"I don't have any magic to give you. 

I'm here to lead you back to a place where you can remember your own."

​

-Samantha Zipporah

Transform your sexual + reproductive healthcare

Cycle charting can be used to create healthy awareness and ritual around not just sex, but exercise, relationships, food, self care, and really any piece of your life that feels important to you!

Cycle Awareness …

a tool for embodiment and empowerment.

It gifts you a deep understanding of the innate wisdom and rhythm of your unique body, and in turn a deep connection to your own intuition, needs and desires. It requires no pill nor person claiming authority over your body or your choices.

The Basics

Body Literacy

refers to the ability to read the language of your body. In other words, being body literate means being able to understand and make sense of the incredible things our body does for us every day.

Cycle/Fertility Awareness

is body literacy as it relates to your sexual and reproductive health. It means understanding your menstrual cycle and hormone health, and being able to recognize how this is presenting in your own unique body and cycles. 

“The Method”

The Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) refers to the practice of using Fertility Awareness for your own sexual and reproductive health goals: for contraception, for conception or for cycle balance and health!

The Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) is actually an umbrella term that encompasses various methods for tracking. I am a FAMM Certified Practitioner, trained to teach the Symptothermal Method (STM) specifically.

The Sympto- Thermal Method

With this method you make daily observations of Cervical Fluid (Sympto) and Basal Body Temperature (Thermal), chart these observations, and then use evidence-based understandings to interpret what the chart is telling us about your hormones, your fertile windows, and your cycle. You can then use your chart to apply detailed rules, guidelines and strategies to move you towards achieving your goals, whether that’s getting pregnant, avoiding  pregnancy, or improving cycle and overall health. Interpreting your chart will allow you to understand when you are and are not fertile during any given cycle, and either avoid or optimize accordingly.

  • Guidance and support, not authority. You are the authority of your body. I’m here not to dictate what you should and should not do for its well being, but as support to share what I have learned and to collaborate with you to see how we can use it all to nourish your life, your spirit, your goals. I see our work together as a collective learning and unlearning.

    I’m here to celebrate you as you. I see gender, sexuality, family, the human experience as an ever expanding galaxy. I am thus dedicated to the continuous expansion of my own ability and allyship in supporting folks all along this spectrum.

    My current offerings come from a mix of my own lived experience and formal schooling in the realms of anthropology, holistic health, herbal medicine, birthwork and fertility awareness. I’m formally certified as a FAMM Certified Practitioner, meaning I am trained in the Symptothermal Method of Fertility Awareness through the Fertility Awareness Mastery Mentorship with Lisa Hendrickson-Jack.

  • I came to charting the same way so many folks do: from the gradual understanding that what had been available to me in the realm of sexual and reproductive healthcare was lacking, big time. I was slowly but fully awakening to the knowledge that what I was taught about how to care for my body, my community and the planet was not designed for inclusivity, informed choice, or even for true, holistic wellness. My own lived experience as well as my studies in herbalism and birthwork all solidified this understanding. I didn’t want to rely on a pill as the answer to my health and fertility anymore. When I turned to the options given to me for support in this realm (my friendly neighborhood gyno), I was left feeling belittled and stuck.  Although I had heard and learned about fertility awareness more vaguely, it was certainly not presented as a viable, effective option for my goals. I made an appointment with Planned Parenthood for an IUD but canceled multiple times, with the gut feeling it just wasn’t right for me. In sharing my journey with friends and fellow doulas, I was gifted the beauty of FAM. Other women and friends who bleed sharing their stories and experience of FAM lead me to study it myself, and to implement the method for contraception and as a tool for balancing my own cycle.  I became passionate about the empowerment in FAM, and eventually decided to study to become a Fertility Awareness Practitioner myself, to share and spread the movement with others. 

    My love for plants and earth led me to Herbal Medicine, which led me to Birthwork, which led me to Holistic Sexual + Reproductive Health.  A deep belief in and passion for reproductive justice and informed choice being the thread that weaves it all together.

