I have always been strongly drawn to the Complementary side of medicine, using homeopathy after my daughter was born 30 years ago. A move to America and the meeting with an Egyptian doctor who was interested in Reflexology and Massage further ignited my interest. One day, whilst swimming, I had a deep feeling that something was about to change. After returning from the States and a move back to my home town of Guildford, a course came up in Reflexology at a local college, part time, which fitted in to being a mother of two small children. After completing the Anatomy, Physiology and Massage modules, I took the Reflexology exam followed by Aromatherapy. I loved it, it felt like I had come home. I still do.
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To use the basics of our hands to work a reflex point to help relieve a headache or to make a blend for an individual to help with panic attacks, to see the amazing relaxation that can be achieved, to see someone literally bounce out of the therapy room after weeks of low energy was such an eye opener. Other therapies were added to my practice, Indian Head Massage, Spiritual Healing, Chair Massage plus others and each had their own benefits.
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After a tutor talked about her work with a client with cancer, I felt drawn to this area and I started volunteering at a local hospice and after a year of this, I started as a self employed therapist and worked in this sphere for a few years before becoming a full time Complementary Therapy Co-Ordinator at the same hospice in Surrey where I worked for 22 years. Here, I met some wonderful people, patients, carers and staff alike, so humbling to work with people showing such strength as they travelled on their own personal journey. I gained experience of working with people with Cancer, Dementia, Motor Neurone Disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and also those with mental health conditions. I also worked for a number of years in a centre for HIV and AIDS patients.
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I have also been lucky enough to teach different therapies at Adult Education Centres, Technical Colleges and through Complementary Therapy Schools and it has been wonderful seeing some fantastic therapists learn and grow, starting their own businesses and/or working in hospitals, hospices and other settings and this is something I am carrying on with in Cornwall.
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I firmly believe that we are all continually learning and growing, that we are all more than a ‘symptom’ and should be seen and treated as a ‘whole’. All the therapies that I offer are holistic, which means that the whole person is looked at and not just the symptom. That we are all spiritual with some people looking for meaning and reason, for the You in You.
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We recently moved to North Cornwall, a county I have been familiar with since my children were small, and I am now offering therapies and training under the name of Sea Holly Therapies, as well as working part time in a local hospice.
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Sea Holly Therapies has a very special meaning. About 3 or 4 years ago I worked with a young lady in her early twenties, Holly, who first visited me in the hospice for some Indian Head Massage to help with anxiety and pain – she had recently been diagnosed with cancer of the bowel and secondary cancer in the liver. Although she had visited doctors with symptoms they had all dismissed her symptoms as irritable bowel syndrome. Some patients you get closer to – Holly was one of them – and I had the great privilege to work and know Holly for, literally, the rest of her life. She tried different therapies to help with different symptoms and found great relief from them and from being able to open up in the quiet of the therapy room or at her own home. She was a very special person, she changed the life of many from consultants to friends, with her positive attitude, her fight, her increasing awareness of how precious life is and to ‘live it for each day’. She wrote a blog through her journey detailing how she was feeling, the good and the very bad days. She lived, enjoyed and experienced life right up to the end. She even traveled to Taiwan to see a friend and other places when she was ill.
Holly passed away peacefully at the hospice with her family around her and I was privileged to be able to offer her healing just before she died and the room was filled with the beautiful aroma of her favourite cream blend of Rose and Frankincense which her mother had been massaging onto her hands.
Holly loved Cornwall, particularly Constantine Bay and I wanted to do something that Holly would be a part of – my partner came up with the name Sea Holly and we looked up the plant and it all seemed so apt. Thus the name Sea Holly Therapies. I hope she would have liked it! I think she would….
