A Memoir of Breath, Burnout & Becoming
by Elise Small
What if the breakdown was never the end, what if it was the gateway to your becoming?
‘The Woman After.’ is a raw, poetic memoir-meets-method for the woman who has whispered, “I can’t keep doing this,” then rose anyway. Until she couldn’t.
It’s for the woman on the other side of soul-numbing survival, separation or divorce, career burnout or identity loss. The woman who gave until she lost herself, who knows there’s more but doesn’t know where to begin.
Part memoir. Part manual. Part myth.
From the ashes of motherhood, betrayal and burnout, Elise shares the breathwork, rituals and truths that helped her rebuild a life rooted in wholeness.
This isn’t surface-level self-help. It’s permission to feel, tools to heal and truths that crack you open so you can remember the woman before the lies, the roles and the stories that held you back.
Here, you will uncover the woman behind the mask and the woman who comes after the storm.
Because the world doesn’t need a palatable version of you.
It needs the after you.
The Woman After. – A Memoir-Methodology for the Woman Ready to Return to Herself
By Elise Small | Somatic Breathwork & Energetics Coach
What if the breakdown was never the end, but the portal to your becoming?
The Woman After. is a raw, poetic and powerfully embodied memoir-meets-methodology for every woman who has ever looked around her life and whispered, “I can’t keep doing this,” and rose anyway. Until she couldn’t.
This isn’t just her story. It’s yours.
It’s for the woman on the other side of soul-numbing survival, separation or divorce, career burnout or identity loss. The woman who gave and gave until she could no longer find herself in the mirror. The woman who loves deeply but forgets to include herself. The woman who knows there is more, but hasn’t known where to begin.
Part memoir. Part manual. Part myth.
This book is a soul-deep exhale and a fierce reclamation.
From the ashes of rupture whilst navigating motherhood, separation, betrayal and burnout, Elise takes your hand and walks you back through her own unraveling, sharing the breathwork, tools, rituals and revelations that helped her rebuild a life rooted in wholeness, truth and fierce feminine leadership.
Inside these pages, you’ll discover:
- The silent systems that failed you and how to release their grip
- How separation, guilt, shame and burnout can become doorways to remembrance
- The truth about rage, boundaries and rewriting the ‘good mother’ myth
- Somatic breathwork tools to regulate your nervous system and reclaim your power
- Journal prompts and reflection rituals to call your whole self home
- A new definition of resilience, one rooted in softness, self-trust and sovereignty
This book is for you if:
- You’re navigating separation, divorce, emotional detachment, or relationship grief
- You’re a woman who feels invisible in the role you were once praised for
- You’ve been holding it all together and are ready to fall apart (safely)
- You’re exhausted from the healing hustle and ready for embodied, cyclical self-love
- You want tools that are trauma-informed, heart-centred and real
A little love from the readers themselves -
“I've never been able to look into the mirror and not feel ashamed of the life I felt trapped in. Elise, you changed my life. I don’t think I have cried as much as I have with this book. It deserves a better title because it is so much more than just pages of a story.”
“It felt like Elise had read my journal. Every word reflected what I didn’t know was shouting out to me.”
“I finally found a book that not only fell into my hands, but the direction I didn’t know I needed.”
The Woman After. is your invitation to lay it all down, pick yourself back up and walk yourself home.
There is always another way.
Ready to remember who you are?
Purchase your copy today and discover the woman who has been waiting for you beneath it all.
Part wild heart, part truth-teller, part barefoot rebel here to remind you that you were never too much for this world.
Hi, I’m Elise Small! I'm a Somatic Breathwork and Energetics Coach, mother and writer, here to guide you back home to yourself after you’ve spent a lifetime being everything for everyone else. I weave trauma-informed therapy into transformational spaces, blending science, modern-day spirituality and storytelling with a deeply lived lens to help women navigate the messy, beautiful terrain of separation, burnout, identity loss and motherhood. I believe true healing begins when we return to our bodies, not from the top-down, but from the inside-out. I’m known for my grounded, heart-led leadership and poetic truth-telling and I’m deeply passionate about actively including our children in the healing process to break cycles of emotional inheritance with each breath and conversation. My debut book, The Woman After., is more than my story. It’s a movement, a mirror and a roadmap for any woman ready to remember her wild and redefine resilience on her own terms. I’m so glad you’re here.