Appointments & Fees – Victoria Fenton Healthcare

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A 75-90 min consultation with a Integrative Medicine Expert will include taking a complete case history & a lengthy discussion of your symptoms & health goals. You will make a strategy with your practitioner within the consult – and you will receive a very detailed report with an overview of your case & rationale for treatment, along with complete Testing, Treatment, Nutrition & Lifestyle Recommendations (see sample above).

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Follow Up Consultations will explore test results (45 mins minimum), discuss progress, test implications & treatment strategies. Post-consultation you will receive a Summary Report & Treatment Protocol, as required. We also may refer you within our team to other professionals – all will be discussed during your consult. Request the time you think you need – we only invoice for the time taken, virtual 30 min consults starting at £135.

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Victoria Fenton Healthcare Ltd.

Registered Office: 7&8 Church Street, Wimborne, Dorset, BH21 3JH | Director: Victoria Fenton | Co. Registration Number: 11540880 | Registered in England & Wales | VAT: To Follow

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The Problem with Healing ⠀⠀ The title's a joke

The Problem with Healing
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The title's a joke - there's no problem with Healing. Except for the fact that it's often hard, it often feels like it's never over - and that sometimes we Heal out of hell, but we do so by creating a web of coping mechanisms that will one day ALSO need to be shed.
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To those who saw my stories yesterday/this morning, you'll probably grasp I had 2 ½ hours sleep. That's because I was doing that very thing: shedding some of those 'coping mechanisms' and releasing some of those layers and patterns of defensiveness and fear that I've hung onto.
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(And good sh*t like that only happens at 4am in the morning, accompanied by many tears, right?! 🙄)
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Yesterday, the combination of someone's actions (unconscious, perfectly OK behaviour), plus an entirely innocent conversation with someone else, spiralled me deep into some old stuff that needed exorcising. I could feel it happen, and I watched it take over. By last night I had scrapped almost everything and made some tough decisions. Because building on foundations of "just fight to get better" (basically, the last 7 years of my life) actually means those foundations aren't that stable. I always knew that at some point they would go. And I always knew those who triggered me yesterday were important people. It was just a question of when.
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This isn't a victory story that this morning I came out fighting. I am now facing making some quite drastic changes. But it’s good change. This is Healing.
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Why share this? Because Health isn’t about the body - not really. Sure, that's a part of it. But Health is founded on how you interface with the world. Such a fundamental part of that is human connection, how safe you feel within yourself and in relationship with/to others.
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My Health story might look like #EhlersDanlos, #ConnectiveTissue blah blah - but in truth it's nothing to do with that. It's to do with how innate vulnerability and sensitivity demands adaptation and defensiveness. Usually, MAL-adaptation and fear/distrust is the result. Health cannot be built on a foundation of fear. At the heart of all the work I do with people is resolving Fear.
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And I owed that service to myself.

REFLECTION... ⠀⠀ One of the greatest gifts of

REFLECTION...
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One of the greatest gifts of my "illness" was learning how I work. I know that when I am pushing & driving exceedingly hard at an outcome - running at it as if on a treadmill - it's usually because it's a 'necessary learning process', but it's ultimately going to 'go wrong'.
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This is true of my efforts since Christmas. I have been driving hard at building a vision that was a phenomenal idea, intellectually, founded on solid principles of effective clinical practice & brilliant teamwork. I've built the whole structure, website, practice management system... I was on the verge of launch... and it would have, financially & practically, 'worked'.
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And yet today, the foundations of the whole system/clinic fell out from underneath me - because I chose, deliberately & with the first glimpse of real clarity this decade, to let them go.
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This means that my entire focus needs to be recalibrated. I'm going through waves of feeling sick, dizzy, panicky - & yet I'm utterly relieved. A weight has been lifted. Because the truth is, I have been building what others need - but forgetting about myself.
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This year I have consulted with patients in Canada, USA, Melbourne, across Europe. I have had only a couple of UK, London patients. Because of this, the systems I have built for my new #HealthOptimisation & #ConnectiveTissueDisorder packages are global: I have sourced suppliers for everything on 3 continents...
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And yet, I've been so focused on building a clinic which cares for other clinicians & provides services for patients in London - especially after the loss of @caleychiropractic (to #CapeTown) - that I've neglected to remember that the container (business) that makes me safe, well, happy & nourished is the one that my patients need too.
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So whilst I'm not back to the drawing board, I'm stepping back & re-drawing the board I was working on. So much of the essence & elements of what I was building are perfect - & I believe in what I am trying to deliver. BUT... #patienceisavirtue - & #reflectionisagift ⠀⠀
@altheiaclinics will still exist - maybe soon - but it is going to go through a metamorphosis before it is released into the world.

