So how did you get into this...?

Even today, working in complementary healthcare is not a mainstream career and people often ask me how it all started.

First of all, I have a lifelong interest in health and the human condition. Being very active and sporty from childhood I had an interest in health and fitness - I was always the team's first aider and experimented with nutrition. Later, my philosophy degree allowed me to explore mental and spiritual well-being and what it means to be human.

My early post-graduate career working in the City was where I discovered that yoga was a great antidote to a stressful lifestyle. Regular classes helped me manage a demanding job, maintain an active social life and stay healthy. It was also a gateway into my true calling of complementary healthcare. Although the City was not my destiny, I appreciate everything I learned there, and that it has given me insight into the typical workplace demands many of my clients face.

Having left the world of offshore companies, I first trained as a reflexologist. I was introduced to it a few years previously by my mum, who had found it very helpful. Having experienced for myself how effective treatments were in helping me sleep and regulating my menstrual cycle, it was clear that the therapeutic potential was much higher than simply being a nice foot rub!

Once qualified I worked in a variety of settings from hospices to corporate events and music festivals whilst also building my practice in north London. At the same time I continued with my personal yoga practice and found myself recommending to virtually every reflexology client some posture or breathing technique to help with their health problem and suggest they go to classes. I decided eventually to train as teacher myself as a way of offering more to my clients and expand my work with something I love.

After an intense 3 years of training I attained my teaching diploma with the British wheel of Yoga. Having already established my reflexology practise and being director of my own healthcare clinic, it was a natural step to offer private one-to-one classes to my clients whilst also offering group classes in gyms, churches and community centres and charities.  Each setting brings its own community and I love working with a diverse range of humanity!

Both reflexology and yoga are hugely therapeutic and effective modalities and can be applied to an enormous range of health subjects. My personal journey has brought clients with an incredible range of medical histories but the four main areas I felt most drawn to and have taken extra training to address is stress, pregnancy, postnatal care and supporting people through cancer.

I feel blessed to earn a living doing work that I love and that also gives me some tools to deal with my own life challenges. Contrary to popular belief therapists are not immune! And it is through my own experience that I continue to grow and learn and have more insight into what could be effective and helpful for others.

I look forward to working with you!