I was always well as a child. I had a great childhood in NZ growing up on a fruit and vegetable farm, before moving to Melbourne when I was 6. We had an abundance of good quality fresh produce, and a mother, who through her own health challenges, taught us the benefit of good nutritious food.

As a teenager I, like many others, caught Glandular Fever, and I was never as well after that. It is a common thing we hear as naturopaths, and part of the reason I choose this career path. After many years of feeling exhausted, many tests that were all ‘normal’, and many visits to specialists, and GPs, we finally found someone, who through nutrition alone, brought me back from near hospitalisation. I was underweight, undernourished, and unhappy. I was eating, but not absorbing the right nutrients, and I was avoiding too many foods for fear of making my symptoms worse.

This began my own personal fight, to get back to the vital, healthy young woman I had been. This didn’t happen overnight – I had been unwell for almost 5 years, and it had impacted my ability to study, socialise, and at times, leave the house. But I did feel better within 2 weeks of this change, and within 6 months I was almost my old self. A year after making this change, and freeing myself from the food and anxiety constraints that had surrounded me for years, I planned an overseas trip and took time to explore the world, and get to know myself, and my strengths better.

Upon my return I worked in the corporate world, until one day I was drawn to look at the Southern School of Natural Therapies website. They had an open day coming up, and I decided to attend. It was eye opening. They almost had to kick me out as I didn’t want to leave. I could have stayed there all day listening to different introductory lectures, and exploring the student clinic, and dispensary. I quit my job the next day, enrolled in the 4 year Bachelor degree, and never looked back.

I have always loved health, and the way food, herbs, and teas can help us change that, and to be able to use this information to help others is truly a blessing. If I had given up in the middle of this story – believing I couldn’t get any better, I wouldn’t be here to help you overcome your personal challenge. If you have been told that ‘nothing is wrong’, or ‘all tests are normal’ I invite you to dig a little deeper, and do a little more work, as the best could still be yet to come.