Emma Drady Naturopath

My new mantra going back into “normal life” after the trip!

Saying yes to laying in the grass, reading books, listening to music, lighting incense and early nights instead 💛

What can you start saying no to to make room for your true yeses?

And that’s a wrap on our lap of the country!

We zoomed through our last stretch due to some bad weather and a deep desire to get back to our community.

The last seven months has been such a wild ride meeting this country on a whole new level. There is so much beauty out there, it’s hard to fathom all that we’ve witnessed.

We had a lot of realisations on the trip, mostly subtle shifts in perspective or new ideas bubbling to the surface over time.

But lots of big changes for us too which we’ve hardly had time to let fully sink in as we’ve been zipping through country NSW, catching up with loved ones and getting the van ready to re-home.

I’m really looking forward to settling back into a new rhythm and letting the trip marinate into my psyche over the next few weeks/months/years.

I’ve decided to open up lots of availability for new and return appointments so if you’ve been thinking about having a session but I’ve had some pretty funky timeslots free this year, you should be able to find something that works!

I’ll keep you in the loop for when in person consultations become available in the coming weeks.

Thanks for following along on this epic journey! 🌼

It’s been really interesting to reflect lately ~

All of my adult life I’ve felt restless when I’m in a place for too long. I’ve never been ‘ready’ to come home from any trip or holiday, always planning the next getaway before I even land on home soil.

But now… I crave home SO DEEPLY. Community. Belonging. And surprisingly, familiarity.

The concept of ‘putting down roots’ has never been so appealing after seven months of continuous movement and newness.

And so, we will be returning a little earlier than originally planned. We are really looking forward to the simple things like cooking in an oven, showering without shoes on, a bed that is separate from our couch and of course, friends and family 🌻

There is no exact date just yet but I can’t wait to see you soon in person x

When we let nature be our guide, a more complete and true healing can occur.

How lucky we are to have research and tests and medicines BUT how lucky we are to also have butterflies and trees and the ocean. Both potent and valid.

If we can get out of our heads and the intellect, even for just a glimmer, and soften into our intuition… nature will do the rest 🦋

SIX MONTHS ON THE ROAD!

The one word I’d use to describe this month is water 💙

It was sooo good to be back on the coast again and we sure did lap it up!

We swam with a whale shark, manta rays, a sting ray, an octopus and hundreds of tropical fish.

We frolicked in the sand, beach-combed, made artworks out of shells and explored rock pools.

We watched endless humpback whales breaching on their northern migrations and said hello to dolphins on the shore.

We walked barefoot through watery canyons and watched the sun set over the ocean every night.

It’s been a truly magical month ✨

Now we head south into real Winter and our final couple of months in the van, excited for the next chapter.

John Muir wrote this in 1900 and it’s still so relevant today!

Sometimes what we need for our bad sleep, our bloating, our low energy… isn’t more supplements and appointments but a trip to the mountains.

Or the ocean.
Or the bush.
Or the desert.

Somewhere that we feel our own rhythm adjust to the speed of nature.

🌳 If you want to explore a deeper connection to nature, I suggest checking out some of the inspiring women in my book - Women & Nature - for ideas.

Or send me a message, I’ve been fully immersed in nature for the last seven months, living in a van, exploring this country. I’ve learnt a few things I’d be honoured to share with you 💚

FIVE MONTHS ON THE ROAD

Wow, that was a big BIG month!

We had the coldest day of the trip and the hottest. We had the most expensive fuel of the trip and the cheapest. We had some long long drive days and some lazy hotel pool days.

Uluṟu, Kata Tjuṯa (the Olga’s), King’s Canyon, Darwin, Kakadu, Litchfield - some heavy hitters not only as a tourist but spiritually and culturally.

I’ve felt really far from home but also a strong sense of belonging and contentment. I’ve never said “woahh look at this” more times in my life. I also turned 34 🎈

Month five has been peaceful.
Rejuvenating.
Healing.
And beautiful.

(None of these photos have been edited by the way, this is how absolutely magical they really are)

FOUR MONTHS ON THE ROAD

This month has been big! Huge stretches of land, crazy beautiful scenery and wildlife, never-ending skies and both the hottest and coldest days of our trip so far.

