Back in March I spent an amazing couple of days in London attending the Reflexology for Women’s Health course with the brilliant Hagar Basis.

Hagar Basis is an internationally renowned and award-winning Reflexologist that has been practicing reflexology since 1989.  She was the Course Director for the International Institute of Reflexology for 16 years and I was so fortunate to be trained by her on my original reflexology course with the IIR.

She has gone on to set up her own school of reflexology, the London-based Reflexology Academy, continuing to train and influence the development of reflexology in the UK.

Hagar developed the Reflexology for Women’s Health course to cover the wide range of conditions specific to women’s health, and has such a great knowledge and compassion for all things feminine!

We covered a huge range of topics on the course; we discussed the onset of menstruation, our menstrual cycles, female orgasm, pregnancy, labour, birth, post-natal conditions, lactation, menopause, hysterectomy, respecting the ebbs and flow of our hormones, fear, and everything in between!

I learnt some new techniques, refreshed my ART (Advanced Reflexology) skills and am really excited to be putting it all into practice with my clients.  

I’m often asked by my clients what brought me to Reflexology and Complementary Health.

My interest and passion for natural therapies was sparked early on. My Dad and his family are from Southern Africa, where nature was part of everyday life.  He used his knowledge of natural medicine to care for our bumps and bruises, using aloe fresh from the plant when we cut our knee, honey when we had a sore throat and garlic to ‘keep the vampires away’! – his way of supporting our immune systems when we caught a cold.

Dad’s innate faith of natural remedies was passed down to me. At 7, I was amazed when my friend’s mum, training to be a reflexologist, found a sore spot on my spinal reflex that corresponded to a big bruise on my back that I hadn’t known I had. Later, when studying Sociology at University, my fascination with health and illness, and their impact on individuals and those around them, grew. I was drawn towards modules that looked at how different cultures and their beliefs influence how people view, experience and describe illness, disease, reproductive health and even death. My dissertation explored how the family of someone with chronic illness, in this case diabetes, was affected by and experienced the condition.

After University I worked in a number of different industries including manufacturing, design, model making, banking and, most recently, social care.  Whilst working in my twenties I found I had a serious lack of energy and persistent digestive issues.  I found  that orthodox medicine offered me temporary solutions to my ailments, effectively plastering over the symptoms and not getting to the route of the issues. I was recommended a complementary health practitioner and after making some big changes to my diet and lifestyle, I really turned my health around.

I finally took the plunge to take my passion for natural therapies further in 2010 and, with the constant support and encouragement of my wonderful mum and my brilliant partner, I started my reflexology course at the International Institute of Reflexology (IIR).

Since qualifying, I’ve relished the opportunities to expand my knowledge of reflexology and its many benefits. There is always more to learn.  I’ve been lucky to attend some fantastic courses over the years with some of the most prominent reflexologists, including maternity reflexology, reproductive reflexology, fertility reflexology, and TCM-style reflexology (see my qualifications for more details). In 2013, I achieved practitioner level in Advanced Reflexology Techniques (ART), a style of reflexology that applies specific, focused techniques to provide a therapeutic, effective treatment.

What I love about reflexology is that it supports such a wide range of conditions and clients from all walks of life.  I never have the same day twice and every client presents with their own unique conditions and character.  I see young and old, those who are experiencing bad back pain, people who have trouble sleeping, those who suffer from year-long and seasonal allergies, people with anxiety and depression, and people with hormone-related conditions to name but a few.  I have people who come regularly to maintain their health and wellbeing, and people who come for one-off treatments for relaxation.  I love supporting couples to conceive and I love seeing the benefits that women in pregnancy gain during and after a session. I feel honoured to be invited to support women who have recently given birth to enable them some time to reset and repair, and I love to have a hold of their new little bundles.

Simply offering a supportive, calm, relaxing space for clients to enjoy reflexology and to ‘switch off’ for an hour, can become a catalyst for positive change in their lives that goes beyond the presenting condition itself.  It is this spark of positive change in people that makes my work so rewarding.

If you’d like to find out more about me, my qualifications or my special interests, please do get in touch:

e: email me

As I write this, I am thick in the early days of grief. My wonderful father died three weeks ago of oesophageal cancer. We are all devastated; whilst we knew my dad didn’t have long, his death was sudden and unexpected – he went much earlier than we all thought he would.

Grief is a strange beast. It seems to come and go, weaving its way in and out of your day to day being, and appears in various forms. You can feel grounded and capable and handling life well and suddenly the smallest thing can topple you over – the sight, smell or sound of something that somehow reminds you of the person you’ve lost can throw you completely. I feel the varying colours of grief – from the darkest of the bleak blackness of missing the person so much your body aches, to the brightest side where your love for them can carry you through your day.

As each day progresses I learn more about my dad, about my relationship with him, and about myself. I feel myself slowly changing, changed by the feeling that losing a parent brings. There is such sadness in mine and my family’s life right now. But the light appears when I think about my courageous, enormously funny and endlessly loving father and I sense the parts of me that are boundlessly linked to him, and I feel myself growing as a person, nurturing those aspects of myself that he nurtured in me.

