Health Retreat in Scotland

A Retreat on the North Sea

One person. My full attention. One day or two.

There is a village on the Aberdeenshire coast called Johnshaven. Three hundred years of lobster fishing, a harbour, a coastal path, and a hotel. Somewhere between Stonehaven and Montrose, and most people outside the North East of Scotland have not heard of it.

My house looks straight out over the water. Nothing between it and the horizon.

A few times a year I open it to one person who wants to spend proper time thinking about their own health.

Retreat opening around the end of January 2027. Get in touch to register your interest.

You may have read a good deal already. You may already have had tests, a scan or a diagnosis to work from, and now wish to progress food, lifestyle and wellness further.

Or nothing may be wrong at all. You may simply want to stay well, and to know what genuinely makes the difference over the next twenty years rather than the next twenty days.

Either way the work is the same. We start from where you are, decide where you want to be, and build a way of getting there that fits around your life. Food and metabolic health are the foundation. Your goals, and how you actually reach them, are the rest — together with the mindset that carries you there, which is what determines whether it is sustainable.

That last part is not an afterthought. It is the difference between knowing what to do and doing it.

What you have not had is someone’s full attention, in a place quiet enough to think.

This is not a spa. It is not a detox. There is no regime, no juice, and nothing to sign up for afterwards.

It is proper work on your own health, one to one, with the science set out clearly, and a plan at the end that is personal only for yourself.

Because it is the only way to give you undivided attention.

There is no group to keep pace with, no one else’s questions to sit through, and no schedule built around anybody but you. What we cover, and how long we spend on it, depends entirely on what you need.

Most practitioners bring one of these. You get all of them, in the same room, on the same day.

Functional Medicine nutrition. Trained across every area of nutrition and functional medicine, not one area of it. Metabolic health is my specialism, and it is where most chronic disease begins.

Health coaching. Knowing what to do is rarely the problem. Coaching is how a plan becomes something you actually do, and keep doing once you are home.

Mindset health training. Mindset decides whether any change holds. I am trained to work with that side of it properly, not to leave it to chance.

Reading your results. If you arrive with a thermography scan, functional medicine test results or DNA results, I can take you through what they mean for your food, lifestyle and wellness — including what a scan shows about each area and organ of the body. Most people are handed results and left with them. A picture is only useful once it becomes a plan.

Knowing where to send you. Where an area needs a clinician or another specialist, I have a network who may be able to support you.

The equipment. Bioresonance, red light therapy, the PEMF mat, the grounding mat and the magnetic field device, all here at the house.

Fifteen years of research. Working from primary sources and peer-reviewed studies, not from trends. Some of it became a book, and you take a signed copy home.

Teaching. I am a qualified teacher and a former university lecturer. The science is set out so it makes sense, and so you can understand it once you go home.

Project management. Twenty years of it, latterly running one of Shell’s largest projects worldwide. The plan you leave with is built to be carried out, in order, around a real life.

Foundation — one day — £775

A full day, one to one.

• The Functional Medicine nutrition consultation — two to three hours. Your entire medical history from the health of your grandparents, parents and siblings; birth; all illnesses; medications; hospital stays; food plans; nutrition; nutrients; stress; sleep; relaxation; relationships; work / life balance; your timeline, what triggered what, what you have already tried and why it did not hold. It takes two to three hours as one hour is not enough. Clients often remark it is one of the few times they feel listened to.
• The science, set out properly — metabolic health, chronic and acute disease and what drives it – an explanation of how you have arrived at this place with a comprehensive food plan with personal guides providing further comprehensive information
• A health coaching session — where you are now, what you want, and what you are genuinely willing to commit to – with a plan of how to get there
• Printed guides to keep.
• Lunch, at the Anchor Hotel, five minutes walk away, booked in advance for you.
• A comprehensive nutrition plan, personal to you, sent within two weeks.
• One follow-up coaching session by video, thirty minutes.
• A signed copy of my book.
• Red light therapy and the PEMF mat, if you would like them.
• Bioresonance, available as an add-on, £95 per session.

Immersion — two days — £1,400

Everything above, and the part a single day cannot give.

• Time. We go more in-depth into the functional medicine nutrition and functional medicine coaching – with more comprehensive information and more personal printed guides
• A second day to revisit your functional medicine nutrition and health plan once you have slept on it — which is when the real questions arrive.
• The place itself. The coastal path, the harbour, sitting on a settee listening to the sea lapping nearby, with the sea doing what it does. Two days is not two days of talking.
• As I am also an artist, I have furnished the room to complement the ever changing blues of the sea and sky, with my own original artwork: paintings, printmaking using different techniques, and batik.
• Three follow-up coaching sessions rather than one, across the weeks afterwards. The days here are where change starts. The weeks after are where it holds and I am there for that part too.
• Lunch both days at the Anchor Hotel, booked in advance for you.
• Bioresonance, a means to support balancing the body. Included on the two-day Immersion – takes around 90 minutes. We focus on what matters to you the most. Remote follow up sessions are also available.
• Red light therapy, the PEMF mat, the grounding mat and the magnetic field device, all available across the two days.

