Write a commentStepping into Finola’s therapy room is like being enveloped in warmth. It’s peaceful and calm. That is really down to Finola herself, who radiates kindness. Gentle music plays and there are crystals all around. It is a beautiful space.
Finola is a reflexologist and more. She specialises in reproductive and fertility reflexology and holistic therapies. Her Loving Touch business is the result of the hard work Finola dedicated herself to after her beautiful son Donal passed away at only 13. Now, Finola treats many people, providing reflexology for all, even babies and toddlers, and auricular acupuncture.
As someone who works so personally and intimately with her clients, the pandemic brought huge changes to her life although like so many of us it didn’t feel real. “At the time I thought it was a lot of scaremongering but then death started to happen down the road and I closed the business in mid-March. I contacted my clients because I had to look after them and my family but I was heartbroken. I love working with my clients – especially my fertility clients and now everything has stopped for them.”
“In lockdown, I finished my holistic fertility practitioner’s course [with distinctions!] and so that was a good use of my time. It felt like I have achieved something!” Finola showed me her certificate with pride. “I have learned so much about lifestyle and food choices and I can’t wait to work with people again. I have started back now with three clients, one a day and I’ve had to adjust to leaving space to clean and prepare the room. Then as people got to hear I was opening again, I started getting calls. I could be as busy as I wanted to be now but I have to be so careful.”
“I walked the roads, painted. I worked in the garden and read a lot of fertility books. I did find it got to me though. I needed to see my clients and people and I needed talk to people and work with people. It wasn’t a holiday. You lost track of time and days of the week.”
For the fertility clients and clients undergoing cancer treatments this has been so tough. There is such a tiny window for treatments to help them. “They’ve not been able to do anything. Everything is on hold for them which could be life-changing.”
Finola anticipates seeing clients with issues as a result of the isolation. Sadly there has to date been no word of fertility treatments starting up again and that breaks Finola’s heart. She is getting new clients who aren’t even on the waiting lists yet but want to try natural treatments because the lists have such backlogs. It’s been a time of heightened emotions. “I’ve been talking to a lot of my clients and some of them have had such a tough time. I did a webinar on how to help my fertility clients during lockdown so I Skyped two clients and worked with them, showing them pressure points and helping. I was there on the other end of the phone if they needed me.”
This time has been so strange. Finola laughs that it’s been “the Bermuda triangle of time”, a hole where time disappeared, where it sped up but also stood still.
If you follow the Rostrevor community news page on Facebook, you will have seen Finola’s daily posts. I love them. They are inspiring and thoughtful and sometimes I read one and it says exactly what I’m feeling, even if it’s sadness or loneliness. It’s a lovely idea. Why did she start that? “I just thought people need a bit of inspiration and motivation. They need to know they’re not alone. People seem to enjoy them and share them.”
Is she worried about life after this? “I think it’s going to be so tough on the NHS. It’s going to be tough and scary. It’s the unknown. How do fertility clinics start up again? Everybody wants help. The backlog will be huge. Doctors and nurses will have so much to do”. Will people change? At the start, everyone talked about being kind and taking time. “People were rushing about so much, not spending time together and now they’ve had to slow down and not let time run away and maybe people won’t want to go back to the way it was. And I think fear is still there too. I think holistic approaches will be important in helping people, especially young ones who have had to sacrifice so much of their lives.”
What is the biggest thing she has learnt from all of this? “Nobody is invincible. We all need to slow down and take time. But we can survive. We don’t need everything we thought we did. We don’t need to be running to shops every day just to fill time. Getting out for a walk, I’ve met people I’ve never met before and it’s been lovely to see families out for walks together. Mother Nature just came back so quickly. There were nights there wasn’t a sound – no traffic, no airplanes. Hopefully people have found how lovely that is.”
Finola is so in touch with emotions and what people really need in times like this, which isn’t to run around buying things we don’t need but to take time to look around us, reach out to others and reconnect with each other and the world around us. We need people like her as we enter this time of uncertainty.
Check out her website at WWW.LOVINGTOUCH-THERAPIES.COM
