The Live Lightly Centre

18/06/2026

I don't expect this post to get much traction coz its long and well, kind of boring 😅, but it is important to read if you want to know the REAL story behind naturopathy and how it can help you.

There are lots of interesting chats in one of my groups about the way naturopathy is changing and unfortunately moving away from the original teachings of:

🌿 First Do No Harm

Core to all medical practice is the desire to help the human form and condition. Naturopaths typically approach care by utilizing the most natural, least invasive and least toxic therapies. We will (should!) refer when the patient’s presentation is outside of scope or level of skill.

🌿 The Healing Power of Nature

We recognize the value of our natural world in assisting the healing process. Not only do we utilize substances that originate in nature, but we also incorporate a healthy natural environment as foundational to human health. Naturopaths recognize and harness the body’s inherent wisdom to heal itself in order to guide patients to wellness and total health.

🌿 Identify and Treat the Causes

There is a time and place for symptom suppression, however most naturopathic patients will benefit from identifying the underlying causes of illness and removing obstacles to cure.

🌿 Doctor as Teacher

Naturopaths elevate patient’s health literacy. That means that we are part of the team helping patients have a better understanding of what it takes to be and stay well. Through education and a trust-based relationship, patients better understand the steps they need to take to achieve and maintain health.

🌿 Treat the Whole Person

Naturopaths understand the interconnectedness of our body, our environment and our lifestyle on total health. It is only through this whole-person-based approach that we seek to restore balance and health.

🌿 Prevention

Naturopathic medicine affirms that it is better to prevent illness and suffering whenever possible. Through our comprehensive practice, we combine all six principles in order to identify potential areas of imbalance and teach patients how to get well and stay well.

This is why it was so difficult to “prove” naturopathy should be on health care rebates because, well, how do you quantify all of that?

Also with all of the billions of dollars of supplements out there, health coaches, internet self-appointed health gurus, medical doctors online sharing their knowledge, aligned professions advising (and prescribing!) outside of their scope of practice, Chat GPT and even qualified naturopaths who rely heavily on expensive testing and massive doses of supplements, us little guys, the ones who still believe in the simple things - the healing power of the body, self-empowerment, patient emotional support, patient education, starting low and moving up, minimal supplement prescribing, meeting people where they’re at, and looking at the WHOLE PERSON, well, we get lost in the noise I’m afraid.

There are a lot of “green doctors” out there now, people treating symptoms with natural remedies instead of honouring our true naturopathic traditions and core values and its watering down the absolute powerhouse of treatments and knowledge that we have to share. Its also giving our profession a bad name. 😢

Call me old school, call me a dinosaur, call me whatever you want I don’t really care, I will ALWAYS follow those core principles above and be fiercely proud to wear the title “Naturopath”. 💪🙏💕

11/06/2026

The thyroid post yesterday garnered a lot of interest and I have had people private messaging me whether they should get the tests done or not.

Firstly, if you have direct line family members with ANY thyroid issue OR coeliac disease and you have the symptoms in the post then yes, if you can afford it and want to be proactive, get it done.

Secondly if you are a client of mine, even if you’ve only ever been once, if I have had any suspicions of any long term possibilities for you I 100% would have mentioned it in your initial treatment plan. This is what I do, not only deal with your presenting symptoms, but warn you of impending ones!

This could be thyroid suspicions, endometriosis, PCOS, insulin resistance, unresolved trauma, rheumatoid arthritis, coeliac disease, SIBO, bowel cancer, perimenopause, HPA axis dysfunction (colloquially known as “adrenal fatigue”), MS, post viral fatigue or anything else I suspect, and you are STILL having symptoms – PLEASE go back to the plan and have a look at what I have suspected. It will most likely be that coming to fruition.

If this is you and you can’t find your original plan, just drop me a line and I’ll flick it to you. Even if you then decide to treat it medically and not naturopathically, at least you have a starting point with your GP.

I can’t tell you the amount of times I have had people only come once or twice, I’ve voiced my concerns, they’ve never come back for whatever reason then they’re back 2 years later with either an official diagnosis, medicated and/or suffering for it, or no further down the line with any of it.

