Who am I?

I have a memory of being at my grandmother's house and a salesman coming to the door to top up her supply of herbal ointments and liniments. There was a round tin, the size of your palm, it was ornately decorated in royal blue and gold and contained a pink salve the smell of which I have never forgotten. It was revered by her to fix all manor of things and to my small child it seemed quite magical in it's qualities.

As I grew, many more 'home remedies' were employed to tend to our everyday health. Tepid baths for fevers, compresses for heat exertion, tiger balm for aches and pains. My mother used to make a cough syrup from onion and sugar - I still make this for my children, albeit with garlic and honey too. And she borrowed the idea of a grated apple (with the skin on) for diarrhoea. Imagine my surprise to learn at university that some of these home remedies had scientific rationales behind them.

Raised in rural New Zealand, growing up in symbiosis with the land and all that it supported was a sharp contrast to my experiences in the city of Sydney. It was perhaps this contrast that began to drive a passion in me to reintegrate with nature. 

And so I gained my formal training in naturopathy through the University of Western Sydney (Bachelor of Health Science - Naturopathy). This included a diploma in Remedial Massage, and I went on to establish a successful private practice in the inner west of Sydney. It soon became apparent to me though, that the clinical space between client and practitioner is a sacred one, and this prompted me to further my skills and take up a post graduate diploma in health counselling at Sydney University.

From there to now I've gotten married and had three children, the last two on the mountain. And these mountains are certainly home.

I eased my way back into the workforce, enjoying the rhythm of a retail dispensary for a few years and now find myself right back where I am happiest, in the clinic and on the land. I'm re-connected to nature, this land/these mountains, and the people who live in them. 

My aim, as a naturopath, is to heal - myself, and to journey with others, healing through relation - to our environment and to each other, all the while utilising the inherent remedial qualities of plants and minerals - our Natural Medicines.