Zoe works at the intersection of the arts, health and the environment developing tools to support collective care, co-liberation, play and flourishing in the face of climate breakdown.
As a lifelong kitchen herbalist and human ecologist by training, Zoe approaches herbal medicine as form of applied human ecology – where plants and people work together to return the body to a state of health and balance. She is currently undertaking professional training in Medical Herbalism with Betonica.
Zoe works with bees to support personal and collective wellbeing. In 2009 she co-founded The Golden Company, an award-winning social enterprise that addressed wellbeing and structural inequalities around access to nature for people of colour through beekeeping. The project continues at St. Mary’s Secret Garden in Hackney.
Through her work at The Royal London Hospital and co-designing and facilitating workshops for the Music and Motherhood research project with Imperial and The Royal College of Music she has developed music for birth and bonding – a programme that harnesses the power of music to support families through the third and fourth trimesters, with a particular emphasis on maternal mental health and postnatal depression.
MUSIC AT HEART (2019)
An ongoing Creative Residency at The Royal London Hospital
MUSIC + MOTHERHOOD (2016)
“Singing help[s] mothers to overcome postnatal depression.”
The Impact of Creative Interventions on Symptoms of Postnatal Depression
Facilitating Interventions for Mothers and their Babies
Featured pp.45-6 The Inquiry Report – Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing
SINGING FOR HEARING IMPAIRED CHILDREN (2015)
Using Singing to Nurture Children’s Hearing
THE SONGWEAVER (2014)
Music for children on Neonatal, Retinoblastoma & Gastroenterology Wards
BABY BIRD’S JOURNEY (2012)
A musical story written with parents on the Neonatal Ward
LULLABIES (2011)
“It was rather like a sigh, calming and relaxing. The atmosphere on the ward changed perceptively almost immediately…for many dads it gave them the chance to be able to cradle their baby for longer…lullaby sessions support the development of attachment between mum and her baby, as well as helping the whole family become closer.”
Christine Wood – Midwife, The Royal London Hospital
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The Royal Society of Public Health awarded our Lullabies residency a Certificate of Commendation.
“The Committee were very impressed by the musical excellence and innovative character of this project and its significant and moving outcomes for all who took part. The public health implications of your work are clear and substantial. The Committee felt that your work deserves replication and objective scientific assessment, and it hopes that further work will be possible.”
ITN News – Lullabies at The Royal London Hospital
BBC World Service – The Language of Lullabies – A composed documentary by Nina Perry
