Acupuncture helped my recovery from ‘burn out’ in the early 90’s. I’d been working too many night shifts in 24 hour TV news rooms. I was disheartened by the unhealthy work culture and began questioning the ethics of my profession. I started suffering from constant headaches and came close to becoming chronically fatigued.
Post viral fatigue, chronic fatigue, or M.E, as it was known then, was not medically recognised at the time. I felt very unsupported and with nowhere else to turn I had to find my own way back to health.
I stopped work; slept for hours, spent time in whatever Nature I could find; learnt how to meditate, tried different alternative treatments and slowly started to recover.
At the time acupuncture was the one therapy which instantly relieved my headaches and slowly I pieced myself back together with the support and guidance of my acupuncturist and a handful of other amazing alternative therapists and teachers.
I then began to train as a therapist myself. By the time I was ready to set up in practice I was single, over forty and faced the prospect of not having children of my own.
It was a painful time and whenever I am working with women facing the same ticking clock I fully empathise with how easy it is to think it’s never going to happen and give up hope.
Around this time, I met someone new and was very lucky to fall pregnant quite quickly and naturally and I had my son a few weeks shy of my 42nd birthday.
Becoming a mother so late in life and being blessed with a good natural birth and working successfully with so many women who have got there in the end, inspires me to not let women give up, especially when they’ve been trying for a long time and when age seems to be against them.
