It\’s a funny old thing, life. The chance meetings or happenings that change your direction, ever so slightly… But a slight change in direction over half a lifetime can take you to somewhere very different to where you thought you might go at the time. When I started in practice, I was on fire to be a horse vet. I took my first job because it promised horse work.
And so the chance happening unfolded. The first horse I was sent to on my own had a ruptured cruciate ligament. This is a very rare thing indeed. (So rare it wasn\’t even mentioned in our training at university.) The horses leg was massively swollen, so I diagnosed it as an allergy. It didn\’t get better, my boss went back and diagnosed it, then he decided they couldn\’t let me see any more horses – without communicating a word about this to me until 18 months later, when I left. I was shattered.
The chance meeting for me was with a fellow veterinarian, Dr Tom Ahern, some 18 years ago (just after I\’d left my first job). He was a horse vet, I was working in a temporary job, and he just happened to come up to the town I was working in to help a few horses with neck issues. He taught me all about how nerve root compression due to the vertebrae in the neck can cause all sorts of problems by changing the blood supply and causing pain – in this instance to the foot of the horse, causing lameness. He\’d developed a method where he anaesthetised horses and stretched their necks, mobilising the joints – and they got better, some going back onto the track to win races. I could see that the principles were the same, so I started assessing and working on dogs necks. I found out that a lot of dogs had sore necks and backs, pretty quickly. I don\’t think all the other ones I\’d seen before that had any less of these problems, by the way. Releasing pain, stiffness and tension from their bodies made a big difference, a difference their people could clearly see.
And that\’s how the Whole Energy Body Balance (WEBB) technique was born. Step by step, learning as I went, growing my sensitivity and skills, one dog at a time. I had no one to teach me any of this – my hands, and the dogs I worked on, were my teachers. Later on, when I learned energy healing to help myself cope with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I found that integrating that into what I was doing improved the results even more. I\’ve seen so many pets improve out of sight with WEBB sessions over the years – physically, emotionally, mentally.
Benny, the ex-racing Greyhound: Benny was morose, grumpy, and not very connected with his humans when I first met him. He was carrying a lot of physical pain from racing, and also emotional trauma from a kenneled existence. After 4 sessions, Benny started playing with toys for the first time in his life, and stealing soft toys from their daughters bed to cuddle up with. He also had a second (very naughty) puppyhood at the ripe old age of 13. He even ate the bottom out of a handbag to get at some Easter eggs. He started going to his family for pats, and was a lot less grumpy.
Sasha, an old Labrador: I turned up to check out a lump on her tail, and just happened to arrive in the middle of a very active thunderstorm. She was shaking, drooling, eyes wide with panic, stiff as a board – in a terrible state. I did one session with her, on the spot. Over about 45 minutes she relaxed enough to lie down and put her head on the ground (thunder rattling around the valley the whole time). I found out from her owner a month or so later that when the next storms came, she was a bit restless, but would go and find a dark spot and lie down. A massive improvement!
Secret, an abandoned Maremma: Secret\’s dad was a young fella – he’d been living with his parents when he got her as an adult dog. Then he hitched up with a partner, and they had a new bub arrive. A couple of months later they moved out, leaving Secret behind. She was barking all night long, messing on the floor, and showing signs of aggression towards guests and other dogs at their B&B. After one WEBB session, she stopped messing inside, and the barking became, much, much less – enough that her grandma and grandpa could get sleep again.
Ellie, a traumatised border collie x: Ellie had a very traumatic time as a puppy – she was beaten. She was very shy, scared, completely lacking in confidence. The first few sessions, she had to be coaxed or pretty much dragged out to have me work with her. The positive changes in her are hard to believe. Now when I visit them, she comes over to me to say hello. Her mum and dad tell me that she now barks to let them know if strangers have arrived (she never, ever did this before the sessions). She is so much happier, more confident, relaxed and at peace within herself it\’s simply not funny.
Karen, a student of this workshop, had these success stories to share about a dog and a cat she worked with: \”Lindy definitely enjoyed her WEBB session with me and was pushing Herbie, another older dog, out of the way while I was working on him. Most jealous. A few days after I had worked on her, my friend told me that for the first time in ages, Lindy, her 14 yr old border collie, walked up the back steps of her house. When you think you\’re not doing a lot, in fact you actually ARE making a difference with a WEBB session. My friend\’s cat was also behaving most bizarrely, very spooked, baulked at everything, particularly if something was moved or out of place. She believed her cat may have received a fright, possibly from a fox or similar as she lives on 40 acres out in the country. So I asked her to hold her cat on her lap while I did a little bit of work on her. My friend\’s cat\’s eyes went from wide saucers to soft and relaxed and almost falling asleep and purring. Now her cat is back to normal. The vet that my friend took her cat to initially couldn\’t fathom what was wrong or how to treat her.\”
I\’m teaching the foundation workshop again on Sunday 27th. If you want to make a positive difference in your pet\’s life, this is something anyone with a loving heart and a pair of hands can learn to do. I\’d love to see you and your dogs there 🙂
problem, When I started in practice, I was on fire to be a horse vet. I took my first job because it promised horse work. The first horse I was sent to on my own had a ruptured cruciate ligament. This is a very rare thing indeed. (So rare it wasn\’t even mentioned in our training at university.) The horses leg was massively swollen, so I diagnosed it as an allergy. It didn\’t get better, my boss went back and diagnosed it, then he decided they couldn\’t let me see any more horses. Without communicating a word about this to me until 18 months later, when I left. I was shattered.