Welcome to Women are the Medicine
Our mission
We're Naz and Rachel, and we’re building a community of women who refuse to keep trying to fix systems that were never designed for them in the first place.
Look around at the world we’re living in: the old structures are crumbling. Corporate frameworks, hustle culture, and masculine-dominated business models are showing their cracks.
While these systems serve no one perfectly, they particularly fail women.
Yet this also gives us a unique advantage: we see the flaws more clearly, feel the need for change more deeply, and find it easier to imagine something better.
What we're building
There's something happening right now on Substack and beyond. Hundreds of thousands of brilliant women are here creating their own spaces, their own businesses, their own visions – imagining alternatives, connecting with their audiences directly.
But here's the problem we keep seeing: so many of us end up recreating the same toxic patterns we're trying to escape. We push ourselves too hard, wear exhaustion like a badge of honour, stay isolated, and feel we need to do it all alone.
There is another way.
At Women are the Medicine, we're building a community where creative and visionary women can grow their impact without burning out. We focus on three essential medicines that transform how you work and live:
Medicine for Yourself: Treating your energy as your most valuable asset. Moving from constant battle to natural flow. Learning to honour your needs, boundaries, and innate wisdom.
Medicine for Each Other: Breaking free from isolation. Building networks of aligned women who lift each other as they rise. Creating collaboration over competition.
Medicine for the World: Aligning your work with your deepest values. Bringing feminine principles into balance with masculine action. Making your unique contribution to a world in need of transformation.
Who we are
We're Rachel and Naz, both of us coaches specialising in female psychology and rewiring the patterns that can keep brilliant women stuck.
Rachel Lawlan spent over two decades in the world's leading marketing and tech agencies before walking away to create a life and career that felt more aligned. She now specialises in helping women navigate midlife transitions, identity shifts, and finding their purpose. Rachel understands firsthand the challenge of redefining success on your own terms and offers a practical approach for women to reimagine how they live and work in a way that is designed by them and for them, not in spite of them.
Nasreen El-Mariesh has over a decade of experience in marketing, PR, and events, managing everything from luxury retreats to large-scale festivals. During the pandemic, she built a six-figure relationship coaching business serving a global community. Naz combines intuition, somatics, and the science of neuroplasticity in her work with clients ranging from psychotherapists to entrepreneurs.
Who this is for
We're building this for women who are tired of shrinking themselves to fit into boxes that were never the right shape to begin with.
You might be:
A coach or therapist expanding beyond one-to-one work
A creator building your community
A writer or artist expanding your audience
A changemaker growing your impact
A visionary trapped in corporate, dreaming of launching your own venture
A purpose-led entrepreneur building an ethical, sustainable business
A business owner outgrowing your current offer and ready to expand
An innovator with a solution the world needs
This isn't about fitting into traditional business models. It's about bringing your unique medicine to a world that needs it, in whatever form that takes.
What to expect
Our writing, podcasts and community circles will challenge you to:
Move toward pleasure, creativity and meaning, letting life force energy flow though you and your work (rather than feeling it’s a constant battle and uphill struggle)
Trust your intuition over seeking external validation
Take yourself and your needs seriously
Build genuine community rather than superficial "networking"
Create sustainable growth that aligns with your values
Express yourself authentically instead of performing, masking, or trying to be someone you’re not
In a world obsessed with formulaic approaches and quick fixes, we offer something different: a space to reclaim your power, reconnect with your purpose, and build something that lasts—without sacrificing yourself in the process.
Join us
The free subscription gives you access to some of our articles. For those ready to go deeper, our paid membership (£20/month or £150/year) offers:
Monthly Q&As and coaching conversations with Naz and Rachel
Subscriber-only posts helping you scale your impact without the burnout
Becoming part of our community of inspirational visionary women building better ways of living and working
Full archive of past resources, plus bonus live sessions and invites to our programmes and events
Our Founding Member tier (£300/year) includes all the above plus a personal 60-minute coaching session with either Naz or Rachel.
Time to take yourself seriously
The world needs your particular medicine, which only you can create.
When you honour all three medicines—tending to your purpose, yourself, and your connections—everything flows naturally from there.
Share with a friend and let’s build something better, together.