  • FAMM Certified Practitioner 

    Fertility Awareness Mastery Mentorship- Lisa Hendrickson-Jack, Fertility Friday

    Full Spectrum Doula Training- Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings

    Abortion Doula Training- Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings

    Birth Doula Training (DONA Int'l)- Homegrown Families, Asheville, NC 

    Childbirth Education for Doulas- Homegrown Families, Asheville, NC
    Breastfeeding Foundations for Perinatal Health Workers- BACE NMC, Boston, MA
     

    Apprenticeship with Joe Hollis at Mountain Gardens- Barnardsville, NC 

    Holistic Herbalism Program- Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine, Asheville, NC 

    Herbs for Doulas, Midwives + Birthworkers- Katia LeMone, The Human Path

    Introduction to Permaculture- Atitlan Organics, Tzununa, Guatemala


    B.A. in Anthropology, Spanish, and International Relations - Syracuse University


FAQs

  • The STM of FAM can be a highly effective means of avoiding pregnancy, comparable to that of other hormonal methods of birth control. FAM requires no invasive procedure nor constant hormone use. It does require much more commitment, accountability, and habit forming than simply taking a pill. FAM is a user- dependant method, which means that you are fully responsible for the efficacy (or failure) of the method. 

    The highest efficacy of FAM (99.4%) is achieved when the user is well educated and confident in the method (that’s where I come in!), committed to strict implementation of the rules and supported by their partner (when relevant).

  • Nope. Fertility Awareness Based Methods are NOT the rhythm method… 

    Unfortunately, the internet and likely even healthcare professionals could conflate and confuse these two methods. The rhythm method (or calendar method) refers to tracking past cycles to predict future ovulation.

    Many charting apps out there are essentially an algorithm of this method, implementing past cycle data to make a best guess as to when you may ovulate next based on fairly minimal data input. (A method that involves guessing is not going to be very effective.)

    With FAM you are using real time data (your daily observations) to determine your fertile window for your current cycle. STM requires implementing strict evidence-based rules and cross checks to confirm ovulation has occurred in order to ensure you are avoiding (or utilizing) your fertile window. Studies show that STM have as high of 99.4 efficacy with perfect use.


  • I teach the Symptothermal Method (STM) of fertility awareness. STM tracks cervical fluid observations and basal body temperature, with cervical position as a third optional sign. I teach a double check version of the method, meaning you open and close the fertile window with these observations, in addition to using a calculation taken from past cycle data in the pre-ovulatory period to ensure highest possible efficacy of the method. 

    I’m formally certified as a FAMM Certified Practitioner, meaning I am trained in the Symptothermal Method of Fertility Awareness through the Fertility Awareness Mastery Mentorship with Lisa Hendrickson-Jack of Fertility Friday. See more about that HERE.*

  • No! Mostly… 

    Most charting apps are based on algorithms that are essentially predicting future ovulation based on past cycle data. (See Rhythm Method AKA Not FAM!) They do not take into account what is happening in your body any given month and do not account for the very real variability that happens in a human life and menstrual cycle. FAM is the process of making real time observations based on what your body is telling you that day, and then making evidence-based decisions from that data to determine your fertile window.

    Read Your Body is an app that is compatible with FAM. RYB allows you to download a template that is fully compatible with the Symptothermal method I teach.  I utilize RYB to help you learn to chart.

  • FAM may be especially relevant and helpful to you if you experience funky cycles of amenorrhea.  You can use cycle charting as a tool for gaining insight as to what is happening hormonally that is the underlying cause of irregular or absent menses. 

    If you are on birth control you are not experiencing a natural cycle, but rather what is really a “withdrawal bleed” caused by drop off in hormones from the pill. In order to use FAM and track your hormones, you would have to come off of the pill to track your body’s natural hormones.

  • Check out my offerings page to see the investment costs of learning Cycle Charting through either my FAM Foundations Course or 1:1 Mentorship.

    You'll need to purchase a BBT Thermometer. But this is the only other required purchase to begin charting.

  • I do offer payment plans for my services if needed. My mentorship and foundations course are currently set at sliding scale rates.

    If cost is prohibitive for you, I am always open to discussing our options for working together.

Still have some questions?