About Cheryl
Cheryl Kennedy MacDonald MA BA (Hons) PgDip.
Female-Focused Psychotherapist
Cheryl Kennedy MacDonald is a psychotherapist, yoga elder, author, and researcher with over two decades of experience supporting women through every stage of life. Based between Singapore, the UK, and Bali, she integrates psychotherapy, somatic practices, and feminist approaches to help women navigate transitions such as pregnancy, motherhood, perimenopause, and midlife identity change. Her unique work bridges clinical practice with embodied wellbeing, emphasising that yoga and therapy are not simply about techniques but about re-imagining how women live, age, and relate.
Cheryl began her career in women’s health after the birth of her son, founding YogaBellies®, a pioneering global women’s yoga collective. Over 16 years she trained hundreds of teachers in female-focused yoga, making yoga accessible to women from pregnancy to menopause. She authored more than 10 books, including Birth ROCKS and YogaPause, which provide practical, integrative frameworks for women to prepare for birth and navigate perimenopause. Her work has been widely featured in the media, including appearances on BBC Dragons’ Den and ITV’s This Morning. She has written articles for Yoga Journal, The Practising Midwife, Juno, OM Yoga Magazine, Women's Fitness, Women's Health, Daily Mail, Your Fitness, Mother & Baby, The Green Parent and more.
Alongside her entrepreneurial work, Cheryl pursued formal training in psychotherapy. She completed a Master’s Degree in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy in 2025 (University of Roehampton, London) and a Postgraduate Diploma in the same discipline. Her therapeutic practice draws on Person-Centred Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), somatic and body-based modalities, and feminist psychotherapy. She has additional training in Integrative Sex and Couples Therapy (with Dr Tammy Nelson) and ADHD Clinical Services Provision, with a particular interest in supporting adult women with ADHD.
Cheryl’s clinical and research interests focus on how women’s self-esteem, relationships, and embodied experiences intersect across the lifespan. Her Master’s dissertation explored the impact of self-esteem on relationships in women aged 40–55, reflecting her commitment to understanding midlife transitions not only through a biomedical lens but also through psychosocial and cultural perspectives. She is actively building a portfolio of peer-reviewed publications, including narrative reviews and practice-based insights on perimenopause, integrative birth preparation, and feminist therapy.
Her current conceptual and practice projects include:
YogaPause: a clinical and community framework integrating yoga, psychotherapy, and feminist reflection to support women through perimenopause.
Integrative Birth Preparation: combining yoga, hypnosis, and natural approaches within a feminist psychotherapeutic lens.
Therapy for Midlife Women: practice-based insights into how identity, self-esteem, and relationships shift during perimenopause and menopause.
ADHD and Women’s Health: exploring the intersection of hormonal transitions, executive functioning, and therapeutic interventions.
Cheryl's long term aim is to deeply engaged in more academic writing and to pursue a PhD on women’s health, psychotherapy, and embodiment.
Beyond her clinical and academic work, Cheryl is an advocate for women’s empowerment and ageing well. She challenges deficit-based narratives of menopause, presenting it instead as a stage of growth and reconnection. Drawing on embodiment theory and feminist psychology, she helps women cultivate agency, resilience, and joy through therapeutic dialogue, yoga, and community support.
Her professional practice spans multiple cultural contexts, reflecting her international life. In Singapore, she works primarily with professional women balancing high-pressure careers and family demands; in the UK, she supports midlife women negotiating identity and relational shifts; in Bali, she has offered retreat-based programmes emphasising somatic healing and lifestyle change. This cross-cultural perspective informs her belief that perimenopause, birth, and womanhood are not solely biological events but psychosocial and cultural transitions.
Cheryl’s mission is clear: to integrate psychotherapy, somatic practice, and feminist perspectives in ways that are clinically robust, culturally sensitive, and empowering. Through therapy, writing, teaching, and research, she continues to support women worldwide to embrace every life stage with confidence, compassion, and purpose.
Cheryl began her career in women’s health after the birth of her son, founding YogaBellies®, a pioneering global women’s yoga collective. Over 16 years she trained hundreds of teachers in female-focused yoga, making yoga accessible to women from pregnancy to menopause. She authored more than 10 books, including Birth ROCKS and YogaPause, which provide practical, integrative frameworks for women to prepare for birth and navigate perimenopause. Her work has been widely featured in the media, including appearances on BBC Dragons’ Den and ITV’s This Morning. She has written articles for Yoga Journal, The Practising Midwife, Juno, OM Yoga Magazine, Women's Fitness, Women's Health, Daily Mail, Your Fitness, Mother & Baby, The Green Parent and more.
Alongside her entrepreneurial work, Cheryl pursued formal training in psychotherapy. She completed a Master’s Degree in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy in 2025 (University of Roehampton, London) and a Postgraduate Diploma in the same discipline. Her therapeutic practice draws on Person-Centred Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), somatic and body-based modalities, and feminist psychotherapy. She has additional training in Integrative Sex and Couples Therapy (with Dr Tammy Nelson) and ADHD Clinical Services Provision, with a particular interest in supporting adult women with ADHD.
Cheryl’s clinical and research interests focus on how women’s self-esteem, relationships, and embodied experiences intersect across the lifespan. Her Master’s dissertation explored the impact of self-esteem on relationships in women aged 40–55, reflecting her commitment to understanding midlife transitions not only through a biomedical lens but also through psychosocial and cultural perspectives. She is actively building a portfolio of peer-reviewed publications, including narrative reviews and practice-based insights on perimenopause, integrative birth preparation, and feminist therapy.
Her current conceptual and practice projects include:
YogaPause: a clinical and community framework integrating yoga, psychotherapy, and feminist reflection to support women through perimenopause.
Integrative Birth Preparation: combining yoga, hypnosis, and natural approaches within a feminist psychotherapeutic lens.
Therapy for Midlife Women: practice-based insights into how identity, self-esteem, and relationships shift during perimenopause and menopause.
ADHD and Women’s Health: exploring the intersection of hormonal transitions, executive functioning, and therapeutic interventions.
Cheryl's long term aim is to deeply engaged in more academic writing and to pursue a PhD on women’s health, psychotherapy, and embodiment.
Beyond her clinical and academic work, Cheryl is an advocate for women’s empowerment and ageing well. She challenges deficit-based narratives of menopause, presenting it instead as a stage of growth and reconnection. Drawing on embodiment theory and feminist psychology, she helps women cultivate agency, resilience, and joy through therapeutic dialogue, yoga, and community support.
Her professional practice spans multiple cultural contexts, reflecting her international life. In Singapore, she works primarily with professional women balancing high-pressure careers and family demands; in the UK, she supports midlife women negotiating identity and relational shifts; in Bali, she has offered retreat-based programmes emphasising somatic healing and lifestyle change. This cross-cultural perspective informs her belief that perimenopause, birth, and womanhood are not solely biological events but psychosocial and cultural transitions.
Cheryl’s mission is clear: to integrate psychotherapy, somatic practice, and feminist perspectives in ways that are clinically robust, culturally sensitive, and empowering. Through therapy, writing, teaching, and research, she continues to support women worldwide to embrace every life stage with confidence, compassion, and purpose.
