About Me
Outside of Work
Nature and being out walking in the woods or by the sea, is a big pull for me; it helps me to balance and calm as well as inspire me. Taking inspirational photos of my walks is a big part of that and capturing that moment, something. Animals have been my companions and therapists throughout life, including cats, dogs and horses, chickens, and others, and at present my partner and I have one cat called Pepper and enjoy watching the birds in the garden with him (fortunately he’s a poor hunter!) I also enjoy being active with gardening, running, swimming, and the gym. I enjoy reading psychological thrillers and going to the cinema. I am an enthusiastic ‘caker’! I thoroughly enjoy cooking and baking, my motto is ‘share cake save waist’, I am a ‘sconisseuer’ with my love of quality scones and afternoon tea, however if I had the choice between only ever eating cake or salad again, salad would win! In recent months I’ve returned to a low sugar diet so am baking wholemeal seeded bread again, with gut health in mind (literally!) but will still make room for afternoon tea and I also appreciate mindful eating.
Professional Interests
I am a #holistictherapist #energytherapist #empath # clairvoyant #clairsentient #claircognisant #clairaudient #intuitive #psychic #precognitive # #highlysensitiveperson #deeplistener #teacher #goodnutritiveunderstanding
Chronic fatigue/ M.E./ Fibromyalgia, complex trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, IBS, obesity, weight loss, gut health, CSA, LGBTQ friendly.
I am passionate about creating a safe space and keeping the client safe. For that reason also, I have supervision myself and believe that it’s something all holistic therapists will also benefit from. Good attention to our own self-care can help to prevent burn out and promote further self-awareness. Many holistic therapists, or givers, struggle with being poor receivers whilst good at giving to others, but not receiving. For that reason I feel that it would be of benefit to encourage that every therapist has weekly therapies as well – it is a therapeutic relationship and a process takes place.
I am particularly interested in how the body holds trauma, that through therapeutic touch such as massage we can release old trapped energy that wasn’t able to be processed at the time. Through my own experience of complex trauma from childhood, I have a good understanding of this process of release from the body through what is sometimes called the ‘healing crisis’, but which I prefer to call the ‘healing response’
My story
The beginnings
I have a lifelong interest and experience in holistic well-being, but embarked from consciously on that journey 20 years ago, having homeopathy and using aromatherapy to support my own health and healing, after seeing how complementary therapies helped one of my cats who had feline leukaemia. I suffered with anxiety and depression which began affecting me at 8 years old, as well as experiencing insightful and inspirational thoughts which left me pondering the bigger questions and deeper meaning of life, ‘how many people could fit into heaven?’ , the Universe, God, people and everything else!
Near Death
When M.E. and depression in my early twenties became so difficult for me to cope with I was hospitalised on a number of occasions due to repeated suicide attempts and no longer felt able to work. The pain and suffering was intense. During one suicide attempt, when I’d been asking was there really a God, I had a near death experience. I found myself surrounded in bright white light and an experience of peace and stillness, nothing like I’d ever experienced or felt before, it was out of this world. I didn’t realise this was a near death experience until years later, but did feel strongly that I wasn’t meant to die (I felt like I was even failing at that!), that maybe there was a reason why I was here and I was to stay. What was odd was that I would sit and cry and say ‘I want to go home’ and my friend would say ‘but you are home Emma’. What this was about took some years to integrate and understand further, I didn’t just see the light – even though I had!
Health
As well as M.E., anxiety and depression, I struggled with irritable bowel, agoraphobia and social phobia, noise and light sensitivities, aches and pains in my legs particularly, migraines, fainting and seizures due to anxiety. Daily life was a struggle and my goal of getting back to work took some years, but eventually came about by fostering, then volunteering and then working for the Cats Protection.
My journey to more conscious wellness began when my cat Poppy was ill with feline leukaemia. I realised that I’d do all that I could to help one of my animals or another person, but not myself, and it was time to help myself. I began to take more responsibility for my health and went to see a homeopath which helped considerably, and to my surprise quite amazingly. I often say to clients now I am always rather sceptical myself when trying new things and think it’s quite healthy to have that attitude.
