ASHA Women : Leonora van Gils

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Leonora van Gils was born on 6th April 1948 in Hereford, UK but grew up in Copenhagen where her father was the physician to the Royal Court. At the age of 13 she was sent to boarding school in England. She wanted to become a physciatrist but got diverted into films and advertising just as she was leaving school. It was not until the age of 46, when her own daughter had left full-time education, that she shifted her focus of work and entered the world of complimentary medicine. Finally, she had found an avenue for satisfying her passion to help other people. She realised that for a person to be well, the body, mind and spirit needed to be addressed to come back to wholeness. She first studied to become an iridologist at Queen Elisabeth Hospital. Then followed a qualification in reflexology, followed by a qualification as a P.E.P. counsellor. During this time she also studied an ancient art of healing and became a Reiki Master after 5 years of study. She had many clients worldwide including members of the Royal family.

In 1998 she decided to set up a healing centre in Florida, where she studied the healing effects of wild dolphins. Many people came from all over the world to have dolphin and healing therapy, which appealed to families with sick children, especially autistic and dying children. During this time she also worked with Dr Horace Dobbs to formulate a Dolphin Healing Dome that would allow a dolphin experience without real dolphins being involved. In 2001 she came back to the UK and set up a Healing and Retreat Centre in Suffolk.

Her passion for theology and wanting to draw on the spiritual aspect of the human mind, she studied at the Inter-Faith Seminary in London and was ordained as an Inter-Faith Minister and Spiritual Counsellor in August 2005.

She has a deep desire to help people help themselves back to wellness in body, mind and spirit and believes that with all her studies and experience over the past decade, she has a lot to offer the Asha Foundation whose dreams and aspirations mirror her own.