Stress triggered tinnitus when I was 16. Graduating from St Andrews University I then lived all over the world, working as a language teacher in Venezuela, Japan, Hungary, Italy, France and Spain. By the time I was 34 my tinnitus became deafening and I couldn’t work any more.
This led me to try out Craniosacral therapy, which helped me relax and switch off for the first time in my life, and took me on a voyage of discovery into the body. My tinnitus started improving immediately and six months later, after 20 years of worsening symptoms, I woke up in silence. This was a life-changing experience for me and I vowed that I would do my best to help others let go of their tinnitus too. I trained as a Craniosacral therapist and since 2000 a sizeable part of my practice has been dedicated to helping people let go of their tinnitus.
Post-graduate courses at the Karuna institute in Devon put me in touch with Maura Sills who gave a talk at the Breath of Life Conference in London. She chanted the Buddhist Heart Sutra: Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha and I had an extraordinary experience of feeling the heart open. I had a strong emotional reaction, and for weeks afterwards I felt much lighter. As a result I resolved to do a training with Maura Sills, which appeared a couple of months later, as the Foundation Course in Core Process Psychotherapy.
I went on to do an MA in Buddhist Psychotherapy and four years later qualified as a Core Process Psychotherapist at Karuna. This training developed a deeper connection to Buddhist practice and opened up a whole new world of awareness. I have been a full-time Psychotherapist since 2010