Vanessa Beckitt

Hi, and welcome to my story, my life and my work!

I’m Vanessa and often known as Nessa, I was conceived on Bruny Island in Tasmania, the first child of my parents Heather and Charles, who went on to have another three children. 
We grew up in an old convict built hotel on ¾ acre in Longford, Tasmania, with a paddock next door for chooks, horses, goats and some blackberry bushes!  Mum and Dad grew some of our vegies and we had an apple orchard, so I grew up in a fairly holistic way. 
When I was 13 my youngest sister was diagnosed (after much trauma) as being allergic to the 20^th Century. 
We had to strip our house of 24 rooms of all synthetics, perfumes etc.  What a shock to teenagers!

By the time I reached year 11 I started to discover a few complications with my own health.  I began to notice, as the stress levels went up at school, that I got migraines from milk, eggs, sugar, yeast and wheat for starters.  I soon realised that if I felt a symptom in my physical body that I needed to notice what had been happening in the hour or so beforehand, and could usually diagnose the culprit.  I made my way through years 11 and 12 plus 4 years at University being incredibly careful, I could not sit next to anyone with perfume or strong deodorant in lectures or I would start sneezing! After Uni, the stresses eased and I went overseas travelling, sensitivities were less of an issue. 

I decided to follow my passion for outdoor adventures rather than teaching in classrooms and ended up coming back from Europe to work at Cradle Mountain Lodge in Tasmania, where I spent six years as Manager of Guest/Outdoor and Conference Activities.  I loved this work with a passion, I could work with people outdoors and was generally safe from toxic exposure.  Working outdoors in a pristine environment suited me perfectly, I walked kilometres each day, breathing clear mountain air and drinking fresh mountain water.  I left this work in 1994 due to pregnancy and intense morning sickness.   I was sad to leave but could not see myself lugging a baby up and down mountains, abseiling and canoeing!

I had been diagnosed with hearing issues as a teen but did not want hearing aids so I ignored it.  This was a progressive nerve deafness, diagnosed finally when I was 21.  I signed up for a hearing aid at 21 to hear the birds again, then at 40 had a Cochlear Implant so that I could hear small children’s voices again.  This has changed my life incredibly and I now hear birds I haven’t heard since childhood.

Life served me some interesting experiences, the first pregnancy ended in a Blighted Ovum and I happily went off teaching Outdoor Ed Camps in the Mountains then on to Guiding Expeditions of Bushwalking Rafting and Cycling until my second pregnancy slowed me down!

I was determined to give my baby a Toxic Free Pregnancy, I did everything possible to keep to natural products and even lined up for my own sheets, towels etc to go in to the hospital for the birth!  There were complications which led me on a merry journey, which really has continued from the birth of my son Douglas on 29^th April 1997 until present.  It has been the constant search for answers to a string of complications and issues that has led me on a path of healing my body one step at a time, constantly looking  for teachers or healers that may understand or connect with the type of complications I had encountered and help answer my questions.  I have been fortunate that there have been opportunities to follow this natural train of healing and have experienced much in the way of healing modalities, many of which I have taken courses in order to understand better.

The curiosity about abdominal massage called to me from the very first Heartworks Lomi Lomi course in 2006, when a morning of belly dancing and abdominal work sent me to the bathrooms to empty the contents of my stomach four times in a couple of hours. This was the beginning of unlocking the layers of stuff that were stopping my body from functioning properly.

From then to now (2020), it has been 14 years of one thing after another, and only last weekend on our course did I finally realise that there was a car accident at 18 years of age which most likely caused the torsion injury that affected my uterus and subsequently bladder to the point of severe complications.  Wow, the depths of this work!

So Heather Bruce walked into my life part way through the journey of healing the pelvic trauma, and it has been through her work that I have fully come to understand the pathway to healing the body the Gentling Way, and using these methods to heal the body one step at a time, often in intensives.  I have travelled to New Zealand, Brisbane and Melbourne to catch up with Heather as she has presented courses and have been fortunate enough to be able to assist with some of those courses and support others in learning  this work as well.  It truly is incredible to see clients come in and find relief from issues that have prevailed for years, with no one able to help until now.

I live in the Grampians, Victoria, with a husband, adult son and two fun little Griffons (dogs).  My eldest son lives in Ballarat and my family live in Tasmania, which is my souls’ home!  I have an Island property on Bruny Island, Southern Tasmania where I love to spend time when I am able.  Our property in the Grampians is home to a Camping Ground which was set up by my father in law in the late 1980’s with us taking over in 2012.  We have bushland, big old trees, mountain views, wetlands and are fortunate enough to have a beautiful lake right outside our house.  My studio is tucked away in the Campground and I see clients by appointment for massages, steaming sessions and healing intensives as well as holding Qigong by the Lake and Sound Spas with my Quartz Crystal Singing Bowls plus occasional workshops.

During the Covid lockdown of 2020 I was fortunate enough to join a group of rather incredible individuals learning some new skills under the banner of ‘Warriors of Love’ Apprenticeship and through the subsequent  ‘Ravishing Results’ program I have birthed my Innerji  Soap officially (after three years of playing around with soap experiments to see if I could make safe soap for my family).  I have been selling pure soap made from both plant and tallow based recipes, infused with natural plant matter from organic and known sources.  I have been getting great feedback from those who are purchasing the soap, and really am feeling that it is achieving the goal of ‘improving peoples lives’ through feeding their skin with only the best ingredients.

The soap is available by mail order as well as on site sales, and I enjoy making  dedicated batches of soap for specific purposes.  It is at those times that I feel the vibrational energy of my work, my ancestors,  my Mum, who grew up assisting her chemist Dad, and later branched into healing with herbs, and my Indigenous ancestors, with whom I feel a strong connection through the land.

