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Truly Essential

truly essential

If you want to be different, just be yourself" Living and being brought up on a hill top farm in Yorkshire. Having a life-long interest in the countryside, health, well-being, affordability, cruelty-free products and using natural products where possible, I bring the best to my clients by doing the best for the environment in the process. A little about me… I studied rural science at school which I enjoyed as it covered life cycle of native animals, plants and trees, natural habitat, conservation and land management at a basic level, art and history also firm favourites. In my late twenties I decided to return to college to pursue a career in hairdressing and soon to be followed, by a two year course in beauty therapy. My passion for natural source of healing combined with plant extracts and massage therapy was realised. At this point I was working full time in a local beauty salon in Skipton, returning to Craven College to study aromatherapy part time for a further year. After gaining valuable experience in the beauty salon, whilst having a young family I worked part time for Next PLC Skipton. This position built my confidence, varied retail business and social skills, working with amazing colleagues, as a sales adviser occasionally a weekend manager. Moving forward I started my own business as a beauty and holistic therapist treating my clients in their own homes or local businesses. Always interested in building and growing my business, I have further trained in several holistic therapies, which include aromatherapy individual blends. I am also a qualified Tai Chi for Health instructor with my own classes in Skipton, Craven and Keighley, support local community wellbeing organisations providing healthy lifestyle activities. My family, friends and clients have always helped and encourage me with my career choice, offering to be guinea pigs when I have required models for new treatments and accepting my flexible working hours. In the past I offered my expertise as a volunteer complementary therapist, aromatherapy practitioner at the local wellbeing cancer support centre in Skipton. I have also held the volunteer position of chairlady of SWIFT (Support Women Inspiring Friendship Training) a local (Skipton Craven Keighley) small business networking group formally known as WorcNet supporting small businesses, charities, local organisations and groups. Due to the pandemic the networking group no longer exists.

Expectancy - complementary therapy courses for midwives

expectancy - complementary therapy courses for midwives

Derbyshire

Yet again, mainstream media has sensationalised what they perceive as “witchcraft” – the use of “alternative” therapies by midwives. The Sunday Times has now waded into the melee, castigating midwives’ use of aromatherapy, acupuncture, reflexology and “burning herbs to turn a breech baby” (moxibustion). The article by Health Editor Shaun Lintern also denigrates practices which are not classified as complementary therapies, such as water injections for pain relief, hypnobirthing for birth preparation and counselling sessions following traumatic birth. Some of the accusations focus on their (inaccurate) statement about the lack of complementary therapy research, whilst others deplore trusts charging for some of these services. A letter to the Chief Executive of the NHS has been sent by a group of families whose babies have died in maternity units that have now come under scrutiny from the Care Quality Commission and the Ockenden team. Amongst those spearheading this group is a consultant physician whose baby died during birth (unrelated to complementary therapies) and who has taken it on himself to challenge the NHS on all matters pertaining to safety in maternity care. That is admirable – safety is paramount – but it is obvious neither he, nor the author of this latest article, knows anything at all about the vast subject of complementary therapies in pregnancy and birth. The article is padded out with (incorrect) statistics about midwives’ use of complementary therapies, coupled with several pleas for the NHS to ban care that they say (incorrectly) is not evidence-based and which contravene NICE guidelines (the relevant word here being guidelines, not directives). The article is biased and, to my knowledge, no authority on the subject has been consulted to provide a balanced view (the Royal College of Midwives offered a generic response but did not consult me, despite being appointed a Fellow of the RCM specifically for my 40 years’ expertise in this subject). I would be the first to emphasise that complementary therapies must be safe and, where possible, evidence-based, and I am well aware that there have been situations where midwives have overstepped the boundaries of safety in respect of therapies such as aromatherapy. However, I have not spent almost my entire career educating midwives (not just providing skills training) and emphasising that complementary therapy use must be based on a comprehensive theoretical understanding, to have it snatched away because of a few ill-informed campaigners intent on medicalising pregnancy and birth even further than it is already. For well-respected broadsheets to publish such inaccurate and biased sensationalism only serves to highlight the problems of the British media and the ways in which it influences public opinion with untruths and poorly informed reporting.