None of this needs to happen. Lets just be proactive and avoid years of wasted time, money and worsening health. 🙏💕

10/06/2026

THIS!!!!! This is what I am talking about when I say women (its nearly always women!) get mis-diagnosed for years, up to decades, before they finally get delivered a Hashimoto’s diagnosis! 😩

Sharing with permission: a beautiful young lady (23 years old) presented with chronic symptoms such as brain fog, constant tiredness and no energy, sore bones, feeling the cold more than others, difficulty losing weight, extremely emotional, ongoing iron deficiency and just generally feeling poorly. Her mother and sister have diagnosed thyroid issues (Hashimoto’s which is an autoimmune condition where the immune system “attacks” the organs) and her GP kept on telling her nothing was wrong and her thyroid was “fine”.

She finally booked in at her family’s insistence, and these are the bloods we had taken (out of pocket, the GP wasn’t going to do them because the TSH was “in range”)

The first photo shows what the GP would have seen, the TSH in range at 2.65, plus the thyroid hormones (which they didn’t do) at ranges we quite like to see.

The TSH in and of itself is a red flag to us as naturopaths, anything over 2 and we think the thyroid is working too hard, especially with those symptoms and family history to back it up.

Now here’s the kicker. She did the antibody testing, and it came back outrageously high, in fact one of them just said ‘greater than 400’ (meant to be below 13.8😂 )

If you search what constitutes a Hashimoto’s diagnosis you find this:

Antibody Blood Tests: The key diagnostic marker is the thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibody test. Finding high levels of TPO antibodies (and sometimes thyroglobulin antibodies) confirms your immune system is attacking the thyroid, which is the hallmark of Hashimoto’s. [1, 2]

I’d say she was definitely displaying the “hallmark of Hashimoto’s”!!!

So, long story short, we changed her diet, gave her a few supps and she came back in 3 weeks later feeling 70% - 80% better (with a blip, she had a dip mostly likely due to a cold). 🤧

This is CRAZY and I see this all the time. The docs wouldn’t diagnose her as Hashie’s until that damn TSH got above 4, then MAYBE they would have done an antibody test and it come back positive and either pop her on thyroxine or send to an endocrinologist who would, in 90% of cases, pop her on thyroxine. Which doesn’t work for Hashimoto’s!

See the problem with Hashies is it is not the “deficiency of thyroxine” that is the cause of it, which is why just supplementing with synthetic thyroid hormone doesn’t help in most cases, it is a highly inflammatory whole of body gut and autoimmune condition, so you need a whole of body anti-inflammatory personalised gut and immune modulating program to help.

2 weeks in she noticed marked improvement. If left in the hands of the medical profession she may not have been actually diagnosed for another 5 years or so. 😢

She would have had continued symptoms, continued iron deficiency and most likely trouble conceiving as Hashimoto’s negatively impacts fertility. 👦

Imagine what a waste of a life that is for anyone let alone a 23 year old girl who’s meant to be in her prime enjoying all life has to offer. This makes me WILD because I see so damn much of it. 😤

Please, if you have those symptoms (or any chronic symptoms) and you are mirroring any diagnosed people in your family, if the docs can’t/won’t help you, you know where I am.

I will put the link to the tests she had done in the comments but I’m afraid you will need someone to interpret them for you. 💁‍♀️😆

Don’t waste your life chasing a diagnosis that won’t come until it’s been affecting you for years. Get on the front foot now! 🤜 🙏 ❤️

08/06/2026

This is what I’m doing on a weekly basis for the next six months! Every single cupboard, drawer, hidey hole, shelf, book case, pantry, nook and cranny will be cleared and cleaned bit by bit til we’re ready for settlement in December.

The less we have, the less we have to move! (Yes, we’re not moving down til end of 2027 officially, but we’ll still have a place to call our own down there from December 2026!). 🏡

I’ve delivered this lot to a place called People Who Care in Malaga with the Starting Over Support for women and kids who have to escape domestic violence quickly. They leave with nothing but the clothes on their backs, so this place is an amazing volunteer run operation who sorts these women and kids out.

