Tom’s Story

‘I suppose I felt for some time that looking more closely at what I ate could be helpful in my healing process, but it was seeing the dramatic improvement in my partner’s health that provided the final impetus.

I had been involved in personal development and had used alternative therapies for a number of years but I was still regularly suffering from debilitating and extremely painful headaches.

I teach script writing and have had a great deal of success in ‘turning on’ lots of students to the joys of creative writing. However, despite consistant confirmation of my own ability as a writer, I have suffered a good deal of ambivalence as well as a lack of confidence about my own work.

At the end of our first session, Barbara asked me how I felt with what she had suggested. I can still remember the hubris with which I shrugged the question off. This was no big deal to an evolved guy like me who already ate fairly healthily. Knowing the power of dramatic irony only too well, part of me looks back with amusement at that cock-sure attitude. I found myself having sudden fits of rage, cursing vegetables and hurling the sieve across the kitchen as I drained yet another load of brown rice. I was also astonished at how these outbursts seemed to come from nowhere.

Sticking with the discipline of the nutritional programme was sometimes far from easy and it is to Barbara’s credit that she knew just when and how to offer support. She sensitively worked her holistic magic, addressing mind, body and spirit. As the detoxification continued, I found greater equilibrium: my health started to improve and my headaches lessened. In particular, my energy levels and my moods evened out. I found a more naturally-rooted zest for living coming up. I could make changes in circumstances faster and more easily and there was a pronounced improvement in knowing what I wanted and being able to assert those wishes, as well as being able to break patterns of over-adaptation to others.

There have been major changes in my life: my relationship broke up; a much postponed plan to redecorate my house has been acted upon; my teaching work has changed direction; I have started training as a drama therapist; I have started offering personal development/creativity workshops; and I have now (18 months on) started a new relationship that feels much easier than previous liaisons.

Working with Barbara has been a significant experience in my life. It has helped me to discover a more solid sense of self-worth, an inner knowing of what I need, along with a deep impulse to really care for myself – and I am now starting to feel a new dawn looming on the creative writing front.’