About Kirsty
Kirsty Dobson
I’ve had a rich and diverse dietetics career over 23 years in the NHS supporting people with a myriad of health challenges; enabling my patients to understand and self-manage their chronic illnesses through a range of evidence-based dietary and lifestyle approaches. During my time as lead Critical Care dietitian at UCLH I undertook published research and honed my complex nutritional support skills which certainly came into their own during the early waves of the covid pandemic when I was leading the acute dietetic team response to greatly increased service demands.
My experience working with neurological conditions such as Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and Parkinson’s Disease; and my passion for gastroenterology and the support of patients with complex digestive complaints heightened my interest in the irrefutable link between brain and gut. Research has indeed confirmed the gut-brain axis, the importance of the vagus nerve and that sustained negative emotional states such as stress, anxiety and depression can in fact worsen immunity and affect normal bodily functions. The growing evidence linking gut dysbiosis and leaky gut* with optimal functioning of the brain underlines the critical importance of food on mood.
On hearing that mindfulness could be valuable to my clients I experimented myself using Apps such as Headspace and Calm and quickly discovered that after 2-3 weeks of just 10 to 15 minutes of meditation daily my sleep quality had improved, and I felt more in control at work with greater clarity of thought. Likewise, clients who embraced mindfulness achieved greater gut symptom control and seemed to weather the storm of life without triggering a relapse of their condition. Mindfulness improved their confidence in managing their own chronic condition and their diagnosis was no longer impacting upon their quality of life in the same negative way.
Following my own mental health breakdown, which resulted from working in the NHS under the pressures of the pandemic upon the background of significant childhood and infant-loss trauma, I re-discovered the healing power of meditation and mindfulness. Daily meditation, positive intelligence practices and cultivating compassion has led me for the first time to properly challenge my automatic thoughts and behaviours in relation to all kinds of scenarios. It has led to a deep emotional healing, somewhat akin to a ‘spring clean’ of the considerable detritus which had accumulated during the first four decades of my life.
My new great love for mindfulness is reminiscent of my passion for helping others to self-manage their clinical condition and so the natural decision to incorporate my knowledge of nutrition with practical support for mental wellbeing birthed Clarity&.
*Leaky Gut: gastrointestinal tract dysfunction caused by antibiotics, environmental toxins, poor diet, parasites or infections leading to increased intestinal wall permeability and absorption of toxins, bacteria, fungi, parasites into the bloodstream.