Rachel was interviewed by The Association of Master Herbalists as part of their "Meet the Herbalist" series last year. Watch the video here, or read the transcript if you prefer:
Izzy Kirkby Hi Rachel, thank you so much for joining me today. I am just wondering if you'd be able to introduce yourself and tell us all about what you do.
Rachel Shackleton
Morning Izzy it's a pleasure to be here, and thank you for asking me.
Rachel Shackleton
To be on a trip to have this interview if that's the right term I'm Rachel Shackleton. I am a herbalist and naturopath and kinesiologist doing classical kinesiology and therapeutic energy kinesiology. My company is Green Key Health and I practice in Wantage in South Oxfordshire, and also I run a clinic in Bishop's Cleeve on a monthly basis.
Izzy Kirkby
So very excited about herbs and kinesiology because I find they work really well together as quite synergistic disciplines. So, as this is the herbalist channel, would you be able to tell me more about your journey and how you got into herbal medicine and also please could you share about your kinesiology journey as well, that'd be really interesting.
Rachel Shackleton
It actually started with the Kinesiology. I'm actually a business trainer. I'm still a business trainer and I specialise in leadership, customer excellence, communication and now well being in the workplace and I was working in Russia, where I have a company and at some point I thought you know what, I need to slow down I need to start to think about how to plan for my later years and slow down. That was when I got into kinesiology and that happened because I was travelling India after actually nearly killing myself from the stress of going through the financial crisis in Russia and how businesses survived. And I took two months off to travel India, and I bumped into a doctor there who was running a clinic ashram. And the first question he asked me having never met me before was "What is it that you want to do with your life?" And I was taken aback a bit at what came from my mouth. Well actually, I've always been interested in complementary medicines and I'm really interested in doing something around this but I haven't found anything that excites me. And he said, "Try Kinesiology". And that was it. I enrolled in the UK and was travelling backwards and forwards from Russia to study classical Kinesiology at the time qualifying in 2006. Several years on, I moved back from Russia and I started to work as a kinesiologist and realised actually this is still not really well known after almost another five - seven years from when I qualified, so I thought, well, I need to do something to go with it. That is actually when I started to look at herbal medicine and at the same time, I was looking at homoeopathy. I think it was because the person I was speaking to in the CNM in London who was quite forward said, "Well, you know, this is a great course and it starts next week." Well, okay and signed the dotted line. Paid the money and off I went.
Rachel Shackleton
I qualified as a naturopath and herbalist in 2016. And now I bring these modalities together for the benefit of my clients.
Izzy Kirkby
For those people that are watching do tell us more about what Kinesiology is and the differences between classical kinesiology and other types and give us more background and which you practice?
Rachel Shackleton
Kinesiology. There are many strains of Kinesiology. I practice classical and therapeutic, classical. They all work in the same way in that you use the muscle feedback system to understand what's going on in the body. To find out what are the blockages and then to unblock those blockages to allow the energy to flow and then to awaken natural healing in the body itself. Now, kinesiology doesn't just work on the physical it works on the emotional and the therapeutic energy also works on the spiritual level. So it's very much a focus to the emotional, spiritual level in relation to your soul paths. What are you here for? You know, doesn't come up with a label you should be a teacher. It helps the person to start to ask questions of themselves. Why am I here? Why have I got this illness? Why am I suffering with this particular disease, which has indications of particular emotions? Which has links to particular organs, which are then telling you a story about what's going on with you. And then with the support of herbs, orchid essences, which I use for the therapeutic energy kinesiology, it helps to go into the system, and to help you process those things that you need to process as an individual to be well.
Izzy Kirkby
Wow. So I mean, it's just fascinating that there is sort of this modality out there in terms of really understanding the soul path of the human and it's such an important part of medicine. You know why this disease arrived in the first place and more lessons we should be learning from it. So is that what you can you tell through muscle testing? Is that how you get to pick up this side of it, or it sort of sets the client's off on their own sort of journey? How does it work?
