A caring Osteopath and Nutritional Therapist
Hello, I’m Dawn
I help people with muscle and joint pain problems. My aim is to reduce your pain, lower any inflammation and promote the body’s normal healing response so that you can move more freely and painlessly again.
I know what you are feeling because I manage my own scoliosis and hip osteoarthritis and have worked my way out of sciatica and low back pain from a prolapsed disc. I am on a mission to reassure you that pain doesn’t have to last and you can overcome it. I am passionate in my belief that we do not have to put up with aches and pains and poor health as we get older.
My aim is to help you lower any inflammation and help you regain your strength and flexibility so that you can become pain-free or manage your pain a whole lot better.
“Life does not get better by chance, it get’s better by change.”
— Jim Rohn
My Back Story
Happy childhood
Born a natural water baby, I spent my childhood swimming. I believe that hard training while a young body is developing, carries health benefits for decades thereafter. I naturally gravitated to triathlon by the time I was at City University, studying psychology.
A saleswoman, not!
Time to earn living – Glaxo was my very first job and what fun that was. I even won a top sales award. But big pharma and office politics weren’t for me long-term. A short stint in orthopaedics prompted a major rethink. I started a 5-year degree in osteopathy. Few people knew what an osteopath was back then!
My calling
Making it on my own – I qualified as an osteopath in 1995 and opened my own clinic in sunny Wiltshire. Happy days, filled with lots of hard work, lovely patients and Bath rugby players to mend. Started my Ashtanga yoga practice, which has stayed with me to this day.
Little beauties
Juggling health and family. The exercise took a back seat for a while and this is the time when I really learnt first-hand the power of lifestyle over my own health. Dwindling exercise, sick babies, and massive sleep deprivation eventually caught up with me. My irregular heartbeat needed two ablations to steady it. My spinal scoliosis was in the making. Just. So. Tired.
We are what we eat
Next chapter, nutrition. My first son’s poor health was the catalyst for gaining my diploma in Nutritional Therapy in 2016. I extended my health education, studying functional medicine – using diet and lifestyle to keep the body healthy. Fulfilling clinic days helping people with all sorts of lifestyle-driven health problems and symptoms.
Come join me
Next 50 years? – Come join me on my quest to stay healthy and medication-free until I pop off! I promise to share all I know with you and help you become the healthiest version of yourself. Let’s do this together.
DAWN’S BIO
Dawn is a trusted osteopath with thirty years of clinical experience and a passion to help post-menopausal women look after their bodies. She leads by example, practising her belief that good health is something to prioritise each day. Prevention rather than cure is her personal mantra. Having worked her way out of pain from a prolapsed disc, scoliosis and hip osteoarthritis, she passionately believes we don’t have to accept aches and pains as part of ageing.
Dawn is qualified with degrees in Psychology and Osteopathy, a distinction diploma in Nutritional Therapy and a diploma in clinical hypnotherapy. She uses the health-promoting principles of Functional Medicine, to guide women to improve their symptoms by addressing their underlying causes. They transform from unsure and concerned to feeling hopeful, inspired and knowledgeable about how to keep healthy into their 60s, 70’s and beyond”. Close to her heart is applying the latest research in the field of ageing to support and inspire post-menopausal women to lower their risk of disease.
Dawn enjoys long hilly hikes with her family, saving her nutritious kitchen garden from the ravages of slugs & snails and adores tropical scuba diving adventures.
“It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me… and I’m feeling good”
— Nina Simone
These motivational lyrics from Nina Simone’s song epitomise my philosophy on health. No matter what happened yesterday, today is a new start, if you want it to be. Let every new sunrise inspire you to look after your health today, tomorrow and thereafter, to create the future you deserve.
Qualifications & Professional Experience
- 1989 – BSc Psychology, 2:1. City University
- 1990 – Medical Representatives Examination – Distinction. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Society
- 1991 – Anatomy, physiology and holistic massage – Credit. The International Therapy Examination Council
- 1991 – Physical Therapy foundation course – Distinction
- 1993 – AO Instructional Course for Operating Theatre Personnel
- 1993 – AO International
- 1996 – BSc Osteopathy – Distinction. Kingston University
- 2001 – Diploma in Clinical Hypnotherapy. London College of Clinical Hypnosis
- 2001 – Myofascial acupuncture course. Salisbury district hospital
- 2005 – Display screen equipment risk assessor
- 2007 – Accredited practitioner of the “Sarah Key” physiotherapy method with distinction
- 2013 – Certificate in Functional Medicine. Functional Medicine University
- 2014 – Attendance at Institute of Functional Medicine, Head to Toe workshop
- 2016 – Diploma Nutritional Therapy. Distinction. Institute Optimum Nutrition. Awarded Janet Anders award for “best overall third-year performance”
- 2017 – Graduate of Institute of Functional Medicine – AFMCP
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
- General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) – The UK Registers of Osteopaths.
- Institute of Osteopathy (IO) – Osteopaths membership organisation.
- British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT). BANT is one of my registering organisations for Nutritional Therapy.
- Complementary Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC). The CNHC is one of my registering organisations for Nutritional Therapy.
- Institute Functional Medicine
