The Woman After.
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The Woman After.
A Breathwork Case Study in Self-Leadership and Identity Transformation
by Elise Small
You can be deeply self-aware and still feel completely disconnected from yourself.
The Woman After. is a psychologically confronting case study and identity-reclamation experience for women who became “the strong one” long before they ever felt safe being held themselves.
Through womanhood, burnout, separation, nervous system collapse and profound personal reconstruction, international author and certified global transformational breathwork trainer Elise explores the hidden emotional realities many women silently live inside, from hyper-independence, over-functioning, people pleasing, emotional suppression, identity loss, invisible labour and the exhaustion of performing strength while privately falling apart.
This is not a self-help book.
It is an emotionally honest exploration of what happens when women spend years surviving through adaptation while slowly disconnecting from their own body, truth and internal authority.
Merging embodiment, breathwork and psychologically precise observations around modern-day womanhood, The Woman After. gives language to experiences many women have carried silently for years but never fully known how to explain.
Women do not leave this book feeling motivated, they leave feeling recognised. Deeply.
This book is for the woman who:
– holds everything together while quietly losing herself underneath it all
– feels emotionally exhausted despite appearing capable externally
– struggles to rest without guilt
– has spent years searching for healing while still feeling disconnected from herself
– secretly knows there is a more honest, self-led version of her waiting underneath survival
At its core, The Woman After. is about what becomes possible when a woman finally stops abandoning herself. It's raw and emotionally devastating in accuracy.
This is the book women pass between each other quietly because it finally put language to the thing they thought they were carrying alone.
““I’ve done years of healing work and for the first time I could see exactly why I kept falling back into the same relationships and habits. This book didn’t just resonate, it confronted me. I started noticing how I was responding in real time, not just reflecting after the fact. That changed everything.””
Sandra T. (Melbourne)
““I already knew what I needed to do, that was never the problem. I just couldn’t hold myself an be in it. This book showed me where I was losing myself. It’s the first time something has translated into how I live, not just what I understand. Finally a book that isn't all rinsed and repeated self-help garbage.” ”
Emily (Mama of 2, Brisbane)
““I’ve experienced breathwork before, but this is completely different. Elise was right when she says it's not about the experience, it’s about what you do with it after. I stopped chasing being able to cry and started using it to actually change how I respond in my life. I'm not the same after reading this, I've read it 4 times now.””
Chloe (Potts Point, Sydney)
““This book showed me that I wasn’t avoiding action, I was avoiding what came with it. Once I saw that, I couldn’t unsee it. I’ve stopped pulling back every time things start working. I can't thank you enough, Elise."”
Nat (Bondi, Sydney)
Elise Small is an international author, certified global breathwork trainer and founder of Orygen Breathwork™ whose work sits at the intersection of embodiment, identity transformation and feminine self-leadership.
Known for her emotionally precise and psychologically confronting approach to modern womanhood, Elise’s work explores the hidden realities many women silently live inside, from burnout, hyper-independence, emotional over-functioning, identity loss, self-abandonment and the quiet exhaustion of performing strength for too long. Through lived experience spanning motherhood, separation, nervous system collapse and profound personal reconstruction, Elise became devoted to helping women return to themselves honestly, replacing endless self-improvement with embodiment, emotional truth and self-leadership. The Woman After. is her most intimate body of work yet. A culturally resonant case study, meets memoir and identity-reclamation movement for women ready to stop surviving themselves and finally come home to who they are underneath the performance.