CLOTELLE HOLDER-DELVES gave up a career in Wall Street to do something, let’s say, a little untraditional.
She studied traditional Chinese medicine.
It was actually a return of sorts to her student roots, as her first degree at the University of the West Indies was in biology and biochemistry, but then she switched focus and pursued a master’s degree in business administration and accounting.
She would then work for many years as an auditor on Wall Street, New York’s financial district.
“I didn’t like it; it did not gel with me,” she said of auditing.
“I wanted to do something more people-oriented instead of going into an office where people are scared because the auditor is there; then you sit there for a couple of weeks but never get to know anyone.”
The desire for interaction with others would lead her to pursue the four-year traditional Chinese medicine degree offered at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in Manhattan, New York. There she learned herbal medicine and acupuncture. That was over 20 years ago and Holder-Delves now owns and operates Natural Medicinals Inc. in Bridgetown.
Talking about her transition from auditing to acupuncture, Holder-Delves said it was not so much a switch, but her returning to her original calling.
“My first degree was in sciences. When I was about 16 years old a doctor first introduced me to acupuncture and I looked at the book and thought I would never be able to learn that and I just cast it aside,” she said.
“I think your fate is set for you and it just so happened that when I was in New York, I learned of this school that had just opened a new branch there.”
Acupuncture is a system of complementary medicine in which fine needles are inserted in the skin at specific points along what are considered to be lines of energy. It is used in the treatment of various physical and mental conditions.
What really sold Holder-Delves on the practice was when she used it on herself once and got almost immediate results and later saw results in others.
Miraculous and different
“It was so miraculous and so different from the traditional medicine that I’d heard about. I learned how to get rid of a sore throat in less than 15 minutes by bleeding several points on your hand, but as children we suffered through so many sore throats,” she said.
Holder-Delves, who has been practising in Barbados since 2000, said Chinese medicine was good for almost any ailment, but especially good for older people with chronic disorders. However, she noted that even though the number of people open to the mode of treatment had grown, many came to her almost as a last resort.
“It can be frustrating for me because . . . I get cancer patients coming as a last resort and sometimes they have exhausted all of their money doing chemo and radiation and cannot afford the natural treatments,” she said.
“I sometimes wish the traditional doctors would embrace the complementary for the best interest of the patient because I believe the two can work really well together and give the patient a better outcome.”
And she added that if insurance companies would reimburse patients who use acupuncture, many more would use it.
Traditional Chinese medicine, she said, has helped women who were having problems conceiving to get pregnant, people who had suffered a stroke to walk again, diabetics, people with high blood pressure, cancer, emotional issues and anxiety. She said most people start out saying they hated needles, but their attitude changed when they saw how thin the needles were and realised they did not hurt.
Speaking of acupuncture, whose history dates back more than 5 000 years, she said it was not only practised by the Chinese, but used widely in India and Japan as well. At the time of its origin, practitioners did not have the luxury of doing laboratory tests so they devised a way to tap into the energy of the body. They were able to map out acupuncture points where certain meridians or channels flow through the body, going up different pathways to meet at the face.
“That is why whatever is going on in the body you can see it on the face,” she said.
Apart from acupuncture, Holder-Delves does a variety of therapies including colour therapy, facial rejuvenation, massages, sauna treatment, tongue diagnosis, cupping, moxibustion healing and foot detox.
She emphasises the importance of holistic healing – working on the mind, body and spirit – and focusing on the emotional healing of clients as well. (LK)
