How I came to be a Naturopath

Growing up our whole family was always into health and wellbeing. Mum was a nurse; Dad was a mad keen gardener and once ran a marathon. We had a backyard full of fruit trees and a massive veggie patch that mum cooked our homemade meals from.

Both of my sisters and I were figure skaters, we trained and competed regularly which kept us fit and busy. My older sister got to be 5th in the world, my next sister was National champion, and I was junior world champion! We were very committed, motivated and competitive.

Growing up with this discipline was so good for me, especially since I went through some pretty traumatic early teenage years. I was also a very curious adolescent and became quite the ratbag there for a while! Luckily, I didn’t get too far off the rails which could have easily happened. I really believe being involved in a sport can help with that.

Like many of us, I didn’t have the emotional ability to deal with the trauma in my early teens, so I suppressed the reality and truth of it. This, I believe, eventually contributed to some significant health issues. After years of chronic tonsillitis, I had my tonsils removed at 17yrs. I woke up 2 weeks after my surgery to find I couldn’t move half of my face. I looked like I had had a stroke, and in fact I had Bell’s Palsy. An episode of this usually lasts around 10 days, but for me it persisted for 6 months. From this early experience I now firmly believe that stress and unresolved emotional issues can contribute greatly to disease.

So, right on the threshold of adulthood - just about to turn 18 - I became a hermit. I read books, withdrew from the world and was forced to look at life through different eyes. As hard as it was, this was one of the biggest turning points of my life. That was when I started seeing a Naturopath, and from there decided that I wanted to help people in the same way. The Naturopath in me was born!

A little while afterwards, I started studying Naturopathy by correspondence, and then soon realised it would be much better to be on campus, so I joined the Bachelor of Naturopathy at Southern Cross University in northern NSW and the rest is, well, history! After 5 years of study I graduated and started practising as a Naturopath in Bendigo in 2007.

Naturopathy is such a gift. It gives people such an insight into their ‘whole health’. To me, it makes perfect sense. I love guiding my patients through their story and help them understand why their body is the way it is.

I have always stayed curious and am always open to learning more to help my patients enable the innate wisdom of the human body to heal itself.

Simone X