“Everyone needs a Lucy in their life”
— Ama, East London
The road to herbalism began early
Playing as a child, I remember wanting to be a witch, not a princess!
Image courtesy of Simon McQueen
I fell in love with the magic of herbal medicine after discovering that there is a plethora of medicines right outside our doors. In our gardens, in wasteland, hedgerows and even growing through pavement cracks! Once you know, you can barely move for tripping over a medicinal herb - and I frequently do! I love plants and how they make such wonderful changes for my patients. I qualified as a Herbalist in 2008, graduating with a BSc (Hons) from Middlesex University.
I began by working in a health food shop with full dispensary and responding to acute enquiries on the shop floor. After moving to Hertfordshire in 2013, I began to work at Middlesex University as dispenser in the herbal medicine training clinic and as lecturer. Alongside that, I started to build my Hertfordshire private practice. I work from home and offer a blend of in-person and online 1-2-1 appointments and groups.
I became mum to Rowan in 2017 and started my new teaching role at the University of Westminster in 2019 where I teach students to be herbal practitioners in the training clinic. It is wonderful to watch students grow, nurturing them just like plants, into the next generation of Medical Herbalists!
My training in Bach Flowers was in 2004 and included a wonderful introduction to the world of Doctrine of Signatures observing many of the plants growing in Regents Park in London. EFT came much later and took some considerable nudging from the Universe before I finally took notice! I undertook formal training in 2000 and thoroughly love the changes it has brought me. It still bowls me over on a weekly basis the powerful changes I am bringing to my internal world with this amazing set of techniqued! It has also brought me a wonderful community and some literally quite magical transformations I have witnessed in clients.
Whilst being a herbalist is not magic - it took a lot of hard graft (!!!), I have a sneaking suspicion the herbs themselves may be, because the results we acheive together often seem ‘as if by magic’.
Dr Edward Bach
“It is not the disease that is of importance, it is the patient, the way in which they are affected, which is our true guide to healing.”
This quote is from a lecture from Dr Bach in 1936 and I believe it to be a fundamental facet of health which modern medicine ignores. Unless we integrate all aspects of us and our health, we remain stuck in the same grooves and walk the same path over and over and nothing actually changes.
Working with me is all about gently changing your groove.
Think of yourself as an ocean liner. Shift your trajectory by just one degree and the destination is completely changed. My job is to help you find that one degree and support you whilst you find your internal maps to navigate the new journey.
More about me
I grew up in a variety of places in the UK; London, Cambridgeshire and Ipswich and I began my adult life studying the violin at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. It became clear that music was not my defining passion and after graduating, I travelled and worked in a variety of 9-5 Education and Medical jobs in London. Herbs kept calling and I began part-time training in 2003.
My husband is Herts born and bred and we have a daughter who was born in 2017 and we all live together in Hemel Hempstead.