I felt so frustrated playing golf. Although I had a handicap of 9, I’d been told by countless people that my handicap ought to be much lower, and I knew only too well that I wasn’t playing to my full potential. During practice rounds I’d strike the ball straight down the fairway and sink the putts, but during competitions when it mattered, I’d slice the ball into the rough and I’d developed the dreaded ‘yips’ when putting. My rounds in the low 70’s turned into rounds in the high 80’s. I’d also developed a niggling pain in my left hip. I was in despair.

I started to analyse what was happening to me on the golf course when things weren’t going well and I noticed that, subconsciously, my body was going out of alignment. My shoulders were rotating 30 degrees counter-clockwise to my hips, which explained why I was slicing the ball and missing the putts, as I was cutting across the ball. I tried using muscle energy techniques (MET’s) on the tee before I drove off to correct my alignment, but this was never going to be a long term solution as the MET’s didn’t maintain my body alignment and it was also very impractical to have to lie down at the side of the tee to perform the MET’s. I needed another solution.

And I thought I’d found the solution when I attended a Fitness for Golf seminar at The Belfry. As part of the seminar, all attendees were given a pair of top-of-the-range custom orthotics by TOG Orthotics. (A custom orthotic is a device designed to align the foot and ankle into the most anatomically efficient position, with the aim of bringing the feet and body into proper alignment). I spoke to Sheryl, the chiropractor promoting the orthotics, about my problem when I played golf and she assured me that these orthotics would be the solution. I was so impressed with the technology and the concept that I bought a TOG Gait Scan to use in my practice. I also couldn’t wait to get out onto the golf course to see whether the orthotics would help me get my game back on track. Alas, they weren’t. My golf was still inconsistent.

I then stumbled across a book called ‘The Malalignment Syndrome: diagnosis and treatment of common pelvic and back pain’, by Wolf Schamberger. This book seemed  to describe in detail what was happening to my alignment when I was playing golf. One of the solutions recommended to treat this problem was Craniosacral Therapy (CST). I’d vaguely heard of CST and remembered seeing CST courses advertised in the physiotherapy journal. I had a look at the courses available in my current journal and there was a CST course taking place in Perth, Scotland the following month. I phoned up to enquire about the course and as there were still spaces available, I booked onto it.

The course was a real eye opener for me and we were taught a completely different way to diagnose and treat compared to my analytical traditional physiotherapy training. We practiced the techniques we were learning on one another and so, in effect, we were giving and receiving treatment throughout the course.

When I got back from the course I had a golf knockout competition to play, and I was interested to see if the treatment I’d received on the course had had any effect on me. It had. Now when I wore my golf shoes with the orthotics, my shoulders rotated 30 degrees counterclockwise. I took the orthotics out of my shoes and my alignment returned to normal. I called Sheryl in a state of panic, explaining that I was just about to play golf but since coming back from my course, the orthotics were now knocking me out of alignment. I asked her what she advised from both a personal and a clinical point of view. She advised me to carry on wearing the orthotics and not to treat anyone with CST that I’d supplied orthotics to. I played my match, without the orthotics, as there didn’t seem a need to wear them, and they would now be hindering rather than helping me. I won my match.

The following day I re-scanned my feet using the TOG gait scan and sent my results to the lab. Mike, a technician at TOG, who I knew well, phoned me immediately. He was calling to ensure that the scan I’d just sent him was mine as it had changed so much from my original. I’d gone from being a right foot supinator to a pronator. I assured him this was my scan. My faith in the reliability of custom orthotics had now been dented and I decided not to have new orthotics made. I also sold my TOG gait scan. Although I loved the technology behind the TOG gait scan and the quality of the orthotics, which were truly top of the range, using and prescribing orthotics no longer matched my treatment philosophy of seeking out and treating the underlying cause of the symptoms. It seemed to me the orthotics were treating the symptom, not the cause.

So what about my golf you may be wondering. Did I play to my potential when it mattered? Did I reduce my handicap to a low single figure? I carried on playing golf for another year or so, but felt out of sorts on the golf course. I did a ‘Likes’ and ‘Dislikes’ on golf and unsurprisingly, I had 4 ‘Likes’ and 26 ‘Dislikes’. My passion for playing golf had gone. I stopped playing golf. My fellow golfers couldn’t believe I was giving up golf, but for me, I felt so liberated, as though a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I have had no desire to pick up a golf club since. The craniosacral therapy course got me back on track. It was time to get back to my clinical work.

“I’d been feeling very unwell.  I was feeling tired and lethargic, I had a bloated stomach, I was struggling to eat meals and I was losing weight. I was beginning to think there was something seriously wrong with me. I went to my GP, but his attitude made me feel worse rather than better. I left his surgery feeling very helpless and frustrated. Coincidentally, at work, the office cleaner, May, asked for my advice on a diet she wanted to go on.  She had a book that she left for me to read. The book was called ‘Food Combining for Health‘ by Doris Grant. Whilst reading the book I thought  to myself ‘This is why I’m feeling the way I’m feeling’.  I returned the book to May, giving it my seal of approval and informed her that I’d bought my own copy and was going to go on the ‘diet’ myself. My health improved rapidly. Within two weeks I felt like a new woman. I was amazed and saw at first hand the importance and effect of what I ate on my health.

I later took Healthexcel’s Metabolic Typing Course, and became a metabolic typing advisor. This involves providing a customised diet and supplements to suit the unique body chemistry and requirements of the individual. The purpose of the metabolic typing programs is to balance body chemistry and maximise metabolic efficiency by addressing metabolic individuality i.e. to meet one’s genetically-based requirements for nutritional, biochemical individuality.