Meet Jane

Jane Chesworth sitting and smiling while holding cup.

Hello and welcome.

Transformation is at the heart of my work.

I'm Jane: practitioner, teacher and guide, and the person behind The Breath Sanctuary.

I work with breath, the nervous system, beliefs, Reiki, energy and intuition to help people understand what is holding them back and create meaningful change.

I listen deeply. I notice patterns. I see the person in front of me.

And I'm not afraid to go deep, always at a pace that feels safe for you.

My work has been shaped by a decade of exploration, professional training and personal experience, and by a life that has taught me about adaptation, determination, achievement, exhaustion, rebuilding and transformation.

Learning to adapt

I learned very early how to adapt.

I was born with hands uniquely my own. To me, I wasn't different. I was simply me. But I knew other people could see my difference.

So I became very good at observing the world around me, working things out and finding my own way of doing things. I learned to be capable and independent. I also learned how to fit in, how not to draw too much attention to myself and how to navigate the discomfort I felt when people looked at me.

As a child, I wanted to be a teacher. Instead, at 17, I found my way into accountancy, a profession that has now been part of my life for over 40 years.

There was safety in it. I could sit behind a desk and a computer and be known for what I could do, rather than for what made me physically different.

I became good at what I did and eventually built my own bookkeeping and accountancy business, which I ran for 10 years.

But there has always been another side to me: creative, entrepreneurial, full of ideas. For six years, while still running my accountancy business, I also ran Volette, a busy High Street bake shop with a team of five, where everything we sold was made from scratch.

Two completely different businesses. Both completely me.

Pushing past my limits

When I commit to something, I go all in. I learn. I create. I build. I take responsibility. I care about the details and I care deeply about the people I'm doing it for.

Those qualities helped me achieve a great deal. They also helped me keep going long after my body was asking me to stop.

I thought being strong meant carrying on. I became incredibly good at functioning.

I remember my body screaming at me to stop while another part of me was still thinking: How much further can I push myself?

Eventually, there was nowhere further to go. My health forced me to stop.

Rebuilding wasn't quick. For a long time, almost all the energy I had went into getting up, going to my part-time job, coming home and recovering enough to do it again. For someone who had spent years measuring herself by what she could accomplish, being unable to keep doing was confronting.

But it changed the direction of my life.

Finding my way back

In 2016, at one of the lowest points in my life, I began to rediscover something I had known much earlier.

As a child, I had been naturally drawn to spirituality and energy. Then I grew up. I became practical, responsible, busy, and somewhere along the way I put that part of myself away.

When I needed it most, I found it again. I found meditation. I found Reiki. And I began paying attention to my breath.

I noticed how often I held it. How shallowly I breathed. How little movement there could sometimes be through my body. I began to understand that what was happening in my body wasn't separate from the way I had been living.

And I wanted to know more.

What I understand now

What began as a personal journey became a decade of study, practice and professional training. I experienced the work myself. I questioned it. I studied it. And I learned how to guide others through it.

Gradually, everything came together.

The patterns that protect us can also become the patterns that limit us.

Staying busy. Keeping everybody happy. Staying in control. Getting everything right. Holding back. Pushing through. Making ourselves smaller.

These aren't signs that there is something wrong with us. They can be intelligent adaptations. Our bodies and minds learn from our experiences and develop patterns designed to help us cope and protect ourselves.

But a pattern that once helped us doesn't have to determine the rest of our lives. We can understand it. We can work with it. And we can change it.

Structure and intuition

For a long time, different parts of me seemed to belong in different worlds. There was the practical woman: the accountant, the business owner, the part of me that loves structure, detail and precision. And there was the intuitive woman, who had been there since childhood, the part that senses, feels and notices what is beneath the surface.

Today, I don't choose between them. I bring both.

I can teach you how your breathing works and help you understand what is happening physiologically. I can help you recognise the beliefs and patterns shaping the way you respond to life. And I can work intuitively with what I see, sense and notice as our work unfolds.

My training

I'm a Reiki teacher, trained in two full lineages. I'm trained in the Oxygen Advantage and Buteyko methods, also, in conscious connected Breathwork and trauma-informed practice. I've taken breath and wellbeing work into corporate work places and nursery schools, and I'm currently training in Breathwork for children. I remain a lifelong student, because the best practitioners never stop learning.

What it's like to work with me

I don't work from a script or assume everybody needs the same thing. I listen to what you tell me, pay attention to what I notice, and use my experience, training and intuition to guide where we go next.

Our work might include breath and physiology, helping your nervous system develop a different response, uncovering beliefs you've carried for years, or Reiki and energy work.

You set the pace. My role is to hold safe, supported space, so you can go as deep as feels right and no further.

If you're ready to see what's standing between you and the life you want, I'd love to help. A first session is a simple place to start.