Tracy Collier

Former actress, now Senior Tutor Musical Theatre at Guildford School of Acting

I’ve been coming to the Rêve for longer than the Rêve has actually existed, if that makes any sense. Mark was treating patients in his front room, very much a one man band. My original reason for going to see Mark was my back. I have a long standing back problem that rears its ugly head on a regular basis, normally at times of stress. I do have disintegrating disks in my lower lumbar which was very much aggravated by my occupation: dancer! Many’s the time I’ve lain prostrate on the floor only just able to reach the ‘phone saying ‘Mark, my back’s gone and I have a show tonight.’ Mark would dutifully put me back together again and send me on my way until next time.

Now our bodies are rather like cars: they need MOTs every so often and they need the right fuel and a bit of TLC, none of which my body was getting. I put it through hoops, didn’t feed it properly and never gave it a second thought until it went wrong. That was until I started getting stomach pains every night and felt extremely tired all the time. The doctors could find no reason for the problems and I began to think that at just turned 40, this was it: this was how I was going to feel for the rest of my life.

I mentioned these symptoms to Mark on one of my visits to fix the recent damage to my back. He thankfully thought it was nonsense that I should feel this lethargic at 40, diagnosed a leaky lower intestine, put me on an extremely strict and boring diet and fed me with a substance rather similar to ‘Radweld’. But three months later, boy did I feel better! I should have known there was a good reason for how I felt because the ‘good’ body is a cleverly constructed machine and if looked after, it will perform miracles.

I now know better than to leave my health to chance and the Rêve is always the place I turn to. My children too have benefited enormously from treatment: Charles, now 4, had cranial osteopathy for colic and my daughter had ‘growing pains’ in her knees due to the way she was walking and Marl sorted that little problem out.

After over 16 years in the theatre as a professional actress, dancer and singer, I retired gracefully into teaching at the Guildford School of Acting. The body still gets the same amount of punishment but I least I keep one step ahead of it these days. This also applies to my students, many of whom I send immediately to the Rêve when a part of their anatomy falls off in class, which seems to happen on a regular basis to those with postural problems (surprise, surprise!) and they always return having found the solution to the problems that have often been going on for quite a long period of time. Like so many of us, they didn’t know there was another line of treatment to follow other than to take pain killers and rest for a week and that actually, we can expect much more from ourselves of we keep the whole person fit and healthy.

I’ve even enjoyed a free massage courtesy of the Rêve’s new referral scheme, introduced to show appreciation to existing patients who share the benefits of the Rêve’s holistic approach to health with others!

My grateful thanks to Mark and the Rêve for keeping this slightly insane hamster on her wheel!