My Journey.
Having studied Psychology at University, completed a Postgraduate in Autism, gained a Holistic Health & Wellbeing Coaching qualification, started my own business and competed Internationally as a track runner, I found myself at the age of 25 attempting suicide, after being diagnosed with mental health conditions, and put on antipsychotic and antidepressant medication, whilst also walking around with a broken foot after a stress fracture from running.
At the time it made no sense what so ever. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to why I was no longer the bubbly, energetic, go getter Gemma I had been prior to all this. I remember the day I sat with my mum in the Psychiatrists office as he said “your daughter has “Borderline Personality Disorder & Clinical Depression”. I remember locking eyes with my mum as she sat there with tears running down her face, and I could feel her heart break into a thousand pieces as the thoughts ran through her mind “how did this happen to my little girl”.
As I reflect back on this time in my life, whilst at the time it was traumatic, it was the turning point in my life that truly set me free. Whilst I was diagnosed with a mental health condition according to Western Medicine later down the line I resonated with experiencing what is known as ‘The dark night of the Soul’ in more spiritual practices whereby the meaning that I had given my life, my activities, my achievements, where I was going, what was considered important, for some reason collapsed. What really collapsed was the whole conceptual framework for my life, the meaning that my mind had given it, as well as my body which was completely exhausted and burnt out from the constant striving, pushing, achieving, hence the broken bones, no periods, severe loss in weight.
I remember the day that I decided I no longer was going to fight the pain anymore. I was done trying to take it away by attempted suicide, I was done with fearing the worse that was going to happen, and instead I just completely surrendered to it all, I collapsed on my bed and said if this is the way life is going to be then just take me. Low and behold it was in this very moment that suddenly I felt myself connect to a much deeper part of myself, suddenly the mental pain lifted and I felt this sort of lightness that I had never in my life experienced before. This I swear was my spiritual awakening.
An awakening to something so much greater than my egoic mind, my identity, as if it was the death of my old self and a rebirth into what appeared to be more of my true self.
From this experience I found myself venturing on my own healing journey. On the side of this I got back into working in Psychology but I knew that there was so much more than just talking and working with the psychological processes, I intuitively knew that the body held so much wisdom, knowledge and involvement in helping people to reconnect with their true self and overcome mental health illness.
From here the rest has just flown. I found myself following my heart to Australia, traveling, finding Kinesiology and Mind-Body Medicine (which I had never heard of) and then working intuitively with all the skills and experience I have gained in supporting people to connect with a much deeper part of themselves to empower them with their emotional, psychological, physical and spiritual wellbeing.
Supporting people to learn how to embody their feelings, identifying subconscious psychological patterns, whilst also working with the body and Chinese medicine principles, I feel incredibly grateful for my journey both personally and professionally and will continue to create space to support people in coming to experience what it truly means to give love deeply.