Kim
Chief Operating Officer
Kim is the glue that holds this business together. She is head of all things systems, processes and business growth.She's also been an active part of the RISE community, so she knows it from the inside.
Meet Lauren
Twenty years. One place.
I'm Lauren. Master holistic health and life coach, nutritionist, writer, speaker and mama of two. I've spent much of my life asking questions about health, often because I had to. What began as a very personal search for answers has become twenty years of helping women look after themselves in a more complete way. Here's how it all began.
“Wellness is not merely the absence of illness, it is a state of complete physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being”
My story
From a wheelchair to remission
At twenty-three months old, I was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. By eighteen, I was in a wheelchair and on chemotherapy, and at twenty-nine, I went into remission.
The decade between my most challenging years was spent studying the relationship between physical health and the mind. I read voraciously, explored different approaches and tried to understand my own experience of illness. I wanted answers, and I was willing to do the work of looking for them.
Writing it all out here makes it sound so simple; it wasn’t, and it’s not. But it is possible for anyone. As Glennon Doyle says, “We can do hard things.” And I believe my purpose in life is to guide others through these hard things and help them achieve their wellness and fulfilment goals.
Whether you are suffering from chronic illness, raising children in a world of conflicting information, or you want to feel empowered and motivated to become the best version of yourself, let me help you do that.
My articles, talks, podcast, and recipes – created and curated lovingly with the hope of encouraging people to live their healthiest, happiest lives – are all available for free on this website, along with meditations and other resources I've created. You can read more about my story below.
My life’s work is dedicated to bringing this message to others and helping them attain this level of wellness themselves (and by wellness I mean health, happiness, and fulfilment).
How it all began · 1986
The diagnosis
I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis at the age of two.Uveitis in my right eye the year following that. My poor parents didn’t know what to do; in 1986 there weren’t many options. They researched as much as they could and decided that the steroids the doctors wanted to prescribe were too toxic an option for a two-year-old so instead, we tried everything from homeopathy to spiritual healing. The homeopathy helped to keep my immune system strong and protected my joints from being damaged by the disease, which was a major achievement.But it was always like there was a piece missing from the puzzle because I was never free of the disease completely, and I would have dreadful yearly flare-ups that would result in time off school and a watered-down version of childhood.
Age 17 to 18
The darkest days
When I was seventeen, after starting performing arts school, I suddenly had a huge flare-up that refused to budge. I ended up being put on a chemo-based drug that changed my life forever. It damaged my liver, caused me to lose my hair, and left me disabled. By the time I was eighteen, I had arthritis in every joint in my body. I was wheelchair-bound, I couldn’t feed myself because my elbows were too stiff to bend and reach my mouth. I couldn’t chew food because my jaw was locked in, and I couldn’t even sit up straight because my hips were too stiff. I left college and never had the opportunity to experience university, nor go traveling with my friends. I really missed out on those late teenage years.
Finding the missing piece
The revelation
Somewhere along the way, something began to change.
You see, I needed to get that sick. Had I just been a bit ill, with some arthritis that was mainly manageable, I never would have worked as hard as I did to find the answers that led me to that missing piece. My destiny was to get that sick.
My mum had always believed there was a way forward. Over time, I began to trust that possibility too. I couldn't know what the future would look like, but I wanted to play an active part in finding out.
Taking ownership
So, I spent the next decade immersed in intensive self-study, teaching myself everything there was to know about the human body and mind: what makes them work and not work. From epigenetics and neuroplasticity, to the pharmaceutical industry and how it worked, how the healthcare/sick-care system was compounding my disability, how behavioral economics was manipulating me into thinking only someone else could make me better. Right through to inner child healing, spiritual connection, trauma healing and emotional intelligence.
Remission at 29
Healing
I went on to gain qualifications in nutrition, life coaching, NLP, and CBT, and, though they offered more insight and structured skillset, it was the self-study and the immersion into research (driven by my stubborn desire to find answers), that taught me everything that enabled me to not only go into remission, but to guide others toward similar outcomes.
I didn’t go into remission the next year or even five years later. Remission came when I was twenty-nine. Twenty-seven years after my diagnosis. I'd spent more than a decade searching for answers, and reaching that point meant more to me than I can easily put into words.
Today
And now?
Since then, I've had the privilege of advocating for greater access to information and choice in healthcare. I've served as a trustee of Homeopathy UK, represented patients at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine and spoken about paediatric autoimmune conditions in Parliament.
I have written about wellbeing and conscious parenting for publications such as Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, Natural Health, Health & Homeopathy, What Doctors Don’t Tell You, The Green Parent, The Natural Parent, and more. I speak at a range of events from conferences to festivals, most recently having spoken at Gaia in Colorado, and for TEDx. I also spend as much time as I can campaigning for the awareness and accessibility of natural health options and informed choices for parents alongside wonderful organisations such as the Arnica Network
These days, I live in London with my husband Daniel, our two children, and Story, our wonderfully dopey flat-coated retriever. You'll find plenty of my work here, and I'd love you to stay a while. The kettle is metaphorically on.
Love & Health,
Lauren
The podcast
Reconditioned
Reconditioned is where Lauren sits down with people who have something interesting to say about health and the way we live. There’s talk about the body, the mind and the experiences that shape us. Over 180 episodes in, and we’re still learning something new.
ListenThe membership
RISE
RISE brings together twenty years of Lauren’s work in one women's wellbeing membership. Practical tools, live guidance and a community that understands. A place to keep up with yourself, whatever life looks like at the moment.
Explore RISELV HQ
Meet the team
Here are the wonderful people who help bring this work to life at LV HQ.
Aga
Personal Assistant & Community Manager
Aga supports Lauren in every part of running LV HQ, and is also community manager for RISE, supporting RISE members with anything they may need.