Creating a new, more healing and inclusive paradigm.

It was my father’s chronic ill health that sparked my interest in medicine. I did my school work experience at the hospital where he’d been a patient and applied to medical school but dropped out early in my second year. Struggling with anxiety, insomnia and loneliness since early adolescence, I was deeply unhappy and drank alcohol to numb my pain. It became impossible for me to continue my studies. After leaving, I worked and travelled for a decade but the call to do medicine never left me, and I returned to medical school, finally achieving my degree in 2010.

I completed my GP training and worked in a large, flourishing practice in a deprived part of Scotland. I developed a special interest in addictions, running a community Hepatitis C clinic, a clinic for people injecting heroin and then worked for a specialist primary care service for people experiencing homelessness. I enjoyed my work but became increasingly aware that, despite the power of the medical model, most patients were living with symptoms, rather than getting better. And I was still stuck and dissatisfied in my personal life.

It was around this time that I attended my first plant medicine retreat. It was an extraordinarily powerful experience. I began to work with a coach and established a daily practice of yoga, meditation and journaling that I still continue today. In 2019, I participated in a 2- week ayahuasca retreat for health leaders in the jungle in Peru, with Dr Gabor Maté, Richard Condon and the Shipibo healers. I trained in Compassionate Inquiry and started to work in a new way, guiding people to deeper healing.

My anxiety and insomnia have improved. I’ve stopped drinking alcohol. I understand myself, am connected to others and experience a joy, ease and peace within myself that I never imagined was possible. My personal journey has been as important as my work with patients in showing me what is possible. My vision is of a new paradigm in medicine- one that recognises how fundamental our early experiences are in shaping our future health and that follows the science on childhood adversity, chronic stress, the mind/body, and the biology of connection to create a new, more healing and inclusive paradigm.