The beginning of the journey

I was 16 years old the first time I left my country, family, friends, and home, to go on an amazing adventure. I had won a scholarship and I was going to spend the next two years of my life at an international school in the north of Italy, surrounded by students and staff from all over the world.

I felt so lucky, so blessed, bubbling with excitement, curiosity, joy, and gratitude.

Duino, my first 'home away from home' in 1989.

And then, something weird happened. The second morning after my arrival, I woke up with a bad headache. At first, it seemed normal. After all, I had flown many hours to get there, so I imagined the time difference and the stress of having taken a plane all by myself for the very first time had hit me. I was finally starting to relax, while trying to adapt to this new experience, all at once. It was too much!

But the headache wouldn’t leave me, as if it were also determined to be a part of my new life. To make a long story short: I underwent all kinds of checkups and took different medicines, but nothing worked. From a medical point of view, there was nothing wrong. No system, organ, or body part was left out of the investigation.

I went on living with my headache. Some days it felt light as if it were about to cease. But some other times it came back in a raging fury.

One evening, I decided to join a yoga class held at the school and, at the end of the session, the instructor approached me. She had noticed I wasn’t completely well and I told her about the headache. She asked me whether she could read my feet. I remember thinking it was so weird! But what did I have to lose?

The next day, I went to her place and that first foot reading blew my mind. She was telling me things about my personality, my strengths, and my weaknesses, and it was spot on. I was in awe, and after a couple of sessions, my head was completely pain-free.

I didn't know it back then, but that was the beginning of my journey as a holistic therapist. And even though it would take another ten years to reconnect with reflexology and foot reading, the seed had been planted.