**I’m Kate and I’m a grief and pleasure alchemist.**

**I help women transmute emotional pain into aliveness so they can live, create and lead from their fullest humanity.**

This does not mean pushing down what hurts in pursuit of “positive vibes only”.

I don’t do bypassing - emotional or spiritual.

I’m here for the real and messy.

The tender and ecstatic.

The experiences that crack my heart wide open with truth and love.

Because quite simply, while I’m alive, I want to FEEL alive.

KATE'S STORY

I know loss. It sucks hard.

In 2014, my younger sister was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

As a vibrant, healthy 25 year old, Sarah was just married and living her most joyful, adventurous life when she received the news.

The first time I lost the sister I once knew, was in surgery to remove the tumour.

The following 5 years were focussed on healing, recovering and recalibration for Sarah, and a time of complex emotional pain for me and my family as we worked to reconcile a new relationship with our beloved.

Just as Sarah was truly finding her feet and looking towards a promising future, another brain tumour was found.

This time, it wasn’t playing.

3 months later, at just 30 years old, an aggressive Stage 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme ended her life.

During this tumultuous period and in the 5 years since her death, I personally experienced a devastating miscarriage, an auto-immune disease diagnosis requiring continual management, cervical pre-cancer and the end of my 20 year relationship.

It’s been a time. And yet;

amidst so much despair and chaos, something profound awakened within me.

Longing.

An ache that seemed to sit beside my pain, urging me towards a more honest and beautiful life.

An ache that led me to the grief rites of the dark feminine.

An ache that moved me towards sensuality as source and sustenance.

An ache that opened me to pleasure medicine without betraying my sorrow.

Grief was an initiation into my embodied wisdom.

Learning to transmute my losses into a greater capacity for joy, has been revolutionary for my relationships, my health, and my creative feminine leadership.

I will never say I’m thankful, but I am in awe of how my relationship with grief has transformed me and what I’m here to teach.

Welcome to a world of endless possibilities. Welcome to SensuAlchemy.

Kate's Professional Bio

Feminine Embodiment Coach | Integrated Somatic Trauma Practitioner | Grief & Pleasure Alchemist

Known for her nurturing Mama energy and the gift of being able to see, feel and sense the deeper truths and possibilities in those she serves, Kate Leiper balances a robust academic background with a sharply intuitive, emotionally intelligent and deeply embodied approach to her work with women.

As Creatress of the SensuAlchemy School of Embodied Grief & Pleasure and the SensuAlchemy School Podcast, Kate completed a double degree in Drama and Education, a postgraduate and Masters degree in Counselling and Psychotherapy before she realised there was something big missing on her own path to healing.

Reflected in the struggles of her women clients, Kate too felt disconnected and distrusting of her body, stuck in a loop attempting to intellectually process years of sexual trauma and boundary ruptures. A longing to feel whole and reclaim personal power led her to the world of embodiment and somatics.

Alongside further studies in integrative trauma modalities and certifying as a Feminine Embodiment Coach, Kate navigated the devastating diagnosis, surgeries and eventual death of her younger sister to brain cancer in 2019.

This heartbreaking loss, plus a miscarriage and personal health crises, led Kate into developing a powerfully embodied, pleasure-oriented approach to grief and loss. Through the lens of the archetypal feminine, and with an emphasis on sensual movement, ritual and creative expression, Kate is devoted to sharing the healing gifts and leadership power of the SensuAlchemy Method to women all over the world.

When she’s not in the throes of creating and serving, Kate loves nothing more than dancing, dry dark humour and tropical island holidays. She stands for the liberation of all women and finds hope for humanity in the eyes of her three daughters every single day.

Find me at:

Instagram @katelouise_embodiment

Lineage of Teachers and Influences

The nuanced, experiential work that continues to evolve at The SensuAlchemy School is thanks to a pool of phenomenal pioneers, thought-leaders and practitioners traversing relational, body-centered, erotic, creative, feminist and justice-oriented realms that we need in the world right now.

My sincere acknowledgement and gratitude to these diverse fields of philosophy and practice, plus the specific human beings who have both directly and indirectly contributed to my creative work, practionership and leadership.

Feminine Embodiment || Devotional Erotic Dance || Sacred Dance

Jenna Ward + Holly Wodetzki + Susana Frioni

Intersectional Feminism + Pleasure Activism

Audre Lorde + bell hooks + adrienne maree brown

Grief + Ritual + Ancestry

Francis Weller + Stephen Jenkinson + Day Schildkret + Sharon Blackie

Somatic Experiencing || Sexological Bodywork & Somatic Sex Education || Somatic Abolitionism

Peter Levine + Kimberly Ann Johnson + Kai Chen Thom + Karine Bell

Somatic Psychotherapy || Neuroscience

Esther Perel + Marion Woodman + Dr Arielle Schwartz + Dr Stephen Porges + Dr Holly Richmond

And Endless Love to my Personal Creative Muses

My body.

My pleasure and my grief.

My 3 powerhouse daughters.

My darling sister Sarah, in 30 years of shared life and eternally, in death.