life transitions

About Dr Margaretha Montagu

With great enthusiasm, I put the essence of who I am and everything I have experienced that makes me who I am into my signature system, retreats, courses, coaching and books. Dr Margaretha Montagu @ Esprit Meraki Retreats and Inner Camino Road Maps (Post-Crisis Reconstruction Protocols).

Life Transitions: from Confusion to Clarity

When people ask me what I do, I tell them that I’m a cartographer, a map maker, a path lighter, a get-through-a-crisis guide. I help people manage stress, rewrite their life stories, and start new chapters, especially people struggling to find their way through life transitions like career changes, starting new businesses, moving to different countries, getting divorced, losing loved ones, and coping with empty nests, debilitating illnesses, retirement – any substantial change – planned or unplanned – in their circumstances.

We go through the same major life changes repeatedly, until we learn the lessons each change offers us. What I do best, is to help people learn that lesson with as little collateral damage as possible and move on.

Sometimes we go through more than one transition at the same time: after a relationship/situationship break-up, we may need to move house, change jobs, or even move to another country to find a new job. Other times, we realise that we are stagnating where we are, and decide to initiate the transition ourselves.

Without a map.

I’ve been there. I understand how challenging life transitions can be, especially transition pile-ups, both personally and professionally. I know what it feels like—the uncertainty, the insecurity, the overthinking, the gut-wrenching fear. In the last 30 years, I have been through several pile-ups, I can’t say it has gotten any easier, but I got better at coping with it, and at learning the life lessons faster, with the steadfast support of my friends and my horses.

Because I’m someone who’s been through a few storms myself, and now helps others read the weather.

So if you feel overwhelmed, stuck, exhausted or burnt out, I’d like to hear from you.

Send me an email

I reply personally to each one I receive.


Dr Margaretha Montagu (MBChB, MRCGP, NLP master pract (cert), Transformational Life Coach (dip), Life Story Coach (cert), Counselling (cert), LCCH Med Hyp Dip and EAGALA (cert) LinkedIn Profile

There’s a lot magic and inspiration in your own story and what you do, your love of your animal children especially, I hope you know that impacts people in the same way the film has. I felt you and this experience brought me peace and light, when I’ve been stuck in sadness and in a fog. So thank you! Maybe life may change but there will always be something better on the other side, the fear is worse than the actual thing, with this trip I felt that with that last day in Camino especially! I hope you continue to have courage for yourself as you help others with their own…Christina P 2025

dpartement-du-gers
1200px-Logo_Occitanie_2017.svg_
telechargement
the-guardian-uk-newspaper
COTH-Logo
slowfood-france-association-reseau-alimentation-biodiversite-projets-evenements-jeunesse-logo-519x165
téléchargement (1)
Fondor

My Story – My Own Inner Camino

I may have a fair number of letters after my name, but that is not what qualifies me to lead retreats, create courses or write books. It is my intuitive understanding of my clients’ difficulties and the strategies that I had to develop to cope with what happened to me during the last 30 years that make me good at what I do.

In the last decade, the debilitating eye disease that threatens my sight got dramatically worse. Several unsuccessful operations have left me completely blind in one eye and with limited sight in the other eye.

Somewhere along the line, during the last ten years, I started writing.

Writing was my salvation. I started small, by keeping a journal. I wrote all the pain, doubt, fear and suffering out of my system and onto the pages of my journal. I somehow managed to find something to be grateful for every day. Eventually, I distilled the content of my journals into books: eight books so far, all equine-inspired, life-enriching and subtly French-flavoured.

I wrote these books because I felt an urgent urge to share with as many people as possible how I managed to survive these insufferable years, in case what I have learned can help others cope with equally difficult circumstances.

During the last 30 years, I have learned how to cope with the stress generated by insecurity. Working as a medical doctor already gave me a fair amount of insight, but it was the fear of going blind that was my most merciless instructor.

I developed a whole arsenal full of tried-and-tested strategies to cope with the challenges that came my way, challenges I often have to face with a severely limited number of resources.

In my books and courses, and during my retreats, my horses and I share these strategies with you. My business is called Eprit Meraki. In short, “meraki,” μεράκι, is a Greek word that means “made with love.” It is about putting the essence of who you are, joyfully, into your work – a true and pure labour of love.

Manifesto

Blog: Life Purpose, New Chapters, Burnout, Emotional Resilience, Stress Management etc.

As I mentioned, I discovered that I liked writing, so I started a blog. I intended the blog to be a shop window showcasing our region, my horses and my retreats. It quickly became much more. Browsing my blog is indeed a bit like visiting me virtually, but it is also a library filled with articles about stress management, confidence building, problem-solving, strengthening relationships, conflict resolution and much more.

Latest blog posts

Online Action – Meet me at…

Living here in deepest rural France is pure bliss, but one has to be careful not to become too isolated. Social media is my connection to the world beyond all these glorious sunflower fields, vineyards and woods. When I researched books, I collected a considerable number of quotes, articles and blog posts that I share on BlueSky (@MMontagu.bsky.social) and Instagram. Still, my favourite social media haunt is LinkedIn (MargarethaMontagu.) I’d love to connect there. I waste a LOT of time on Pinterest (Margaretha Montagu’s Retreats.)  I have a Facebook page that I use as an aide-memoire. It is called Margaretha Montagu’s Retreats.

If you decide to come to one of my potentially life-changing retreats, don’t forget your fur coat, your highest heels and your tiara! If it sounds as if I have lost the plot, click here.

There is one more thing I want you to know.

Despite all my experience, knowledge and qualifications, I am no different from you. I am far from perfect. I do not always practise what I preach. I do not have the answers to all my questions, and I do not have the solutions to all my problems. Like you, I sometimes feel confused and overwhelmed. I am, however, convinced that mindfulness, gratitude and generosity can make a massive difference in your life.

One of my favourite Quotes

“No matter how many scars we carry from what we have gone through and suffered in the past, our intrinsic wholeness is still here: what else contains the scars? None of us has to be a helpless victim of what was done to us or what was not done for us in the past, nor do we have to be helpless in the face of what we may be suffering now. We are also what was present before the scarring—our original wholeness, what was born whole. And we can reconnect with that intrinsic wholeness at any time because its very nature is that it is always present. It is who we truly are.” Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living

Ready to start again, stronger than ever before? This quiz will help you find out. It is not just about measuring where you are right now; it’s about shining a light on the areas of your life that feel meaningful, as well as those that might need attention. It’s an opportunity to reflect, recalibrate, and take steps toward a life that’s not only successful but profoundly fulfilling. Take The Quiz

Medical Disclaimer

All content of this website is copyrighted. You cannot copy the content of this page