Rachel Shackleton
Probably the answer to that question is actually both so when you work with kinesiology, it links up all the systems the organs, the chakra system, the neuro lymphatic points, and various other points, and those points all have their own story. When you work through therapeutic energy, kinesiology, it has specific points on the body that is related to particular orchid essences, and those orchid essences themselves have a description, not just the sort of Latin name of the orchid, or the combination of the orchids, but what points this specifically works on and what aspects of the person's soul that it works on as well. For example, compassionate heart, which works on the heart, which we would expect to be here (points to the position) is very much about showing compassion to yourself. Where do you need to show more compassion to yourself? Are you a perfectionist? Do you give out all the time to others and never have time to give to yourself? Because this is causing you to be sick. So that's how they link up. Temple of Light 5, for example, is working on the seventh chakra point. And that's your connection to the higher chakras but also to the universe the direct universal line feeding into you to help you to hear and however you hear. That might hearing through auditory you might hear through intuition you might hear through dreaming. There can be different ways of hearing. It opens up the system to allow the energy to flow to then start to help this "flower" literally to open up and show the potential within every individual.
Izzy Kirkby
I see, there's an orchid essence for the different things that you need to blossom and whatever your life path is. How does it work with herbal medicines? Is it particular herbs for particular parts, as you said, parts that you're working with? Or is it that you test the herbs from a Kinesiology perspective? How do you integrate the herbal medicine side?
Rachel Shackleton
On the herbal medicine side when you work with herbal medicine, you learn certain herbs due to certain constituents and know that a herb is going to be good for digestion for example, or good for skin or your brain or whatever. Now there are a range of of herbs that you can choose from and, of course, my dispensary is probably 30% of what CNM had. But but that doesn't make it a lesser dispensary. It just means, you have less herbs to choose from. But, I might for example have Bacopa monnieri which is a brain tonic and I might have Gingko biloba that is also a brain tonic. So which one shall I use for this client and I can then test that on the body and ask the body which one is going to help this person with healing? I can work with a combination of both those herbs. And I can also test a whole mix on them to see if the mix is correct.
Rachel Shackleton
So will all your clients come to see you for the herbs or would they come to you for kinesiology. How do you decide what treatment approach you take?
Rachel Shackleton
When somebody comes to me for the first time I always do a full history so you know what's going through the different body systems to find out what's been going on with them and get a holistic picture as well as looking into childhood health and possibly health of their parents also. So once I got that I then put them on the kinesiology couch and do a full kinesiology session on them, which then gives me a whole lot more information. And then based on what the two are telling me I then design a treatment plan for the person which obviously lines up with their goals as well. Now sometimes somebody's come, I don't know for skin problems, but actually we need to start with the gut because that's where it's all coming from and that requires obviously explanation of why am I suggesting this before we go there. I've never had a person say I disagree with that. Clearly if somebody's in pain or you know maybe having hot flushes, which is really disturbing them. I anyway, will address that even though that might not be the issue that really needs addressing, just to give them a bit of relief to help them on their way while we go through the treatment protocol.
Izzy Kirkby
Do you have a certain niche or specialism that you tend to get a lot of clients or is it very varied in terms of what type of conditions people will see with?
Rachel Shackleton
You know, I when qualified I thought right I'm not going to go down a particular avenue I'm going to see what avenue comes up. What are the most people that I'm seeing and and then go that route. I don't think that process is finished, it still seems to be going on but one of the common issues that I see are stress related issues, which I found quite fascinating because being a business trainer I was fascinated as to why all these people are presenting with stress. It shows in digestion, it shows in skin, it shows in hormonal cycles and all kinds of things and I then linked the two together and consequently, I developed a set of e-learning modules for wellbeing in the workplace, to help people to manage their own well being in a preventative way rather than a reactive manner and to help organisations give the tools to their employees.
Izzy Kirkby
And so, this I guess, very much relates to your own journey in the business world. Dealing with a lot of stress yourself, how have you used the kinesiology and the herbal medicine to recover from the stress that you went through as well? Can you share with us how you use natural medicine on yourself?