Words are beginning to fail how to describe the magic of the trip. And photos do it no justice at all.

Today we head to Uluṟu and feeling all the feels 💫

The final naturopathic principle in this series and in my opinion THE key - the healing power of nature.

This is the essence of NATUR(e)-opathy. Using tools from the natural world like fresh food and medicinal herbs to help our patients live more in alignment with nature.

I’ve been reading Love Letter to the Earth by the late Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh lately and he so eloquently highlights why we all ultimately want to return to nature - because it is who we are.

“We often forget that the planet we are living on has given us all the elements that make up our bodies. The water in our flesh, our bones, and all the microscopic cells inside our bodies all come from the Earth and are part of the Earth.”

The role of the naturopath is to help alleviate some of your pain or discomfort and then to guide you towards your place in nature.

This is why I wrote Women & Nature. I wanted to see how I other women found healing, joy and inspiration from the natural world so I could share these ideas with as many people as possible.

Nature and the grass roots, traditional elements of naturopathy are what got me into this profession. Forget all the fancy tests and supplements, nature is the goal and the means to getting there 🌳🪷🌜🐚

After blowing up a tyre in the middle of Outback QLD and our spare not fitting, this sunset tub view was the best medicine 🤍

Prevention is always better than cure. This is a saying that most of us have heard before but have you ever truly thought about what that means?

Naturopaths excel at preventative medicine. Helping our patients feel well even when nothing is “wrong” is one of our favourite things to do.

For me, prevention encompasses a lifestyle rather than a to do list. It doesn’t need to be 100% perfect either. Whatever balance makes you feel well without stressing about it, that is the key to prevention.

The basics of preventative medicine are:
🤍 enough good sleep
🤍 hydration
🤍 yummy balanced meals (most of the time)
🤍 physical movement
🤍 stress reduction techniques
🤍 staying on top of check ups (eg: dentist)
🤍 meaningful relationships
🤍 a sense of purpose

If you can work towards achieving these things 80% of the time, you are setting yourself up for a well body, mind and spirit.

If you need help understanding what some of these things might mean for you, naturopathy is your answer.

THREE MONTHS ON THE ROAD

April was a bittersweet month. We caught up with lots of friends in northern NSW and southern QLD and had so much fun seeing familiar faces before heading north into the unknown parts of this big country.

I struggled with insecurity from the scars of Chicken Pox across my face, the pain and purple of slamming my fingers in the van door, and the sadness of saying goodbye to my family pooch, Henri.

We spent a lot of time in nature and also a lot of time sheltering from unrelenting rain. You realise how small a van is when you’re sick, upset or stuck indoors.

But May brings a new month and a new beginning. Cam lobbed off all my hair, saying goodbye to the dead weight and energy I’d been carrying around with me. And interestingly, these last few days have been our most creative yet. New business ideas, lots of writing, thinking, dreaming.

I’m glad to see the back end of the third month and super excited for the fourth 🪐

1. Mount Tinbeerwah
2 & 3. Lamington National Park
4. Yamba
5. Caboolture Library feat. Women & Nature
6. Noosa
7. Pomona

The next naturopathic principle I wanted to highlight was - “treat the whole person”.

This is a BIG juicy one and something that has been lost in a lot of the health space.

Practitioners (yes including myself) come up with such impressive treatment plans that have such high healing potential but forget that someone actually has to do it and fit it into their life.

Maybe taking 7 different supplements and waking up at 5am and exercising every day and getting 9 hours sleep and never working overtime would be the best plan but can the patient realistically do all those things?

It’s so important to understand the individual in front of us. What does their lifestyle look like? How much money/time/self discipline do they have in this moment to dedicate to this concern? Will they have support or pushback? What else is going on in their life right now?

This might also mean they need a team of practitioners or to be referred to someone else for the time being. Psychologists, physiotherapists, acupuncturists, personal trainers, specialists, mentors - each have their way of support different parts of the whole.

The whole person is not just their illness. We have a body, we have emotions, we have relationships, we have a soul, we have a mind… ALL of these need to be considered when treating.

