Coffee Time with Shirley O´Neill Wellness Coach and Soft Tissue Therapist

Shirley talks to us about how her professional journey in the Wellness world has evolved since moving to Spain, her love of authentic Andalucía and her passion for the outdoors.

Can you tell us about yourself and what brought you to Marbella?

I moved to Marbella 15 years ago. I was working in London as a Clinical Soft Tissue Therapist. My partner, who prior to us meeting had spent several years working in the Balearic Iles, couldn´t settle in the UK. As I could take my work anywhere we discussed relocating and decided to come and look at mainland Spain. We came to Marbella and we ended up buying a Cocktail Bar. So we were running the cocktail bar and I started to build up my practice. We chose Marbella as the place to relocate because there are people all year round and with all the sporting activities the area offers; cycling, golf, racquet sports and water sports, there was good potential for my work.

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Tell us about your journey in the health and fitness industry?

My journey as a professional in the health and fitness industry started in 2001 which is when I qualified from the London School of Sports Massage as a Clinical Soft Tissue Therapist and in 2002 Myofascial Therapy. I was fortunate to work at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 in the Athletes Center, supporting competitors with their needs.That experience motivated me to extend my training into Clinical and Remedial soft tissue therapy. So when I returned to the UK, I trained and qualified.  Following that I was working at Physio in the City, a multidisciplinary clinic with sports doctors, physiotherapists, podiatrists, osteopaths, acupuncturists and soft tissue therapists. When we relocated to Marbella one of my first group of clients were ex-army guys on boot camps, through meeting them my network expanded. I met various health coaches and that´s what started me on a 5 year training program with the Institute of Integrative Nutritional Health Coaching and from there I went on to study at the School of Applied Functional Medicine. I have since qualified as a board certified Functional Medicine Health Coach. Now I practice both the Functional Medicine as an online consultancy and the Clinical and Remedial Soft Tissue Therapy at my studio in Marbella.

Can you explain a little bit about Integrative Nutrition and Functional Medicine?

Integrative Nutrition is when we look at the person as a whole and what that means is we look at their primary food and their secondary food. Primary food is everything that nourishes you off the plate, so that´s a person’s environment at home and work, what they do, any passions they´ve got, their financial situation, relationships; family and personal, so everything that makes someone up. Secondary food is the actual physical food that they eat from the plate. The premise being with Integrative Nutrition that the primary food is actually more important than the secondary food, at the end of the day you could put the cleanest diet into your body but if you have chronic stress in your life that will impact on your digestive system, which may mean that you´re not able to digest the food that you are taking in or absorb it and get it past the cell membrane for cellular use.  So that´s the main thing that we look at with the Integrative Nutrition. It goes hand in hand with the Functional Medicine because there we are looking at root cause resolution, who is this person that has these collection of symptoms causing dis-ease in their body. So by that we have to look at the whole person and its all-encompassing. Everything that´s in the Integrative Nutrition as well as potentially looking at lab work to be able glean more information on that person at that moment in time and to find out what it is that´s out of balance in that person’s body and more importantly why and what can be done to bring about reversal of the symptoms and then most importantly to be able to maintain that wellness.

Who can benefit from a Wellness Coach and what results can clients expect?

Everyone can benefit from working with a coach but they have to want to do the work, we can’t work harder than the person who are coaching and I think that´s quite often a stumbling point where people think that we are going to fix them, that´s not what a coach does we walk side by side with them to help them on their path to finding better wellness by guiding them and inspiring them, by educating them about what their body needs at that moment in time. Also understanding that what´s right now, might change in 6 months’ time or 1 years’ time, depending what was going on for that person. Results can depend on the individual, on why they are coming to you and how long their symptoms have been in place. For example; If someone has used sleeping medication for over 2 decades, it would be unrealistic to think that in a couple of months they can heal their bodies from their symptoms, it’s about managing people’s expectations and educating them on how the body can heal given the correct environment.

Marbella is often portrayed as a party destination, how would you describe Marbella´s scene to others?

I think that Marbella is cosmopolitan in that you have so many different walks of life that pass through. It is a little bit transient people do come and go which can be quite hard when friends leave. Having been here 15 years I think you can find your niche, for me it´s the mountains, the sea and finding the true Spanish aspect like wondering round Marbella Old Town and spotting for tapas or going inland and discovering the white washed villages.  

Where do you live and what do you like about it?

I live on the outskirts of Marbella center. What I love about the area is that I can literally walk out the door turn one direction and I´m in the countryside or I turn the other direction and walk into town. I have fabulous views of the mountains and sea.

How do you like to enjoy your free time?

Generally our free time is spent as a family; walking the dog, in the summer going to the sea, paddle surfing. We like to go up the Ardales Lakes https://www.antequera.co.uk/ardales-lakes/ with friends for a picnic and of course paddle surfing. We all enjoy hiking so we walk a lot there are many places for that, El Refugio de Juanar we love. In the winter we like to go to Sierra Nevada https://sierranevada.es/.

Where are your favourite places for buying food and eating out?

I like to buy my fruit and vegetables from El Mercadillo, the Guadalhorce Ecological farmers markets https://www.guadalhorceecologico.org/ which take place each weekend up at various locations on the coast throughout the month. I buy meat from a butchers in Divina Pastora and from Honey Suckle Farm in Coin. One of our favourite places to eat is on the beach at Restaurante Las Flores, in Las Chapas. If we are in the mood for meat we´d go to La Patagonia an Argentina restaurant close to Paseo Maritimo or Gorko Grill, that´s another favourite.

How can people find out more about you and your services?

You can find me on Instagram at sustainable health_fm, on facebook or my website www.shirley-oneill.com. On my website you will find more information about Functional Medicine and my contact details. Bodywork, Local 20, Centro Commercial El Capricho, Marbella.