And at times, of course, I cry. If I can allow myself the time and space to cry – time to myself away from my kids, perhaps with my partner or sometimes alone – I can immerse myself in the sadness and it feels physical, like a necessary physical release.

And I’m aware that time is so relevant right now. People keep telling me to take time to grieve, to take time to myself, and that with time I will feel better.

And time is so important to us all, wherever we are in our lives, whatever we are experiencing. Allowing yourself space and time to feel, to think, to get back in touch with yourself. Finding something that allows you that connection enables you to breathe, to take stock, to re-centre.

I am learning that, even with time, this grief isn’t something that I can ‘get over’, ‘move on’ from; it is imprinting itself in my identity, my way of thinking, of being. I’m taking the time to feel it, to express it, to understand it and, really, to welcome it in.

“The deep sorrows of life are not feelings we can get over by dealing with them; they are wounds which forever live with us and are always morphing with each passing month.“ Kevin A Thompson

Last week I was lucky enough to attend a special advanced reflexology course. The course was led by Dr Jesus Manzanares, a medical doctor from Barcelona who has for the last 27 years been studying, researching and practicing reflexology as part of his medical practice.

Dr Manzanares has documented research on 70,000 clients to explore and clarify the neurophysiological basis of reflexology, the precise locations of the reflexes and the protocols for practice. His insights were fascinating, particularly his exploration of the deposits found in the reflex areas and how these can be interpreted to gain understanding of the conditions that are affecting the health of the client. We were also supported to find the different reflex locations on eachother’s feet using Dr Manzanares’ specific and precise methodologies – see pic below.

I came away with a renewed energy and added enthusiasm to my practice and was bolstered by the great benefits of reflexology. I’ve already been integrating Dr Manzanares’ methods to my practice and I’m very much looking forward to part 2 of the course next year.

Always laugh when you can. It’s a cheap medicine. Byron

Hello! I’m Debbie & I’m a mum, a natural therapies practitioner, a South East London local and a bee lover. And laughing’s really important to me. What else gets you through the tough times?

Laughter and smiling’s been shown to impact your overall sense of happiness. Physically expressing an emotion sends a biochemical signal from your facial muscles that “loops” back to your brain – the “facial feedback” hypothesis. Laughter can also improve memory & quality of sleep, boosts problem-solving ability and creativity, and can relieve muscle tension.

Check out this infographic about what else laughter can do for you.

I’m a great believer of improving your health through laughter and through natural therapies.

Sometimes you can combine the two… The Day Today’s Bile Chanting
& Smack the pony’s Oriental Massage sketch are sure to raise a smile…

Watch this space for musings about motherhood & parenting, local life, bees and more.

One of my colleagues at Goose Green Clinic, Beth Follini, runs a life coaching practice & specialises in supporting women with the decision of whether to have children or not.

It’s a subject which comes up a lot within my circle of friends. Most of us are in our 30s, whether early, mid or late, and it’s become a hot topic. I guess we’re a product of our generation; the numbers of women having children at 35 and over has dramatically increased in the last 40 years.

My mum was 27 when she had her first baby. Even in 1974, she felt shocked to see ‘Mature Mother’ written on her hospital notes. Nowadays having a baby at 27 seems positively young.

I was having a snoop on the Office of National Statistics website to see how the figures looked. In 1974, the percentage of births to mums 35 and over was 6%. In 2012, the percentage had increased to nearly 20%. Times have changed.

Of my friends, we’re all in different circumstances with children. Some have had babies in the last couple of years, and of those, some might be deliberating whether or when to have a second. Others would love to start a family but are either not in the right relationship, or don’t feel it’s quite the right time, with flourishing careers or other priorities. Others are settled in relationships but are wondering whether they want to have children at all; they’re not sure they want to have their lives turned upside down plus the added financial pressures when children enter the scene.

Statistics, opinions, discussions and debates about delaying motherhood and the effect it might have on your fertility are rife. I saw a recent article from a mother who was told by a gynaecologist that at 28 she should be cracking on with motherhood or it might be too late. Tanya Selvaratnam talks about her own experience of delaying motherhood in her book “The Big Lie: Motherhood, Feminism, and the Reality of the Biological Clock” and ties in valuable information to help women make ‘smarter choices about their reproductive futures’.

Personally, I was very aware of the big 35 approaching and I felt a real urgency to get started with motherhood. I had my first baby at 32, and I’m now expecting my second this summer. My poor partner was subject to lots of anxious discussions about when was the right time to have a second baby, with my sense of getting older really dominating the decision.

This wealth of statistics and information plus the family and societal pressures are difficult to ignore and it has become a prevailing subject for women of my age, whether we are thinking of having children, or not.

This is a vast topic and one that I find both interesting and relevant. Watch this space for further discussion!

If you struggle with the decision of whether to have children, check out Beth’s website & blog:
Tick Tock Coaching
Beth’s blog – Children or Not