I needed this reminder too, so that I can do better for my patients 🤍

Spotted at one of my fave bookstores 😍

This is (in my opinion) one of the key roles of a naturopath - to educate the patient.

I find this part of my job to be the juiciest and most rewarding. It’s the BEST feeling when a patient leaves their appointment feeling empowered to make informed decisions for themselves and feeling like they don’t need to rely on someone else to look after them.

This means that rather than just being handed a script for a medication (natural or not) you are given some information as to what may have caused your concern, things you can do differently, why the body responds that way and how to identify if it’s happening again.

I’m especially passionate about helping women understand a little bit more about the mysteries of the female body. It’s a complex and beautiful system that can feel deeply confusing until you get some of the facts.

Education is a powerful gift 🤍

Today marks our second month on the road and it’s been a topsy turvy one!

We started it on the banks of the Murray River and got to visit some of the country towns and wine regions we’ve been wanting to explore for a while.

Wineries, river swims and caves filled the first few weeks before we started to crave the coast… only, I was struck down with adult Chicken Pox once we got to the ocean.

Safe to say, this was one of the most horrible experiences I’ve had and I’m still dealing with the last of the spots on my face and torso.

Tomorrow we hit the road again (now that I’m not contagious) and we are both looking forward to the fresh air, sunshine and good vibes of Northern NSW and Southern QLD 🌞

The second naturopathic principle that we are taught as student practitioners is to treat the cause.

Symptom relief is very important because it not only alleviates suffering but it often creates space to focus on deeper treatments. It’s really hard to change behaviours if you’re deeply struggling!

Unfortunately a lot of the health industry is stuck on relieving symptoms or what I call - the top layer.

For example, you might have been told to take a powder to improve your gut health because it looks like this is contributing to your eczema. This is extremely useful, however, we should also be asking ‘why did you have poor gut health to begin with?’

That is the question naturopaths are asking.

Sometimes we get to the very root of the “problem” and sometimes we are left scratching our heads because too much time has passed (it could have been triggered in childhood for example) but the point is, we want to dig below the surface to the layers underneath.

I encourage you to think back to when you first noticed your symptoms pop up. What were you doing? Eating? Where were you living? Holidaying? Can you remember a time before you felt unwell?

Allow some dots to connect and we might just get to the cause 🪻

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my role as a naturopath. What made me get into this profession and what I imagined my practice to look like is quite different to how things have ended up.

There are so many different ways to be a naturopath and I’m finding myself drawn back to ‘the old ways’, a more traditional way of practicing. This has led me back to the foundations: the six principles of naturopathic medicine.

These six statements are the first thing you learn when you study to be a naturopath and I think it’s important for us practitioners to be reminded of them but also to share with you, what our purpose is.

The very first - which is the case for ALL health practitioners - is…

DO NO HARM

Fairly obvious. We don’t want anyone who is ill or hurting to feel worse because of us. I’d say (I hope) no naturopaths would be poisoning their patients or physically hurting them but it doesn’t end there.

To avoid willingly harming someone can be interpreted in so many ways including stressing someone out with intense and strict regimes, asking for an unnecessarily large financial commitment, or giving people false hope for their healing potential and timeframes.

To first do no harm means to really consider the totality of the person in front of us and to adapt whenever we recognise something to be that little bit too challenging. We push but we don’t pressure.

I’ll run through the other five principles over the coming weeks because these posts are just as much for me as they are for you 🤍

Currently sitting back reflecting on the 34kms we just hiked over the last 25 hours. It was breathtakingly stunning and also a bit rough on the poor feet.

Crystal clear water, icing sugar sand, lemony scented bush and perfect weather. As well as long stretches of unshaded paths and too big a section of March Fly territory.

We saw a snake, an echidna and a wombat on the trail before running into ice cold ocean at the campsite. We made curried chickpeas for dinner and got in the tent before it was even dark.

I woke up throughout the night thinking we were being hit with a thunderstorm but it was just the waves crashing. Our water filter broke but thanks to the kindness of fellow hikers, we stayed hydrated.

Thinking I out-smarted the March Flies for the return, I wrapped our dirty floor mat around my legs only to be attacked on the arms. I’ll be scratching these giant welts for days.

