Hi, my name is Melissa
The person behind Fresh Start Health
Fresh Start Health has been around in various guises for about 15 years, but this whole holistic health and complementary therapy shenanigans began about 10 years before that. So it’s been a journey. And the next chapter is just beginning. I hope you’ll join me.
And it is just me. Doing everything, from website creation to answering the phone and messages, from writing social media posts to actually doing the bit I love most – helping people improve their health and wellbeing through a variety of complementary, holistic therapies!
So how did I get here?
Well, without going in to tooooo much detail (put the kettle on and make yourself comfy!) …
It all started 25 years ago when I did my NLP (Neuro Linguistic Practitioner) Practitioner and Master Practitioner qualifications. For those who don’t know NLP is a bit like a set of life tools, or manual for life. Very helpful for dealing with all that emotional baggage we all carry.
It was on the Master Practitioner course that I met my husband. He went on to the next level to become a Trainer of NLP. He already had a clinic offering a Japanese physical therapy called Amatsu and was teaching it. When we got together I did the 2 year course to learn Amatsu and we set up a training company alongside the clinic to teach both Amatsu and NLP.
We ran that business for 10 years and during that time we both also saw clients for support with physical and emotional issues.
When we split, we continued to run the business together for a couple of years, him in Hertfordshire, me back where I grew up on the Wirral, Merseyside.
Just before I moved back north I had become aware of Jason Vale, aka The Juicemaster, attended a few of his seminars and got in to juicing to support my own health and wellbeing as putting more natural goodness in to my body made sense to me (and still does).
Not long after that, Jason launched his Natural Juice Therapy course. Comprehensive home study plus 3 days at the Academy with Jason. The timing was perfect as I had just moved back north and this was something that wasn’t connected to my ex! It was ‘my stuff’.
I loved the course and was close to finishing the home study, ready to go to the Academy session, when I decided to take myself off to Jason’s retreat in Turkey (Juicy Mountain) for a week to clear my head. In those days Jason and Kate were still very hands on and were there during my stay. We got chatting on one of the walks and, before the end of my stay, they had offered me a job as one of their freelance Managers of the retreat!! I had to think about it for all of a split second!
Within no time I was back on the mountain for a couple of weeks and I’ve been working there, and at the later addition – Juicy Oasis in Portugal – for a number of weeks almost every year since. I think I’m up to about 15 years now.
So I was now running my own clinic, had started offering juice workshops and occasionally jetting off to Turkey for a few weeks at a time.
And then someone suggested I make juices for people. I was lucky enough to be able to set up in my sister’s annexe to see if there’d be any demand and, long story short, a few short months later I ended up gutting a premises that had been a butcher shop for 40 years and turned it in to a vegan, gluten free, healthy eating juice bar!
LOVED IT! What a fantastic experience, flippin’ long hours and a steep learning curve. I met some fantastic people and used to love the chats we had as they waited for me to make their juice, or came to a workshop, and I’m so proud of everything I achieved. We even had a fun filled evening when Jason made a guest appearance coinciding with the launch of his documentary Super Juice Me! – worth a watch if you’ve never seen it.
About the same time I was introduced to DoTerra essential oils – and trained in their AromaTouch Technique. Just because I didn’t already have enough to do, I added essential oil workshops to the list of evening activities at the shop and had a stall at some events. I still love their oils and use them daily. And on that note, if you ever want any just let me know and I can order whatever it is you need.
After a fun filled 3 years it was time to move on from the physical shop but I kept making juices for people for a while.
Then life took a bit of a turn and I became full time carer to both of my parents. What started as a couple of months trial turned in to 2.5 years. What a blessing. What a privilege. What an emotional roller coaster.
Somehow, roughly during this time I managed to qualify as an Angelic Reiki Practitioner and also a Crystal Therapy Practitioner (and a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language – TEFL – but I don’t need to explore that any further :D). I studied for my own benefit and and as an outlet, not really sure if, or when, I would ever offer them to the world.
They both had a huge impact on me in different ways and now I absolutely love offering both to clients and seeing the impact they have on them too.
Following the Crystal Therapy course I almost accidentally started to explore making crystal bracelets and happened to mention it in a Facebook post. Suddenly I had people asking me for them. So for the last couple of years I’ve had a stall at various markets and Christmas Fairs and often post about them for people to buy. I still sell them via posts on Facebook and Instagram so keep your eyes peeled.
As my parents moved in to a care home I needed to take a breath, recalibrate and do something completely different. It had taken an emotional toll. And that’s when a job at Go Ape in Delamere Forest popped up. It was perfect. Physically demanding and outside in the forest all day. I absolutely loved it.
In amongst all of this I was still seeing mum and dad most days and managing to get away every now and then to work at the retreats. And it was whilst working at Juicy Oasis in Portugal that I bumped in to Rachel. She had been a guest during one of my first weeks working on Juicy Mountain all those years ago. This time she told me all about Pathogenics. It sounded totally in alignment with the holistic approach I’ve had all these years and all the therapies I’ve studied and practiced. So I jumped on board, signed up to Rachel’s course and became a Pathogenics Practitioner.
With both my parents passing away in the last 12 months I felt it was time to hang up my Go Ape harness after 3 years and to finally focus on ‘my stuff’ again. I’ve been doing bits and pieces alongside Go Ape, but haven’t been able to fully focus on it, or do it full time. Now it’s time to pull together those 25 years of knowledge and experience and offer it to the world.
As I write this at the beginning of 2026, I have a rough idea of how that’s going to look, and it’s still evolving. It will be a journey, and one that I’m really looking forward to sharing with the world.
I don’t believe there’s a ‘one size fits all’ therapy. I believe all the different modalities I’ve studied – some officially and some through personal interest deep research – have incredible value and will be appropriate for different people at different times.
The beauty of having such a broad knowledge base is being able to bring relevant elements together to tailor the solution. I love helping people and seeing the changes that take place for them.
The only part of running the business I’m not so keen on is social media! I find it hard going keeping up with it all and making sure I post regularly. Writing, designing and building this website has been a labour of love and I hope you like it and find everything you’re looking for.
If you spot any typos, think something else needs adding, or a link doesn’t work, please let me know. It’s just me writing, designing, putting it together (without the help of AI thank you very much!) so bare with me.
There will be a newsletter very shortly so I can keep you up to date with more articles and information about various aspects of health and wellbeing, with the aim of helping you to thrive rather than survive, as so many of us have been doing for too long. And, in time, I have another little something up my sleeve, but that will have to wait for now.
And when I’m not doing any of the above?
I love playing with crystals, learning more about angels and guides and generally deepening my knowledge, for my own benefit (as well as for yours). I also mix with a crazy bunch of fabulous people and we do all kinds of triathlon stuff – swimming, cycling and running. And just to keep me on my toes I have 2 gorgeous Springer Spaniels – Rolo and Dolores.
If you’ve read this far, THANK YOU! I would love you to join me on this crazy journey of health and wellbeing in its many forms and see where it takes us. Please take a moment to browse through what’s on offer and, if anything calls to you, get in touch. Connect on social media – Facebook or Instagram – or send me a message via the Contact Form. If you’re looking for answers and a natural approach to your health concerns I’d really love to help.
With love and gratitude
Melissa
Qualifications – in a rough chronological order – for those who like lists
NLP Practitioner
NLP Master Practitioner
Anma Massage Practitioner
Amatsu Practitioner
Natural Juice Therapist
AromaTouch Technique Practitioner
Angelic Reiki Practitioner
Crystal Therapy Practitioner
Pathogenics Practitioner
And those are just the ones with the official bits of paper, and the ones I can remember!
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