The Founders - Holistic Wellness Community

Michelle Cherry
I remember life as a child feeling very whimsical. Laying on the lounge and chatting with the “dust fairies” in the sunshine, seemingly oblivious to the dysfunction around me. I learnt very early to disassociate from my trauma and have few long term memories. I do remember feeling very sad and lonely, struggling with anxiety and having to grow up very quickly. I carried the huge load right into my early 30’s, I was extremely shy and introverted. I was a people pleaser, work-a-holic and did what ever I could to gain others approval, avoid conflict and stay on the right side of people in order to keep my nerves intact. Even to the detriment of my young family.

In my early 30’s something inside me snapped. I completely broke down and literally pulled the rug out from under everything that was, including my marriage. I was ready to start again. I was done and couldn’t exist in this way any longer. It was at this time I knew I had to get to work on myself.

I went within to heal, I read every self help book I could get my hands on in order to better understand myself and sought out some beautiful healers to help me shine a light on myself and crack open the possibilities. During this time, I also began to understand and tune in to my mis-understood spiritual gifts that were always there and ultimately went on a journey of self healing and growth. I moved into a space of being super spiritual before learning to ground myself in my humanness.

My husband Troy also went on his own healing journey, working through his own childhood trauma. We rekindled our relationship and united in strength, in a brand new way, understanding that strong, yet nurturing and loving communication is paramount in any relationship.

Over that time, I wound back my bookkeeping business so that I could follow a new path. I started turning my attention toward learning various healing modalities as well as teaching monthly wholefood cooking classes to various community groups. I began to homeschool my children and intentionally created a slower life.

With this slowing down, I felt increasingly guided as to how I needed to show up. Learning to trust... I ‘knew’ that those coming into my life were for many reasons. Some came with empowering messages and some with big lessons too. During this time, I began facilitating healing women’s circles, as well as seeing private clients for reiki sessions. I was collaborating with friends to bring day retreats and loved the life I was creating. Then in 2019 I facilitated at the Fearless Women’s Forest Gathering where I met Carolyne. I knew at this point something big was coming. I just had to wait another six months to find out what…

My journey, just like yours is always unfolding and evolving. I am always learning and growing through the experiences life throws toward me and am excited for the unity, community and the oneness to come.

With much love, Michelle x
Carolyne Forte
As an Aquarian, I have always been somewhat of a humanitarian, but for the first 3 decades of my life, I had more issues than 'National Geographic'! I was brought up in a strict Irish Catholic household and as a child, I saw everything as black or white, right or wrong, believing that I had to be 'perfect'. I was weighed down by adult responsibilities well before my time, found it very difficult to relate to other children and FUN was not even in my vocabulary!

Governed by unrelenting standards, my teens and 20s were decades of rigid perfectionism and I was caught in a vicious cycle of co-dependency (a word I would not understand until I was nearly 40!). My friendships revolved around self-sacrifice, people pleasing and ‘rescuing’. I managed to stave off a complete mental breakdown until I was 31 when I was working 60 hours a week in hospitality management with a toddler in day care and an infant strapped to my chest. I was lucky enough to stumble across Schema Therapy and spent the next year working with a brilliant psychologist. I uncovered my inner child and discovered that I had been self-sabotaging my entire adult life in order to reinforce the core beliefs I had about myself.

My 30s were full of highs and lows; buying a large country hotel, separating from the father of my children, filing for bankruptcy, getting swept away in another relationship, becoming a homeschool mum, exploring spirituality as being separate from religion, and trying on many different hats to work out what I wanted to be when I grew up. Looking back, this was the decade where I woke up. No matter what I was experiencing, I remained dedicated to healing my inner child and the pursuit of self-love and self-acceptance, and I still am today.

2017 was the year that I discovered the ‘C’ word… co-dependency. I knew what I needed to do in order to create healthy boundaries, but it was almost as if the knowing got in the way of the doing. I needed to start walking my talk, and so together with my best friend, began to host a women's circle to provide women (and ourselves) a safe space to nurture themselves, be authentic, develop self-love and embrace the concept that life begins at the edge of your comfort zone. Weekly circles expanded to weekend retreats, organising International Women’s Day events and hosting the inaugural Fearless Women's Forest Gathering in 2019.

In March of 2020, just as the whole country went into lockdown, I realised that my vision was far too big to achieve on my own. Through divine intervention (remind me to tell you the story one day), I reached out to Michelle asking if she would partner with me and Holistic Wellness Community was born. My work with Holistic Wellness Community has shown me that when we move away from competition and towards collaboration and community, we become heart centered beings.