“Mental Health is a picture of Body Health”
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We like to simplify health. Like everything else in the modern, click bait world, we like to slim it down to a catchy one liner.
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The problem is that complex systems demand complex explanations. Reductionist sentences cannot explain them.
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(Note: complex & complicated are not the same thing. The human body is NOT complicated (i.e. inelegantly designed) but it IS complex: intricate & interdependent but actually explicable... it just takes more than a one liner.
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Mental health is NOT a picture of Body Health. Sorry - it just isn’t.
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Mental health is a reflection of the sum total of a lot of ingredients, of which physical health is most certainly one. But it’s a reflection of more than that... & the relationship between brain & body is BI-directional. It goes BOTH ways. Mental states can ALSO directly change the functioning of the physiology.
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But even that isn't a full explanation. What really happens is a complex interweaving of signal & response.
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Mental health is founded on perception. Perception is founded on neurological interpretation. Neurological interpretation is founded in historical experience (often all the way back to childhood). Neurological interpretation informs nervous system response - and thereby the physiological reality, in endless feedback loops.
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The issues I deal with in my practice have their legacy in neurological reactivity patterns, programmed by childhood 'trauma'. (It doesn't have to be huge trauma, it can simply be a perception of abandonment if a caregiver is just 5 minutes late one day.)
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Traumas indicate 'un-safety' to the nervous system. The physiology adapts accordingly. If it happens often enough, our neurological reactivity determines our threat perceptions are heightened, our reactions more extreme. This isn't 'reflecting the body' - this is interplay. Our body & brain respond how they can to what they feel is an unsafe world. And genuine physiological illness can result. ⠀⠀
As adults, our bodies & brains can still playing be out patterns learned in childhood. Together. Working as a unit. Reflecting a pattern, not an ‘issue’ with body OR brain (Cont. in comments)

FLOW... 🌊 ⠀⠀ I am going to leave this post

FLOW... 🌊
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I am going to leave this post here as a gentle reminder to myself that when things are right, they tend to flow... (and as a gentle nudge that at some point I need to get back to the sea).
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One of my largest lessons in life is not to force the river, or push progress. I often forget that stillness is as valid as motion. That passivity is as vital as activity. In the world of complex chronic illness, my patients forget this too. They think their healing rest is laziness. It’s not. (Big blog on #CellDangerResponse in the works).
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But I think this is why I find oceans so restorative. Nothing alters their flow. Humans pale into insignificance against the might of the waves so there’s no point even trying; you have to flow with the currents. And I love that. Sometimes, I love feeling small.
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This is also the image that now sits atop the new @aletheiaclinics #Philosophy page that I built today. I also built half the website. Because... it flowed.
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Today could have been deeply sad for me. The night I’d had suggested it would be. Whether it was the distraction of web building, or simply that the time is right for me to bring Aletheia to the world, I don’t know. But today... despite what could have been a rough day... things got built. And somehow I think the waves of progress are moving me towards launching something I’m really proud of.
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#flowstate #oceanbreeze #missthesea #waterbaby #healthcare #personalisedmedicine #integrativemedicine #functionalmedicine #holistichealth #ehlersdanlos #ehlersdanlossyndrome #connectivetissuedisorder #nervoussystem #aletheiaclinics #aletheia

HOW TO CHANGE? This question is at the heart of th

HOW TO CHANGE? This question is at the heart of the work of every good healthcare professional. Most on the cutting edge are trying to find new methods, whilst those on the front line are just trying to support real people to make the impactful changes that actually make a difference.
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Change is on my mind lately. Change is inevitable in the world around us, and even (in perhaps more subtle ways) within us. I’m personally and professionally going through a lot of change: losses, gains, some sparking confusion, some joy.
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But internal change - breaking patterns, releasing old fears, transforming mindsets, altering behaviours - these are the real challenges. And as a Clinician, supporting others through this change is the greatest thing I get to do - because letting go of what keeps us stuck is the key to physical and mental health.
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I realised long ago that tribes work better than islands. Change cannot exist in a vacuum - it requires the oxygen of support and the stimulus of accountability, the lifeblood of connection and a chorus of cheerleaders. Because change, the kind of change I’m talking about, is worth doing wholeheartedly. Ergo, it can be hard. It may even at times be lonely. But it should never be done alone.
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Many people are texting me to say “what are you changing in your clinic, V? And why?”
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Those who know me know I already work in teams: referrals to @caleychiropractic & @timcoy, my affiliated doctors and psychiatrists/psychotherapists (most not on IG to tag!!), plus physios & coaches. I have never supported my patients alone.
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Now, I’m just bringing the important disciplines together. Under one roof, in one practice. Because truly interdisciplinary care doesn’t really exist in London yet. And yet it’s what people really need.
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With a core philosophy which underwrites the change we’re supporting in patients & why (it’s about the nervous system - more another day), and a hand-selected team of only the best (still looking for a couple of ingredients - DM me if you’re interested), what I’m building is all about supporting holistic, lasting, fundamental change.
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Watch this space - and @aletheiaclinics 😉 - for more... #changeiscoming

