Hello and welcome to my world…
June 2019
Well, one thing I have learned over the past few years since I set up this website is that I’m not a natural blogger! I studied hard to get my qualifications and I do keep up to date with the literature that relates to my work, but I guess I’m basically a hands-on type of person who likes to do things rather than write about them. However, I did promise…
In line with my intentions to find ways to fund as many of my services from outside sources as possible so that they are free to my clients, shortly after my opening blog I gained the contract to be the primary provider of baby Massage tuition in all Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Surestart centres. Initially it was a one-year contract renewable annually up to three years. In fact, it ran for four years covering 19 centres, for which I “wrote the book’ for the service, from establishing objectives, measuring progress and reporting to sourcing and COSHH (Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health) testing materials, Risk Assessing venues and developing written procedures. I am so proud of my work over those years and blessed by the people I worked with and those I was able to help through what is often the most wonderful and meaningful, but also an incredibly stressful and tiring time in their lives.
After four years of 12 hour working days and thousands of driving miles I was ready for a break and to do something different when the contract finally came to an end at the start of 2018 and the service was taken in-house though a Council and NHS consortium, based upon the foundations I had laid. So, I decided to take at least a partial sabbatical.
For many years I have been teaching accredited Reiki One courses for the Wishing Well Project under Cheshire East Council’s Lifelong Learning Scheme. These 4-week courses, each week of 3 hours, are free to the learners and take place both in afternoons and evenings on a regular basis in Jubilee House, in the Asda car park in Crewe town centre. Some of the students go on as private clients to Level Two and a few even to Reiki Master Level with me. I have always enjoyed teaching these classes, which I believe are of tremendous benefit to my clients, so I decided that for a year at least I would focus on that aspect of my work plus a limit number of my Lymphatic drainage clients and on my very successful natural fertility work (100% successful so far and I’m now Godmother to one of those successes!).
The ‘rest’ did me the world of good and I’m now in the process of setting up new baby massage programmes, both through One-to-One Midwives in the Pregnancy Advice Centre in Crewe and in other venues across South Cheshire.
On a private note, I got married a while ago and now have three grandchildren, along with my partner’s two. Weekends are now busy with them plus our two dogs; Yoshi, our little Beardie Collie Cross and Misty our large German Shepheard, who reminds me so much of Sam, my loved therapy dog, plus little Blue Marl Border Collie Skye, my son’s dog. We haven’t dived for a while, but I still love my photography and have taken up painting, artistic wood burning (Pyrography) and a lot of DIY in our little cottage and garden.
I still like fast cars and it still is all about balance, isn’t it?
Be well and happy, Eileen.
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Hello and welcome to my world. I’m very excited about my new website and the opportunity this blog gives me to write a few words every so often on a range of subjects that interest me and, I hope, might also interest you. In recent years Cheshire Complementary Healthcare (that’s me) has devoted a great deal of time and resources to helping develop services in the public sector through offering baby massage sessions, general therapies, talks and guidance to young parents, both pre and post natal, in Children’s Centres. This work has proven to be extremely worthwhile and successful, and a great source of pleasure to me personally. So, as well as being misguided, I think it’s sad that the current economic climate and, I fear and suspect, unstated government policies have lead to a withdrawal of funding in this area. Many of the very best, committed, highly competent and nicest people I have worked with in Sure Start centres across Cheshire East have moved on; centres have closed or been merged, programmes reduced. All within the context of increasing demand for such services and the publicly stated intentions of government ministers to improve support to some the neediest people within our society and to invest in families and the young.
In order to continue to meet the high demand for young family support I’m determined to find ways to continue my work in this field, though I’m aware that the very people who most need my help are those least able to pay for it. I’m a single parent myself and I understand just how tough it can be to keep the bills paid and a roof over the family’s head. So, as well as adverting and running sessions at the lowest prices I can manage, I’ll be knocking on doors to find grant funding and sponsorship in order to maintain and grow my work in this field, and I’ll keep you informed from time to time on how I’m getting on. Another thing exercising my mind at the moment is the kind of issues and subjects I want to cover in this website blog. Please feel free to email me with ideas or to ask any questions about my company, career, beliefs and services, as I really do want to hear from you. I’m planning to talk about a number of topics over the next few months; such as my distant healing work with my identical twin sister Marie, who still lives in the Kingdom of Fife near the rest of our family, and my past work with my beloved
registered therapy dog Sam, who sadly recently passed on. Also my interest in animal therapies in general, including my experience of treating a very sick, retired racehorse in Greece. And my very effective work using Reiki of course, and some of the interesting specialisations I’ve trained in over the years, such as working with recovering substance abusers, and in maternity reflexology with one of the most respected and experienced practitioners in the country.
Hopefully it won’t only be about my work though. I’m a keen scuba diver and have recently dived in Egypt, Jamaica, Mexico and Cuba (and in some very chilly local quarries!), and I’m hoping to develop my skills as an underwater photographer.
As the daughter of a fisherman and gamekeeper I inherited a love of the outdoors and
I’m proud of the fact that I taught my two, now grownup, children to fly fish, whilst
my mother gave me an interest in all things natural in food and in the garden. I love
all animals and have kept fish, small rodents, rabbits and horses, and I’m a keen dog
trainer. I’m also a new grandmother through my son and his partner; so expect to
hear more of my beautiful granddaughter Ellie Rose and of my music, which is ever
present in my life.
And finally, my passion for fast cars. It’s all about balance, isn’t it?
Be well and happy,
Eileen