Do you let your light shine? Or do you shyly hide it under a bushel?

I learnt last night that I am a finalist in the FHT Excellence Awards for Tutor of the Year 2019. I am incredibly honoured and delighted with being chosen as one of three from all the wonderful tutors in the UK. 

This led me to think of how far I have developed and travelled in the last 23 years. I have trained and worked as a self-employed Complementary Therapist and Lecturer. Delivering treatments in clinic and writing my own training courses on ‘Stress Awareness’ and ‘The Benefits of Complementary Therapies’ and delivering them in many areas such as Disability Centres, Groups for Disadvantaged Adults, Learning Disabilities, Mental Health Groups and Women’s Groups. 

In 2010 I lived in Sydney for a period and was invited onto the Integrative Medicine Steering Committee as the SME for Reflexology and Reiki at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, RPA Hospital. The Lifehouse was a new $200 million Cancer Hospital with a mission to offer ‘Personalised open minded patient led care’. My role was to present guidelines, protocols and best practices for delivering complementary therapy services to the board. I was delighted to have these accepted and salaried positions were offered at the opening of the Lifehouse in September 2013.   

For the last 8 years, after spending years working in cancer care centres I developed much needed training material for CPD training in cancer care. I delivered accredited courses ‘CPD Cancer Care for Massage, Reflexology & Reiki Practitioners’ throughout the UK and in Australia to literally hundreds of therapists. I was delivering this training in Therapy Schools, Universities, Hospitals, Hospices, Women’s Institute Halls, Church Halls; really wherever there was a demand. I even had Macmillan Cancer Services in Bristol wanting to buy my course for a significant amount of money in 2016. I declined for reasons I could not explain at the time. 

Working in this area is extremely important to me and for a long time being able to break down barriers in training has been my main focus. Which is why I have spent the last 3 years creating and developing an accessible learning pathway in cancer care via e-Learning. By walking the path less travelled, I have opened up a whole new learning avenue to many more complementary therapists wishing to work with patients undergoing cancer treatments.

I believe Complementary Therapies support patients going through cancer diagnosis alongside the healthcare system. My course ‘CPD Complementary Therapies in Cancer Care’ was accredited and went live in February 2019. 

Which brings me to – Do you let your light shine? Although I am a very open and friendly person I have struggled with telling people all of the above. Although I am so proud of my achievements, I have always felt extremely uncomfortable in promoting this and letting my light shine. I am not persistent in asking for feedback and endorsements, I have felt I am somehow imposing upon people to do so. 

This year has well and truly pushed me out of my comfort zone with the launch of the e-Learning course. We are in an ever growing world of social media, with so many ways of showing people who we are and what we stand for. This does mean however that we have to tell people what we have achieved and explain why we are doing what we do.  

Many years ago I attended a graduation day at Kings School with the guest speaker being Stirling Mortlock, Captain of Australian Rugby team the Wallabies. Stirling was incredibly engaging and entertaining, but he spoke of how he struggled at school and his self-worth and achievements were never going to come from academia. Then he discovered his talent was in Rugby. He talked about how he applied incredible discipline to learn his art and develop into a world class player. His advice to all the young men at this graduation day was ‘Do not assume someone else will talk about your gift. Do not assume others will put your name forward. If you have the talent and the passion, speak up and tell the world. Do not hide your light’ 

‘Do not assume someone else will talk about your gift. Do not assume others will put your name forward. If you have the talent and the passion, speak up and tell the world. Do not hide your light’ 

Stirling Mortlock was known as Captain Courageous and an inspirational leader. His speech always stayed with me. 

I now realise we should ask people for their recommendations, especially when we have endeavoured tirelessly and with integrity to complete our work. This is not pestering, it is asking for the recognition we have worked so hard for. 

If we hide our light, who does this serve? 

No-one. 

The world needs your light. 

Let it shine.  

Marie Duggan

Butterfly Touch Therapies Limited