We made it back in one piece and bee-lined straight for hot chips and gravy. Feeling a bit stiff and still a little gritty even after a shower but it was a journey well worth the squeeze.

🥾🏝️⛺️😀

As health practitioners, it’s really easy to get into “fix-it mode” when we see our patients struggling which sees a lot of focus on the condition but not on the actual person in front of us.

This patient had been to several doctors and fertility specialists during her preconception journey and felt like they were all so focused on getting a baby in her belly and the health of that future baby, that they forgot her.

She was offered intensive treatments, spoken to in medical jargon that felt really detached from the beauty of conception, and no one ever asked her about her lifestyle, the relationship she had with her partner, what she ate or how stressed she was (or was becoming from this journey).

When she came to me, we pared things way back. Stopped concentrating too much on this future baby and instead worked at making her well and happy.

That is how I prefer to work. First we make you feel good, then we dive into any “problems” that are leftover 🤍

This year while I’m traveling I’ll be offering online naturopathy appointments on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Some weeks I’ll have reduced hours depending on where I am and what kind of access I have to internet but I’m going to show up as consistently as I can.

If you’ve been wondering about the naturopathy journey but have seen I’m off on holidays, please know that I am regularly plugging in and here to support you 🤍

We lived in Sydney, the most expensive city in this big country. Having our rent increased should have been expected. We had heard non stop media alerts about interest rates going up every month to unprecedented levels. It was only a matter of time until those costs would be passed on from landlords to renters. And yet when it happened to us, we were outraged. “Bastard” we thought, “the house is practically falling apart! How dare he charge us more”.

Deciding it was in our best interests to downsize to a smaller place, the subsequent weekends were a rolling slideshow of one damp old unit after the next musty smelling terrace. Twelve inspections later, our enthusiasm was floored. Do we just fork over an additional $5,200 a year to continue living in the exact same home or do we move somewhere slightly cheaper but dramatically more grim?

With tension building, I took a time out to my parents house three hours north. It was here, sitting around the fire looking up at the stars that I had the thought, “damn I wish I could do this every night”. After sharing a beer with my step dad for courage, I boldly sent this exact sentiment to my partner who was holed up in our overpriced Sydney home eating an overpriced take out meal by himself.

It took no less than a couple of back and forth texts to decide our future. We were going to sell all our stuff, buy a van and live on the road. Announcing our new plan the next morning over breakfast wasn’t met with the same enthusiasm. My mum closed up like a clam. Not a word was said, just a disappointing double eyebrow raise. So I pried and pried until she blurted out “you’re 33, you need to think about settling down”.

Well, that settled it. I’m a child who always wanted to do the opposite of what was asked of me grown into a woman with the same defiant trait of doing things differently. The plan was definitely going ahead.

Continued in comments…

The idea of gentle naturopathy centres around guiding you slowly towards change that will help you see long lasting impacts.

Rather than quick fixes or intense regimes to strictly follow, it works in a way that subtly weaves newness into the existing textures of your life.

Non threatening, as little overwhelm as possible and an allowance of space so that the right treatment can present itself for your individual needs.

Just because it’s gentle doesn’t mean it’s not powerful. (I mean, what could be more powerful than feeling educated and empowered to look after yourself and your family?)

You won’t leave my sessions with a shopping bag of expensive supplements and products or signed up for a set number of appointments. We go with the flow and see what feels right at the time.

I’m leaning further away from complicated and overly scientific reductionist methods to a more gentle approach of getting back to basics, back to nature and back to our selves 🪻🦋🍃

Coming back from my break I had a couple of emails in my inbox from patients who were telling me they fell off the wagon over Christmas.

There was a lot of shame in these messages. And guilt.

I want you all to know that perfectionism has no place in health and the healing process. Progress is never going to go in a linear straight line upwards toward our goals.

Life has twists and turns, challenges that test us and often re-prioritise things.

While I certainly believe health should be up the top of the priorities list for all of us, sometimes it slips. And that’s OK!

Don’t beat yourself up about it, simply start again. That’s it. No punishment or rebellion needed.

