At times it would flare up and my face would look horrendous. Mirror to me was what daylight and garlic would be to a vampire and on occasions I was ready to tear my proverbial hair out.

​I searched high and low for cures both in allopathic and what’s termed alternative medicine: shiatsu, acupuncture, herbs, homeopathy, various dietary regimes, potions, lotions and much more… all to no avail. At some point I even underwent a thorough examination at a clinic for infectious disease because specialists struggled to diagnose it at first. 

I have worked as a physiotherapist for 20 years and have been to many conferences and health and well-being workshops; so I was familiar with this kind of event. The usual format would be that the presenter would be introduced with much fanfare and talking up of their credentials and would be generally held as an expert in their field and someone we should all look up to for the answers.
 
The presenters at these events would usually act and behave as the ‘expert’, presenting themselves as superior or more knowledgeable than their audience. I had observed that often these experts would be super knowledgable in their fields of expertise in health care but would not look or act very healthy themselves. 

​Byron Bay and the local area are filled with any possible healing modality you can think of. The local newspaper and notice boards are jam-packed with advertisements from practitioners; there are a number of healing therapy directories available online and in print media to choose from, but Serge has never advertised his services. This in and of itself should stop anyone and everyone in their tracks. How do you become global without self-promotion?  

To provide some context to what follows, so impressed was I by Jenny right from the start of our first meeting, and similarly by a number of her close friends who were also students (as they refer to themselves) of Universal Medicine, that I took up my own study of this subject with great interest. There was something different about these people. I could see and feel it.

And so it was with quite some intrigue and anticipation, when the opportunity arose to attend Livingness 1, that I did attend that event and meet Serge Benhayon that first time. My email to Serge the following day, as shown below, captures the significance to me of that first encounter, how I was impressed by him and my feelings about what he presented.

​Over the years I have had the opportunity to listen to many of Serge Benhayon’s presentations consistently emphasising the power of movement. I recall his first demonstration of this was in a guided Gentle Breath Meditation years ago when he suggested we think a negative thought or an emotional situation with the negative series of thought that goes with that and then he had us adjust our posture in a gentle way, demonstrating that when we moved in that way we could not sustain the negative thinking.

My relationship was coming to an end, my body was fast giving out – suffering with fibromyalgia and unable to continue running my business or to maintain my property.

Serge has been an absolute support and inspiration for me in my relationship with my partner, always there no matter what time of day or night. He listened to me cry, rant, rave or blame, forever feeling like I was in a relationship that had no purpose, a relationship where we were constantly at each other, nit picking, highly reactive to each other. I remember one day calling Serge in absolute tears, I could barely talk, which happened many times during the early years of with my partner and my relationship, and again, he listened intently, offering simple words, ‘Be patient, give it time’. Words I had heard before from him, and all I could think was, ‘Really… again… how patient can a woman be?!’. I was waiting for the ‘I told you so’ however never in my 15+ years of knowing Serge has he ever told me what to do or what not to do … that is the beautiful thing, he never judges, criticises or imposes anything at anytime.

Serge’s sessions felt good, but I was not open and ready for the depth of healing he was offering. So I went a couple of times and then I forgot about him. It was also quite a distance to drive from my house to where Serge was working out of his converted garage in Alstonville.

​Years later, after I had a breast cancer diagnosis, someone again mentioned him and recommend I go to see him. So I met Serge again. That was about 12 years ago. At the time I was trying to heal the cancer myself and I did not want to see any doctors or have surgery.

His healing sessions were/are something else, something I had not experienced before, and this time I was beginning to be ready for true healing. 

At first I didn’t understand what he was saying about breast cancer being about a woman not nurturing herself, as I thought that many of the things I was doing were nurturing eg: eating all organic and mostly raw food, doing juice fasts… 

While I had many interesting experiences and a level of awareness, at my core I knew there was more. There was an unsettlement in my body and being and the desire to gather more. Even so there was a part of me that accepted that this might be as good as it gets in the great so called ‘mystery’ of life. After all my life was pretty ‘good ‘by all accounts.

​A close friend of mine had recommended I see Serge, and from what she shared I felt inspired to go along for a session. What has transpired since that first meeting is not so easy to convey in words.