Rachel Shackleton
Sadly, at that time, I didn't know any kinesiology just so there was no help coming from that direction. I basically travelled and switched off for two months. Fed myself well, got lots of fresh air rested and just completely locked myself away, not away but off from anything related to work. And, and that worked. If I knew then what I know now, I would have still done that but I would have taken my adaptogens with me and my nervines was with me to help me rebuild that damage faster. Ongoing I use herbs for myself, especially for stress related issues myself where you know, you feel you're pushing too hard or you're trying to influence something that you can't influence and therefore it's causing you disturbances. Let's takeout some Withania or some Codonopsis just to support the system a little bit. Ongoing, I do use herbs and I also use things like Echinacea when feeling under the weather, but it maybe never ever develops into anything. Herbs are definitely a go-to cupboard at different times.
Izzy Kirkby
You're seeing a lot of clients that are suffering from stress and you've mentioned so you would naturally work with the adaptgens. Can you get tell us a bit more about these herbs and how you see them supporting people? How you use adaptogens and just thinking people listening may not know what adaptogens are and give a bit more. Background in terms of the herbs that you go and what they do to be really helpful.
Rachel Shackleton
Herbs, like medications actually like alopathic medications are put into categories and adaptogenic herbs are one of those categories. As we have nerve tonics, we have bitters, we have digestives, and many other categories. The adaptogenic herbs are as the name suggests. They help your body and you because you are your body but you're not your body at the same time, it helps your body to balance any stresses that you're undergoing at the time. We all have stresses as life throws things at us, and sometimes we don't handle it as well as we would want to. And with the support of adaptogens it just helps you to take things more in your stride. And for those, for example who have been through a chronic illness adaptogens are also herbs that I would look at to support the rebuilding of the body systems and just health and wellbeing as a complete package after chronic illness.
Izzy Kirkby
Indeed, do you get a lot of clients coming to you with the after effects of chronic illness as well and the stress from the illness?
Rachel Shackleton
I get more people coming before they about to go off the precipice into a chronic illness which is really good for them because once you've gone off, it's more difficult to get them back online. Of course you can but it takes a long time and I think this is something that people underestimate that your illness, your dis-ease, whatever that is, whether it's acid reflux, or it's something more severe than that like a cancer or hypertension or all these things that they don't just arrive yesterday. They've been coming for a long time. It is an accumulation of lifestyle patterns. Our diet, our positivity, how we see things, how we communicate with the world. Do we have downtime or no downtime, all these things are combining every day to build the impact on the physical body and on the mental body as well as the emotional body. Being a kinesiologist the foundation of any disease is emotional and to get to the emotion to help that healing. So to come back to your question, most people have been to different places to get answers and they're not getting answers. They may be on a number of medications, which are supporting their system. But at the same time, are maybe supporting one system but affecting another system in a negative way, which is not apparent until you've been taking it for some time. Generally, it's a case of going back upstream. I think about Dr. Tom O'Bryan's phrase that we've got to go back upstream and look at where did this all start, and then slowly start to peel back the layers of the onion, which is again what kinesiology does because every session takes off a number of layers from this onion, allowing you to process in that period between consultations and then revealing the next layers that we need to strip away to allow you to get well.
Izzy Kirkby
It's such a beautiful approach and it really makes sense. I just wish that more people would be thinking about this in this way and really trying to find the root cause by diving deeper. It's not just all physical, it's emotional as well. But if you're not dealing with the emotional imbalances, then something else will happen. It's not going to be a long term fix unless you start the emotional side. So just how, if people want to work with you, where can people find you? How can people get in touch?
