Trained in Clinical Care, Rooted in Holistic Care.

Nicci B
Jul 8
7 min read

By nature I am curious and a humanitarian - being Aquarius, and astrology is one of my guiding lights in my work, as a very general expectation of the influence of the constellation a person was born under and the relevance of their elements.

The Body: Where Clinical Care Began

That curiosity led me into the Health Sciences field of study, where I gained anatomy and physiology, sanitation, scheduling, record keeping, patient care, wound care, suturing, delivering babies, putting in drips and catheters, and doling out prescription drugs, together with the array of general nursing duties, in a teaching hospital environment.

In trauma, the exposure was to the level of self-harm inflicted and violence towards others - shootings and stabbings, drunken road traffic accidents, domestic violence, and tribal retribution (the local kangaroo courts in South African cultures, e.g. Xhosa).

Emergency taught more about the emotional side of life: suicide in teenage boys due to heartbreak, young girls fashionably not eating enough, bipolar and schizoid persons using recreational drugs, triggering mania, people suffocating in their lives and diagnosed as asthmatic, the depression in middle-aged men who face their mortality due to heart attacks, diabetics losing limbs in their search for a taste of sweetness in their life.

Thousands of temperatures and blood pressures, urine tests, lab reports, and medical documents passed through my hands during this time.

Nursing duties, competently performed as they were, never quite felt like care — and western allopathic medicine, for all its skill, seemed to lack ownership of one’s health as a totality, of body, mind, and spirit. That’s why I eventually left.

Mind and Spirit: An Unexpected Turn

A few years followed in live-in care work and health care visiting — the elderly, a quadriplegic client, and palliative care (many were HIV & AIDS patients).

Alongside this, a couple of months each year went to backpacking, a fortunate chance to explore local cultures and get exposure to their customs and beliefs.

On one of these trips, in Thailand, Louise L. Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life found its way into my hands, and three things from it have stayed with me since: 1) you choose everything you experience in your life; 2) her mirror exercise is effective and empowering; 3) all dis-ease stems from a mental and/or emotional source (a premise Bruce Lipton echoes in his own work).

Long before any of this, a pragmatic workshop while still at school had already planted a seed for personal development work. That groundwork is what the Landmark Forum was later built on — undertaken before massage, Reiki, or any of the energy work that followed, since the energy healing modalities ahead demanded a great deal of personal development to do well.

The Energy Path: Reiki, Crystals, and the Esoteric

From there, the energy healing path opened up, starting with Reiki, and a few years working through the levels until qualifying as a “Master.” My Master teacher, Raye Bower, came into the picture while I was living on the Isle of Man, when a friend invited me to a crystal workshop Raye was hosting. Support and companionship were the only reasons for going along - crystals weren’t on my radar at all at the time, mainly out of ignorance.

But the power of these earth elements, their vibrational value and benefits, and the sheer range of colours, shapes, and textures was mesmerising, and love followed quickly.

Curiosity about the healing attributes of blending Reiki with crystal therapy came next.

The wonder of it all put me ahead of what was trending at the time, with only volunteers willing to go out on a limb as “clients.”

That period taught real honesty, real listening, and real trust in my own intuition. So many books, so many audios, on things arcane, obscure, and esoteric: Barbara Ann Brennan, Gary Zukav, Bruce Lipton, Seth, Esther Hicks and Abraham, Deepak Chopra, Andreas Moritz, Caroline Myss, Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith, and the Bibles of Reflexology, Reiki, and Crystal Therapy (references provided below).

Back to the Body: Bodywork and a Business of My Own

Wanting to expose more people to the magic of these healing tools and resources led to a holistic massage course, thinking it would tap into a captive audience.

At first touch I became entranced, and completed a sports massage course, followed by hot stone and Indian head massage — bam, bam, bam, thank you ma’am. Anatomy and physiology got a refresh, blending these fundamentals into the more unusual methods above.

What started as freelance massage work at an upmarket day spa turned into a partnership, and then into buying my partner out entirely.

That business taught as much as any qualification: staffing, drafting operational policies and procedures, designing treatments, sourcing suppliers, bookkeeping, and scheduling. Beauty products and treatments came into the mix too — waxing, mani and pedi, and nails systems certifications.

