LIVE IT UP for positive change
Beginning any journey can feel like a daunting prospect, particularly if one is on a quest to find their healthiest and happiest self. This can be made even more ominous if faced alone.
Leanne Halliwell, the owner of LIVE IT UP, offers the support required to help you overcome the challenges you may experience with your health. “Once I’m invited to share your health journey, I feel privileged to be able to support you,” she says. “I see myself as a tool, ready to be pulled off the shelf when required to guide you back to your best self”.
LIVE IT UP provides individualised professional naturopathic consultations and body therapy treatments, plans and support to clients who are struggling, whatever the struggle is. Leanne, who has “always had a passion for others health and wellbeing”, is a qualified naturopath with a Bachelor of Consumer and Applied Sciences from Otago University, a Diploma of Natural Therapeutics from South Pacific College of Natural Therapeutics (NZ) Inc and a Bachelor of Health Science (Complementary Medicine) from Charles Sturt University. Her passion has led her to a “fulfilling” 20 year career, including being the former president of the New Zealand Association of Medical Herbalists.
As of last September, Leanne has set up her LIVE IT UP clinic at the Happylocal Hub in Kūaotunu, after serving the community for 15 years in a practice split between Whitianga and her home. She says that setting up one integrated professional space has made a huge difference. “It's great to be able to work among other highly trained professionals within the hub,” she says. “It’s exciting to introduce my new clinic to new and returning clients alike,” Leanne smiles.
A wide range of tools are used to treat and aid the health concerns of clients, including herbal medicine, dietary changes, self-reflection, nutritional medicine and body therapy methods such as therapeutic massage, bowen technique and craniosacral therapy.
Leanne emphasises that the treatments are individually tailored for each client’s needs by providing individualised combinations of plant medicine. “Each whole plant liquid extract contains a unique set of complex constituents, having multiple complex actions within the body,” she says. “Therefore, when the client’s illness or concern requires those healing abilities to combat or prevent it, a personal prescription is created and mixed onsite.”
Leanne has people who have suffered unnecessarily with pain or illness for a long time, coming back after taking her herbal remedies and advice, remarking about how their symptoms have significantly reduced. “Clients are often so shocked at how effective the prescribed plants are when used medicinally,” says Leanne. “There is no getting around it, plants and nutritional medicine can work miracles, surprising me often with the results.”
Leanne also prioritses her clients’ mental wellbeing. “First and foremost, I am a scientist and there is no denying the impact the mind has on our physical form,” she says, noting that a significant portion of our health is affected by the health of our brain. As a result, Leanne is incorporating mindfulness techniques into a client’s treatment plan. “One of the favourite aspects of my job is listening to people’s stories and their thoughts,” she says. “By being able to pick up on their frame of mind and how they speak to themselves, it gives me the opportunity to treat the whole person, not just a part of them, helping them move forward in all areas of wellbeing.
“To witness the positive changes a person’s holistic health undergoes as well as getting to experience their newfound joy in their bodies, minds and environments, and how they communicate with themselves and others will never get old to me."
Pictured is Leanne Halliwell is the owner of LIVE IT UP in Kūaotunu.