One thing all women (and girls from puberty) know about is the role of hormones in their lives. Whether it’s simply the monthly adjustment needed around menstruation; or the controlling of their periods with the Pill; or the mood changes associated with Pre-Menstrual Tension (PMS/PMT); or the concerns around avoiding pregnancy; or the hopes around achieving pregnancy; or the ailments that come before, during or after the period; or the mixed feelings over the periods coming to an end; or … or … … [Read more...]
Acupuncture and the Menopause – “It’s hot in here!”
Acupuncture and menopause - a natural approach We've just had several days of 'heatwave' conditions and, apart from those lucky enough to have access to air conditioning (was it just me who found myself spending a longer time than was strictly necessary in the supermarket the other day?) it's been very hard work doing anything requiring energy or concentration. My treatment room saw an unbroken succession of overheated clients who were utterly fed up, tired out, grumpy and generally feeling … [Read more...]
Acupuncture for Fertility
I can't tell you how many people have come to me for help with fertility/infertility issues over the last quarter century - but it is hundreds, and each year sees an increase in numbers. But it isn't a numbers game for the couples involved - it as an intensely personal and private agony, the hoping for and trying for a baby and things not going according to plan. Especially when it feels like every second person you come across is pregnant or has a new baby and especially when it's the spring - … [Read more...]
Emotional Healing – Beauty and the Beast
It's been quite a roller-coaster just recently, and it's got me thinking ... 7 January 2017 saw a very happy occasion, a second marriage for both myself and my new husband, a day full of joy and love and friends and family. And there at the service was my beloved 90-year-old father. Two days later, he died. A gentle kindly passing, making no fuss, requiring no drama or wringing of hands. So the planning and delivery of a wedding speech quickly turned into the planning and delivery of a … [Read more...]
Remembrance
This autumn could scarcely be more beautiful - no need to cross the Atlantic to New England, the brilliance of colour is all around us. It is such an extraordinary natural in-breath, held between that brilliance and utter mutedness, between exaltation and aching loss, between exhilaration and mournfulness. This morning's walk covered it all - visually misty and yet vibrant, emotionally subdued and yet celebratory of the beauty all around. Life in the autumn is poised in such delicate balance, … [Read more...]
Cambridge homecoming
Usually I write about things that have suddenly inspired me - something in nature, something someone has said. After more than quarter of a century working with acupuncture and Zero Balancing, I find connections everywhere with my work. And every work day brings with it something new - an unexpected turn taken in a client's life, a sudden insight into how best to serve someone in their quest for better health, an opportunity to learn and grow alongside the people who come to me. And now, … [Read more...]
“Lights, camera … SMILE!”
When I was a child, my favourite place to be at this time of the year was sitting on the wall of the front garden in our suburban London street. The bricks stepped up to the gate posts so I could climb up quite high, and almost disappear among the lowest branches of a pink-flowering hawthorn tree which grew out of a gap in the pavement. It always felt like a special, half-hidden world - one in which I could try to make sense of whatever joys or unhappinesses were at the forefront of my mind at … [Read more...]
Ringing the changes
All experts on how best to manage a website say that it's important to write a blog post at least once a month. It makes your site, and what you're using it for, look current, alive, up-to-the-minute, fresh, cared-for, vibrant ... I could go on. And I'm sure that all that is very true, and I would hate to think that my site looked stuck in some retro time-warp. Having said that, I will hold up my hands and confess that, since the end of last year when I last wrote a post, I've been rather … [Read more...]
The Bare Bones
It's New Year's Eve, and what a year 2015 has been. Well, for me anyway. I know a lot of therapists cultivate an air of enigmatic remoteness in their dealings with their clients and patients, but that has never worked for me. I try my best to get a balance between professional discretion, and honest disclosure. My work is done from a place of meaningful connection, which is based on the belief that if I am really to be of use to the people coming to me for help and support, I want them to … [Read more...]
“Fall forward”
We've just had the clocks go back, triggering the usual mixture of confusion, irritation, gloom (about it being all downhill until spring) and delight (about how lovely it is to get cosy of a dark evening). Whatever else can be said about this time, it's unlikely to be something neutral. The autumn generates strong feelings in most people. Every year I find myself in respect and admiration of the wisdom that the ancient Chinese had access to, and passed on down the generations. The autumn, … [Read more...]
