30 Years of Mullen Memories
Can you believe it? This year marks 30 years of owning Mullen Natural Health Centre. I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect a little on how much life has changed for me, our practice, our patients and our health over these past 3 decades.
My journey to becoming a Naturopath
When I first started studying back in 1984 — just after completing high school — I had no idea where this journey would take me.
Back then Naturopaths and Naturopathy were new to most people. I remember at the time family and friends were surprised by what I had chosen to study. While I had always grown up with a health-focused family, I’m not 100% certain of what made me decide to go down this path. Looking back, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else!
I first started working as a Naturopath in 1989 for Mckay Biochemist in Hamilton. I got off to a shaky start quite literally — 2 weeks later the Newcastle earthquake struck! We had to wait a month before we could get back into our then rooms in the HP Chambers in Beaumont street.
After working there for a couple of years, I somehow managed to scrape together enough money to buy the business from the McKays. It certainly wouldn’t have been possible without the help and encouragement of my amazing wife Dayna. Back then, we just were ‘going steady’, but we’ve since built a wonderful life together.
In 1994, despite being the only Naturopath, we started our Singleton practice. Dayna and I would drive to Singleton one Saturday a month, leaving our young son Matthew with his grandparents for the day.
The next year, we made the move from HP Chambers in Beaumont Street to our newly built centre in Murray Street, the same clinic you know today! Things have changed since then, at the time we couldn’t afford blinds, had no computers or internet and operated from a landline phone. We also put on an additional 4 practitoiners and 5 front-desk care assistants in this time, with Mary still supporting our patients today!
In-fact over the 30 years we’ve supported thousands of patients, with a total of 125,000 consultations! This level of experience is what we bring to our patients today!
The thing I love most about working at the same practice all these years is the privilege of treating up to 4 generations from the same family. I still see some clients that I began seeing in my first month of practice, who today are more like family and friends than patients.
How our health has changed
Thirty years ago, people’s health seemed to be much less complex than it is today.
Stress was not even recognised as an issue in those days. If we couldn’t work out what was going on with someone’s health, we would put it down to “probably a virus!”
Today stress, anxiety and depression are epidemics. More of our children are suffering from asthma, allergies, autism and ADD, while autoimmune conditions are common place. I believe much of this change is to do with the stress of our current pace of life, an increase in the toxins we’re exposed to and of course, the quality of our diets.
We’ve now got computers, mobile phones, websites, Facebook and Instagram which make our lives both easier and more complex at the same time! Our work and personal lives are more entwined than ever.
That said, I’m positive about our future. Awareness is growing about the benefits of natural health. For example, most people these days have an understanding of the importance of gut health that wasn’t around 10 years ago. My patients seem more interested in taking control of their health and making good choices about the food they eat, exercise and managing stress better. We are all becoming conscious of the effects of climate change and how the health of our planet is reflected in everyone’s health.
Thank you for 30 years of great health
As I mentioned, 30 years in practice as a Naturopath has indeed been a journey. There is no way I would still be able to do what I love without the support of some amazing people along the way.
Behind every great man is an even greater woman! I don’t consider myself to be a great man but I do consider my wife to be an amazing woman. Without her love, support and a fair bit of management, we wouldn’t be a business still doing well after 30 years.
To my beautiful children, Matthew and Gabrielle, who have grown up with us talking Naturopathy and business at the dinner table their entire lives — 28 and 24 years respectively —you have been our inspiration to do our best.
To all of my amazing staff of Naturopaths, care assistants, marketers and our cleaner Ruth — and all of our staff who have all contributed along the way — we couldn’t have done it without you all.
Finally, to my amazing patients and friends over 30 years, you have taught me more than I ever learnt from college or seminars. You taught me about life and living, about doing your best, about health and healing, and about what’s most important.
I am very proud to have reached 30 years in a business that I love and I couldn’t have done it without you all. Here’s to the next 30 years!