The second day is not more information. It is the part that makes it more of a retreat.

Five things here at the house, available across your time here. None of them replaces the work we do on food and lifestyle. They sit alongside it.

Red light therapy

Red and near-infrared light, delivered at close range over a set period. You sit in front of the panel; there is nothing to feel beyond warmth, and nothing to recover from afterwards.

It is one of the few things in this field that is genuinely pleasant to receive and asks nothing of you at all.

On the Foundation day there is time for one session. On the Immersion retreat you can use it each day.

The PEMF mat

A mat you lie on for a set period while it runs. There is nothing to do and nothing to feel beyond a faint pulsing, and you can relax or sleep through it.

Twenty to thirty minutes, and like the red light it asks nothing of you. People tend to use it in the gap between sessions rather than making an occasion of it.

The grounding mat

A mat you rest your feet on, connecting you to the earth’s natural surface charge. There is nothing to feel, and you can use it while reading, relaxing or between sessions.

Portable magnetic field device

A small device producing gentle, low-frequency magnetic fields, used during rest periods. Like the PEMF mat, it asks nothing of you.

Bioresonance

I am trained in bioresonance and the equipment is here, so a session is included on the two-day Immersion, and can be added to the Foundation day for £95.

It takes around 90 minutes and there is nothing invasive about it — you sit comfortably throughout and we focus on your needs.

My bioresonance page sets out what it involves and what to expect, so you can read about it before deciding. It is entirely optional, and nothing is lost if you would rather not.

Red light therapy, the PEMF mat, the grounding mat and the magnetic field device are included on both days.

There is nothing behind the house, so there is nothing to spoil the dark.

On a clear night you can see the sky properly — the kind of dark skies most people have to travel a long way to find. When the moon is up it sits over the water and tracks the whole length of the coast, from Johnshaven down to Montrose, the entire evening.

If you come for two days, the evening between them is yours. It is worth staying out in.

I am a Functional Medicine Health Coach and Functional Medicine Nutritionist, and my specialist area is preventing disease and supporting longevity.

Fifteen years of research sit behind this, and a book.

Before that I spent twenty years in project management, latterly as a Global I.T. Project Manager for the Shell Group in The Hague.

I am also a qualified teacher and a former university lecturer — at Robert Gordon University, and later at The College of Naturopathic Medicine, where I taught oncology and cancer support using natural means.

Qualifications and registration: Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach (FMCHC), Functional Medicine Coaching Academy. Nutritional Therapy Diploma, The College of Naturopathic Medicine. Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice (AFMCP) and Advanced Practice Modules in Gastrointestinal, Immune, Bioenergetics, Environmental and Cardiometabolic, The Institute for Functional Medicine. DNA certified health practitioner. Registered with the GNC. Member of the Naturopathic Nutrition Association (MNNA). Trained in cognitive health and bio-resonance. Diploma in Education. M.A. Honours, Geography and Economics.

One person. That is the point of it.

One day, £775. Two days, £1,400. Including everything listed above.

10am to 5pm

Dates are arranged with you directly rather than set in advance.

Accommodation is not included. Johnshaven has The Anchor Hotel, five minutes’ walk away, and there is self-catering and bed and breakfast nearby. You book whichever suits you.

Getting here: Johnshaven is on the A92 between Stonehaven and Montrose. Montrose has a station on the Aberdeen to London line and is 10 minutes away by taxi or car.

Not included: accommodation, travel, evening meals, and any optional testing.

Testing is not included, and is not necessary. The retreat works without it. But if you want to investigate further, it can be arranged in advance so your results are ready when you arrive and we can work through them together.

DNA testing. A one-off test that does not change over your lifetime. It looks at how your own genetics affect the way you process food, detoxify, handle inflammation and respond to nutrients. I am a DNA certified practitioner and will take you through the results and what they mean in practice. I can also incorporate the results into your functional medicine nutrition plan as well as your health coaching plan.

Functional Medicine testing. Analysis covering all aspects of the body, systems and organs. Useful where issues are part of the picture.

Thermography. A non-invasive scan using heat imaging to show patterns of inflammation in the body and where they are arising. No radiation, no contact. The scan is carried out by a specialist thermography clinic, and I take you through what the findings mean for your food, lifestyle and wellness choices. Thermography is not a diagnostic test and does not replace medical screening — what it offers is a picture of where inflammation is present, which is a useful starting point for prevention work.

Costs vary depending on which test is appropriate, so I will confirm the price once we have established what is beneficial. Tests are posted to you beforehand and returned to the laboratory.

Find out more about Johnshaven: walks, beaches, local seafood and where to stay.

To get in touch, use the Contact form.

I am happy to chat on the phone first as it is important to establish this is the right fit for you. Also I can explain how we can personalise your experience to suit your needs.