My own journey of healing past traumas has informed my path to support the healing of others

Growing up nestled in a fiery family, born to an immigrant Cypriot father and Irish descendant mother on a council estate in North West London I remember being exposed to as much beauty as pain. Things that I now know people would see as poverty; kids on bikes setting stuff on fire are some of my fondest memories of child hood. At the age of 7 or 8 having a 25 year old drug dealer friend in the playground was just a normal day. These are the memories that now as a mum, add the context to my early years.

After my older brother had severe difficulties with his mental health and a family relocation, I left the family household as an independent rebellious teenager that decided to take life on on its own.

Filled with abandonment issues, anger, resentment and displacement my journey with drugs, crime and lost souls begun.

Light drugs turned to heavy, a disenfranchised crowd turned to completely lost, ultimately leading friends to jail for a long time. With the guilt of this adding to my previous anger and my sensation of being lost in the world, I became a victim of what would be an extremely awful 2 year ordeal which would shape the rest of my life.

This ordeal involved a situation of being trapped without the capacity to escape, completely estranged from family apart from my mothers sister and eventually ended with a total intervention from social services, police, domestic violence organizations and the unfortunate hospitalization of my dear auntie.

My aha moment as they called it, or my rags to riches only began here. I did not have the transformational moment of enlightenment that so many describe. My story was a long, hard treacherous journey towards the light. The next 10 years were a fight for me to get to ground zero. For me to even believe whole heartedly that life could truly change towards the direction of love and not fear. Fast forward 10 years and after the pregnancy of my daughter, I made the final jump. I jumped into love, into faith, into surrender. Here I am now, living what feels like a second life in one lifetime.

Despite these personal struggles, I worked with in the health and wellness industry from the age of 18 years old, always managing to keep my job and at times my sanity was through helping others. Initially working as a personal trainer in the most deprived areas in London, I then got head hunted to work on a GP referral scheme. This is a public health commissioned program that refers patients from clinicians with chronic disease for long term community support.

This job changed my life

I dedicated my life to these public health programs making a difference through support and education and I progressed over the next 15 years from delivery to a leadership team senior role. I participated in regular courses that specialized in exercise on prescription, cancer rehabilitation, managing mental health conditions, cardiac rehabilitation, motivational interviewing, behavior change among many more.

I have worked with thousands of individuals throughout my career on public health funded programs and inevitably was lead to the next big question of, ‘where was my life going and my daughters too.’

I found my self taking a fearless leap out of the rat race to the jungles of Costa Rica on a deeper path of self discovery. I have now spent the last 6 years in Costa Rica working with my own client base. Using all the techniques from my years on public health commissioned programs with my understanding of spirituality and emotionality that has underpinned my own personal break throughs.

I know first hand, it doesn’t matter where you come from or what you have experienced, true transformation is entirely possible.

You can be anything you want to be…