Alternative Therapies… Are They Up to Date?

My road to utilising unconventional practices and therapies was not something I ever imagined for myself… but here we are.

I came from a home where at the slightest cough or tummy upset, we were in the GP’s office. And, if I’m honest, with my first three children, I followed that same path, almost on autopilot. Generational conditioning. Doing what I had only ever known, rather than pausing to ask why.

Looking back now, I can see something I couldn’t see then.
At the time, I never recognised His hand in my life, but now I see how the obstacles I faced were invitations. Invitations to question.

To think differently, to step outside the square and learn to look at things from all angles.

When the System Doesn’t See You

I was young and constantly dealing with stomach issues. I remember asking my doctor why my cycle seemed connected to my bowel symptoms… and later opening his referral letter, only to see myself described as neurotic. Crazy.

I never went back.

It wasn’t until 20 years later, when I became very unwell, that I was finally diagnosed with extensive endometriosis. Over the next six years, I underwent three surgeries. Some of it couldn’t even be removed it had attached to my bowel.

And I couldn’t help but wonder…
What if someone had listened earlier?

Why I Questioned Everything

Because of my childhood, I avoided psychologists at all costs. I had watched my mother attend therapy, only for it to seemingly justify her behaviour.

There was this narrative of “the past is in the past”… yet the same patterns continued, unchanged, into the future.

So I began to question not just systems of health but systems of healing.

Growing up in a very conservative Christian environment, alternative approaches to health were often hidden. Not discussed.

There was fear, fear of being judged for needing support, and fear of being judged for where that support came from.

At times, what was masked as faith carried undertones of control, fear, and even superiority.

And I remember the moment I realised I no longer aligned with that.
It felt like a wave through my body a shudder… and then peace.

My Children Changed Everything

When my children were young, my eldest was diagnosed with autism. At the time, we barely knew anyone else navigating the same path.

And I remember thinking…
How did this rise so quickly?

That question led me to food.

When I changed our diet, I saw massive shifts. Not subtle…significant.

That was the moment I truly understood the impact of nutrition on the body.

It led me into homes, supporting families in the only way I knew how at the time through food. Through cooking. Through creating from scratch. (And yes… my trusty Thermomix was part of that journey for 16 years!)

From there, I explored essential oils for behavioural and sensory support. That path led me into natural perfumery, but what captured me most wasn’t the blending, it was the science.

The connection between scent, the nervous system, emotions, and what we now understand through psychoneuroimmunology.

I became deeply curious about the body as a whole system.

When Everything Fell Apart

At the same time as I was building my work, my world was quietly falling apart.

My daughter’s mental health declined significantly. We changed churches. Family relationships fractured. There was overwhelm at every level.

And if I’m honest… I coped by staying busy.
Markets. Study. Nutrition. Keeping myself moving.

Until something stopped me.

I came across embodied processing.

And I can say, without hesitation, it changed everything.

It wasn’t just another modality. It was the first time I experienced healing that wasn’t about fixing, analysing, or labelling… but about feeling, processing, and integrating.

Even though I couldn’t “fix” my daughter, something shifted in me.
And in that, I was able to support my children in a completely different way.

My faith also changednot intellectually, but physically.

I began to feel it. To experience attunement, compassion, and grace in a way I never had before.

The Missing Piece in Healing

I later began studying naturopathy… but stopped in the first term.

Not because I didn’t value it—but because I could feel something important slipping away. Every pillar of health I had worked to build in my own life was being lost to the intensity and structure of study.

And I realised something very clearly:

I don’t want to treat disease.
I want to prevent it.
I want to support people in real time—in the moment their body is communicating.

Because healing isn’t just about what you take or what you do.

It’s about what you can hold, process, and integrate as life unfolds.

And this is the part I believe is deeply underestimated.

Are Alternative Therapies Still Evolving?

I’ve always felt drawn to homeopathy and Bach flower remedies.

But when I recently began studying them, I noticed something that surprised me…

They haven’t really evolved.

They are still taught largely the same way they were over 100 years ago.

And it made me pause.

Because when I look at someone like Edward Bach, I see a pioneer. A man ahead of his time. Someone who recognised the connection between emotions and physical health long before it was widely accepted.

In many ways, his work aligns deeply with what I believe.

But I also began to see something else.

The approach ask questions, identify the emotion, prescribe an essence, mirrors, in some ways, the very model he was trying to move away from.

Symptom → label → solution.

And I wonder…

If he were alive today, with access to what we now know about the nervous system, trauma, frequency, and the measurable impact of emotions on the body would his work look the same?

Or would it have evolved?

The Essence Isn’t the Answer

What I’ve come to realise is this, It’s not the essence that creates the shift.

It’s the awareness.
The intention.
The state of the person receiving it.

The essence may support, reflect, or even initiate something but it is not the transformation itself. Just like in so many areas of healing, we can’t bypass the integration.

Where I Stand Now

I don’t see alternative therapies as “wrong.”
In fact, many were incredibly advanced for their time.

But I do believe we are being invited into something deeper now.

A space where we don’t just rely on tools, remedies, or protocols…

But where we build the capacity to listen to the body, process in real time, and integrate what arises.

Because healing isn’t found in one modality.

It’s found in the relationship we build with ourselves.