Where can I say my journey into East West began….  I wasn’t much into natural medicine growing up, but I have always loved nature. I didn’t become interested in natural medicine until I travelled to Vietnam many years later, where I, unfortunately, picked up something nasty.  Upon my return to Australia (where I was living at the time), I began to get very sick.  So sick in fact, that about 6 months later, and back in Canada for a visit home, I could barely get through a day without falling asleep numerous times, and I was unable to eat almost anything.  My sickness took me through the conventional tests, which came up with nothing.  But I knew I was sick.  So I hired a naturopath/integrative doctor, who put me through scores of tests, which is how I found out I had hookworms.  The MD/ND then gave me 18 supplements to take morning and night, and within 3 months, and much dedication to a very restricted diet, I was cleared of parasites.  This experience propelled me into wanting to become a naturopath, and filled my head with idealist dreams of helping everyone with herbal medicine… Needless to say, and to make this story short, 2 years into the ND course, I was met with the harsh reality that herbal medicine is not the focus of naturopathic studies.  So, I said a tearful goodbye to my herbal dreams and Australia, and moved back to Canada to start again.  I thankfully moved to where my dreams would be met, to the Sunshine Coast in beautiful BC, where I would meet my future clinical mentor (who introduced me to East West and changed my life!), as well as, my herbal-tincture manufacturing mentor, whom I now work for as her assistant.  I am finishing my 2^nd glorious year at East West, and I could not be happier.  I live in a forest paradise, I have an amazingly cute puppy whom I hike with on the daily, I have herbal-career opportunities within reach (I would love to practice but I’m open to where the wind takes me), and I could not be more grateful.