Very body-focused during this stretch: a BASI Pilates course, a reflexology certificate, and, a few years later, a Personal Training course once strength training got its hooks in — though major life events interrupted the Pilates and Personal Training courses, so neither ended in a formal qualification. The reflexology certification came first; Christine Stormer’s Language of the Feet course — her workshop on the colours and meanings held in the feet — came later, as an add-on to that original training, and she remains one of my mentors in that field.

New Countries, New Modalities

But that’s skipping ahead. Personal family reasons meant moving abroad again, which opened the door to working alongside chiropractors, osteopaths, and referred clients - a much broader exposure to anatomical issues and considerations.

Aromatherapy, first taught in the holistic massage course, stayed a constant throughout, for the effect it had during and after treatments. Shiatsu came into view during this time too, feeding a long-standing interest in adding Thai massage to the mix.

Mind and Spirit, Tested

Another move followed, back to my homeland, to a part I had never lived in. My 17-year marriage ended during this chapter, and the challenges that followed demanded real mental and spiritual fortitude.

Reading and learning filled the gaps - adding to knowledge already gained working in health shops, on natural solutions versus prescription drugs and the benefits of herbs, came intermittent fasting, parasite-cleansing protocols, and herbal preparations for heartburn, inflammation, menopause symptoms, gut restoration, and vitality.

Learning about plant medicines during this time also meant dabbling in psychedelics, and trying CBD and THC products. Every part felt like another ingredient in the recipe for empowering wellbeing.

This chapter also brought further intense personal development work: Trauma Release Exercises (TRE), energetic womb healing, working on generational trauma and kundini practice.

A Nia white belt was earned during this same body-conscious phase — Nia became what kept me going through the COVID lockdown years.

Nursing training gave counselling experience in psychiatry; life itself gave the rest - the ordinary ups and downs, joys and sorrows.

What I Bring Into the Room Now

Hands-on bodywork is impossible to walk away from, and as many layers as possible go into the time we have together in my space.

I can feel you when I work on you, and we share the experience.

I can guide you to what your body is trying to communicate, and offer suggestions for lifestyle enhancements, planting seeds for empowering you in body, mind, and spirit.

Along the way, this work has also included predicting pregnancies, and supporting women through fertility issues who went on to have children of their own.

Blood type diets, Ayurveda (e.g. doshas), TCM, the Tibb system, research papers, and even a controversial book by a dentist on the effect of diet on facial structure - all explored, and Grain Brain on diet and disease, and Bad Pharma on the ways modern medicine can lie to itself.

Trends come and go, and whatever’s useful gets added to my Mary Poppins bag of tricks — Foundation Training, Foundational Movement, fascia work, The Body Keeps the Score.

Tarot, numerology, and sacred geometry rounded things out - hence my logo, depicting the seed of life, and the interconnectedness of everything.

None of this is about your language, religion, colour, or culture. It’s about meeting people where they are at, and supporting them to where they want to get - a destination that usually evolves along the way, as self-belief and courage grow, leading to higher expectations and growth into more than anyone believed possible. Time and time again, this has been the pattern.

Debbie Shapiro’s work on how emotions show up in the body left enough of an impression that I did a reading from her book on my YouTube channel - well worth a watch if this resonates.

Later in this journey came sound healing, with Tibetan singing bowls - and with that, the picture felt complete.

Sight, stimulated through colour therapy, which may include crystals — themselves adding to the sensory experience in more than one way.

Sound, in the singing bowls.

Smell and taste, in the aromatherapy.

Feel and sensation, in the massage itself.

All senses met, stimulated, and harmonised.

This work has shown up at obstacle course races and WWE wrestling mania, with visiting international rugby team players, in luxury private residences, and even on a mobile job at a nudist resort.

Well over 30 years, counting the nursing and the backpacking years, and 18 years specifically in massage and the modalities that followed - vast, diverse, and varied, and well equipped to provide the best curated care experience.

Self-care together is better.

Trained in Clinical Care, Rooted in Holistic Care.

The Body: Where Clinical Care Began

Mind and Spirit: An Unexpected Turn

The Energy Path: Reiki, Crystals, and the Esoteric

Back to the Body: Bodywork and a Business of My Own

New Countries, New Modalities

Mind and Spirit, Tested

What I Bring Into the Room Now

Further Reading - My Mentors and Learning Resources

A Few More Close to My Heart

On Modern Medicine’s Blind Spots

On Diet and the Brain

Documentaries

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