Shirley-Ann Mills - Delicate & Delightful

LOCATION: Surrey, England

Chartered Physiotherapist
& Complementary Therapies Practitioner
​Born to a father in the RAF, we were posted several times in my early years including to Singapore where I formed a love of warmth and water. I then went to several different schools on returning to England. The third child of four I enjoyed sharing in the parenting of my brother, eight years younger than myself and maybe that contributed to not feeling a need to have children later in life. I loved to sing on the swing in our garden, and walking with our dog in nature and at each house I had a flowerbed to tend as my own. 
I trained at the Middlesex Hospital School of Physiotherapy in London and started work in the NHS on 08.08.88 where I began to really enjoy my chosen vocation for the opportunities it presents to truly connect with people. My mother had died at the beginning of my physiotherapy training and she once said that I had a talent for ‘putting people at their ease.’ I had also wanted to be a florist at one time and was a whiz at home economics. I declined training in speech therapy in favour of a more hands on career in physiotherapy.
I later took up an opportunity in private practice as this allowed more time and confidential space to connect with patients. I was also part of the senior management team at a private hospital for a couple of years but was really too sensitive to last out, returning to private practice again in a complementary medicine setting and then later with my own private practice. ​
I started to become interested in a deeper level of wellbeing and added the Universal Medicine Esoteric Modalities as Complementary Therapies, as the combined practice I love to offer from our home today.
​I love looking at the bigger picture, my physiotherapy training taught me to look at things rather in 2 dimensions, relieving pain and restoring function but the extra tools I have added have given me a more multi-dimensional perspective that gets much more to the root of the matter. No two patients are alike as the injury or problem has occurred for them according to their own unique set of circumstances and therefore each needs an individually tailored approach, which is something I never tire of. In doing so there are amazing opportunities to get to know people, to share about life and to see how our foundational choice in energy affects everything. 
​I used to avoid all things computer related – though today I am proud to say have overcome many hurdles which allows me to take part in important projects within my chosen profession and within our local community that can really make a difference, even though I am still at my best away from a desk. ​
​I live with my wonderful husband and our beautiful dog here in rural England, where we enjoy the local walks and parkland as a true family, meeting others and stopping to chat as we go. ​
​At our marriage celebrations I deeply appreciated the demonstration of all the love our many friends have for us. This was shown by the care they took preparing food, decorating the hall, singing with us, sharing a meal and generally being true family when my siblings are now far away. It was such brotherhood that a colony of ants would have been proud of, especially in the clearing up, which was really beautiful, as my mother-in-law noted. ​
Together we love our everyday lives and enjoy taking personal development workshops where we grow together. We also love to sing and hold meditation, singing groups and a choir within the community, and I have become a great deal more confident doing things like singing in care homes with Richard, that is such a joy to do.  ​​
​We haven’t felt a need to have ‘a holiday’ from our lives, and when we have a birthday or so called special occasion we rarely do anything very different because we already deeply appreciate our chosen lives.
​I still enjoy singing, cooking, writing and the company of our many friends in the simple pleasures of life. I love early nights and bright new starts to a day. I have been described as a delicate, feminine and very warm-hearted lady, with a quality similar to filigree lace.  
​I look forward to as many more working years as I am able, more singing with Richard, a loving connection with all I meet and whatever life’s Grace brings to and asks of me that will serve us all.