About Me

Hello everyone.  

When I was in my thirties, I thought my life was normal.  I thought it was normal to be super busy all the time, juggling young children, a demanding career, an active social life in London, all while renovating a property.  I thought I thrived on this lifestyle, and for a number of years I probably did…..

In 1981, at the age of 22, I started an executive search business in financial services. I didn’t really know what I was doing but had nothing to lose.  It was right-place-right-time, and the business grew like topsy over the next 20 years.  By the year 2000 we employed 52 people.  I also had 4 children and a large house to manage in West London.  

Yes, we had loads of help, but I had no concept of downtime.  I was an avid multi-tasker, on auto-pilot much of the time, and with the advent of smartphones (who remembers the Blackberry?) there was no chance that a second would be wasted.  I had no idea what ‘being present’ meant, let alone mindful living.   Little did I know the toll it was taking….

In 2008 the financial crisis hit us like a tornado. We were 100% exposed to the financial sector, which virtually ground to a halt.  My firm’s revenues fell off a cliff.  I had to let go people who had worked for me for over 20 years and my best consultants were lured by larger global firms.  Our revenues hardly covered our rent bill, and yet I had still seven years to run on our lease, with no break clause.  For the first time in my life I think, I experienced real, unadulterated stress.  It lasted five long years before I eventually found a way to exit my lease in 2013 and took the chance to close the business down. By that time I needed a total break. 

During the years that ensued I discovered Functional Medicine.  Various of my, now 5, children had chronic health problems that remained unresolved by the conventional medical system. I turned to Functional Medicine – initially with a mixture of scepticism and curiosity – to see if we could bottom out the root cause of their problems.  One by one, over a period of time and with consistent effort around diet and lifestyle, all of them gained relief from their symptoms.  My attention was more than hooked. I was a convert. This was an approach to illness that made sense to me – a personalised approach, which seeks to treat the underlying cause of disease, rather than suppressing symptoms, principally by using nutritional protocols and changes in lifestyle.  

For my 60th birthday, I gave myself a present.  I decided to have an MOT with my highly esteemed functional doctor.  I was fully expecting to get a clean bill of health.  After all, I had retired from my business in 2013, and it was now 2018.  I was a lot fitter, and a lot more relaxed.  I had been struggling with just three symptoms: headaches (around once a week), short-term memory loss and tiredness, leaving me unable to remain awake beyond around 10pm (embarrassing when out to dinner).

As it turned out, the final five years in business had taken their toll, and there was more out of balance than I had bargained for.  I began to understand the impact that stress has on one’s health, and that the connection to one’s physiology is real and measurable.  I too needed to begin on a long slow journey to recovery and optimum health.

It has been through a myriad of tiny changes over the last three years that results have occurred.  Through that time, I have become absorbed by the subject, and voraciously read and listened to functional, naturopathic and integrative medical experts from all over the world, talking about what creates health at one’s core and how chronic disease can be prevented. 

I have finally understood the part that one’s mental health plays in the mix, which has led me to incorporate meditation, mindfulness, gratitude and forgiveness as integral parts of my life approach.  I am learning to embrace downtime, to fiddle around doing nothing, to stare into space for no purpose.  That has been the most demanding part of my journey.  

I had often wondered whether I would ever find something I could be passionate about after The Rose Partnership.  I was only 54 years old when I closed the business, and I still had much energy to commit to something.  Functional Medicine is unquestionably that thing, but becoming a practitioner was out of reach given my lack of medical, bio-chemical or nutritional background. It took me about 10 minutes to decide to train as a Functional Health Coach after watching a presentation by the Kresser Institute - a less technical, but valuable and valued role within the mix of skillsets needed to help people on the road to true health.  I loved the course which lasted a year, ending in November 2020. I became fully-certified in February 2021.  

Since March 2022 I have been attending (remotely) the School of Applied Functional Medicine in the US, on a pretty full time basis, hoping to qualify as a Functional Medicine Practitioner within 3.5 years of study. This will be going some for someone who doesn’t have a background in biochemistry, but I am so far on track, having passed my Part 1 exams in June 2023.

I am not exactly sure what I am going to do once I am qualified. My goal is to try and help as many people as possible, at a price point that people can afford, and I shall therefore probably focus on holding group courses for different disease states eg diabetes, gut problems, asthma-eczema-allergies, hormone imbalance/fertility, chronic fatigue etc.

I want people to understand that their health is far more in their own hands than they realise, and that they need to take ownership and action now in order to have a long and vital life.

Hello and welcome. If you seek a greater understanding of how to achieve optimal health, you are in the right place. If you feel you might want help along the way, just drop me a line.

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