Irene started her career as a musician in the Womens’ Royal Army Corps playing clarinet and violin. After leaving the army she became a woodwind teacher, specialising in the clarinet, with her own busy private practise. Each winter she caught more and more viruses, but put that down to mixing with young people who were blowing down instruments in a confined space, not a healthy combination. She also worked at a school two days each week as a visiting woodwind teacher. She had to take more time off, with the viruses, each winter getting weaker and weaker and taking longer to return to health. When she visited the doctor to tell him how weak and fatigued she felt, his advice, after tests was “Go home, do nothing and I mean nothing for at least a year and maybe you will get better. You have chronic fatigue syndrome or M.E. and as a G.P this is the only advice I can give you.” This was the start of her long eventful journey back to full health a new career and a whole new outlook on life.

The stigma attached to M.E. is very big when you are on the receiving end and Irene felt unable to tell many people. Her senior, school manager knew, but others did not and school became more and more stressful. With relief, the summer holidays came and she went to Southwold in Suffolk for a break. She spotted an advert in the town’s magazine and decided to go for a massage; that was the turning point in her life, but like all life changing things you do not realise it at the time.

After taking her details the therapist said he felt Irene would be better served by having some kinesiology. Kin-easy-what she thought having never heard of it, Irene now knows he gave here a Touch for Health balance. She had three treatments during that holiday and knew something had changed. She knew she had begun her long journey towards regaining her health, strength and energy. Many sufferers with M.E. have something “normal” that they do not find an effort, for Irene it was driving, for a friend it is gardening. Irene decided that her healing place was Southwold and as she had a great deal of trust in the therapist, would continue to return for treatments. She also received Educational Kinesiology (Brain Gym) sessions or balances and they helped her fuzzy brain, life was slowly returning to normal.

Whilst thinking about what was happening to her, Irene decided that maybe her music students would benefit from Educational Kinesiology. She looked at their web site www.braingym.org and found a course, she trained one day a month and then started using Brain Gym with her students. They began to notice big differences in their memorizing skills, understanding and musicality.

Irene then decided to attend the international Educational Kinesiology conference and to take Wellness Kinesiology’s Stress Release courses afterwards. These were taught by the originator Wayne Topping www.wellnesskinesiology.com . On her return home her husband noticed a big positive difference and Irene realised what stress had been doing to her for many years, helping to fuel her many illnesses. Her journey back to health started with Touch for Health so she knew how powerful it is; the next stage of her journey was to train in Touch for Health and become an instructor. During her Stress Release courses with Wayne Topping he suggested that she train as an instructor. She is now the first qualified instructor in the U.K. and is also a Brain Gym instructor. She is also a fully qualified kinesiologist having completed her registered practioner status with the Kinesiology Federation. She has taken further training in Geopathic stress, which looks at how the earth’s stresses affect our lives, sleeping patterns and health and how to help with this and has recently qualified as a Rhythmic Movement Training consultant. This is the work of Dr Harald Blomberg www.haraldblomberg.com and looks at the Primitive Childhood Reflexes, how to integrate them when someone has skipped that stage of development and what effect this can have. She now looks forward to the future with energy, anticipation and excitement.