My lived experience has led me to use Homeopathy as my first medicine of choice until a breast cancer diagnosis this year which came as a bit of a shock. Looking after my physical health is always something that was high on my priority list and I spend a lot of time walking, running, dancing, meditating, cooking food (mostly plant based) from scratch. Where did things go wrong?

I am the daughter of a doctor and a nurse whose solution to being ill was so often to let the body get better on its own without intervention. When I developed glandular fever as a teenager and felt really unwell for a number of weeks this approach was not helpful! After an argument with my father who was asserting that glandular fever was ‘all in your head’, my mother had the foresight to send me to a homeopath. I got better pretty quickly after that. Since then I have been hooked and fairly obsessed with homeopathy - much to the dismay and ridicule of my family and many friends! Shortly after my first child was born, I trained to be a professional Homeopath. I qualified in 2000 and ran my own private practice alongside bringing up our five children. In 2012 my husband and I bought the local pub we had lived next door to for fourteen years. I swapped serving remedies for pints and had a lot of fun until it wasn’t fun anymore.

By the time the pandemic hit and the pub was forced to close I was utterly exhausted and was searching for a deeper level of meaning and purpose in my life. Amongst other things (most notably making bread, running, jumping in the river, meditating, journaling, Mindvalley quests, Woman’s hour and Scrabble Go!) I delved into the world of transpersonal psychology. A branch of psychology that seeks to broaden the perspective from which we view ourselves and our life to include that part of ourselves that is connected to an all knowing, pervasive presence that is common to all living things.

Little by little things began to fall into place and I built a spiritual and emotional home that is robust enough to weather the storms of my life. I have got divorced and both my parents unfortunately died within fourteen months of each other in this time. I peered into the abyss that was my very empty nest and found a way to climb out of the well by reaching for the light. Getting cancer was a big shock and I have learned that you don’t become well by being obsessed with avoiding being sick and also that the surest way to stay well is to build a life you love doing what you love to do. Hence sharing my journey and holding space for others to find their way too.