Madhu O'Brien, holistic health worker

April 22nd, 2010
By David Armstrong

Working at the Whanau Ora unit of Te Awhina Marae is taking multi-talented Madhu O'Brien one step closer to a dream she's held for nearly 10 years - to be part of a Wellness Centre for people seeking holistic growth, culture and adventure.

Madhu has packed an enormous amount of experience and learning into her 28 years, but now she is looking to focus a little more on the things that mean most to her - her spirituality, her interest in holistic health and enjoying the great outdoors.

Born and raised in Christchurch, she did well at school, particularly in science and maths. She learned music and piano early, and by age 16 she was a Grade-8 player and taught piano, through the Modern School of Music, to save up for further experiences in New Zealand and abroad. This was the first of several paying activities that funded her travels and stints on ski fields.

Her close-up experience with nature and adventure really began when she spent her final school year at Mount Aspiring College in Wanaka, where she learned climbing and further developed her skiing skills to become a ski instructor. Madhu recalls that her whole family loved the outdoors, and that they persuaded her to spend Sundays up the slopes rather than her preference for church attendance. "You're closer to God up the mountains," they used to tell her.

At Wanaka she began learning about yoga, meditation and "living naturally and closer to the earth".

At university she began studying Health Sciences with the intention of learning physiotherapy to act as a base for her new interests in acupuncture and other alternative medical practices. This led to an exchange programme trip to Utah in the US, where again she used ski instructing to pay for a six-month holiday there.

Back home, after a period on the dole as a ski bum ("I hated it, doing nothing helpful"), she got a job going around Christchurch schools teaching kids how to grow vegetables, a government-funded scheme called Kids' Edible Gardens. This was followed by a course in permaculture, and then a trip to Australia for more formal yoga and meditation training, leading to her gaining a Diploma in Naturopathy.

She married Shankar, her partner since she was 18, and together they spent a year on their Big OE, when her ski instructing paid the living costs.

They returned to live in Motueka in 2007. "I no longer wanted to live in Christchurch or any big city," she says. And she'd met up with a group of similar-minded people who started a community in the Motueka Valley. "I wanted to see what it was like to live in a community. It was a great experience," she says.

About a year ago she got a job at the Marae as a Whanau Ora community health worker, one of two who are funded by the District Health Board to provide holistic health services.

"The main work is consultations with people as individuals or whanau, seeing where they want to be with their health, getting an overall picture of where their health is at physically, mentally and spiritually, and their whanau as well; then where they want to be, and then make a plan of how they can get there," says Madhu.

It brings together her knowledge of nutrition, naturopathy ("looking at changes people can make for themselves, in their own environment, lifestyle and food") and natural remedies. She has about 20 clients on her books at a time; some she is working with more intensely than others.

Part of her work is also to develop and run programmes for healthy activity including yoga classes, Tai Chi, a weight loss club, mothers' groups and other health promotions such as diabetes and asthma workshops.

"I've had a dream for nearly 10 years that I think I've been kinda working towards, of being part of a Wellness Centre where people would come and stay and learn how to live a healthy lifestyle, gain holistic growth, culture, art, meditation, food and natural remedies, plus adventure," she says. "Not just yet, but one day!"

She loves living and working in Motueka now - "it's so close to so many beautiful places", and she thinks the only way she would be tempted to move away would be if her Wellness Centre goal were to be sited elsewhere. The only things she doesn't like about Motueka are the high rents, lack of job opportunities, and "there are too many fast food chains here".

Madhu says she is not 'religious' but rather 'spiritual'. She's very interested in expanding the mind. Her beliefs are most closely aligned with the ancient tradition of Tantra.

And her unusual name? She took it on from a yoga teacher - it's a shortened version of Sanskrit name, Madhumita.

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