Expect there to be bumps along the way and results to yo-yo a bit. It’s all very normal and human 🤍

Hello 💫

I hope you all had a restful Christmas and new year! It’s been a crazy time over here - getting ready to leave in the van, visiting family, big shifts in work and a rather unpleasant meditation retreat experience (I may or may not go further into this down the line) BUT…

I’m super excited to get stuck into a new year of supporting as many wonderful people as possible. My dream is for you all to feel well, happy and educated 🪻

I’ve opened up a few extra timeslots over the next few weeks so if you’ve been thinking about having a naturopathy session or getting some advice, head over to my website or send me a DM.

Lots of love 💜

The time has come to switch off the computer and hang up the naturopath hat for a few weeks.

I want to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to all of my beautiful patients, everyone that has supported me with Women & Nature, my wonderful community and of course my new fiancé! What a year!

I’ll be taking a pause off socials and email from today until 15th January as I enjoy some time with family and head into a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat in the new year.

Sending so much love and healthy wishes to you all and I can’t wait for what 2024 will bring 💗🌻

A bit of shameless self promotion but I think Women & Nature would make a wonderful gift for any mother, daughter, sister, friend or partner this Christmas 🤍💚❤️

The value for money in the NSW property market has been fairly woeful lately and so we’ve decided to pause our house hunt and hit the road next year to travel around our gorgeous country!

I’ll still be working online as I have done for the last 3-4 years so nothing changes for my patients apart from my background seen in their appointments.

I don’t plan on being super active on here while we travel but I’m happy to share some of the beauty, humour and practically of living in a van for a year if anyone wants to see it?

We are hoping to find some peace away from the pressures of busy Sydney, inspiration for creating the future we always dreamed of and deep deep nature immersion.

Anyone who has done something similar, I’d love your tips for vanlife and any special places we can’t miss 🤍

There are some really amazing books out there that articulate this notion better than I can -

📕The body keeps the score by Bessel van der Kolk
📗Biology of belief by Bruce Lipton
📘When the body says no by Gabor Mate

- but I wanted to remind you that sometimes when you do all of the right things (eat organic, exercise, take your supplements) and still have a lot of stress or emotional turmoil in your life, it can be really hard to heal.

I’ve seen it many times before. As a naturopath it’s not really my place to tell my patients that they need to get a new job or leave a toxic relationship but truly, this is time and time again, the missing piece of well-being.

Emotional health is just as important as the physical, please don’t forget that when you embark on your journey of healing. You will likely get so far physically, which may be enough for you but if you want complete health, you’ll then often be forced to confront your feelings.

I always try to support my patients through whatever it is they are experiencing, I’ll always hold space for whatever is happening in their lives but having a good psychologist, counselor or mentor is an important part of your health team.

Your body is not you, your emotions are not you - they are how we experience the world, why not make your time here as calm, well and loving as possible 🤍

I’ve been seeing a lot of low iron readings lately and many of my patients are scratching their heads asking ‘why?’

As women, we are usually going to have lower iron than men due to the fact that we menstruate and regularly loose iron through blood. If you have heavy, long (more than 6 days) or frequent (less than 22 days apart), this could be a big part of why you have low iron.

Pregnancy and birth are another big player for women. Particularly in the final trimester where nutrients and blood flow requirements to the bub are ramping up, maternal iron levels tend to drop. Almost every pregnant woman I meet will see low level towards the end of their pregnancy. If it’s not replenished, this will drop further in birth and breastfeeding.

For anyone who isn’t menstruating or has lovely regular cycles it could be gut related. It’s all good and well to consume plenty of iron in your diet but if you can’t absorb it, levels will not replenish. Coeliac disease is especially detrimental to iron levels and it’s important to have this ruled out.

Other forms of blood loss such as ulcers or injuries within the digestive system, not eating enough iron containing foods or it’s co-factors, and chronic diseases or infections that burn through iron stores are some of the other causes I see.

There are lots of things to look at when checking iron levels but at the most basic I want to see ferritin at an absolute minimum of 50. Reference ranges go a lot lower than that but for optimal health, this is my limit.

If you need some help with working out why your iron is low or what to do about raising your levels, get in touch 🤍