I’m Rowan (he/him), founder of The Forge.
I live in Arbroath, Angus, Scotland with my husband and our animals.
Earlier in my career, I worked as a holistic practitioner in England, offering massage and aromatherapy. Following a fibromyalgia diagnosis, I had to acknowledge that the physical demands of that work had become too much. I eventually closed my holistic practice and moved into the corporate world as an accountant, where I worked for nearly two decades.
That experience taught me a lot about how this fast‑paced world operates and the demands it places on us day‑to‑day. At the same time, it gradually pulled me away from my connection to my spiritual self.
In April 2025, that pace – combined with external factors – led to a mental health breakdown and pushed me to seriously question what I wanted from the rest of my life. What followed was a deep spiritual awakening that didn’t lift me out of reality, but pushed me deeper into it. As a result, I took redundancy from my corporate role and, after a period of integration, I launched The Forge in February 2026.
That wasn’t the first time I had to start again.
Five years earlier, I came out as a gay trans man and saw certainty, safety, and identity fall away all at once. I know what it is to step into a world that has no plan for who you are while the ashes of your old life are still hot behind you. I know the fear, the grief, and the anger – but I also know the power that comes from refusing to abandon yourself in order to survive.
I’m openly LGBT+ and I name this because it matters. This is a safe space for queer and trans people, but it is not limited to any one identity. Anyone who has outgrown the life they once held to be true will recognise this terrain.
I’m now in my mid‑forties, and those decades of lived experience shape everything I bring to this work. I don’t speak from theory or surface identity, but from having walked through expansion, reinvention, and the work of rebuilding without self‑betrayal.
I don’t live in false divisions. I’m grounded and spiritual. Rational and intuitive. Tough when needed, gentle when it matters. I don’t believe we become whole by choosing one side and disowning the rest. I believe we become whole by integrating what we were taught to separate.
That belief isn’t philosophical for me.
It’s how I survived.
– Rowan