January - October 2009

This year has been a mixture of developing new material to make people aware of the different modalities I'm trained in and practice, attending an international Ayurveda and Yoga Conference in Sydney Australia where I had the opportunity to met with my India Ayurveda teacher, Prof Dr P H Kulkarni, and my original Ayurveda teacher whom I first hosted to do a workshop in Gisborne, NZ, in 1996 - Dr Robert Svoboda. Then in September I consulted and taught workshops in Kansas City and Virginia - thanks to Nicole Wilt of Complete Bodyhttp://www.completebody.net/Site/Welcome_Page.html, and Emily and Victor of Darling Yoga Studio http://www.darlingyoga.com/ for organising Ayurveda workshops for me. And a big thanks to Beth and Jim who hosted another vegetarian cooking class in their home, that once again was a heap of fun.

Then I visited Roanoke, Virginia, to be hosted by Jill Loftis of Uttara Yoga Studiohttp://www.uttarayogastudio.com/ . I’d never been east of Chicago so I was a little surprised by how different that part of the US was from the west coast and even the mid-west. Jill and her family were wonderful hosts and I appreciate their hospitality greatly. It is a very dedicated group of yogis/yoginis who are so keen to learn and practise yogic practises in a region where yoga is relatively rare. Jill is definitely going against the Tribal Wave with her interest in Vedic philosophy etc.

Earlier in 2009 I did Ayurveda workshops in Napier (thanks Margaret and Keithhttp://bodyfusion.blogspot.com/), 2 workshops in Taupo (thank you Fionahttp://www.taupoyoga.co.nz/), and I’m soon to be doing a workshop on Waiheke Island (http://thebreathingspace.co.nz/home.htm).I am kindly hosted by Fiona and Andrew in Taupo and I got to celebrate Andrews birthday while I was there. Good timing!

I also put out a ‘postcard’ with an overview of the different modalities I practice, and am doing this website myself. It has all been a bit of a learning curve. I started my original clinic in 1980 practicing Polarity Therapy for the first 12 months. Clients wanted instant results for acute symptoms so spinal manipulation became part of my practice. As I trained in Naturopathy, Iridology, Acupuncture, and Ayurveda my clinic offered more modalities – but still clients knew me as the ‘back man’. Principally people want their backs fixed to get rid of pain. So for 29 years spinal manipulation has been the ‘back bone’, excuse the pun, of my clinical practice.  As well as been a practitioner, teaching Natural Healthcare has been a part of my working life in various forms and locations.