An holistic therapist is helping addicts in Calderdale get their lives back on track. And she knows the challenges they face only too well. Virginia Mason reports
MAYBE it is something to do with the soft lavender-coloured walls and the soothing background music.
Or perhaps it is the warm welcome extended by Vanda Bingley and the rest of the team but it does not take many minutes in The Mountain of Hope centre before feelings of relaxation and calm wash over me.
It is not surprising that word of the work being done here is spreading – or that it boasts plenty of satisfied clients.
The Hebden Bridge centre in Dunkley House, Albert Street, provides innovative, holistic treatment for drug and alcohol addiction. It has been set up by Vanda, who knows only too well the devastation that sufferers and those around them can be faced with.
After 24 years of marriage Vanda lost her husband Brian to alcohol. She sought help through the then Alchemy Foundation, which led her to train as an holistic therapist.
Over a four-year period she qualified in a number of alternative therapies including reflexology and crystal healing, originally setting up a project at the Hope Centre – also in Hebden Bridge.
That was in 2003 but Vanda decided the time was right to open her own centre and she is hoping that it will be a welcome addition to the town.
"It was my own experiences that left me wishing to use my knowledge of living with addiction to help others," she says.
"Brian was just 46 when he died and he went through such torment. Being an alcoholic was an illness but there are still some who don't recognise that.
"All too often society is quick to judge those with drug and alcohol problems but we don't judge here. We genuinely want to help."
Vanda still acknowledges there is need for specialist medical care but she believes that a combined approach, using the holistic therapies can be the key to success, offering clients the best chances of recovery. "I'm from a very traditional medical background myself. I trained as a nurse from the age of 16," she says.
But she has always had an interest and an open mind regarding alternative therapies.
The roots stem from her part Polish background.
"My dad had allotments and we grew all our own herbs. He was very interested in natural methods. That's what got me started early on," she says.
Vanda and her team now employ an holistic approach, which addresses the damage caused to the mind, body and energy field.
This unique form of therapy combines the use of counselling, reflexology, Bach flower remedies, energy balancing and crystals that can provide healing and hope to those suffering with addiction to both prescription drug – like anti-depressants and painkillers – and illegal substances as well as alcohol.
This support is also available to families, friends and partners along with healing, and self-help techniques.
The centre holds a weekly support group on Tuesday evenings as well as relaxation and meditation classes each week.
Healing is also offered to children with a genetic predisposition to addiction, to pregnant addicts and babies born to dependent mothers.
"Our therapists have first-hand experience of dealing with these issues in their own lives and come into this work with a genuine conviction to help clients," says Vanda.
One of them is Catriona Gledhill who first met Vanda when she started attending mediation classes at the Hope centre.
"I started my training in January this year and I am just so impressed at how Vanda works and the results she has. I have had experience of someone in my family with alcohol addiction so I know how important it is to offer our help," she says.
"Anastasia" has also had first-hand experience of the devastation drug addiction can wreak.
"I first came as a client five years ago because I was addicted to heroin and crack," she says.
"At the height of my addiction I spent £10,000 in three weeks and was on the verge of losing my house. Even-tually I plucked up courage to tell my parents. I knew I wanted to stop, it was just a case of knowing how."
Fortunes for Anastasia changed when she met Vanda at an holistic conference.
"It was like being switched on in my head," she says, adding that she has now been clean for two years.
One of the centre's clients is "John" a recovering alcoholic who says the effect of his treatment has been extraordinary. "I went down all the traditional routes – Alcoholics Anony-mous and so on – to begin with but I am afraid, in my case, they just did not work.
"I started coming here and I stopped drinking because I wanted to and because I felt able to. I can still enjoy a drink socially but I know when to stop," he says.
Vanda is so committed to the Mountain of Hope that she has self-financed the opening and currently covers the running costs. Treatments are based on a client's ability to pay.
The centre can only accommodate seven or eight clients a day because of lack of space but now she and her team are appealing to anyone who would be able to offer free building materials or help install stud walling.
The centre would also like to hear from someone who could give a second-hand computer or printer.
"Next year one of our priorities will be to seek charitable status to help us continue with our work because we really believe there are people who need us," she says.
The full article contains 976 words and appears in Evening Courier newspaper.