Silence
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to go on an extraordinary walking retreat in a remote and wild valley in northwestern Spain. It was interesting to note the differing responses of patients and clients when I told them about what I was planning to do. You see, the daily walks were to be done in complete SILENCE. I'd say that my client base divided roughly 50/50 into those who thought that was a weird, even alarming, and certainly bizarre thing to want to do ... and those whose response was … [Read more...]
Spring greens & baby blues
It's been a funny start to spring this year - although the winter seemed to drag on a long time, it wasn't really that cold - and yet the snowdrops were out very late. To me, at any rate, it feels like the welcome upturn in light levels has been well in advance of it actually feeling like spring. And now, bizarrely, it's suddenly nearly April and the whole Easter parade of artificially generated shopping hype (chocolate, bunnies, chicks) is in annoyingly full throttle. Apologies to all my … [Read more...]
The turn of the year
It's New Year's Eve as I write this, and the last few days have been perfect examples of nature at its most ... wintry. My long-standing clients know that I like to hibernate in the winter, for 2-3 weeks if possible - but for the last three mornings I've made sure I've been up and dressed in my thermals, thick jacket, hat and gloves in time for sunrise (8.13am this morning), so that I could be out walking across the fields in the frost. Why do this? Well, apart from the sheer and stunning … [Read more...]
Now – or near enough.
I feel a bit like someone making a confession ... "It's been several months since I last wrote a blog post". It's been eating away on my conscience, yet I haven't found either the time or inspiration to sit down and write. So this has got me thinking - about how obligations rather than inspiration so often rule our lives; about how hard it is - when life is chucking challenges at you left, right and centre - to take time to do something you enjoy; about not being able to see the wood for the … [Read more...]
Summer of love, summer of heartache
I've been brewing this post for the past couple of months - but typically for this time of year, there's been so much jostling for my attention (work, family stuff, gardening, exercising and more) that the actual writing has had to wait until a sleepless night got me out of bed very early. So, what's been brewing? Well, it's been thinking about love, relationships, the highs and the lows. Our love life, or lack of it, or disappointment and disillusionment with it, occupy a big part of our … [Read more...]
Navigating smoothly through transition
I'm in the incredibly fortunate position of having decided, back in November of last year, to walk every day - and to live in a village with beautiful countryside accessible from my doorstep. Armed with my trusty iPhone, I've been taking photographs every day of my walks - and am now delighted to have a library of pictures which (with no deliberate plan) are providing me with an archive of seasonal change. And this is very timely as I'm acutely aware, in my own life and the lives of friends, … [Read more...]
Spring gateways
I'll be honest with you - I just couldn't get round to writing a blog post in March, even though I try to do one every calendar month. Why? Well, I think it was because I felt so uncertain about whether spring had really arrived, and I didn't want to write something about fresh starts and enthusiasm only to find that winter had a nasty trick waiting up its sleeve ... like last year. So I dithered (unusual for me), and ended up doing nothing while feeling a touch frustrated at myself. Well … [Read more...]
When is spring coming?
It's always at this point in the year - as we get near to the end of February - that I see lots of fed-up people in my treatment room. Winter feels like it has been going on for ever, and although the days are clearly lengthening that's not enough to lift the spirits. We're confused, aren't we, by the weather conditions? All the rain and flooding in the past few months, but hardly any frost and no sign of snow round here. We are cheered by the sight of snowdrops when the sun comes out, and … [Read more...]
Emerging from hibernation
Despite the fact that January and February tend to be the winter months that people most dislike, for me this is clearly a time of rising energy as the days slowly but noticeably lengthen. Tomorrow I start work again, after a break of nearly four weeks. I can't say this time has been totally restful, but it has felt really important to have plenty of unattributed time in amongst the usual obligations of family, shopping, appointments etc. But now I feel a distinct restlessness, a need and … [Read more...]
Midwinter musings
We've just passed the winter solstice, and although this means the days are now getting longer, it feels dark, dark, dark. And so it should - we need the ebb and flow of seasons to give our year rhythm and context. It's just that in our modern culture, driven by bright lights and a 24/7 mentality, we are exceptionally disconnected from those rhythms. Take the last few weeks ... the build-up to Christmas is madly hectic for many, and stressful with emotional pressure. Clients who know me … [Read more...]