I heard about them from the amazing Wendy from Clutterbugs, who as far as I’m concerned is/was one of the most selfless, giving people I’ve ever met (was as in she’s semi retiring, not anything sinister!). 😆

I will never sell anything when I can give it to someone who desperately needs it. What a huge blessing we have that we can share with others when we have the chance. We don’t realise until we see what others are going through how bloody awful life can be at times. 😢

So, there’ll be a whole lot more to come from us for this mob over the next few months. Oh, and a wee bag of oranges from our tree for the volunteers. 🍊 😇 🙏 ❤️

08/06/2026

10 years ago, wow! Lots has happened since then! We have built a business, made life long friends, become fully entrenched in the Ellenbrook (and surrounds, and elsewhere!) community, have sold the building (but still work from there) and will be moving out in 18 months' time. Crazy. 🥹🙏💕

04/06/2026

A beautiful client messaged and asked how I would handle depression if she were to refer someone to me and could I help?

My answer is very simple, I would handle depression the way I would handle any other case that was put before me - take a thorough case history, look at family history and current life circumstances, look at bloods if any were available, ask about actual medical diagnoses, look at their diet and lifestyles and work from there.

As I said to her, they may not even have depression, it may be something else altogether.

It kind of rags me a bit when if someone is “feeling depressed” or “feeling anxious” they are diagnosed with depression or anxiety rather than looking at a lifestyle disorder or underlying issue.

For me, depression and anxiety are mostly symptoms, not a disease. I do 100% believe that people suffer from it, but I just see so many people mis-diagnosed and worse, incorrectly medicated, that I have to share my thoughts.

I have seen SO MANY PEOPLE diagnosed and medicated for these issues and when we got to the bottom of it, they didn’t have depression or anxiety, there was something altogether else going on.

Here are a few examples of issues that can present as mental health issues:

👉 Chronic iron deficiency

👉 Chronic vitamin B12 deficiency

👉 Chronic vitamin D deficiency

👉 Low magnesium

👉 Extremely low calorie, low fat or low protein diets

👉 Graves’ disease (Hyperthyroidism)

👉 Hashimoto’s (hypothyroidism)

👉 Dysbiosis (chronic gut imbalance)

👉 Any other autoimmune disease (so many of them have a
neurological or mental health aspect alongside the physical)

👉 They were being bullied at work, home, school

👉 They were in a loveless marriage and hadn’t realised it (yes that can happen!)

👉 Very low testosterone

👉 Women going through perimenopause or menopause

👉 Undiagnosed neurodivergence (the amount of women I see now getting smashed by perimenopause and I ask them a simple question, “have you been assessed for ADHD/ADD/autism?” and they burst out crying because they feel they may have it but have been masking for so damn long and they’ve got no hormonal support to help the masking anymore)

👉 Chronic mental burden with kids, partner, parents, work and no mental break

👉 Sleep apnoea

👉 Coeliac disease

👉 Food intolerance or sensitivity

👉 Post viral fatigue

👉 Long covid

👉 Vax reaction (yes, I am still seeing them…..)

👉 Chronic pain

👉 Unresolved trauma or underlying issue that has manifested as depression or anxiety

👉 Medication side effect

👉 Too much caffeine or sugar

👉 Drug addiction

👉 Long term grief

👉 Dealing with sexual identity issues but too scared to tell anyone as home is unsupportive of "such things". 😭

👉 Urinary tract infections, especially in the elderly.

Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

I have personally seen, helped diagnose, referred for treatment if it was out of my scope and/or treated every single one of these examples so when someone says to me “have you got something for “x” my answer is always and will always be to this day a resounding “YES, an appointment!!!” 🤣🙏💕

03/06/2026

I saw a little reminder the other day that if you suffer from reflux at night, sleeping on your left side is the best position to sleep in.

It keeps the stomach below the oesophagus, helping to prevent stomach acid from creeping up and it also happens to be the best position to relieve snoring too (although not specifically the left side, just on your side).

This is because when lying on the left side, the oesophagus and its muscle ring are positioned higher than the stomach, allowing acid to exit the oesophagus more quickly than with other sleep positions.

Though the frequency of reflux might not differ greatly across positions, reducing time spent lying on the back or right side can help reduce GERD symptoms at night and improve sleep quality. 😴

Other tips are slightly raising your bed at the head end, not eating big meals late at night, avoiding foods/drinks that trigger it and managing your stress!