PLANS & EXPECTATIONS - really common at this time

PLANS & EXPECTATIONS - really common at this time of year... and definitely something that helps: goal setting, envisioning, believing in a future that we design - it's all great mindset work.
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However, it's also very easy to become seduced by our own addiction to the completion of a plan. Lured by the sense of achievement, we sometimes don't stop to ask - mid-effort - whether we're still in pursuit of the right goal. We forget to notice if, in the very act of pursuing, we've changed so significantly that the goal we've pinpointed ceases to make sense.
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One of the hardest things about extreme illness is that it literally interrupts your life and changes all previously held dreams and goals.
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Take me: 17, with no fix on who I was (save a goal to go to Cambridge Uni and be super-successful, natch 😉) my life was halted. It took me many, many years to realise that I wasn't just going to pick up the trajectory where I left it. That I was literally supposed to live a different life. The only reason that this became easy to accept was because I didn't have a choice. At every turn, experiences showed me that 'going back' was never an option.
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This taught me that 5-year goals, 10-year plans, lifelong visions of where we thought we'd be are all nice and good. But they're not mandatory. And they are mutable. They MUST BE mutable. And, as is my perpetual mantra, lightly held.
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Having the courage to dream is commendable. Having the courage to pursue those dreams is one of the greatest acts of self respect there is. ⠀⠀
But also, having the courage to admit we're off course, however much that makes us 'lose face' in the eyes of others, is one of the strongest things we can do.
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#freedom #goals #aspiration #newyear #convictionslightlyheld #healthcare #personalisedmedicine #integrativemedicine #functionalmedicine #holistichealth #ehlersdanlos #ehlersdanlossyndrome #connectivetissuedisorder #nervoussystem #aletheiaclinics #aletheia

My feelings about "New Year" rank at about this si

My feelings about "New Year" rank at about this size. I love it in some ways. Sparkly lights, champagne at midnight, fireworks (my absolute favourite, when I forget about the environmental impact for a bit... 😬)
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But I also hate it. All that pressure. We all want to leave behind the 'Old Year', the selves that we were in that year; the crises we faced, the relationships that hurt us, the experiences we lived that were hard. Particularly 2019. Seems like it was a sh**e year for many.
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I’m not sure I feel that way. Hard, yes - but progressive. Which I always view as good. And even though my heart is a little broken with things that happened on New Year’s Eve, of all days - even that is a reminder.
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The world itself has no idea it's January 1st today. Whole religions, countries and those who pay attention to planetary alignments don’t see 1st Jan as a new year at all.
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Your biochemistry has even less of a clue. Nothing about today is any different from yesterday. So all those people promising to be different from today? Good luck with that.
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And yet...
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There’s something about the groundswell of resolutions and the investments in hope that occur on NYE. It does something to the air. There's a pregnancy to it - it's the in-breath before we all exhale and throw ourselves back into life.
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And for that reason, I do think this time of year is wonderful. It isn’t about a calendar, or a date. It’s about the collective humanity taking that in breath and filling it with hope, aspiration and the scintillating power of potential. And that’s energy we can ALL work with.
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So, despite my rough New Year’s Eve, I watched the colours of the London fireworks dye the sky around me at midnight and tried to forget about dates or decades. Because there really is no pressure.
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But I do wish a very Happy New Year to all. You don’t need to feel the pressure to be a completely new person this year, from today. But do use this energy to dream big for yourself. It’s one of the healthiest things we can do. Beyond that: keep living, hold your goals lightly, experience everything fully and enjoy what your life has in store for you in the coming 12 months, and beyond. 🤗

Doing the decade photo thing is stupidly hard for

Doing the decade photo thing is stupidly hard for me. There’s practically no photos of me from 2009. The one on the left is all I found, blurry though it is.
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2009, however, looked like a relatively healthy year, as far as I can tell (& despite how unwell I was). No hospitalisations 🥳 (Yep, this is my criteria for good vs bad year at that time). Hospitals were 2004-07 & then certainly from 2010-2012. Less than a decade ago. Which is shocking when I stop to think. And one of these days I may share the really harrowing pics from the wheelchair days...
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Anyway, this isn’t a post about “god I might be fatter but I’m healthier now”🤮 or “I’ve learned so much!”.
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There is a world of heartache before & at the time of pic 1, & between the two pics. Twice before pic 1 & several times between pics 1 & 2 I nearly died. And yes, this journey has taught me everything I know. And I’m still learning.
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But what I did want to say is that an awful lot of stuff went into getting me from pre pic 1 to now. There are many people without whom I, quite literally, wouldn’t be here:
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- my Mum, in many more ways than the obvious
- RR & PE, Ra & the rest of that community who all know who they are. - @timcoy
- Richard Dean & Michael White, plus Ken Gordon
- more recently @caleychiropractic who screws my head back on (still much needed)
- many other humans, from all walks of life - family, music friends, the clinical families (successes & not), colleagues, & my patients who all teach me more every day
- Oh yeah... and me. This process required levels of depth & work that I couldn’t even imagine
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So despite being a “Clinician” now, I never lose sight of the fact that a) whilst the lessons have been invaluable, I wouldn’t recommend my journey to anyone, b) these Health journeys contain many dark nights of the soul which are lived alone, but also c) we are not islands. People need people. Being there. ⠀⠀
The work may always be done by the individual & their inner dedication & innate drive to Heal, but it is those around them that give them the stability & strength to do so. Thank you to all of my rocks: the temporary, & the solid. Here’s to another decade... 💖

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