Meet Dianna, Founder

What do you bring to QJM?

I am Yoga Instructor of 15 years and also work professionally as a Reiki Master and Psychic Medium.  In most of my work, I am firmly focused on soul in the body, mind, soul trinity. I Iove helping people excavate what spirituality or soulfulness means to them in pursuit of increasing self-worth and navigating personal truths.  That search is so personal and individual, but we could all use a deeper sense of belonging to something greater.  This might be Mother Earth, God, Goddess, Gaia, The Universe, the beauty of math and science, Universal Consciousness, Energy itself, and truly the list could go on infinitely. 

My business Motionally Available began in 2020 after years of teaching full-time in the dance industry alongside my yoga career.  I wanted to branch out from my own tried and true movement practices.  I wanted to help others move, feel, and experience limitlessness in what they could try or fall in love with in the wellness industry.  Welling Wisdom, as an online community and podcast, became just that. 

I am thrilled to bring a decade and a half of wellness industry experience to QJM and infuse our work with a sense of belonging to something greater - whether that’s within your spirituality or our growing community.

What was your inspiration behind QJM?

In 2022, I moved from US to the UK and landed straight in Norwich’s quirky and artsy city centre.  Moving was exactly the experience I was ready for but I could not have prepared for the transformation I was about to go through.  I found that the empowered process of starting life over with a clean slate was wildly exciting.  Every new piece of clothing I bought, each new way I walked to work, every new colleague I made felt like a reclamation.  I had left a VERY good life in the beautiful and warm North Carolina.  But, somehow I had landed in ruts and habits and a personality that felt less good and true. My clean slate meant that I could find who I was in a new way.  Most of the new ways were actually old, true, ways. 

One true thing I reclaimed very quickly was my queerness, a part of my that had fallen deep into the background of my life living in the American bible belt. I needed a community asap.  So I found online groups and a local bookclub and took charge of finding my people, speaking loudly and happily about who I was. 

I found queer community all across my new life but felt a lack in my yogic and wellness spaces, professionally and personally.  Where were my queer wellness professionals? After a long coffee date with my friend Emily Beale, Queer Joy Movement was born out of our desire for community and safe spaces for our people.  This began as a single workshop and now has bloomed into something much bigger. Alongside Emily and Frank I hope to help others reclaim and love into all the true parts of themselves.  To know themselves well and feel safe figuring it out along the way.  To perhaps change the wellness industry but, crucially, to hold each other safely within it for our wellness work to be empowered.

What are you looking forward to most about QJM?

When I think about where QJM is now and where it’s going, I am looking forward to two things.  The first is cultivating space and connection.  I am thrilled to help facilitate a space for the LGBTQIA+ community to feel well.  I want wellness to be easily accessible to my queer community in a way that feels exciting and safe.  Radical rest and reclaiming ourselves through events and connection points is key.  I know how challenging it is for our community to feel comfortable, safe, and free in wellness spaces like gyms and studios.  I want to hold each other safely within it and for our wellness to be empowered. 

Second, I want to see my community grow.  I want to sit in our QJM events with you and feel the community we are all growing.  I look forward to feeling seen and to seeing others for who they are.  I look forward to lifting each other up simply by existing together proudly.  It wasn’t so long ago that I was in Norwich, feeling very lonely and unsure of how my own queerness fit into my personal or professional circles. No more.  We’re in this Movement together.  

Where do you find queer joy? 

I find a particularly satisfying kind of queer joy when I’m walking around our little city and see someone I know from my queer community.  Whether it be from social media, queer book club, a sapphic night out event, the local sports team, or our very own QJM community - I love seeing my people and being seen by them.  We might not talk about our queerness at all. Maybe it’s just a wave or smile.  But, feeling that we know each other from safe queer spaces, truly, lights me up.  As a more femme presenting cis woman, I feel like I often fly under the radar in our heteronormative society.  When someone see’s me for all of me I feel so joyful.  I am excited that our QJM community will be a network of people who see and understand each other, joyfully.