Founder

Geraldine Matus, B.Sc/, Lay Midwife, HRHPE, PhD is the founder of the Justisse Method (1987), a fertility awareness-based method (FABM). In 2003 she founded the Canadian not for profit corporation Justisse College International, and served as Academic Director and Dean up until her resignation in November 2020. She designed and wrote the initial Justisse College curriculum ((C) 1987 / 2003 and the Justisse Method User Guide (1987/2009). 

Geraldine has worked as a fertility awareness-based methods educator and holistic reproductive health practitioner since 1977, and has been active in the reproductive health freedoms movement since then. She qualified as a lay homebirth midwife in 1985 (before midwifery was legal and midwives were licensed in Canada). She completed natural family planning educator training in the Billings Method, SERENA Canada, Couple-to-Couple League, and Creighton training between 1977 and 1986. Since 1980 she had the privilege of working with and to learn from North America's best complementary and alternative medicine physicians. Dr. Matus believes that a woman’s reproductive cycle (menstrual cycle) is the 5^th vital sign of her health, and which depends on healthy and regular ovulatory and menstrual patterns from menarche to menopause.

She is past chair for the Core Competencies Committee for the Association for Fertility Awareness Professionals (AFAP) which oversees the development of standards and demonstration of competency for certification of Fertility Awareness Educators (FAE).

She completed her doctorate in Depth Psychology in 2014 at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her doctoral work focuses on a psycho-physiological view of women's beauty and blood mysteries, and how they are connected to love as the glutinum mundi (glue of the world). Dr. Matus's work integrates her experience in sexual and reproductive health with a depth psychological view of healing. She believes a woman's conscious engagement with her beauty and blood mysteries is a valuable means for her to develop a profound honoring of her body as the vessel of her being, and in that way become wholly empowered in body, mind, and spirit.

Hear Geraldine speak about her work and passion as a fertility awareness educator

1. Fertility Friday Podcast 064 | Fertility Awareness, Feminism, and Reproductive Freedoms | Geraldine Matus
2. Fertility Friday Podcast 056 | The History of Fertility Awareness Based Methods | The Justisse Method of Fertility Management | Learning and Teaching Fertility Awareness | Geraldine Matus

Faculty

Carolina Fischmann, BA

HRHP, Junior Faculty

Jenny Koos

HRHP, Senior Faculty

Lisa Leger, BA

HRHP, Senior Faculty

Lisa was in the first group of Justisse Method Practitioner trainees in 1987 when the program was known as the Justisse Method, Fertility Management Practitioner [FMP] Training. She was invited on to the faculty in 2011 and upgraded her teaching skills to become an HRHP Educator.

Lisa holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Waterloo and has been trained as a facilitator of various self-management programs for people with chronic diseases by the University of Victoria.  She volunteered for Osteoporosis Canada for over a decade and learned valuable techniques to educate people about healthy diet and lifestyle practices. Lisa works in a community pharmacy setting and provides public health education one-on-one, and via seminars, print, and radio.  She occasionally teaches adult education courses about holistic health in the ElderCollege program at Vancouver Island University. She uses these teaching opportunities to build a bridge between conventional medicine and natural approaches to health and wellness.  In her private practice, Lisa teaches Justisse Method charting and specializes in holistic reproductive health counselling.

Suvi Lehtilä, BA 

HRHP, Junior Faculty

Suvi Lehtilä has been involved in the world of fertility awareness since 2012. She has been working as an HRHP since 2017 and joined the Justisse faculty in 2021. Suvi has an academic background in languages and gender studies with additional training and experience in birth work and holistic health modalities including reflexology and nutritional therapy. Based in Finland, she runs a private practice teaching two fertility awareness based methods (Justisse and Sensiplan) and providing holistic reproductive health counselling.

Suvi is a founding member of the Nordic Union for Fertility Awareness, a non-profit organization that promotes evidence-based education in fertilty awareness based methods in the Nordic countries. She has a special interest in different FABMs and their application for populations with varying needs.

Geneviéve Rajoy

HRHP, Junior Faculty

Geneviève Rajoy has been involved with menstrual cycles and fertility since 2009 when she began selling menstrual cloth pads as an entrepreneur with two beloved friends. Participating in fairs and workshops to explain how to use ecological pads led her to discover that most people were not aware of ALL that the menstrual cycle means. This is where her journey began.

A few years later, looking at the references in a Fertility Awareness book, she found out about Justisse College, met Geraldine Matus, and felt right away that it was what she had been looking for, which was a college that could teach her how to support people with holistic and science-based information regarding their bodies and cycles. Geneviève became an HRHP in 2018, and is probably the first secular certificated fertility awareness educator in Ecuador.

In 2021, Geneviève joined Justisse College as a Junior Faculty Collaborator. Her purpose is to continue to bring this essential information to Spanish-speaking countries, and help to train more HRHPs in South America. She lives in Quito, Ecuador, is 41 years old, has a 2 year old baby girl, enjoys her day to day, balancing family life and work. She says, “I love our profession. For me, accompanying people to discover the wisdom of our bodies and being able to make informed decisions inspires me to continue my own personal journey, looking for my own physical and spiritual balance.”