Rachel Shackleton
My website is a www.greenkeyhealth.co.uk and there you can use the contact form, as well as making a booking directly via the calendar make an appointment contact page. If somebody wants to contact me directly, the phone number is there as is my email address. I also have a profile on LinkedIn, which is just LinkedIn, Rachel Shackleton, where I talk about not only health but also health in relation to work and leadership. Its a broader picture there. I have a Pinterest page and I also have Instagram. I talk on YouTube where I have my own channel, which in the last few months has been a bit neglected. My lovely filming person hasn't been coming in so I'm not very good at standing on my own and talking to myself. Those are the main avenues. The main source would be on the website where they can find me very easily on that.
Izzy Kirkby
So that was green key health
Rachel Shackleton
www.greenkeyhealth. co.uk
Izzy Kirkby
In the UK, oh thats fantastic. And if people do we what were just talking about before, can people see you online or is it face to face if someone not in your area?
Rachel Shackleton
Yes, absolutely. I do online consultations. I can't do kinesiology online. Most sadly, you need the physical body for that. So it would be a consultation without the Kinesiology. However, it's online I would do the full case history as I would if somebody was sitting in front of me. And we would go through the treatment protocol and what we're going to apply where which direction we're going why as would normally do if it was face to face.
Izzy Kirkby
Fantastic. So basically, you can work with anyone. They just need to get in touch by the website the easiest way so that really helps. Well, I'm just thinking its probably the worst question ever but any final thoughts, words of advice to people if they're suffering from a condition or if they want to learn more about natural medicine? Any final thoughts to close with?
Rachel Shackleton
Yes, I think the biggest thought is that we are responsible for our own health. This is something that to a certain extent, we are where we are today because we've given out that responsibility to our medical teams, as well as to alternative therapists such as myself, homoeopaths, reflexologists, or whoever and forgotten or negated the fact that it starts with you as an individual. We need to take responsibility for that and not look for a cure from outside. We can do it ourselves with the help of a professional whichever sphere you choose to go into. And that journey can be so much easier if you are willing to do that. Does that make sense?
Izzy Kirkby
Yes, absolutely. I think it's so important for people to really understand that. Ultimately, there's no one that's going to know more about their health than themselves and therefore they can make those decisions rather than relying on experts to tell them what they should be doing. We need to sort of bring that power back really. And yes, in doing so you can work with the people that are going to support you on the journey but they're not going to be ultimately responsible, it's you that's taking the herbs or taking the medicine etc and I guess you need to know more about yourself really I guess to go on that journey.
Rachel Shackleton
Yes. You know, when you have a good practitioner again, whether that's a allopathic medical practitioner or it's an alternative therapists such as myself, we will help you to understand what and where you need to focus. And from my perspective, I never ever overload my clients with you know, a to do list that's one to 100. That's too much. It's a step by step approach and you might have three or four things, for example, I want you to drink more water. I want you to get out 30 minutes walk every day. I want you obviously to take the herbs. I want you to cut out grains. You know it can be so many different things but I'm not going to give a list to you to stop smoking, stop drinking, stop worrying, stop eating dairy etc. I'm not going to do that because I know that we're not going to win like that. It's got to be a step by step gentle approach which makes a difference when it's all put together over a period of time.
Izzy Kirkby
I think that's really important but when someone's working with a practitioner like you it's going to be client lead so what can actually be achieved for the person and yet it's not a case of do this and everyone gets the same plan and that solves everyone's problems because, you know, ultimately, it's going to be their own individual journey in terms of what needs to be focused on first before you move on to the next thing and then the next thing and so on.
Rachel Shackleton
Yes, absolutely. You put it so beautifully that everybody is individual. And there is no such thing as two identical treatment protocols. There are no two identical people. So how can there be identical treatment protocols?
Izzy Kirkby
Well, I really loved our conversaton. I'd love to get some kinesiology done. These orchid essences seem beautiful as well, and I feel like you can tell me a lot about my own soul journey. I want to thank you so much for your time, Rachel. It's been really lovely and enlightening as well to talk to you about what you do and how you can help people and thank you so much for doing this work. I'm just very grateful to spend this time with you.
Rachel Shackleton
Thank you, Izzy. It's really been a pleasure. Thank you very much. It's onward and upward.
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