I have always had an interest in complementary healing. I guess it started when my doctor recommended yoga to help me with glandular fever when I was 16 years old. The yoga I practised worked on the whole body and was more of a spiritual practice, leading me to become interested in Eastern philosophy. Often, my high school projects were about alternate therapies, including acupuncture where I found the meridians fascinating and fun to try and draw.

When my son started school, I worked part-time in the personal care section of Myer, where we sold essential oils. I was fortunate to do training with In Essence, who were leaders in essential oils in that time. I decided after that to study Naturopathy full time. I don’t think people realised what intensive training we went through in four years. We covered traditional areas of anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry along with different healing modalities, including Chinese medicine, herbalism, homeopathy, aromatherapy, counselling, and massage. I think one of my favourite areas was food as medicine as used in Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, and I loved the alchemical feel of creating my own herbal treatments.

Unfortunately, there have always been prejudices against the naturopathic industry, especially here in Australia. I think much of this due to a lack of understanding and preconceptions about naturopathic knowledge and experience. I was occasionally ridiculed by people who thought that all I did was put people on crazy diets and play with flowers. Yes, someone once said this to me. In 2003 when I had finished my degree there was a massive recall of complementary medicines from the shelves due to an issue with a Pan Pharmaceuticals product called “travel calm” which interestingly was not a complementary medicine but actually an S2 pharmaceutical. The media focused negatively mainly on complementary medicine, which was only one part of the products that Pan Pharmaceuticals produced. This affected the work I had lined up in a pharmacy as there were little complementary medicines left on their shelves. My confidence in myself went down as I struggled to start my own business, so eventually, I had to change my direction.

I needed to earn a living so I got work as a settlement clerk then mortgage clerk in the law industry I enjoyed this work for a few years until there was a global financial crisis around 2010 which affected the mortgage industry and I was made redundant and looking for work again. I was fortunate to get a position in customer service/administration in a growing English testing company. As the company changed so did I and I worked in operations and discovered I had an affinity for computer systems.

I think the skills I learnt in my degree in analysis and looking at the whole picture in regards to illness also gave me a different outlook in business and IT systems. I could see things differently to others and how each department/system was dependent on and worked alongside another. I fell into the role of business analyst and system expert and became involved in IT projects. I loved this work, but at times it was very stressful. As I was basically self-taught and learnt on the job, I often felt that I wasn’t good enough, and this created more pressure and unrealistic expectations of myself. I kept falling into cycles of self-doubt and overwork, which would improve for a while, and then something would trigger the cycle again. I worked extra long hours, which was discouraged, but I still felt like I had to prove myself. I also started drinking more and more out of work hours to wind down.

After getting very sick, I took some time off work. I did a bit of soul searching and went on a 3 day yoga retreat at Wentworth Falls. I learnt a lot about myself on this retreat and decided I needed to know more about Buddhism and compassion. I came across an audio book called “The Buddha walks into the office” by Lodro Rinzler and thought this sounded perfect for some of the difficulties I was having with work. I loved the book and wanted more. I started meditating and following some of the ideas in the book at work, and people started noticing a difference with me. Unfortunately, my need to prove myself was still strong, and I started my degree in IT and working as hard as ever with a reprieve of meditation in our prayer room at work. The meditation practices helped with my stress, but as fate works, my job changed at work, and I was made redundant again. I remember when it happened, I was so calm, and the process of me leaving was a shock, but ok. It also gave me the opportunity to do shamatha meditation teacher training.

Covid changed a lot of lives and how we do things. Lockdown made it difficult for me to get back into the workforce, and my plans to start teaching meditation were put on hold, so I kept working on my IT degree. At the end of the lockdown period, my mother, who lived with us, was diagnosed with Dementia and my life changed again as more and more she needed full-time care. I stopped my degree and became a full-time carer. I managed to do some part-time work from home as an IT consultant and administrator.

Over the last couple of years, I have become more aware of the suffering in the world, and much of this suffering has been close to home. There are times when I have felt helpless watching those I love suffer. Fate again had its way of facing me in the right direction, and after talking to a friend about all that I was going through, she introduced to Root-Cause Therapy. When my sister and I read up on it, she said, “I can see you doing this!” and I took the plunge, and everything has fit into place since. My own therapy sessions have improved my confidence and doubts about where I want to be and what I want to do. Even writing a blog, which I thought I would never do, especially being dyslexic.

On the retreat I attended all those years back, I spent some time in a maze they had. It was only small, but the things I learnt were profound. One of the things I discovered is that to get to the centre of the maze was that the final path was parallel to the entrance of the maze. I am now seeing the significance of this my life. I am viewing the beginning of this path that I am on, and all that I have experienced has brought me to this point. I am ready to re-commence my healing vocation and do what I was always meant to do.