I also tell my people to chew their food properly, your poor old stomach has enough to deal with without a Looney Tunes sized whole steak going down your gullet in one piece. 🥩

There are lots of beautiful treatments naturopathically as well with gut healing/soothing herbs like aloe vera, slippery elm and marshmallow root and adaptogens to help the body deal with stress.

Reflux is nearly always a lifestyle driven disorder but it is so prevalent now making the use of stomach acid inhibitors such as Nexium one of the biggest over the counter drugs sold in Australia, and do I need to remind you about the class action at the moment linking long term PPI use with stomach cancer and chronic kidney disease? No? Good. 👍

After doing this gut course (nearly finished!!) I can also confirm that PPI’s are one of the leading causes of medically induced SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) – in some studies inducing the condition in only 7 days!!!

If you are having trouble with reflux or want to safely come off proton pump inhibitors and you can’t do it, I have my own little protocol that seems to work a treat. 🙏💕

Call now to connect with business.

02/06/2026

In my consults I talk to my people a lot about “body literacy” and what that means.

To me it means understanding the signs that your body is not happy, or when it is. It means knowing when a certain food, activity, drink, exercise or even person doesn’t sit well with you.

It means you know what makes you feel better at a more micro level than macro and it means being a little bit more intuitive than you were before. It even means listening to your conscience and what feels right or wrong morally to you.

In short, it means PAYING ATTENTION to what your body is telling you. That old saying, you’d better listen to your body’s whispers before it screams comes to mind here.

Some people are hugely body literate, sensitive and aware to anything and everything that affects them, down to a frequency level! Others are so dissociated they couldn’t tell you if their arm had just been chopped off.

As a naturopath it is really important that people are in touch with how they feel and how for example my treatment may be working for them.

Even such a simple switch as changing a supplement from early morning to mid can make a huge difference in how someone may respond.

Also, appreciating that someone may be that exception (according to every single blood sugar managing guru on social media) that an overnight oat brekky may make them feel a hundred times better during the day than a savoury one.

My job is all about helping people feel better first of all (that is ALWAYS my primary goal) and then helping them work towards long term healing.

It helps a lot if you can pay attention to what works for you and what doesn’t so we can talk about it (and I’m not just talking about supplements!) so we can pinpoint the best most personalised plan we can for YOU.

Pay attention to your body and mind.

Sit with it a while. Really notice how it (you) feels when someone happens to it, when you take something new or eat something new or try a new sleep routine or hang out with different people.

I’ve always said you are your own best test. You are an experiment of “one”, and it is the only “one” that matters.

Listen to what your body is trying to tell you! 🙏💕

01/06/2026

Final dish, home made prawn, cauliflower and broccolini curry! 🍛 👍

01/06/2026

What to do with those weird leftover bits of capsicum and slightly soft cherry tomatoes at the end of the week? Chuck ‘em in a curry sauce!!!

I love making a curry sauce from scratch and it doesn’t have to be hundreds of little jars of quarter tsp this, half a teaspoon of that, ain’t nobody got time for that!!! My bare bones basic for a quick blitzed curry sauce are a whole onion, about 5 cloves of garlic, about an inch of fresh ginger if you have it, salt and chilli. You can add whatever else you want after that. I usually have capsicum, tomatoes, parsley stalks (any herbs are great), a variety of different dried herbs - this one has turmeric, cumin and smoked paprika, then maybe some oil or lemon juice.

I blitz it, taste it to see if its sort of balanced, then cook it off in a pot til the rawness is taken out of it. The additions are also endless, this one will be a cauliflower, broccolini (I was going to use frozen spinach but realised there was a baby brocc in the back of the fridge needing using) and prawns.

I will dry fry the cauli and stalks of the broccolini before chucking in the sauce and I will dust the prawns with sumac and fry them in some olive oil before putting them in too. They will basically just need a quick warm through then. Not sure whether I will add coconut cream or not yet, will see how it pans out.

The term “curry” just means a spicy gravy or sauce so don’t get stuck thinking if yours doesn’t have curry powder or similar in it that its not a curry. You can do whatever the hell you want, it’s your kitchen! That’s what I love about it, there are basically no rules as long as you like the flavours and ingredients.

Looking forward to dinner tonight! 🍛