How did the Streatham Community Clinic come about?
Out of the pandemic came an idea to support the community we live and work in. When the 1st lockdown happened in 2020 Hannah and Claire both had to stop working with their patients face to face. Like many people, this was tough, as their employment disappeared overnight. Hannah had already been teaching a regular ‘acupressure for labour workshop’ at St Thomas’ hospital and was thinking about moving it to a zoom session. It only took a quick socially distanced chat with Claire for her to jump on board to teach ‘massage for labour’ alongside Hannah!
After some careful content planning and rehearsing, their first online partner workshop was just a month later, in April. ‘Acupressure & Massage For Childbirth’ was created! It was a great success, selling out (20 couples was plenty to teach on Zoom!), and raising funds for local food bank charity, The Trussell Trust. Hannah and Claire then went on to host 4 more online workshops.
“We both loved working again and offering our extensive knowledge to help women and their birth partners feel empowered during the pandemic.”
Here is a lovely testimonial from one of the attendees;
“My husband and I attended the virtual massage and acupuncture for labour course with Hannah and Claire in April 2020 when I was 30 weeks pregnant. Their combined expertise provided us with so many useful techniques to use in the lead up to and during labour. We added all of it to our hypnobirthing “tool box” for pain management during labour - in particular a technique of applying pressure to the hips which really helped with my contractions! It also gave my husband something to do during labour to help which was important to us both.”
Working Towards Another Goal
The concept for the Streatham Community Clinic jumped out of a conversation about what to work on next.
“We agreed immediately that we wanted to have a space where we could reach out to the wider community with reduced prices. Affordability was key.”
It took a while to find a venue during another 2 lockdowns, but once that was confirmed it was all systems go! The name was easy – Hannah and Claire both live and work in Streatham and it was always about their community, one that has always been so supportive both personally and in business too. Both their businesses have grown through word of mouth in their locality. Streatham Community Clinic’s mission is to offer affordable acupuncture and craniosacral therapy to the wider community.
Both Claire and Hannah are passionate about supporting people through those big transitions in life, from puberty to trying to for a family, to becoming parents and then moving through the peri menopause. The work they do supports, cares and empowers, often when people feel at a loss as to what to do. They want to make sure that money is not a barrier to people trying to access this kind of care and support.
Streatham Community Clinic is on alternate Mondays 10-3pm (term time) in SW16.
Visit the website
Hannah and Claire’s online Acupressure & Massage course for Childbirth
