About Us
Sittingwell Ltd was created by two back care experts, fuelled by a genuine passion to help people look after their backs, relieve pain and prevent damage.
Who are we?
We are Lorna and Rachael Kennard-Wall – the creators of the Sittingwell® back support cushion.
We wanted to share a little bit about us and why the Sittingwell® cushion came to be.
We have both been complementary healthcare therapists since qualifying in 2001. We ran a Buckinghamshire-based clinic together from 2009 until moving to Somerset in 2021. We still treat clients both in person at our home-based clinic in South Somerset and online, working from a whole-person approach, physically, mentally and emotionally.
Lorna integrates CranioSacral Therapy, Visceral Manipulation, ScarWork, PSYCH-K® and Spiritual Life Coaching. Rachael works with Visceral Manipulation, Systematic Kinesiology, PSYCH-K® and Root Cause Therapy.
So, the big question is:
Why did we invent the Sittingwell® cushion?
Well, the Sittingwell® cushion actually came about because of our clinic work.
So many of our clients told us that sitting on their sofa made them uncomfortable or aggravated their pain.
That started us questioning why so much thought goes into ergonomics at work, yet the furniture we come home to relax on isn’t necessarily supporting us very well at all.
Our first thought was to design a sofa.
It soon became apparent that creating our own sofa was somewhat beyond our budget, so we had to think again.
That eventually led us to the Sittingwell® Cushion and, with hindsight, we’re rather glad it did.
Instead of creating one piece of furniture, we had created something that could help people make more of the furniture they already had. It was more accessible, could accommodate two people of very different heights using the same sofa, move between different chairs and even go away on holiday with you.
If you’d like to know the full story, you can read our blog on How the Sittingwell® Cushion came to be.
Life beyond the clinic room:
For us health and wellbeing is about all aspects of life, so here’s a little of what other passions we both have beyond our therapy work.
Moving to Somerset gave us the opportunity to create a very different life from the one we had before, and quite a lot of it seems to involve making things, growing things or volunteering for things that somehow take up considerably more time than anticipated.
Both nature lovers, we get out as much as we can, exploring the local countryside. That passion fuels our hobbies too.
Rachael is happiest pottering around the garden and veg patch. She loves growing her own food and medicinal plants.
Everything gets used in the kitchen and her love of cooking. But also experimenting with homemade skincare and more recently wild wines (for their medicinal and probiotic properties, of course…)..
The ongoing plan is to grow more and more of what we eat ourselves, although the slugs, snails, caterpillars and local deer appear to have their own plans for the harvest.
Lorna is usually happiest with a piece of wood and an idea.
She loves woodwork, carving and finding ways of turning old pallets into something completely different and useful. Often fueled by a request from Rachael for growing – including raised beds and potting trays.
She loves to be able to work outside and watch the birds flying overhead. Backing onto open countryside means we get a wide range from Buzzards to Herons, Robins to Swifts and even our resident Barn Owl.
She’s also involved with the village panto as part of the amateur dramatics group, which provides a rather different form of creativity and proves that occasionally she can be persuaded out from behind a power tool.
Our Somerset community:
Since moving to Somerset, becoming part of our local community has been really important to us.
We’re both involved in organising our village May Festival, which brings thousands of people into the village each year and supports local businesses, charities and community groups.
Rachael is Chair of the festival committee and Lorna coordinates the stalls, alongside helping with the other events the committee runs throughout the year.
It’s a lot of work, occasionally a little chaotic, but we love being part of it and how it brings the community together.
And Sittingwell?
Sittingwell® is still very much a small business run by the two of us.
Behind the website, the photographs, the emails and the cushions are two therapists who spotted a problem, decided there ought to be a better answer and, despite having absolutely no background in product design or manufacturing at the time, decided to see if we could create one.
We’re pleased that we did and we hope you are too.
Lorna & Rachael
Founders and Inventors of the Sittingwell® cushion