I have finally worked out what I want to be when I grow up… a person who co-creates safe spaces for people to connect on a deep and authentic level. And now, I am beyond honoured and humbled to share spaces with you all, where we can come together in community and acceptance of ourselves and each other… a space where we can support each other to be the best versions of ourselves we can be.

With truck loads of love, Carolyne. X

Privacy Policy and Notice
This is the privacy notice of Holistic Wellness Community In this document, ““we”, “our”, or “us” refers to Holistic Wellness Community.
We are a partnership (Michelle Cherry and Carolyne Forte) registered in Australia. Our registered office is at 303 Gibbings Road, Coolup.
Introduction
This privacy notice aims to inform you about how we collect and handle any information that we collect from you, or that you provide to us. It covers both information that could identify you (“personal information”) and information that could not.
We are extremely concerned to protect your privacy and confidentiality. We understand that all users of our web site are quite rightly concerned to know that their data will not be used for any purpose unintended by them, and will not accidentally fall into the hands of a third party. Our policy is both specific and strict. It complies with Australian law [and with the laws of all jurisdictions of which we are aware]. If you think our policy falls short of your expectations or that we are failing to abide by our policy, do please tell us.
We regret that if there are one or more points below with which you are not happy, your only recourse is to leave our web site immediately.
Except as set out below, we do not share, or sell, or disclose to a third party, any personally identifiable information collected at this site.
Here is a list of the information we collect from you, either through our web site or because you give it to us in some other way, and why it is necessary to collect it:

1. Business and personal information
This includes basic identification and contact information, such as your name and contact details and also includes all information given to us in the course of your business and ours, such as information you give us in your capacity as our client. We undertake to preserve the confidentiality of the information and of the terms of our relationship. It is not used for any other purpose. We expect you to reciprocate this policy.
This information is used:
1.1. to provide you with the services which you request;
1.2. for verifying your identity for security purposes;
1.3. for marketing our services and products;
1.4. information which does not identify any individual may be used in a general way by us or third parties, to provide class information, for example relating to demographics or usage of a particular page or service.
We keep information, which forms part of our business record for a minimum of seven years. That is because we may need it in some way to support a claim or defence in court. That is also the period within which our tax collecting authorities may demand to know it.

2. Market place information
When we obtain information from you specifically to enable you to buy a service offered on our website by some other person, we assume that in giving us your information, you are also giving us permission to pass it to the relevant person.

3. Your domain name and e-mail address
This information is recognised by our servers and the pages that you visit are recorded. We shall not under any circumstances, divulge your e-mail address to any person who is not an employee or contractor of ours and who does not need to know, either generally or specifically. This information is used:
3.1. to correspond with you or deal with you as you expect;
3.2. in a collective way not referable to any particular individual, for the purpose of quality control and improvement of our website;
3.3. to send you news about the services to which you have signed up;
3.4. to tell you about other of our services or services of sister websites.

4. Website usage information
We may use software embedded in our website (such as JavaScript) to collect information about pages you view and how you have reached them, what you do when you visit a page, the length of time you remain on the page, and how we perform in providing content to you. [We do not presently associate such information with an identifiable person.]

5. Financial information relating to your credit cards
This information is never taken by us either through our website or otherwise. At the point of payment, you are transferred to a secure page on the website of PayPal or some other reputable payment service provider. That page may be dressed in our “livery”, but it is not controlled by us. Our staff and contractors never have access to it.

6. Note on padlock symbols and other trust marks
Many companies offer certification and an icon or other small graphic to prove to website visitors that the site is safe. Some certify to a high level of safety. Others are more concerned to take our money than to provide a useful service. We do not handle information about your credit card so do not subscribe to any such service.

7. Information we obtain from third parties
Although we do not disclose your personal information to any third party (except as set out in this notice), we do receive data which is indirectly made up from your personal information, from software services such as Google Analytics and others. No such information is identifiable to you.

8. Content you provide to us with a view to be used by third party
If you provide information to us with a view to it being read, copied, downloaded, or used by other people, we accept no responsibility for what that third party may do with it. It is up to you to satisfy yourself about the privacy level of every person who might see your information. If it is available to the World, neither we nor you have no control whatever as to how it is used.

9. Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer's hard drive through your web browser when you visit any web site. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the website.
Like all other users of cookies, we may request the return of information from your computer when your browser requests a web page from our server. Cookies enable our web server to identify you to us, and to track your actions and the pages you visit while you use our website. The cookies we use may last for a single visit to our website (they are deleted from your computer when you close your browser), or may remain on your computer until you delete them or until a defined period of time has passed.
Although your browser software enables you to disable cookies, we recommend that you allow the use of cookies in order to take advantage of the features of our website that rely on their use. If you prevent their use, you will not be able to use all the functionality of our website. Here are the ways we use cookies:
9.1. to record whether you have accepted the use of cookies on our website. This is solely to comply with the law. If you have chosen not to accept cookies, we will not use cookies for your visit, but unfortunately, our website will not work well for you;
9.2. to allow essential parts of our website to operate for you;
9.3. to operate our content management system;
9.4. to operate the online notification form - the form that you use to contact us for any reason. This cookie is set on your arrival at our website and deleted when you close your browser;
9.5. to enhance security on our contact form. It is set for use only through the contact form. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser;
9.6. to collect information about how visitors use our website. We use the information to improve your experience of our website and enable us to increase sales. This cookie collects information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the website, where visitors have come to the website from, and the pages they visited;
9.7. to record that a user has viewed a webcast. It collects information in an anonymous form. This cookie expires when you close your browser;
9.8. to record your activity during a web cast. An example is as to whether you have asked a question or provided an opinion by ticking a box. This information is retained so that we can serve your information to you when you return to the website. This cookie will record an anonymous ID for each user, but it will not use the information for any other purpose. This cookie will last for [three] months, when it will be deleted automatically;
9.9. to store your personal information so that you do not have to provide it afresh when you visit the site next time. This cookie will last for [90] days;
9.10. to enable you to watch videos we have placed on YouTube. YouTube will not store personally identifiable cookie information when you use YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode.

10. Sending a message us
When you send a message, we collect the data you have given to us in that message in order to obtain confirmation that you are entitled to receive the information and to provide to you the information you need. We record your request and our reply in order to increase the efficiency of our business / organisation. We do not keep any personally identifiable information associated with your message, such as your name or email address.

11. Complaining
When we receive a complaint, we record all the information you have given to us. We use that information to resolve your complaint. If your complaint reasonably requires us to contact some other person, we may decide to give to that other person some of the information contained in your complaint. We do this as infrequently as possible, but it is a matter for our sole discretion as to whether we do give information, and if we do, what that information is.
We may also compile statistics showing information obtained from this source to assess the level of service we provide, but not in a way that could identify you or any other person.

12. Affiliate information
This is information given to us by you in your capacity as an affiliate of us or a customer or client of ours. Such information is retained for business use only. We undertake to preserve the confidentiality of the information and of the terms of our relationship. It is not used for any other purpose. We expect any affiliate to agree to reciprocate this policy. As an exception to this, we have the right to disclose your first name and URL of your affiliate connection to other affiliates and to any other person or organisation, on and off site. The reason is solely to enable us to mention winners and others whose performance as an affiliate is in some way outstanding.

13. Disclosure to Government and their agencies
We are subject to the law like everyone else. We may be required to give information to legal authorities if they so request or if they have the proper authorisation such as a search warrant or court order.

14. Compliance with the law
This privacy policy has been compiled so as to comply with the law of every jurisdiction in which we aim to do business. If you think it fails to satisfy the law of your country, we would like to hear from you, but ultimately it is your choice as to whether you wish to use our website.

15. Review or update personally identifiable information
At any time you may review or update the personally identifiable information that we hold about you, by contacting us at the address below. To better safeguard your information, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections to your information.

16. Removal of your information
If you wish us to remove personally identifiable information from our website, you may contact us at admin@hwcommunity.org

17. Data may be processed outside Australia
Our website is hosted in Australia. We also use outsourced services in countries outside Australia from time to time in other aspects of our business. Accordingly, data obtained within Australia may be processed outside Australia and data obtained in any other country may be processed within or outside that country.

18. Complaints procedure
18.1. If you have a complaint about how we have collected or handled your personal information, please contact us. We will endeavour in the first instance to deal with your complaint and take action to resolve the matter.
18.2. If your complaint cannot be resolved at the first instance, we will ask you to lodge a formal complaint in writing, explaining the circumstances of the matter that you are complaining about, how you believe your privacy has been interfered with and how you believe your complaint should be resolved.
18.3. We will acknowledge receipt of your formal complaint and indicate the timeframe that you can expect a response. We will endeavour to resolve the complaint as quickly as possible, but if the matter is complex and our investigation may take longer, we will let you know when we expect to provide our response.
18.4. If you are unhappy with our response, you may refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

How you can contact us

Emailing admin@hwcommunity.org

Sending a letter to us at:

Attn: Privacy Officer
303 Gibbings Road Coolup, 6214

OAIC contact details:
Officer of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au

19. Change in Privacy Policy
As we plan to ensure our privacy policy remains current, this policy is subject to change. Please return periodically to review our privacy policy.

If you have any question regarding the privacy policy, please contact us through the contact page.
Now take me back where I was before reading this.