Contact Heather

Heather has had a particular interest in traditional and complementary medicine since the early 1990s, studying homeopathy and naturopathy and being licensed in Ayurvedic primary care. She was chair of the Traditional and Complementary Medicine team for the International Actuarial Association and contributes material to the African Health Economics and Policy Association.

She collaborated with ENZCAM, the New Zealand Centre for Evidence‐based Research into Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the University of Canterbury, where she produced a regular newsletter on traditional, complementary and integrative medicine.

Her current professional work is aimed at the integration of palliative and end of life care in healthcare policy and the health system. Her current research interests are in palliative care and the financing of end-of-life care. She collaborates with the Burden of Disease Epidemiology, Equity and Cost-Effectiveness Programme (BODE³) at the University of Otago, Wellington, on costing and modelling the impact of increasing longevity on trajectories at the end of life.

Meditation has been a part of her life for more than 20 years. She first learnt meditation at the Sivananda School of Yoga in Johannesburg under Swami Isvaramayananda. She trained formally as a meditation teacher at the Gawler Foundation in Yarra Valley, Australia, in 2011.

Heather first saw a labyrinth when on a pilgramage to Chartres Cathedral in 1993. She kept an image of that labyrinth in her office from then on. In 2001 she moverd to a rural village in the Little Karoo in South Africa where there were two labyrinths and a Buddhist Peace Pagoda. Labyrinths and walking meditation have played an important part in her life since then. Tony and Heather met at the labyrinth in Lemoenshoek and were married in the same labyrinth a year later. Heather trained as a labyrinth facilitator through Veriditas with Lauren Artress of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, in 2011 and again in 2012.