I am a Naturopath, wife, mother of 7, grandmother of 13. I love my life. I am doing exactly what I would choose to do if I had it to do over again. I have found the love of my life in my husband Larry, love my children dearly, and am so enjoying my “calling” of healer and teacher. I come from a suburb of Denver, Colorado, and have lived in Las Vegas since 1976. I have been ‘officially’ doing healing work since 1981, however, my roots go much further back than that.
I have been told that I come into Naturopathy naturally, since my paternal grandfather was also a Naturopath in Logan, Utah. I never met him because he died at age 48, when my father was only 14. His wife, my grandmother, along with a daughter (my aunt Nina), were both schooled and trained in Herbology. They knew how to wildcraft herbs, and taught me how to identify the wild herbs in Northern Utah. I also learned what the properties of those herbs were, and how to prepare them with the appropriate methods for targeted health needs. I often look back with gratitude and fondness for the years of learning at the hands of these masters. Their teachings have proven invaluable and have motivated my continued pursuit of knowledge.
In my childhood, I experienced severe problems with allergies. I was able, to some degree, to implement the tools of herbology which I had been learning. My mother was much more allopathic in her orientation and decided it was in my best interest to stop “dabbling” in things “I didn’t really know,” and begin another, more conventional, treatment approach to get the allergies “under control.”
I underwent some relatively silly therapies (such as keeping gum in my mouth while I slept to help keep my sinuses more moist), and some rather barbaric ones (having cortisone injections directly into sinus tissues through my nasal passages).
Finally, when nothing worked, we settled on continual, daily anti-histamine therapy, in continuing stronger dosages and medications. This approach was continual throughout my formative years, and throughout high school. I believe this is one of the underlying factors in my later health challenges with liver problems and food allergies/intolerances.
If I had known then what I know now, I would have realized that it was probably food intolerances, even at a young age, that was the unknown cause of my upper respiratory allergic reactions. In addition, the learned that the mercury amalgam fillings that filled my mouth had probably compromised my immune system, contributing to frequent colds/flu and worsening food allergies. These experiences, as much as my tutelage in herbs, have contributed to my desire to address health challenges by dealing with actual causes rather than symptoms.