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My Story

I’m Helen Davis, founder of One Step Forward.

In early 2012, I was a successful business analyst of some 20 years’ standing. Shortly before the biggest event of my working year, I was struck down by a flu-like virus. I grudgingly took to my bed, expecting to be back at my desk within days. Instead, a week later I found myself in a state of total collapse. Almost five decades of low-level anxiety, stress and insecurity had finally taken their toll.

I was lucky; my condition, diagnosed as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), was not life-threatening. It was, however, life-changing. My previous life – long hours at my desk, daily dog walks, weekly yoga classes, regular travel for work and holidays – was a distant memory. Taking a shower or negotiating the stairs was a major undertaking that required prior planning and rest afterwards. A lifelong bookworm, I could barely concentrate on the radio, let alone read.

Starting again

Over the next five years, with the love and support of family and friends, a caring GP and a network of complementary practitioners, I gradually found the strength to make the changes needed to heal myself – not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. I discovered the healing power of hypnotherapy and yoga, and began to rebuild my life from the ground up, shedding almost everything that I had thought defined me in the process – including my marriage. 

In 2016, having finally worked out “what I wanted to do when I grew up” and embarked on retraining in both these modalities, I moved to the lovely market town of Petersfield in the South Downs. A year later I finally walked away from my old career for good.

Another blow…

A decade after the illness that had changed the course of my life, now a practising clinical hypnotherapist and yoga teacher in my own right, I was felled by another health crisis. One quiet Sunday evening in April 2022 I tripped over my own trousers and fell, breaking both my wrists. The DEXA scan that followed brought a further blow: a diagnosis of osteoporosis at 56. Already reeling from the recent loss of my beloved dog after 15 years, it felt as if – despite all my hard work – my body was letting me down again.

Once I’d stopped crying (which took a while), I began researching. What I learned supported my initial, instinctive feeling that I wanted to take a more holistic approach to my long-term bone health than the NHS-approved treatment pathway. I did, however, make a significant U-turn regarding HRT, something I’d rejected without a second thought when going through perimenopause in my early 40s. (Not coincidentally, I now realise, this was also when I also found myself facing career burnout and CFS.)

… and a shift in focus

My research also led me to the distressing realisation that the Scaravelli-inspired yoga that I loved – and had been teaching for years – was not providing sufficient weight bearing exercise for my bones. So when I came across a programme called Bones for Life® that was based on a functional movement approach that was already familiar to me (the Feldenkrais Method), I knew I had to find out more. Within months I’d signed up for teacher training and begun sharing my story with anyone who’d listen.

Meanwhile, as a clinical hypnotherapist trained in medical hypnosis, breaking my wrists had given me an incredible opportunity to practise what I’d been cautiously preaching about the mind-body connection when it comes to healing. My own experience of managing the fear, pain and potential trauma of the accident (I was alone at home when it happened), and the relative ease with which I navigated surgery and recovery as a result, made me even more passionate about helping other people access the healing power of their own imagination.

Where I am now

From my base in Petersfield, on the Hampshire/Sussex border, I work with people who are ready to become active participants in their own healing – whether that means exploring the roots of chronic or neuroplastic pain, preparing mind and body for surgery or other treatment, letting go of unhelpful patterns of thought or behaviour or building the foundations for active longevity.

If you’d like to explore whether the time is right for us to work together, let’s have a chat.