When I first set out in business as a therapist in 1998, I struggled to think of a business name which represented me and after several days of brainstorming ideas I dismissed many suggestions.

Looking for advice, I read that your business name is your brand and is often the first element your customers will encounter. You would want it to be distinctive, authentic, memorable, and enduring, so it resonates with your target audience.

However, in my field of complementary therapies I wanted a name that resonated with me and embodied what I was offering.

Despite all these considerations and maybe also due to the fact that I was just beginning my journey on this new wonderful path, I named my business Marie Duggan, Holistic Therapist.

Not terribly exciting or original I know, but as all clients and their needs were new to me, I had yet to identify my areas of specialism.

For the next 15 years I treated clients and taught therapies, specialising in many diverse areas such as in disability centres, people with life limiting conditions and adult learning difficulties. I also ran sessions for vulnerable and disadvantaged women, helping them to reconnect with the world through touch and stress awareness.

I treated clients with many complex needs, some who had been terribly abused as children or adults and others who had been subjected to narcistic parents.

It was in 2006 while travelling in Queensland, Australia I first saw the Ulysses Butterfly. We were sat in a long queue of traffic in the beautiful tropical heat, when the most exquisite and beautiful blue butterfly hovered before the windscreen. It stayed there for what seemed an age and mesmerised me. I felt it was a message and discovered it was the Ulysses Butterfly and knew this would stay with me.

During the following few years I continued to evolve and became a Reiki Master and Craniosacral Therapist both of which allowed me to access stillness for myself and in turn my clients. My treatments and touch adapted and became lighter and gentler to treat the most fragile and traumatised systems.

I was employed to work within the Holistic Cancer Care Centre at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, treating patients with a cancer diagnosis. Some patients went through surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and returned to good health. Sadly, some patients did not. This work was incredibly rewarding and I found all the skills I had developed in accessing stillness facilitated great relief to many.

My touch and approach became a ‘Butterfly Touch’. I had found my area of specialism.

The Ulysses Butterfly spoke stronger to me now than ever before and I felt this was the time I could choose a business name and image which genuinely resonated and represented me.

A butterfly is a symbol of life after death because of its stages of transformation from egg to adult. The stages or cycles mimic human birth, personal growth and spiritual rebirth.

Butterfly Touch Therapies was born.