We live in an information technology age where ‘Doctor Google’ gets more visits than an average health professional. Consumers are desperate for help and advice in healing themselves from modern day ailments. I know I was when I was first diagnosed with hypothyroidism.
However, getting the correct information from trusted professionals is paramount in order to avoid doing harm rather than good. Strangely, finding the right help is like finding a needle in a haystack these days. There just doesn’t seem to be enough health professionals who really know how to treat chronic illnesses.
I have always had a strong need to help people. This desire first became apparent to me when I was 8 years old, as I watched my father have a heart attack in front of me. I felt so hopeless in that moment. Despite my brave actions of running for help and staying calm, my father could not be saved.
He was only 47 years old. He would not get to see his ‘little girl’ grow up.
I felt so dead inside. My heart was empty.
I promised myself that I would never let myself feel inadequate again.
So began my thirst for knowledge. I became very interested in the human body and I questioned why the body doesn’t always reach old age. My father worked seven days a week, smoked tobacco, drank alcohol regularly and was overweight. It didn’t take me long to figure out that in order to live a long, healthy life, that we need to treat our bodies with respect.
My keen interest in health led me to eventually study pharmacy. I have since been a pharmacist for 27 years and I even ran my own pharmacy business for over 9 years.
My store motto was, “We offer good old fashioned service, care and advice.” My service to the community was to be an access point for help. I cared about my customers’ health outcomes, enough to know that I needed further study in order to offer the highest level of advice to anyone seeking information.
I listened to my intuition which pulled me strongly in the direction of natural medicine.
I went back to university and studied Western Herbal Medicine. As daunting as this was initially, I grew to love it.
Over the next few years, my practice as a pharmacist changed. I realised that the help I offered to my customers was limited without the incorporation of functional medicine and natural therapies. It became clear to me that mind, body and spirit must all be treated in order to treat dis-ease in the body. I utilised a holistic approach on many levels in my pharmacy with much success. I began to see firsthand that good health could be achieved and that true healing can happen.
Now, as a qualified herbalist, I remain passionate about empowering people with the knowledge to heal themselves.
As my own life has transformed over the years, so has my view on how we best treat illness. Plato, the famous Greek philosopher, sums up my belief when he said,
“The greatest mistake in the treatment of diseases is that there are physicians for the body and physicians for the soul, although the two cannot be separated.”
It is clear to me that modern and traditional medicine needs to become integrated in order to improve and prolong the quality of human life.
I feel responsible to be the bridge between both styles of treatment.
**If you’ve got this far – thank you for reading and I look forward to bringing you more information in the future.
Now, enjoy some much needed inspirational music…