I have deep respect for the Earth and for the people who share this planet, I try to use earth friendly products as much as possible and avoid perfumes or chemical products. 

I welcome questions, enquiries and look forward to supporting you on your healing journey.

Welcome to the June 2022 update

During previous years I wrote about my Journey of Healing and am in the process of writing a book describing my life’s’ journey with healing, please feel welcome to contact me for that document.

Hi, I’m Vanessa Beckitt, known to some as Nessa and am now (2022) in my 55th year, I’m in the eighth cycle in this body, and am learning more about its functioning in this cycle than in any other time in life.

I spend most of my time in the Grampians, Victoria, but have a home/retreat on Bruny Island in Tasmania where I spend time whenever possible. I trained as a teacher and spent much time working in the outdoors as a wilderness guide and ranger.  In 2006 I started learning Sound Therapy to work with my own hearing loss, this led into studying massage, and from there to exploring several traditional healing methods from other cultures in my search for wellness and healing.

For me, the whole pandemic threw up some huge issues, as I have lived with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities since birth, but also now accept this and work with it rather than wishfully hoping I can ignore the sensitivities (which was what I had done for years).  All the issues with hand sanitizers, disinfectants, preservatives in products that are to be put in the body – these posed a huge threat to my wellbeing and having gone through a major crisis with exposure to gas (heating, cooking and transport) between 2009 and 2016, and really only getting things all functional after that, I was not keen to go there again. Where? I experienced so many symptoms of a dysfunctional body during those years, as my system struggled to survive, my functionality dropped, all the vitality of my better years was vanishing, and I was finding myself in a total mess.

At one point I witnessed first-hand the effect of a ‘sanitizer’ product, having used a product on the tip of one finger and thumb to clean my glasses only 20 minutes before attending a consultation in which a live blood analysis was done. The practitioner could not understand the abnormal cell behavior he was seeing on his computer screen, and this was explained as the effect of that sanitizer product, which had gone straight through the skin and into my blood within that short time frame.

I experience many reactions to chemicals, there are reasons for this which include that I am a first born, so have had mercury loading passed down from my mother, and also my mother experienced extreme morning sickness in pregnancy so was prescribed a product by the name of ‘Debendox’ which she took whilst pregnant with me and also when she became pregnant with my sister (and two following pregnancies).  This product was responsible for many deformities during the 1960’s and early 70’s, and I now view this as the source of my Chemical Intolerance.  This body has enough to deal with and the glutathione pathway which deals with the removal of toxins from the body, has been overloaded, so does not deal with additional chemical exposures as effectively as others might.

I live with a Severe Profound Hearing Loss/Progressive Nerve Deafness, and at 40 accepted a Cochlear Implant so that I could once again hear bird songs and small children’s voices, two things I had completely lost from life as my high frequency hearing had been progressively lost.

As a child I grew up with a mother who understood herbs and natural medicine, she also understood pharmaceuticals as her father was a chemist (of the old compounding pharmacy type) and she often helped him in his shop in her spare time.  Mum was a gifted healer but also lived in a sensitive body which had complex problems.

In the mid-70’s my youngest sister was diagnosed as being allergic to the 20th Century, and at the time, as a teenager I helped my parents to empty our home of all synthetic products in support of her living as best possible.  As a teenager to throw away all perfumed items, synthetic toys and other favourite things was a huge shock, built something that each of the members of our family did to support her wellbeing.  This process was highly influential on me and aged 17 when I first started noticing my own allergic reactions, I was able to self-diagnose sensitivities to a number of foods and through eliminating them from my diet, ensured survival through the stressful years of study that really saw the chemical and food sensitivities heightened.

Since those years, I have walked my own children and husband through periods of diagnosing food and chemical sensitivities and have accumulated much experiential knowledge and survival skills.  These were necessary in 2010-2012 and through to 2016 as I dealt with the biggest allergy crisis of my life so far, after moving into a house with gas and working out that it was causing a huge health crisis, not only for myself, but for one son in particular and affecting both my other son and husband.

I came across Heathers work after studying Arvigo®️ Mayan Therapies (healing my own abdominal scars and adhesions from abdominal surgery as well as looking at pelvic/abdominal functioning as a source of body dysfunction) and wanting to discover more.  That was back in 2017 and I have not only incorporated the Gentling Way therapeutically into my Hands-on Therapeutic work but have been able to learn so much about the actual functioning of the body in terms of flows, nutrients and different approaches through the diversity of knowledge that Heather has embraced in her work.

Throughout the pandemic of 2020-2022 I joined weekly zoom calls with Heather and expanded my own awareness and knowledge of the human body, using experiential learning at home to change the way my own body was functioning and to also support the wellbeing of those around me (family, loved ones and friends as well as clients).  I have experienced and witnessed change which has taken my interest and studies to new levels. 

Previously I was fascinated with the way in which acupuncture and Chinese Medicine worked on my own body, and indeed, for several years I believe it was the Chinese Medicine Practitioners who kept my body ticking with their amazing understanding of the importance of meridians and wellbeing.

I now practice Qigong, I use the principles of Meridians and flows in my daily life, I use ‘Selfing’ (Gentling Way) to keep my body nurtured and supported, I am able to provide my own body with the nutrients it needs to be able to function effectively and am feeling incredibly healthy most of the time, and when not, I am able to take steps to support my body back into equilibrium.

I remain incredibly grateful that my life journey led me to this point, and that I am able to take my health into my own hands and support this body as much as possible to enjoy life.  I love that I now know how to work with the scars I have to promote healing and love knowing that I am still discovering more about how this body works and how I can support not only life but healing as well.

I love sharing this knowledge with my family and in my practice.