MY ADVENTURES & MISADVENTURES IN DIGESTIVE HEALTH For me this adventure began as a young child. As a small child I suffered from chronic stomach and digestive issues, eczema, allergies (hello anaphylaxis!) topped with a sprinkling of food and drug sensitivities. I spent time seeing doctors, dermatologist, having testing done and being put on very specific diets and digestive protocols. Despite numerous hours in and out of the offices of medical professionals I had very little long term relief.
While looking for answers I received help from individuals in both traditional and western medicine, unfortunately it always seemed to come back to the same place, a massive flare up of my symptoms. Although I found pockets of relief here and there nothing seemed to work in the long term. Then it happened I was finally OVER it in my early 20's. I had a flare up to beat all other flare ups, eczema was all over my face and the majority of my body, the creams and ointments given by my doctors weren't helping and let's be honest never felt great to begin with (if you've never used them a lot of these topical creams burn when applied). It was at this point that I truly decided to take things into my own hands. While studying at university I decided to study a bit more and look into how I could support my body to help it heal.
LEARNING TO INFORM MYSELF This time of solo research opened my eyes up to so many different tools, information and protocols. With minimal understanding of how things worked and I was able experienced some relief of symptoms, like reduced eczema, gas and bloating starting to subside, some weight loss (although this was not my focus at the time) and I could feel my body relaxing. But I was very aware that this would only take me so far.
Eventually, I decided to find a Naturopath to work with and it was working with an individual who understood more than me when things finally started really to click. This would also be my turning point and was what helped me to make the decision to go back to school to learn about nutrition. After a 4 year University degree and working for the government for 8 years I decided it was time to go back to school. Originally I decided to go back to school because honestly after a couple decades of not knowing what was going on with me I just wanted to know! As I studied I quickly became passionate and excited about sharing this information with others, I mean why should others have to wait 2 decades to figure out what works for them?
TIME FOR FORMAL EDUCATION So, I went back to school, I kept working for the government and doing my side job of Personal Training and teaching Yoga. This was an incredibly intense time, but also such an encouraging time.
My personal training clients allowed me to test out some of the protocols and new digestive knowledge I was learning on them, and through that I was able to see clients really start to flourish and begin to attaining some serious results.
SUPPORTING OTHERS Since starting this journey I have been able to get to a healthy place for myself (I still have the occasional flare up and it is almost always linked to a certain type of food) and probably more importantly I've been able to help others.
Over the years I have learnt how to support clients through science-based information, while applying the compassion, understanding and support I had always hoped for on my own journey. My own experiences have informed my practice and how I help clients to experience relief of their symptoms, achieve their goals and set realistic and manageable expectations of themselves and their diets.
I have been fortunate in being able to design client driven programs that are based in compassion and understanding, instead of the traditional diet culture approach of judgement and shame. I strive to offer my clients the type of support, encouragement and realism that I sought out for decades.
