Colette Lassalle

00:00:02 I’m Colette Lassalle and I’m a massage therapist and reflexologist. My job involves treating, giving massage to people who come with all sorts of problems: chronic injuries, acute injuries, aches and pains of all sorts and conditions, as well.

00:00:21 The most important moment for me is when I managed to convince my father to let me come over here to the UK at the age of seventeen and a half. That was such a mega feat for me because it was my signature to freedom, basically. So, that was great for me, the world was mine, I had wings, I could do anything. I arrived here and with just £10 in my pocket and a suitcase.

00:00:48 I started working in hotels so I worked for the Savoy and the Ritz and served the rich and famous, basically. And I was determined to do loads and loads of work earning as much money as I could so I could do loads of travelling. I went to Australia for six years…for six months and I worked there in a bar in a restaurant. And then I roamed the world, basically. And then I decided to come back to London. By the age of 26, 27 I knew that I was missing out on higher education.

00:01:19 I got into a degree and I did a degree in Latin American politics and history and Spanish and at that point I was very clear I wanted to be a Greenpeace activist or an NGO worker and then I realised that although my degree was extremely interesting and I was really passionate about what I was studying, there was absolutely no job opportunities. So, I went into teaching by default, I would say, and I taught mainly Spanish and French and I really, really disliked it. I was not happy at all.

00:01:53 I realised seven years ago that I could not go on doing a job that was not satisfactory to me and all along I was craving for something alternative. I wanted to be connected with the spiritual and the body. I started training in Swedish holistic which is the basic massage course that you have to do with loads of anatomy and physiology and over the years I started building up. I did Indian head massage, I did reflexology then I did sports massage and then finally I did Thai yoga massage. This September I’m going to train as a feng shui consultant because that’s another passion of mine and I discovered it 10 years ago so I started doing it as a hobby and learnt a lot about it but never actually trained. So from next year I’m going to start integrating it with my body work.

00:02:46 What I’ve learnt is that I’m never too old to retrain. That‘s a definite thing. That there was no need to panic at times when by the age of 21 I still did not know, you know, what I wanted to do and was there something wrong with me when I started seeing people around me having like proper jobs. So, I learnt to relax in that and I learnt to see life as an ongoing journey.

00:03:17 When I found that I was on the right path, it felt harmonious. It felt real, it felt like it was me and I was at peace with myself having chosen something that was really from my heart rather than my head. So, I realised that I was actually earning money doing something that I really love for the very first time in my life. So, yes, it feels wonderful. It feels very peaceful. It feels right.

ENDS