Inner Tuition
In 2000, a medium, Sue Winter, explained to me how to meditate, suggested I read some books that appealed to me and helped me to develop psychically. This process helped me to reconnect with myself and began a process of enabling me to learn to listen and begin to trust myself, it was quite an amazing journey of opening up and great therapy! I wondered why on earth this wasn’t available on the NHS, and then some years later Mindfulness came onto the scene. However, it wasn’t just the meditation that helped, but being encouraged to learn to listen to my intuition, because I believe that then becomes our Inner Tuition, our inner guide. I began to find my True Self, I began to read Spiritual books and realised as I read this was who I was, a Spiritual being, and what I’d been doing for many years, without realising it, and there was a name for it!
Training
My development was primarily focused on meditation, personal development, consciousness, psychic, spiritual healing through a variety of avenues and experiences. Self-employment followed 16 years ago, doing readings and spiritual healing, then training to become a Reiki Practitioner and then teaching it. I went to Wrexham training to do Crystal and Colour Therapy (I couldn’t believe I was sitting in a college learning about this amazing path!) and gained experience by doing treatments at a local not for profit charity. An ongoing journey with my own mental health and healing, led me to study Integrative Counselling up to (but not qualifying) diploma level, and also Gestalt certificate in counselling and Adult Mental Health & Illness Levels 2 & 3, plus some years later Supervision for the Helping Professions. However, I was barely working myself due to my own deep depression and anxieties. I’d long since lived by the premise ‘Healer heal thyself’ and was still suffering, despite accepting I needed to stay here.
Acceptance
I came to a point where I was ready to throw the towel in with self-employment. I said to myself that maybe the reason that I was here was just to survive and get through each day, maybe helping others and the ‘success’ I dreamed of, including all the books I had begun to and wanted to write when information came flooding through me, wasn’t going to happen. Maybe I just had to take each day at a time and live in the moment the best I could. I let go.
I saw a holistic therapies course advertised and liked the look of it, I could learn, which I’d enjoy and I’d also get treatments whilst we practised on each other, which I’d also enjoy. I wasn’t about to become a holistic therapist! I studied and enjoyed things that I’d been reading about and aromatherapy I’d been using anyway. Then others on the course asked if I would teach them reiki…and I realised this was it, the time comes when others ask you, not necessarily when you want to do them. I’d waited nearly ten years for this, I’d amassed a lot of pictures and photos and so my website at that time was up and running fairly quickly, as if waiting for me to become qualified in the Holistic Therapies! I looked back to the time as a child when growing up where I’d massage my Dad’s neck and he’d benefit from it, and I realised I’d probably always been on this path.
A firm base
After a year or so, I ended up working from a business unit at the Gwersyllt Resource centre, as I always felt that I wanted to work in the Heart of the Community, and I have been here for ten years now practising holistic therapies, one to one psychic/personal development, and running workshops and courses. I also work as a community tutor for Wrexham County Council and was pleased to be nominated for a community tutor award some years back. I have also worked for organisations such as KIM Project, AVOW and a local philanthropist who paid for treatments for parents and carers of children with a disability.
Journey
I always say to clients that I am on a journey too, which has now taken me through giving up smoking, losing weight and struggling to keep it off which led me in recent years to use and teach the Mindful Eating approach. I have weekly treatments myself as I have always needed to be mindful of my own self-care which leads me to advocate it passionately for others. My own continued Professional Development and Personal Development doesn’t stop. I believe that we teach what we need to learn. I also say I am a Jack of All Trades and Master of Reiki and I do have a lot of passion for reiki. The therapies that I offer to others I offer because they have worked or continue to work for me, but I believe we are all different so what might work for me might not work for someone else. With many years of various psychological and holistic therapies, I have gained a good deal of insights and awareness and have been referred to as ‘the therapist’s therapist’.
