Jennie began her career as a stage manager; working in theatre, opera & ballet before moving into arts administration to become more instrumental in the overall planning and delivery of live performance. She then moved sideways to produce corporate conferences and events.
Experience in both the performing arts and corporate worlds meant she was dealing, every day, with a variety of sometimes challenging personalities – which started her on her journey toward the world of therapy.
In the 1980s many friends and colleagues struggled with HIV and AIDS. She became a carer for one of her closest friends who was critically ill and discovered through that experience she had the ability to help people help themselves. This opened a new chapter in her life and she joined The Terrence Higgins Trust as a volunteer – effectively finding a balance from the then extravagance of the corporate industry. Jennie worked in several capacities at THT over a 6 year period, including co-managing the North London Buddy group – and devising & running a series of educational workshops for secondary school pupils.
The final part of her therapeutic journey came several years later. Having met a psychologist who was also a Healer, Jennie received Healing for the first time – and the experience really connected with her. Looking further into energy work and its associated therapies, she decided to enrol with a diverse and stimulating training organisation – and two years later was accredited as a Healer herself.
To augment her “hands free” energy work she studied Chakra Psychology; on advice from a reputed crystal therapist self taught herself Crystal Therapy – the two are deeply intertwined – and explored Feng Shui, Dowsing and Earth Healing.
To expand and build her therapeutic “tool box” Jennie added “touch” therapies – aware of a need for greater physical contact for many of her clients, in addition to her Energy Healing work. She trained and qualified in Deep Tissue Massage, then gradually added Hot Stone Massage, Pregnancy Massage, Indian Head Massage and Manual Lymphatic Drainage to her repertoire.
Jennie established White Wave – Jennie means white wave, white spirit – in 2008 and has been practising as a healer/holistic massage therapist/tutor ever since.
She is a qualified Massage in Schools Instructor (running peer massage workshops in primary schools) and worked for 15 months at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, North London – giving massage on the wards. Following that invaluable experience she now provides one-on-one training on how to give massage specifically for those either in hospital or a hospice.
Jennie presented touch & relaxation workshops for 8 years for Kith & Kids, the charity supporting young people living with autism – working with clients, carers and volunteers. Before Covid she worked with the NW Anglia NHS Trust, training hospital volunteers in arm & hand massage.
She has also been training in BSL (British Sign Language) and Lip-reading, and is now qualified to teach lip-reading to adults. She runs face-to-face lip-reading classes in North London, and on Zoom. For further information, contact Jennie on jennie@read-my-lips.org
She is a member of The MTI (Massage Training Institute), is a Registered Practitioner with BAPAM (British Association for Performing Arts Medicine) and an accredited MTI Tutor.
In 2019 she was appointed to the board of the GCMT (General Council for Soft Tissue Therapies) and became a member of their Crisis Task Force, producing the Guidelines and Resource Packs to support and enable UK therapists & training providers to return to work and manage working in a Covid-safe environment, throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
To enable her to teach NVQ/Level 3 & 4 accredited courses, Jennie qualified in PTLLS in 2012 and CTLLS in 2014.
Jennie, in collaboration with Earle Abrahamson, founded Hands-On Training in 2012 – presenting a series of professional post-graduate development workshops, designed to support therapists once training and qualification has been completed. Hands-On Training was awarded MTI accreditation in 2014 to run the Diploma Course in Holistic Massage, and in 2017 to run the Sports & Performance Diploma Course. Hands-on-Training closed in 2020.
