My 20's were spent exploring new places. I worked for a few years sailing and diving in Australia, the Caribbean and Central America. In 2014, I moved to the mountains in British Columbia where I learned about gardening and met who would become my mentor, teacher, friend and neighbour, Christine Sutherland RMT. For close to three years I was fortunate to apprentice with Christine there in Nelson. We covered many forms of massage from pregnancy to palliative, wheelchair to sports. Having always had inexplicable draws towards both pregnancy and massage therapy, it was a dream come true to learn in such a traditional way. Her teaching work took us all over - from Nelson to Vancouver and down to Guatemala, teaching in traditional midwifery schools, care homes and hospitals whilst learning much ourselves about different communities up and down the country. Our pregnancy massage courses reached Vietnam on weekday evenings via Skype and at weekends we taught at the local maternity clinic and Selkirk college. It was here in Nelson I completed my initial birth doula training with Doulas of North America, and with Christine, attended several births at the hospital. During this time I was a student, teaching assistant and general assistant - helping create content for Christine's YouTube channel and as she wrote her book 'Birthing in Good Hands'. For this publication we were massaging women throughout their pregnancies, some of their labours and postnatally, to identify and demonstrate the benefits of massage throughout the childbearing year. I learnt so much during this incredible time, but mostly about the power that touch can have and how integral it can be supporting the community throughout life's big transitions.