
23/06/2021
Meet Danielle Hawkins, a country vet who also runs a cattle & sheep farm with her husband, all while bringing up two kids and writing five best selling novels.
I’m a fairly avid reader and I’ve loved Danielle’s books, but when the most recent one – Two Shakes Of A Lamb’s Tail – came out, I decided to grab my fear of talking to some random stranger whose work I admired by the horns, wrestle it to the ground and get in touch with her.
I loved the James Herriot It Shouldn’t Happen To A Vet books when I was growing up and this latest book of Danielle’s was very much like that: a diary of a country vet containing all kinds of details about the vet’s life outside of work.
But the other thing that struck me was the amount of things the woman managed to get through in a single day! And how she managed her task list was really interesting.
Danielle Hawkins lives on a sheep and beef farm near Otorohanga with her husband and two children, and works part-time as a vet.
She is a keen gardener and conservationist, and she makes really good doughnuts.
She has written four novels, but her latest book, Two Shakes of a Lamb’s Tail, is a mostly-true diary of a year in her life. (Not entirely true; she didn’t want to have to leave the district.)
She can be found on Facebook at @DanielleHawkinsAuthor, where she posts seldom and grudgingly but is pretty good at replying to message.
(note from Karen: she IS good at replying to messages, she replied to mine!)
All around the world, domestic violence rates have skyrocketed where ever there were lockdowns. For many of those women, they’ve lived with physical and verbal abuse for years. The question is: why do they stay? Why don’t they just leave? And what can we do for people who are in abusive relationships? How do we support them?
A friend of mine has been completely open and honest about how her relationship with her ex was verbally, and occasionally physically, abusive, discussing the impact that it had on her with her online followers. So, imagine my surprise when she announced that she was going to re-marry her ex.
I needed to get my head round this because to me, in no world was this okay. Why, after all the things she’s told us about what happened in their marriage, would she even consider getting back into a relationship with him? And she’s not the only one who does this, so how does this work?
As a Registered Forensic and Coaching Psychologist, Hope-Makers are who I work with and provide services for. If you are a social entrepreneur, sole trader, run a small, limited company with a social purpose, or a charitable business, then I’m here for you. My mission is to help you increase your impact in the world but at the same time keep you sane, and help you protect yourself against burnout.
My professional journey began 20 years ago when I became an academic psychologist working in the field of family violence prevention. In the last 20 years I have created evidence-based interventions, provided consultancy to the English and Scottish governments on behaviour-change programmes, and led international, national, and local research programmes focusing on service development and evaluation.
In 2020, after a successful academic career I left my role as Professor to pursue my own business – The Hope-Makers. I am fuelled by a desire to make the world a better place and know that by supporting you to do the same we can achieve this together. Every element of The Hope-Makers is an expression of this mission.
Through Hope-Makers Coaching (CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO FIND OUT MORE) I bring together these strands of experience into innovative individual and small-group coaching programmes that are evidence-based and combine solution-focused, cognitive behavioural and havening** techniques.
The Hope-Makers Podcast shines a light on incredible stories of how overcoming personal challenges led purpose-driven professionals to connect with their deeper purpose and turn it into a business.
The Hope-Makers Forum is an exclusive membership community through which I provide peer support, coaching, networking and business master-mind opportunities on a monthly basis.
All around the world, domestic violence rates have skyrocketed where ever there were lockdowns. For many of those women, they’ve lived with physical and verbal abuse for years. The question is: why do they stay? Why don’t they just leave? And what can we do for people who are in abusive relationships? How do we support them?
A friend of mine has been completely open and honest about how her relationship with her ex was verbally, and occasionally physically, abusive, discussing the impact that it had on her with her online followers. So, imagine my surprise when she announced that she was going to re-marry her ex.
I needed to get my head round this because to me, in no world was this okay. Why, after all the things she’s told us about what happened in their marriage, would she even consider getting back into a relationship with him? And she’s not the only one who does this, so how does this work?
As a Registered Forensic and Coaching Psychologist, Hope-Makers are who I work with and provide services for. If you are a social entrepreneur, sole trader, run a small, limited company with a social purpose, or a charitable business, then I’m here for you. My mission is to help you increase your impact in the world but at the same time keep you sane, and help you protect yourself against burnout.
My professional journey began 20 years ago when I became an academic psychologist working in the field of family violence prevention. In the last 20 years I have created evidence-based interventions, provided consultancy to the English and Scottish governments on behaviour-change programmes, and led international, national, and local research programmes focusing on service development and evaluation.
In 2020, after a successful academic career I left my role as Professor to pursue my own business – The Hope-Makers. I am fuelled by a desire to make the world a better place and know that by supporting you to do the same we can achieve this together. Every element of The Hope-Makers is an expression of this mission.
