Why did you come to OHC ?
I had found information online. I’d been ill with fatigue for more than 3 years and got some help. I kept looking but just wasn’t making substantial progress.
And I think somehow the info. you put out made sense.
What was your life like at the time ?
After a bout of flu Xmas 2014 (with 6 months of fatigue before that) I was eventually diagnosed with fatigue. Through 2015 long periods away from work – 5 months and then short time back and then again 5 months, so I took early retirement from teaching December 2015
2016 – Was in much pain so rested and just did a few bits of private music teaching.
By the end of the year I was doing better, though my mum was getting really ill.
2017 – My mum died in February and my body again just shut down and I was very ill again for much of the year. Continued to teach a few students. In September started a 1 day a week course.
2018 – Took OHC course in the summer after more bouts of crashes etc.
During all of this time intense pain all over, Crash state through 2015-2016 and then again 2017. dreadful brain fog, very, very weak physically and no energy.
I had been a Head of an Inner London Music Service and then took an MMus in Composing for Film and TV just before I became ill. So from being very busy, enjoying study, moving forward it all juddered to a halt.
What other approaches had you tried, and how did you feel about the OHC approach initially ?
Quite early on I had one of those ‘coincidences’ when I found a restorative yoga teacher in a small practise 2 roads across from me, who discovered much later, had done some training with Fiona Agombar. Honestly I think this was a life-saver, it just seemed to soothe me and I felt somehow it was good for me, as vague as that.
And now I still practise most days, and discovered by trial and error that I could dramatically reduce pain by doing this..
At one point a GP told me to take Vitamin D supplement and though the difference was microscopical, I could feel a change and that gave me the confidence that i could get well.
I tried short walks, being in nature, read up as much as had the energy !
What differences did you notice from the work you did with OHC and what did you feel made the difference?
I think just finding people who actually understood what I felt was a massive help !
To see some of the pieces of my growing awareness slowly make sense was/is great.
Finding very do-able interventions was a massive relief, some I’d already found but seeing it applied helped so much…and began to just ease the exhaustion.
I started with nutrition, which I do think was right for me, there was enough for me to work on there and slowly but surely I began to understand my relationship to food and could begin to make changes.
On the psychology side I am still astounded at some things that come up, and the suggestions by the OHC practitioner have just made such big shifts in me, leading I think to my healing journey.