My Story
From experiencing a number of significant trauma’s in my childhood I began refusing school at a young age which later led to me becoming a school refuser as an adolescent and struggling with acute anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, drug taking and criminal activity.
It’s no wonder that from the adversity I experienced as a child and young person that I entered work supporting vulnerable children and young people going on to set up and running numerous projects leading me to go onto to setting up my first not for profit to support hard to reach young people at the age of twenty-six.
After a couple of year’s I was facing burn out recognizing I needed to address by own trauma as my obsessive working was partly coming from a wounded place of not feeling good enough, worthy enough and ultimately working to escape my own suffering, as well as from an authentic inspiration from my heart to support others.
Psychotherapy was life changing for me. Its supported me deeply at understanding and making sense of my history, experiences and emotions supporting me to better identify my needs, recognise my unconscious unhealthy behaviours and how to change them.
Despite working from a greater place of authenticity with balance and joy I still felt a deep longing from something that was missing.
As a child, I was interested in traditional spiritually from the continent of Africa. At the age of eighteen I took my first trip to Ethiopia and from there on spent periods working and supporting setting up a number of projects in Ghana, Gambia, Ethiopia and South Africa.
At this point I had given up one of my not for profit organisations from being invited to merge to become part of a bigger national charity. Shortly after merging the national charity collapsed. Feeling angry and lost I decided to explore my longing and spirituality with plans to move to Ghana for a period of time where I was offered work but decided to stay to set up my current not for profit with a team of therapists to support the children and young people that had been left without a provision from the collapse of the charity.
It was at this time I was introduced to my first spiritual teacher and elder from the Taino tradition and ceremonial leader of sacred medicines from the Americas. My work with him and the teachings from the linage and community supported me enormously in finding a deeper connection to spirit.
It was on my first vision quest, a Native American rite of passage whereby I spent four days in the forest enclosed in four square meters of space by prayer flags without food or water whereby I had a vision of a Sangoma, a traditional healer of South Africa telling me I had to understand the origins of constellation work and meet with my Sangoma. Honoring the vision, I set off later that year to South Africa learning the Zulu origins of constellation work and met with my Zulu Sangoma teachers in which I am now initiated and honoring my calling.
As a Sangoma I am taught to listen to mine and others dreams carefully. I started to dream of being in ceremony working with the Iboga medicine. After consulting and exploring with my other teachers and having worked deeply with the sacred medicines from the Americas and it supporting me with a level of healing that western psychology and medicines were unable to provide I felt called to work with the Iboga medicine from the soil in which I feel my heart called for. So, off I went back to the continent of Africa making my first trip to Gabon, Central Africa whereby I now travel back and forth after my initiation in the Bwiti tradition becoming a trained medicine carrier.
I have lived a life lead from the heart.
On that journey, I have experienced some heart breaking failures and radiant successes learning the need to lead from the heart but also the mind and a place of intuition. Experiencing the breadth of life at its depths, learning pain is our medicine but can also be an addiction, understanding grief and loss comes with gifts, remembering we are only as sick as our secrets and it’s the courage in sharing our vulnerability in which starts the process of healing.