years in some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK, supporting hundreds of people to transform their lives and shape the direction of their neighbourhoods, building social capital and community resilience.
My pioneering work was recognised nationally and internationally, and has informed research undertaken by the UK Cabinet Office, the British Red Cross, the Environment Agency, Save the Children and the University of East Anglia.
It’s here that I fell in love with working with women.
From ‘neighbourhood mums’ to young teens, tough matriarchal grandmothers to local sex workers.
Tenacious, strong and all brimming wisdom to contribute.
More recently I applied my skills in India, where I lived and worked among a lower-caste Dalit community.
Here I supported some of the world’s most unheard women tell their stories and re-own their value in a society which tells them they are literally worthless.
Working alongside these women I really learnt the true meaning of dignity and resilience.
Alongside my professional explorations, my ongoing personal search for freedom led me in my mid-20s to the Buddha’s teachings.
In them, I felt at last like I had found someone telling the truth. I have dedicated myself ever since to deepening my understanding and to putting them into action in everyday life.
Through long hours of sitting in meditation halls, I discovered an inner landscape of my body, which I had never before experienced, one that brought me to a contented freedom I’d always longed for.
I followed this thread which led me to embodiment, where I have been fortunate to learn from some of the most talented teachers on the planet including a 5 year mentorship with Mark Walsh, and advanced training with Paul Linden, Dylan Newcombe, Rachel Blackman, Martha Eddy.
I’m an associate tutor for Embodiment Unlimited, one of the world’s leading somatic training schools.
Time and again across the globe I have witnessed the transformative power that a woman becoming free has - on her life, on her family and her wider community.
I believe the world is in desperate need of the full, uncensored participation of women.
So I brought all of this together and founded Your Right to Be, more than a business, it’s a growing community and movement of women from across the globe.
Women who are ready to break free of ‘niceness’, ready to step into their own authority, live according to their own rules and fully share their talents for the benefit of the world.
I hope you’ll join us.
Credentials
Founder and Director: Your Right to Be
5 years full time, multidisciplinary study of Human Rights (MA).
Over a decade working frontline in extremely deprived neighbourhoods & communities facing complex challenges.
Experienced in addiction recovery, domestic violence, suicide prevention, homelessness, prison leavers and children at risk.
Award winning, internationally recognised development work that informed UK government policy, the British Red Cross, Save the Children and the University of East Anglia.
10 years serious Buddhist practice (training for Ordination)
Embodied Facilitator Course graduate and guest tutor
Embodied Yoga Principles teacher
5 years personal mentorship with Mark Walsh
10 years+ somatic practice across numerous modalities - yoga, martial arts, somatic movement, focussing, conscious dance, breathwork, Rosen Method.
Advanced embodiment training with: Dylan Newcombe, Rachel Blackman, Paul Linden, Martha Eddy, and many other leaders in the field.
Associate tutor at Embodiment Unlimited
15 years as a facilitator of transformative change among individuals and communities.
Certified in Participatory Photography and community storytelling techniques.
Death Doula trained.
Freelance workplace resiliency consultant - specialising in Somatic Social Work.
A long history of being far too bloody nice!
Press.
Erika is an international embodiment educator, somatic coach and mindfulness/meditation teacher with over a decade’s experience in female empowerment. She is dedicated to helping women break free of ‘niceness’, so they can step into their own authority, live according to their own rules and fully share their talents with the world. Erika has helped hundreds of women across the globe gain greater freedom - from ex-untouchable communities in India to executive coaches in New York, from ‘neighbourhood mums’ and at-risk teens to prize winner authors and creatives. She is committed to both personal and collective transformation; and views embodied education as her activism. Her work draws upon the hard-won wisdom from over 10 years of devoted Buddhist practice, a career in challenging community development/social work in the UK and abroad, extensive somatic training with world-leading experts, and her own personal history of being far too bloody nice! Erika’s teaching blends scientific pragmatism and practicality, with soulfulness and myth, in the service of female liberation.