How did I get here?

Me and my two office assistants

Over the years I’ve been asked a number of times what made me train as an acupuncturist and now as a Chinese herbalist. The simple answer is that sometimes I think the universe makes suggestions, and it’s up to us whether we notice and act on those suggestions.

I was working as a freelance HR Consultant which mostly seemed to be policy writing, running disciplinary/grievance hearings and managing redundancy processes. I enjoyed my work (even the redundancies because I knew that if I’d managed a redundancy process, everybody had been treated fairly), but felt it was time to step away from the corporate world and work on a more individual basis with people. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do.

That’s when the universe stepped in. One friend had acupuncture for back pain and told me how much it had helped. Another was going through a tough marriage break-up and said acupuncture had helped with the stress. Then another reported how much acupuncture had helped with sinus trouble. It felt like a series of signposts leading me to Chinese medicine. I signed up for an acupuncture degree in 2008 and haven’t looked back since. I loved my acupuncture clinic and had some great results working with fertility, emotional health, and pain relief.

But Covid hit. Due to my role as a carer for someone who was clinically vulnerable, I went into shielding mode and strict lockdown which meant closing the clinic and thinking about alternatives. One good thing to come from Covid was the way so many things became possible online. Thank you Zoom! Suddenly, adding a postgraduate herbal medicine qualification without being away from home every other weekend became a possibility. It is something I have wanted to do for many years but just couldn’t take so much time away from home. I also added in an extra qualification in Chinese medicine nutrition and became a Qigong teacher after many years of personal practice. More about Qigong another time…

I’ve now spent a total of seven years training in Chinese medicine, and have over a decade of clinical experience, but I’m still learning. I’m loving the results I’m getting in my clinic, all the testimonials on my website are genuine verifiable messages I’ve had from patients (with their permission to use their words). Training to offer herbal medicine has been hard work but I’m so glad I chose to do it. Acupuncture needles can do so much for so many people, but adding the herbs can do so much more. I have also started building collaborative relationships with acupuncturists who aren’t qualified to use herbs, working with them to improve patient outcomes, as well as seeing my own patients.