Empowering Midlife Women Through Wellness & Resilience | Perimenopause Coach | Author of Looking After Me | Fire Walking Instructor | Founder of M Canavan Consulting
Meet Melissa Canavan
Melissa Canavan, BSc, ILM L5, is a certified Perimenopause Coach, author, and Founder of M Canavan Consulting. A former NHS nurse with over 20 years in healthcare, she now empowers women and organizations through wellness coaching, leadership development, and resilience training. Known for her grounded approach and deep clinical insight, Melissa blends evidence-based practice with holistic strategies to support midlife transformation and wellbeing. Her work spans personal coaching, healthcare consultancy, and group facilitation, redefining how we care for ourselves and others in times of change.
A Moment of Reflection
“Don’t let a few hours ruin your whole week. The storm will eventually pass.”
These words, penned by Melissa after a storm-struck night in Ibiza, are more than a travel anecdote, they’re a personal philosophy. Stranded without shelter, soaked, and uncertain of how she’d get back, Melissa found clarity, gratitude, and perspective. That storm became a metaphor not only for her journey, but for the women she supports, those navigating the internal turbulence of perimenopause, often silently, often alone.
Care as a Calling
Melissa’s path began in Leeds, England, where she trained as an adult nurse at the University of Leeds. Her early years in the NHS were marked by a passionate commitment to patient care and health equity. Over 20 years in healthcare, including 16 as a registered nurse, she built a strong foundation in primary care, eventually specialising in respiratory health.
Her qualifications include advanced diplomas in asthma, COPD, smoking cessation, and heart failure demonstrating her breadth of clinical knowledge. But it wasn’t just clinical skills that set her apart; it was her ability to connect. Melissa didn’t just treat symptoms, she listened, advocated, and inspired.
Leadership Beyond the Clinic
Melissa’s leadership journey gained momentum as she co-founded the Leeds Respiratory Network, a pioneering initiative designed to reduce variations in respiratory care across the city. Simultaneously, she served as Co-Director of Respiratory Care Solutions, a social enterprise committed to improving outcomes and experience for patients while reducing systemic healthcare costs.
Under her leadership, these organizations built their ethos around the “6 Cs” of nursing—care, compassion, competence, communication, courage, and commitment. Melissa embodied all six. She also contributed to national leadership programmes through the Primary Care Respiratory Society’s Respiratory Leaders Management Team, helping clinicians step into leadership roles and innovate local care delivery.
During this period, she also led ARRS staff across multiple Primary Care Networks and played an instrumental role in developing wellbeing initiatives for NHS staff.
But leadership, for Melissa, was never just about clinical pathways. It was about people. The next chapter of her career would take that commitment even further.
From Coaching Rooms to Stages
Stepping away from the NHS, Melissa launched M Canavan Consulting Ltd, where she channels her expertise into executive coaching, wellness training, and facilitation. Her focus? Midlife women—especially those facing the often-overlooked realities of perimenopause.
Through her ILM Level 5 coaching and mentoring certification and extensive training in mindfulness, Melissa created a safe space for women to regain confidence, clarity, and control. Whether through one-to-one coaching, group programmes, or corporate wellbeing sessions, her approach is integrative, compassionate, and deeply personal.
“Many are suffering without knowing there is something they can do about it”
Melissa reflects in one of her LinkedIn posts. This urgency led her to write not one, but two books—
- Looking After Me: A practical guide to wellness, self-care, and emotional resilience.
- Perimenopause & Me: A coaching guide that combines personal insight with expert contributions, giving women tools to navigate sleep issues, hormonal shifts, and mental health challenges.
Her work is more than support, it’s advocacy. By bridging clinical understanding with lived experience, Melissa is transforming how perimenopause is discussed, treated, and respected.
The Power of Presence: Insights from Experience
Melissa doesn’t just coach, she lives the journey she teaches.
In one week, she might be at a workshop at Shine Workspace in Leeds, or at a respiratory education event in Bradford, and attending a wellness conference to connect with fellow professionals.
Her posts, humble, humorous, and heartfelt—resonate with honesty. Whether she’s speaking on sleep deprivation caused by a barking dog, or reflecting on feeling overwhelmed by notifications, Melissa brings a human lens to every experience.
Creating Space for Transformation
Melissa’s future is rooted in her current mission:
To help women move through perimenopause and midlife with dignity, support, and power.
She envisions a world where menopause is no longer taboo, but understood as a natural phase deserving of respect and care. Her coaching model emphasizes self-compassion, resilience, and realignment, a system where every woman is treated not just as a patient, but as a whole person.
As a fire walking instructor, she quite literally teaches people how to walk through fear. It’s a powerful symbol of her broader work: helping individuals realize they are more capable, more resilient, and more powerful than they’ve been led to believe.
From Clinical Care to Emotional Courage
Melissa Canavan’s story is not just about titles or achievements, it’s about transformation. She has walked with people through illness, recovery, anxiety, and now through midlife reinvention. Her career reflects a rare integrity: rooted in service, growing through leadership, and flourishing in empathy.
“How we sleep, how we feel, how we lead—it all matters,” she says.
And through her coaching, writing, and community leadership, she reminds us: the storm always passes—and we don’t have to face it alone.
