Self-care starts with becoming fluent in...
...the Language of Your Body
Welcome,
I'm Monica Hughes
Research Scientist | Body Literacy & Reproductive Health Educator
I support women in understanding their cycles, working with their hormones, interpreting their body’s biofeedback, and integrating nervous system science—so they can navigate their reproductive health with precision, agency, and rhythm.
I integrate fertility awareness, nervous system science and reproductive physiology to support women in becoming fluent in the language of their bodies—restoring cyclical health, cultivating body literacy, and reconnecting with the intelligence of their design.
If you’ve ever felt confused, dismissed or disconnected from your body and your cycle, you’re not alone.
So many of us were never shown the depth, nuance or intelligence of how our bodies actually work—or how our cycles serve us. We weren’t taught how to care for our bodies in ways that support their rhythm.
From a young age, we’re offered quick fixes for complex symptoms. Hormonal birth control becomes the default. PMS is normalized. Pain is minimized. And the language of our bodies becomes something we’re taught to ignore.
Over time, this creates a quiet sense that something is off. We move through life feeling unfamiliar with our cycles—and disconnected from our bodies. And without the tools to make sense of it.
Reproductive health and nervous system health are rarely part of the conversation—despite being central to how women feel, function, and adapt. Most healthcare models don’t teach us to connect the dots between stress, hormones, and cyclical symptoms.
And the culture we live in often reinforces that disconnection. Modern lifestyles glorify productivity and normalize chronic stimulation, keeping us in a state of sympathetic overactivation. This disrupts the body’s natural rhythms and rarely gives the space needed to downshift, restore, and integrate.
Nervous system health, like reproductive health, remains largely absent from conversations about well-being. Yet both are foundational to how we feel, function, and flourish.
Women’s reproductive health has long been shaped by cultural, social, and medical systems that weren’t built with our full biology in mind. These systems often miss the nuance. The context. The intelligence of the female body.
And they leave out two of the most critical systems shaping our well-being: the reproductive system and the nervous system. These are not side notes—they are central to how we experience health, stress, emotion, and vitality.
Your cycle is a vital sign of your overall health.
An intelligent feedback system, reflecting how your external world is interacting with your inner physiology.
And there’s another layer—your nervous system is working with your cycle. Quietly interpreting signals of stress, safety, and your environment—shaping hormonal rhythms as part of your body’s adaptive design.
When we begin to understand these systems, we open the door to a new kind of health—one that doesn’t override the body, but partners with it.
This is the heart of Body Literacy.
Not just awareness—but fluency.
Not just symptom relief—but a framework for living in rhythm with your biology.
To understand your cycle as a vital sign.
To reconnect with your body’s intelligence.
To partner with your biology, your rhythm, your design.
Monica Hughes
Research Scientist | Body Literacy &
Reproductive Health Educator
Monica Hughes is a Research Scientist turned Body Literacy and Reproductive Health Educator, blending over a decade of expertise in health economics and outcomes research and a deep foundation in somatic education and integrative health.
Her training spans academic research, breathwork, yoga, Matt Pilates, Lagree, somatic practice, as well as the Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner (HRHP) and Fertility Awareness Educator (FAE) certification through Justisse College International, which she is currently completing.
As a Research Scientist, Monica has contributed to high-level projects in oncology, metabolic disorders, infectious diseases, rare genetic conditions, and neuroinflammatory disease—building a nuanced understanding of human physiology, regulatory pathways, complex health systems, and stress adaptation.
Today, she brings that rigour to the next evolution in women’s health—redefining it through the lens of cyclical intelligence, nervous system science, and fertility awareness. Her work is grounded in frameworks such as neurobiology, neuroendocrinology, Polyvagal Theory, and Interpersonal Neurobiology—offering a precise, evidence-based approach to the rhythms of the female body.
Her relationship to movement has evolved from one of performance to one of attunement. With a background in yoga, Matt Pilates, Lagree, breathwork, and somatic practice, Monica now facilitates classes and workshops that prioritize embodiment, breath, and parasympathetic access. Less fitness, more feeling—as a way home to the body.
Through her private practice, she guides women in understanding their bodies, restoring cyclical health, and reconnecting with their biological rhythms—so they can work with their biology rather than against it. Her signature program, The Fertility Sessions, is a one-to-one consulting service that supports women in understanding their reproductive health, fertility, and stress physiology through an evidence-based, body-led framework.
Monica is currently based in Vancouver and is available for studio residencies, guest classes, and workshop facilitation. Her offerings blend trauma-informed education, nervous system literacy, and cyclical rhythm awareness to support women in building resilience through relationship with their bodies.
If you’re building a community of care and want to co-create something meaningful, you can reach out here.