About me

Dr Hannah McNeilly

Hello and welcome! I am Hannah.

I work with people who have spent years functioning, caring, and carrying responsibility—and who now feel depleted, disconnected, or no longer quite like themselves. You may still be showing up, or you may be quietly questioning your work, your energy, or what comes next.

My work is especially for healthcare professionals, academics, and other people whose roles involve sustained responsibility and care for others.

As a lecturer and trained medical doctor, I understand the long-term pressures of these professions, and how easily connection to yourself can be lost along the way.

Through mindful nature connection and gentle somatic movement, I offer spaces that support restoration at a deep level—helping you reconnect with your body, your environment, and developing a sense of presence and ease.

This work is not about pushing harder or fixing yourself.
It’s about finding your way back to what sustains you.

From the Clinic into the Forest

In the beginning, I studied medicine in Berlin and worked clinically and in research. I had chosen this path to understand what life is, what causes suffering, how people heal, and how I could contribute to their health. But after two years of working as a doctor, the rushed interactions with my patients, the long work hours, and the high pressure of the job were grinding me down. I felt far away from what had drawn me to medicine in the first place. I felt stressed and disconnected. And I knew I was on a path towards burnout if I did not make big changes in my life.

I packed my bags and moved to Scotland to become a medical anthropologist. This bold shift led me to conduct research on Afro-Brazilian religious healing (Candomblé) in the Atlantic rainforest for a PhD in Social Anthropology. It was bliss! Finally, I could work on the big questions about healing, ritual performance, and collective practices of care. However, the realities of working as a university lecturer and researcher turned out to be exhausting as well - exacerbated by the pandemic lockdown with my young family.

During the pandemic, I started training in Somatics and Forest Therapy. Tuning into nature and into my body was a different kind of adventure, one that energised me even in difficult times. My practice now brings together what I have learned about health, healing, resting, and care in over 20 years of work in medicine and academia - and in life beyond institutions.

In 2024, I led a 6-week Nature Connection outdoor course for postgraduate students at The University of Edinburgh, together with Dr Imogen Bevan.

You can read about it in the University of Edinburgh’s Teaching Matters blogpost here