In 2012, I discovered the beautiful and magical Lago de Atitlán in Guatemala. Here, in the Mayan village of San Marcos, I experienced my first taste of profound healing — guided by nature, ceremony, and community. It became a soul-home, a vortex of transformation. I returned time and again over the years, each visit a pilgrimage to restore my body and spirit.
This year, I returned to the lake for something more intentional — not a holiday, but a self-led retreat to support my recovery from endometriosis and adenomyosis, conditions that had drastically changed my life over the past four years. That was an important chapter in my healing journey.
When Everything Changed
Back in 2020, after returning to my old profession in anaesthetics, to help the NHS during the pandemic, I was suddenly hit with extreme pelvic pain. What followed was a painful journey of confusion, delay, and dismissal — symptoms spiraling into daily limitations, until eventually I was diagnosed with endometriosis and adenomyosis.
From hosting retreats worldwide, and running up mountains in Thailand, I now found myself unable to leave the house most days and desperate for answers that our conventional medicine couldn’t seem to provide. I felt stuck in a cycle: pain created isolation, isolation worsened my mental health, and both intensified my symptoms.
And yet, as both a patient and an integrative health practitioner, I knew I had to seek help in a different way.
The Return: a healing mission rather than a holiday.
I returned to San Marcos later than usual this year — not in January, when I typically escape the UK’s harsh winters, but in early spring. I had set a strong intention before I left: this was a trip to heal.
But healing never unfolds in a straight line!
From the moment I arrived, I was tested. Food poisoning on day one. Illness again after drinking contaminated water from an Airbnb.
It was an amazing trip – not without its challenges! It was a rollercoaster of emotions due to various things happening. I got food poisoning on my first full day in my old home town after a few great days travelling to get there. Which I believe is not a coincidence that it happened on my arrival there. That lasted a few days and then I got ill again from drinking contaminated water! From an airbnb that I decided to treat myself to, after getting ill, but unfortunately I ended up getting ill again, and eventually realised that it had to be from their ‘filtered’ tap water.
Staying in this airbnb was a massive challenge – there were so many issues rising. Extremely loud family living opposite – who just screamed at each other constantly through the day, along with construction noise either side. The room was floor to ceiling glass – so I felt like I was trapped in a cage when I was ill there, unable to leave for 3 days. I really struggled- having to just deal with the constant triggers. All this along with people constantly walking past the windows, looking in. I knew I was being tested, on some level.
I had set a strong intention that I was there to focus on my healing, and I actually think I said when people asked, ‘it’s not a holiday, i’m here to recover and work on improving the pain.’ And I know from my many years of inner work, somatic coaching and shadow work – that most of the time, when you ask for something on a soul level, it doesn’t just get given to you – you go through challenges in order to shed what no longer serves and grow.
Breaking Point and Breakthrough
That’s definitely what happened to me there – I was pushed to my breaking point, to a moment when I was on my knees crying out that I can’t cope anymore, I felt so physically ill and emotionally unraveling. I just kept thinking ‘I can’t believe I have come all the way here to work on getting better and improve the pain and symptoms and now I’m ill from being here!’.
But deep down, I recognised the process: this was part of the transformation. I wasn’t here to escape discomfort — I was here to meet it, to move through it, to transmute it.
It really highlighted where my mindset lacked. It made me realise what would help me most whilst out there wasn’t to seek out the best healers to help me. It was for me to move through and past the default negative mindset that I’d developed over the years. This was something that I really felt was at the core of the physical dis-ease I was experiencing. My inability to just let things go, to accept that a plan wasn’t working out, to be able to see the positives etc. And now through the extreme tiredness of having this condition for 4 years with no signs of hope of it getting better, after living with chronic pain for so long before, I was becoming easily irritable, triggered and feeling like a victim. Wanting someone to just take it away for me.
Creating my own healing ritual
I created a daily practice to rebalance my nervous system, calm my mind and raise my consciousness. I structured my days like this:
- Morning Movement & Stillness
Gentle yoga, breathwork, Tibetan yoga, and meditation — I did this even when I felt ill. Followed by gratitude journaling and a healthy fruit breakfast in the sun. - Walking & Spiritual Study
Slow lake walks, soaking up the warmth. Then Kabbalah study, through an online course I deeply resonated with. It helped me uncover mental patterns contributing to pain and dis-ease. - Midday Grounding
Restorative meditations, somatic journaling, and gut-directed hypnotherapy using the Nerva app. This was really helpful in calming my nervous system — a known trigger in endometriosis and IBS. - Afternoon Integration
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), self-Reiki, cacao ceremonies, and sound healing. I attended my first holotropic breathwork session — and it was powerful. As I breathed through pain in my womb, I felt a surge of energy and peace unlike anything I’d experienced. - Digital Detox & Nature Immersion
I disconnected from social media and work communications. Each morning I woke naturally at sunrise and immediately went outside to enjoy my practice. I allowed my body and mind to return to stillness.
Through three weeks of consistent practice, I reduced my pain medication from 4 tablets a day to just 1 — and for the first time in years, I had pain-free days.
The return home: Integration is the real work
Coming back to London, the pain started to creep back in. And I realised — it wasn’t just being back to the lake in Guatemala that healed me before. It was the way I lived there. The rituals, the breath, the stillness, the intention. The challenge now is to bring that rhythm into my life here, in the chaos and speed of the city.
And that’s the mission behind EndoWell — the integrative wellbeing programme I’ve designed for women like me. Women who feel trapped in their bodies, let down by the system, and desperate for a path forward.
EndoWell: Bridging the gap in endometriosis care
EndoWell is a support system — combining coaching, mindfulness, nutrition, movement, trauma-informed practices, and mental health support to work alongside NHS care. It’s what I wish I’d had when I was first diagnosed and have felt the need for daily while seemingly left to struggle and suffer. It’s what I believe every woman with endometriosis deserves.
This journey back to the lake reminded me: we are not broken. Our bodies are not the enemy. We are whole, we are wise, and we are capable of healing — when we have the tools, the space, and the support.
Interested in the EndoWell Programme?
📩 Register your interest in my programmes and upcoming pilot projects with NHS Trusts
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