Accept what’s changing.
Build from there.
I'm Penelope Lane. I’m a therapist, fitness trainer, and mindfulness teacher. For decades, I taught women how to listen to their bodies, handle tough emotions, and be fully themselves. With body, mind, heart, and soul all working together.
During that time, I pushed through pain and ignored my own signals. I tried to build strength as if it could protect me from getting older. I knew better, but I still did it.
Then one morning, my body stopped being gentle and made it clear I had to pay attention. I'd been teaching these skills for 36 years. I'd just stopped using them.
Now I help women over 60 handle real life. From emotional ups and downs and mental fog to deep questions, energetic grandkids, and those tricky stairs no one warned us about.
Your wake-up call.
For some, it’s physical like a diagnosis, a fall, or a morning when getting out of bed feels impossible. For others, it’s quieter—like looking in the mirror and thinking, 'When did I get so old?''
No matter what, you know something needs to change. You value your independence and want to keep it. You’re tired of all the talk about ageing, from the 'turn back the clock' advice to the constant push for positivity.
You want real answers that work in daily life. And a way forward that suits who you are now, not who you were years ago.
That’s exactly what I help with.
I’d like to introduce my signature Whole Strength method
With 34 years in clinical psychology, body and brain fitness, and mindfulness teaching, along with 68 years of personal ups and downs, I created Whole Strength. This method guides you through four stages, helping you move from resistance to rebuilding, and from exhaustion to feeling truly alive.
ACKNOWLEDGE
You can only change things you’re ready to face. Start by noticing what’s really happening. Maybe your body feels different, your roles have shifted, or you are grieving something you haven’t named yet. When you listen to your body and practice mindfulness, you begin to see what is real. This shift helps you stop resisting your feelings and start facing them.
ALLOW & OPEN
Then you let yourself feel it. It’s not just about what you’ve lost. It’s also about what you’re learning. The fear might still be there, and so might a strength you haven’t noticed before. When you’re kind to yourself, you stop fighting your feelings and make room for what comes next. The hard parts may still be there, but they don’t take over.
Stage 3
Rebuilding
Now it’s time to rebuild. Not from who you were, from what you're learning about yourself now. Your body, mind, heart, and soul come together around what really matters. This is where you find real independence, knowing your own worth and making decisions based on it.
Stage 4
Live It Daily
This is where it becomes part of your life. Whole Strength is a way of living. You come back to the skills you’ve learnt, when life gets hard, which it does. Some days you'll find yourself at stage 1, noticing something new changes. That's not failure, it’s part of the practice. This is the work that lasts.
Here’s what changes
You're no longer at war with your body, your age, or yourself, and that changes everything.
You can grieve what's gone and discover what's becoming.
You know your own worth, not because you've earned it, but because you've stopped trying to prove it.
You feel alive, not just getting by, because that's what Whole Strength is about.
This is the work I do with every woman who reaches that crossroads, wondering if there's another way.
My story:
The long way home
When I was growing up, people didn’t see me as fit. I didn’t stick with exercise, and most of the time, I just avoided it.
Getting pregnant at 30 changed everything for me. I began to focus on what really mattered. Fitness, therapy, mindfulness, and self-compassion all made a difference. For once, my stubbornness worked in my favour.
Later, I joined a boot camp in Perth led by a former SAS soldier. The training was hard, but it made a real difference. I eventually joined the elite squad and kept pushing myself. When I turned 61, I ran my first half-marathon.
By then, I had spent over 30 years working as a clinical psychologist, fitness trainer, and mindfulness teacher. I understood the mind-body connection in my work and thought I was living it myself.
At least, that’s what I believed, until things changed even more.
After I turned 60 and started my online business, I got too busy. My strengths became weaknesses. I overtrained, let my healthy habits slide, and stopped listening to my body. That was a turning point for me.
I got so focused on staying strong that I ignored everything else, especially the signals from my body. Eventually, my body caught up with me.
The day my body called my bluff
Wake-up calls never give you a warning. They just arrive and demand your attention, even if you’re still in your nightie with your hair sticking up like a cockatoo.
Mine came on an a regular January morning. I felt a sharp pain in my lower back that shot down my left leg.
I tend to be stoic, so I did what any stubborn, slightly unrealistic woman might do. I pushed through and taught my class, telling myself it was just "a bit of tightness."
The reality check
But things weren’t okay. A few hours later, I couldn’t get off the couch. The scans showed two disc bulges, osteoarthritis, and years of bone loss. My back was finally giving out after years of denial.
The irony struck me. I’m a psychologist, a fitness trainer, and a mindfulness teacher. I know about the body-mind connection, but I ignored my own advice.
When moving hurts too much, you can’t pretend anymore. I finally faced what I’d been avoiding: my limits, the truth of what I’d done, my own humanity, and the need to rebuild in a new way.
The choice:
Pushing through or healing
I could keep doing what I'd always done: ignoring the pain, keeping up appearances, and hoping I'd get back to "normal."
Or I could actually listen to my body and rebuild in a new way. I chose to stop, listen, and honour what was true instead of forcing my way through.
Finding my way back home
What saved me wasn't a magic stretch or a better physio. It was going back to what I had stopped doing: the real, sometimes uncomfortable work of bringing together body, mind, heart, and soul.
I rebuilt my physical strength, but this time I did it differently. I focused on strength with awareness, not ego. I practiced brain-body dual-tasking and daily mindfulness. I chose self-compassion over self-criticism. I also remembered why strength mattered: to be capable and to feel alive.
Our bodies heal best when our minds aren’t fighting them. Self-compassion and mindfulness help us stay steady. Without meaning, we can feel empty, even if we look strong on the outside.
My back injury wasn’t a disaster. It reminded me that the practices I had stopped, the ones I’d taught for years, weren’t just nice extras. They were survival tools, the difference between just getting by and truly living.
If you're ready
Now I work with women over 60 who have had their own wake-up call. Maybe it was something physical, like a diagnosis, a fall, or the morning you couldn’t get out of bed. Or maybe it was quieter, like looking in the mirror and not recognising yourself. Either way, if that’s you, something needs to change.
I guide and support women to do what I did: accept what they can’t change, make space for what’s true, and rebuild toward what really matters.
I teach them Whole Strength, not the kind that acts as armour, but the real kind. The kind that gives you the independence to choose your own path, clarity about what’s worth your time and energy, and a life where you’re truly alive, not just getting by.
I do this work because I’ve been through it myself. I also know a deeper truth: strength isn’t just about what we can carry. It’s about how we return to ourselves, and what becomes possible for women over 60 on the other side.
Fun facts about me
My small rebellion at 68: I've sold my bright yellow Fiat and get around on an electric tricycle instead – adorned with flowers and flower stickers, naturally. I am carrying dumbbells in the back tray for teaching my beach fitness classes.
The most impractical but delightful thing I own: A long sapphire blue velvet theatre coat with gold buttons. Completely impractical for Perth. I refuse to recycle it.
What surprises people most: Even though I'm outgoing and teach fitness classes outside in public, I'm actually a shy introvert. And I'm addicted to BBC crime shows.
My daily pleasure (not guilty at all): Two shortbread fingers. Every single day. Non-negotiable.
The best advice I ever ignored: "Behave yourself and be a good girl."
What surprised me most about getting older: If you put the energy in the right places, it can be the most fabulous, creative, strong, resilient time of your life. Even with a crumbling spine.