Through Hope-Makers Coaching (CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO FIND OUT MORE) I bring together these strands of experience into innovative individual and small-group coaching programmes that are evidence-based and combine solution-focused, cognitive behavioural and havening** techniques.
The Hope-Makers Podcast shines a light on incredible stories of how overcoming personal challenges led purpose-driven professionals to connect with their deeper purpose and turn it into a business.
The Hope-Makers Forum is an exclusive membership community through which I provide peer support, coaching, networking and business master-mind opportunities on a monthly basis.
Back in 2015, my eldest daughter, Kira, was really into her horse riding. Training for 4-5 hours a day, she lived, breathed and existed all things horsey.
Then she was thrown from two different horses in the space of three weeks, each time landing on the same side of her head.
I’m from a horsey background and my own experience in this was, just have a couple of days rest then get back on the horse, you’ll be fine.
Only she didn’t get better.
The “couple of days rest” turned into a week, then two weeks, then several months, and still she showed little improvement. She couldn’t read, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t go on the computer or watch TV. She could hardly stand up half the time.
At the time, we all believed that her brain would heal itself. It was going to take some effort on Kira’s part, but if she put in the work, she should be fine.
It turns out that isn’t the case.
Lately, Kira’s come to the conclusion that the damage – particularly the damage to her memory – is permanent.
The first of the two “assisted dismounts”
Kira O’Connor is a final year Photography Degree student, specialising in Fine Art Photography.
For as long as she can recall, Kira had a fascination and love for horses. At the age of 4, she began partaking in equine lessons, and before long found herself working towards her dream of competing at an Olympic level.
By the age of 9, Kira was already preparing for the day that she could dedicate every waking hour to her horse riding; and so began the journey of convincing her parents to let her attend an equine boarding school.
A year later, Kira found herself flying six hours to the other side of the country to attend New England Girls School.
For the next five years she was living her dream, living on an equine based campus and riding up to five hours per day on top of her studies.
On June 27th 2015, Kira was thrown from her favourite horse and the resulting head injury has – and will continue to be – a challenging road to recovery. However, since she was unable to either ride or attend school, Kira developed a passion for fine art photography.
Now in her third and final year of her Bachelor of Photography, Kira is currently in the process of creating a series discussing the realities of brain injuries and amnesia.
If you head over to any health and fitness guru, odds are the pictures you’ll see are of women in their 20’s or 30’s. The problem is, what works for women in that age group, not only doesn’t work for peri- or post-menopausal women, it is actually detrimental to their health and well-being and is a major cause of weight GAIN.
After a long and hugely successful career in the health & fitness industry, Wendy Sweet realised that little was known about the role of exercise and diet during the menopause transition. All of the information and practise was aimed at women in their twenties and no regard was given to the changing nature of a woman’s body as she ages.
After extensive research, including doing her Masters degree and then a PhD, she discovered the best exercises to support our body during & after menopause, the ONLY diet that prevents weight gain in this time and how we can avoid the insomnia that afflicts so many women.
For over 30 years I have been involved in New Zealand’s health and exercise industry. Although my original career was as an ICU nurse and I’m not practicing any more, I re-trained and pioneered the Personal Training industry in New Zealand.
Once I left this industry, I returned to education and not only was I lecturing in sport, exercise, nutrition and health physiology, but I was so interested in how to help people change their lifestyle behavior, that I undertook my master’s studies in this area.
Then I went on to do my doctoral studies in the Faculty of Health, Sports and Human Performance at Waikato University. My desire was to better understand how women perceived their ageing and the role of exercise in this during the menopause transition. I am so pleased that I did!
Because what I discovered was that our menopause transition, when we go into the final hormonal changes that herald in the end of our biological reproductive years, is the time to change our lifestyle in readiness for the next 20-30 years of living we still have to enjoy.
In a different hormonal environment, what we have done in the past to manage our health, energy and our weight, simply may not work any more. Not many health coaches and other professionals understand this, because there has been very little research on the menopause transition and lifestyle changes that we need to make to help us get ready for our future years.
When, through my women’s health research, I looked at many of the symptoms that women experience during menopause, I realised that this is the time of our lives that our health can begin to change and our menopause symptoms may become worse. This happened to me too.
Desperate to turn around my own health, weight and symptoms, I set out to untangle the menopause-mayhem jigsaw, so we didn’t need to rely on traditional hormone therapies that have been used in the past. Everything I discovered is now in two fabulous programmes called My Menopause Transformation.
Karen is a Post-Menopausal mother of four, who loves to meet and connect people, hear about their experiences and hopefully glean a little wisdom for herself!
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