Who am I ?

Training Undertaken

1985 1 year hands on course with Torquay Utd Physio

1997-1998 Diploma Anatomy, Physiology and Massage ITEC, Guernsey

1998/9 Diploma Healing Arts, Osho Multiversity, Pune, India

1999 Extensive training in Thai medicine and Massage Therapy, Chiang Mai, Thailand

2000-2001 Diploma Fitness Instructor, WABBA

2003. Flexibility Studies WABBA

2003-2004 Diploma Sports Therapy Raworth College, Dorking, Surrey

2014 Level 3 Counselling Skills and Theory

2019 Diploma Working Therapeutically With Young People

2023 - 2024 Level 4 Diploma Therapeutic Counselling

I was much loved as a child, yet born into the shame that made me learn to feel guilty. I asked too many questions. I suffered the wrath of adults, teachers and elders, and although bright, I turned to sports and exercise as a solace. The trends to drink, then to drugs I indulged in and saw through at an early age as it became apparent that I have very little tolerance for either - and them for me !

I lost and paradoxically found my freedom in the world of non-attachment, learning myriad forms of meditation over the years - from the ‘Dynamic’ in Osho’s Ashram in India, to the breathing exercises of Wim Hoff… and the sonic drift of playing a guitar or even in the mindful rhythm of physical chores or a “workout”. There is this zone of mind/body unity and comparative peace through being completely present to that rhythm or sense of purpose.

I have witnessed nature in it’s rawest as a fisherman in the Chanel Islands for more than a decade, whilst travelling to Asia extensively to experience a culture so far removed from our England, in it’s primal simplicity, that taught me so much about human nature, intimacy, humility, gratitude and values away from the doctrines, masks and armours that I’d grown up to rebel against. Words spoken in the present tense and demeanours and actions matching those words gave me further encouragement to explore my natural tendency to heal… myself and congruently others. New.Zealand in earlier travels lent a similar life-loving simplicity that gave me licence to explore my own character, with some hard lessons, yet humour was a well used element in the process.

I took opportunity to work in the healing modalities that I trained I, in Goa, in Hamburg, in Alderney, in Devon, for the longest time, where I live now, in London at the Royal Ballet in Convent Garden, in Stoke Newington through the late, great artist Dan Hillier, for Torquay Utd, Paignton Rugby Club, and with athletes and individuals of all natures and occupations that have all brought something unique and interesting to keep me in this constant state of gratitude for the sense of purpose and the trust given to me.

I look after myself with the discipline and courage that I’ve learned and practised over the years, with such inspirational and wise teachers at a Colleges, Ashrams and Therapy rooms, notwithstanding the influences of fellow rowers, martial artists, boxers, dancers and lovers of life.

I spent five months in Chiang Mai studying Thai medicine and massage, all the while trying to find and learn from a locally renowned healer in Thailand, called Madame Nit; an old lady who was then around ninety years old, living near Chiang Mai. I found her and turned up at her bungalow early one morning, already surrounded by a long queue of local people there to seek her healing prowess. I stood out like a sore thumb, and was asked what I wanted by one of her aids. I explained my journey from Europe to find her, and I was told to wait for her in a small room, alone. She appeared a while, later; a small, strong, energised lady, with the most incredible, clear and piercing eyes. She stood close to me and looked at me, right into my eyes for a long time, in silence. She took my hands and felt them, as if examining me through them. She smiled, and led me into the room in which she was practising. People came, one by one, and she explained what she was doing, through an interpreter. The most incredible day. She gave me such confidence in going directly to the source of the problem, and rearranging it, with such a matter of fact energy!

My experience and education with Prashantam, Osho’s personal physician, in Pune, India, introduced me to the body/mind connection in earnest. Even through the more clinical education of Sports Therapy, I was constantly being reminded of my connection and a tendency towards the mind, body connection. This realisation materialised into my own need to unravell and process my own ‘armours’ and coping mechanisms that I had accumulated since my childhood, which I did whilst studying counselling formally and under and through the auspice of my long suffering and beautiful Mother, herself a counsellor of some forty year… and still practising! This process has taken years and has proved remarkable for me in being able now to live true to myself as an open hearted therapist, offering the culmination of everything I’ve learned and experienced as physical, emotional, or a combination, to anyone seeking a way to process any pain or discomfort.

Now is the time..

Mark