But gradually, as the months passed, they got used to the trainee holistic therapist and now ask for advice about their health.

"They've gradually accepted me for who I am," she said.

"People now stop me in the street and start to tell me what's wrong with them."

Last week Helen, 34, qualified after studying full-time for nearly three years.

She says she has finally found her vocation.

"I have been pushed this way all my life," said the former employee of radio station Classic FM.

"I have faith in everything that I am doing because I know it works."

Holistic - whole being - therapy approaches health by treating all aspects of a person - not just their physical symptoms.

Therapists treat a patient's mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.

"If you don't hear what your spirit is saying to you then it will eventually manifest itself as a physical illness," she said.

"So you have to stop and listen and make changes."

Helen breaks down the word disease into dis-ease - meaning a person has to be content inside to be healthy.

She believes that those who are unhappy or stressed at work or home will eventually fall ill.

Holistic therapy aims to redress the balance inside and improve a person's well-being.

A variety of complementary treatments can be chosen by the patient for their therapy.

Helen has studied several disciplines including aromatherapy, reflexology, nutrition and massage.

"Most people have an idea of what they want but I always explain what each treatment is so they make the choice," she said.

"The whole point is to empower people to make their own decisions."

Helen, who lives in Southfields, believes she has intuitively practised a kind of complementary therapy since she gave birth to her son Lucas, now two-and-a-half.

"Every mum uses the power of touch with their children. It is healing in itself," she said.

During her training she treated many terminally ill people for whom conventional medicine had failed.

"A lot of people who actually came to us had given up with the medical profession," she said.

"They had reached a stage where they wanted to try something else."

In the past Helen said complementary therapy had been seen as a last resort for many ill people driven to desperation.

But she argued that more recently it had become more respected by the medical profession and patients.

"I think many people used to think it was all hippy voodoo stuff," she said.

"Now it's effectiveness is beoming more recognised and accepted by doctors."

But she doesn't see herself as having a gift of healing.

Instead Helen wants people to be responsible for their own health.

"When people go to the doctor they place their health in someone else's hands and depend on them to make them well," she said.

"But at the end of the day only they can make themselves better."

As holistic therapy becomes more widely accepted, Helen hopes the mystery still attached to it will gradually disappear

"Throughout time there has always been a wise person in a village who has known how to make people well," she said.

"In the past I suppose I would have been referred to as a witch but fortunately now, I won't be burnt at the stake."

In September after she has received her certificates, Helen hopes to set up in business at home.

Patients will be able to visit her for a variety of treatments and relaxation therapies.

"I trust in what I am doing because I have seen it work," she said.

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