Are you looking for experienced acupuncture in Cambridge? Are you finding it hard to decide whom to choose? Do you wish you could experience some relaxing and therapeutic bodywork but don’t fancy the idea of a massage? I could be just the acupuncturist you are looking for – and here’s why … I’ve been practising acupuncture and Zero Balancing for nearly 30 years.Over the years, new people have found me through word-of-mouth recommendations (I sometimes treat whole friendship … [Read more...]
“Hope Springs Eternal” – treating depression without medication.
I live on the edge of the Fens, and it's a great place to experience a certain ambivalent relationship with nature. In the drear misery of dark winter dankness, the flat expanses of sodden ground merging seemingly seemlessly with the grey expanses of sodden sky, it's hard to feel positive - and walking the dog along droves that are treacherously slippery and stubbornly sticky at the same time seems, frankly, quite unfair (especially as said dog is quite unconcerned with one's plight). And … [Read more...]
Blue Monday – how to feel better about it!
When booking a patient in for an appointment on 15 January 2018, she looked up from her diary and said "Oh, that's Blue Monday". I looked blank, so she said something about that being, officially, the day on which we are most miserable ... and then the conversation moved on to something a little more cheery. But I was interested enough to look Blue Monday up on the internet and found that someone somewhere has calculated the third Monday of January is THE day when our collective, and … [Read more...]
Acupuncture for Weight Loss
Can acupuncture help you lose weight? It happens every New Year, doesn't it? The media focus on "New Year, New You" hype is relentless, gym memberships soar, people queue up to join slimming clubs and ponder whether to snap up sales bargains in sizes they can fit into, or wish they could fit into. It's just at this point in the year when there is a growing sense of increasing light that making new plans for a fresh start seems to come naturally. So, when I was advised that it would be a … [Read more...]
Acupuncture for anxiety & stress – & Zero Balancing too!
I’ve been meaning for a long time to write about acupuncture for anxiety and stress. But regular readers of my blog will know that I like to write from my heart as well as from my head. And so, when I was recently fortunate enough to spend a few days in peaceful retreat on the island of Iona off the coast of Mull in Scotland, I was able to give the idea some more focused thought. It was a much needed opportunity to stop, take stock, be still, renew and refresh my body, mind and spirit after a … [Read more...]
Acupuncture & Periods – Hormone Mayhem into Hormone Harmony?
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...]