It all began...
The journey to West Taratahi began many years previously for Wendy in Singapore, when as a young army wife with two very small children on her own for months at a time and struggling with feelings of isolation, overwhelm and anxiety, she decided to explore options for improving her physical and emotional health. (Remember … it wasn’t that easy to get answers or information back then as google was not an option). “Luckily, it was the 80’s, Jane Fonda had arrived, and it was the time of a new and exciting revolution … Aerobics!!! Lycra, leotards and leg warmers coupled with fantastic music were all the go and thankfully, it was being offered as classes on the Army base.”
And the rest is history...
Wendy soon found that following choreographed moves to great and exciting music suited her beautifully. She experienced such a feeling of wellness from the exercise sessions and the friendships formed with the other women there, she decided to train as an Aerobics instructor herself and when she moved back to New Zealand to Waiouru, she continued on in the exercise arena gaining certification as a Les Mills Group Fitness instructor in many of their programmes, and also attended the original Les Mills PT Academy; being certified as one of the first PT’s in New Zealand. She later went on to study a 4 year BSpSc at Massey University and with only four papers to go (2 of them being 6 month placements), was told that to get more “bums on seats” the Degree was being changed to a teaching, rather than science based degree. This was not what she had been aiming for and after being tossed in the air over a netball court as training for a rugby scrum during one of the papers, she decided to wait until Massey made up its mind about the actual course content. The degree she had started was never re-established, so Wendy made the heart- breaking decision of not re-doing a lot of the papers under the new requirements, and left Massey.
Come and join in the story...
Wendy looked for the right place, away from the busy-ness and stress of town to re-establish her Health & Wellness Centre and she found it at Parkers Road. It had to have that "special something" about it that immediately gave a sense of peace and healing, and her vision of her Clients improving their health and wellness there was finally realised when her unique and idyllic Centre was "Officially" opened in 2019. At last, Wendy now has the Centre she has always dreamed of and at last, she is back where she belongs... improving the wellbeing of her Clients.
Amongst others, she has since trained as a Zero Balancer, an EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) practitioner, certified as a Health coach and as a Life Coach (and was recognised as a Light body worker while completing her Life Coaching, and was grateful to be accepted to go on to study that further). She more recently studied at the Kaizen Institute of Health and Physiology for over 3 years as an Advanced Health Coach, and she is now also a Kaizen Practitioner; providing Adrenal Dysfunction (Fatigue) testing, Hormonal testing and Food Sensitivity testing for her Clients. Once the AHC study was completed, Wendy re-joined their group and is now studying in the Kaizen Holistic Movement Coach (HMC) programme.
While Wendy was initially travelling backwards and forwards to Maroochydore and Kaizen for study, the first part of the new Fitness Plus Health Centre was completed … the Hydrotherapy and Rehabilitation Pool … and the next stage of her learning saw Wendy being acknowledged as a Hydrotherapy Rehab Coach by ACC. Kaizen study opened another door for Wendy when she qualified as a PH360 Epigenetics Coach; allowing personalised specific Health & Wellness programmes to be created based specifically on each Clients genetic profile. She also very importantly completed her Level 1 SOMA (Self Osteo Myofascial Application) training with international rehab specialist Ian O’Dwyer and is hoping to soon complete Level 2. In 2019 she attended pivotal Functional Health and Medicine training under the guidance of Dr Stewart Gillespie, and Dr Perry Nickleston (Stop Chasing Pain) in Melbourne; being accepted as one of their first-generation Functional Health Systems Medicine Coaches. Continuing to study with Dr Gillespie has seen Wendy proudly go on to become a Certified Functional Health Systems Medicine and Innate Immunity Practitioner; leading Wendy to create a small but effective Practitioner Clinic within her Centre. The Lymphatic work of Dr Perry Nickleston evolved into the completion of Lymphascial Practitioner education, enhancing her ever growing important lymphatic and myofascial work. By utilising the Lymphascial techniques and making them her own, Wendy now combines that education with her Zero Balancing training to enhance her HMC and rehabilitation work
Also in 2019, Wendy hosted a Retreat at Fitness Plus for the debut of Thea Baker PhD’s, Totally Brave programme. The Totally Brave Mastership Programme was specifically created to teach Coaches to assist with, and coach women regarding their health and the stages of life women go through; touching on the taboo subject of women’s trauma (which Thea specialises in specifically as a Trauma Phycologist). Wendy continued under her tutelage and completed the Mastership in 2020. Following on from this, Wendy’s Life Coaching skills saw her take on a teaching role for other Health care providers alongside a renowned international teacher; donating precious time to those who volunteer for needy and at-risk children, and young adults in jeopardy. This love of teaching has now grown to include the coaching of other Coaches. Of importance, it must be mentioned that although already well qualified, Wendy chose to complete the required papers for her to become REP’s Registered (i.e. Registered Exercise Professionals of NZ) as an Exercise Consultant Level 2, and for Fitness Plus Health Centre Ltd to become a REP’s Registered facility. Those qualifications were nicely rounded off when she gained Registration as a SMEAEP (Stress Management Exercise Approved Endorsed Programme) exercise Professional.
