About me

My personal health challenges

Some years ago, I battled with severe chronic pain and chronic fatigue. There were times when I was unable to sit or stand for more than a few moments at a time. Brain fog really affected me, and these conditions severely affected my ability to work.

This forced me to begin to research and understand the complex triggers of chronic stress that my body and mind were experiencing. Slowly and with help, I found that I needed to address the unprocessed emotions, feelings and sensations of my ‘adverse childhood experiences’, my relationship with myself and others, my gut-brain health and nutrition, sleep issues, movement and exercise all of which were imbalanced and created chronic ongoing stress and inflammation, which resulted in a completely dysregulated nervous system. In addition to changing hormones, life felt incredibly difficult and overwhelming to manage, resulting in burnout.

My personal traits of being driven, being a people pleaser and setting myself exceptionally high expectations led to an inner dialogue that was extremely self-critical and judgemental. I tried so very hard as I had a strong need to be liked and to ‘fit in’. I believe I overcompensated as I knew I was different. I kept exerting more pressure on myself. With the addition of hormonal changes in perimenopause my body forced me to stop. I just could not ‘mask’ or hide my neurodivergent traits any longer. I just did not have the old coping mechanisms any longer.

The neurodivergent traits had always been there, but I just about ‘coped’ by trying so very hard. ADHD and autism can cause difficulties that affect day-to-day life which can significantly impact physical and mental health. For me it is like having 100 tabs open in my mind all the time, many thoughts, lots of distractions - so much information coming in through all my senses, which left my system deregulated with overwhelming feelings of stress, anxiety, brain fog, and insomnia.

I have since learnt that our nervous system is affected as we add more ‘stress’ on ourselves to try and fit into what is considered a ‘neurotypical world’. Trying to process all the sensory stimuli puts my system in a fight or flight – activating the on ‘go’ all the time, unable to move into the relative safety of rest and digesting the quiet and calm of the parasympathetic system.

Constantly being in a highly activated state can lead to anxiety, depression and ultimately burnout and overwhelm. This leads to ‘trauma’ within our physical body that continually builds up. Ongoing stress leads to cortisol being constantly released from our adrenals and impacts many other systems within our body. Living with female hormonal changes, the drop in oestrogen impacts symptoms of ADHD through the Dopaminergic pathway.

This personal experience inspired me to create the ‘Balance Wellbeing Strategy’ which covers the main areas I have personally worked through to regain health:

1. Emotional regulation (balancing our autonomic nervous system our fight or flight/sympathetic system and the brake of the sympathetic nervous system.
2. The gut-brain enteric nervous system or second brain (nutrition and gut health)
3. Stress and physical rebalancing of the nervous system
4. Movement and exercise
5. Sleep
6. Relationships with ourselves, others and the community
7. Hormone health
8. Financial security and purpose

I can help you with action-based strategies to help build emotional regulation, manage overwhelm and burnout, as well as support you with tailored strategies to help your specific needs.

Together, we build a collaborative process, where we explore your unique strengths and challenges, develop personalised strategies and create practical simple and effective tools. We manage your difficulties and empower you to thrive with clarity, self-compassion, and confidence.