Alexandre Fraysse from Healthy Pillars is a qualified Nutritional Therapist, Herbalist, Iridologist and Naturopath working with Mind, Body, Spirit and a Connection with Nature philosophy. We chat with Alex to find out more about how he works his magic.
Alex, what can you tell us about your background; spiritual, physical and emotional?
I am very fortunate in the sense that I come from a very open minded family which never forced me into any religion or belief system, and which in essence, allowed me to find my own path.
I have always been very keen on sports and looking after the physical body. I have a huge respect and love for how the body works and have seen physios, osteopaths and chiropractors for most of my life. However, I have always preferred the holistic approach over the purely mechanical aspects of those disciplines.
This has essentially allowed me to become the practitioner I am today, by infusing what I have learnt spiritually on my journey – from a mind, body, spirit perspective – and this is in fact how I work, all these aspects being interconnected.
My first spiritual awakening took place when I was at University. My mother sent me a documentary called Zeitgeist, and this is what initially opened my eyes up to a whole new world.
How were you first brought to heal others?
One day, I visited my mother’s masseuse who works for Amma, the hugging guru, and while he was giving me a massage one day, he pointed out that I had ‘healing’ fingers. Without wanting to dwell too long on the topic, he suggested I research Reiki and Prana, which I consequently did, and this put me more in touch with my innate healing qualities and opened the door for many more discoveries.
I continued to pursue my career in Finance, but after a massive spiritual awakening which took place at a festival in 2012, I realized I needed to change the course of my life quite radically. I had the stereotypical “I took a psychedelic and it changed my life” experience! It opened doors to why I am how I am, everything started making sense, messages started coming through and it was as if the Divine was showing me my life path.
I started looking for courses and came across The College of Naturopathic Medicine where I studied Nutrition, Naturopathy, Herbal Medicine and Iridology simultaneously. I wanted to cross-pollinate my learnings and use all modalities within each class.
What is the symbolism of ‘five’ pillars, if any?
There is no real symbolism behind it, but the number five has always been a favorite number of mine. Five pillars because; Nutrition, Naturopathy, Herbal Medicine and Iridology but also the connection with nature – key pillars to living a healthy and fulfilling life because once you connect to nature, everything else just falls into place.
How difficult can it be to pinpoint obstructions in one’s life?
I find it very easy to see obstruction in the life of others. Somebody simply starts talking, and I just know. I am able to see with my third eye but I am also able to feel within my body where their obstructions are. Some things come across very easily and other things come across more blurry, depending on how much the person is trying to hide their emotions, either from me or from themselves.
I try to guide people through their thoughts, emotions and feelings, and firmly believe in active participation as opposed to passive participation. I do not believe in doing the work for the person concerned, but instead prefer to be a helping and guiding hand in the search for their truth, and in facilitating this journey.
Do you believe that each pillar can be worked on individually or are they all intrinsically linked?
All the pillars are linked, and I believe in an interconnected perspective in life. Working on one aspect gives very limited results and will not encompass the mind, body and spirit and help you get to the root. Only focusing one pillar is very one dimensional and will not yield the best healing results in my personal opinion.
Is there such a thing as optimum vitality and is this sustainable?
It really depends on how you view optimum vitality. If you are basing this on yourself, and how you feel at that moment, in essence anyone can have optimum vitality at any given point in time, because that is as much as you can have right now.
What is optimum vitality? As much as your body can embody at that point in time. And yes, I believe it is sustainable and there is always room to get better and go deeper. This depends on the person and their willingness to ‘do the right things’ for lack of a better term. Vitality can also just be the acceptance of where you are and being happy with that.
If, on the other hand, you are basing optimum vitality on the Instagram models of botox, fillers and designer clothes, my views are altogether different.
How do you work with your clients?
If working remotely, I send my clients a video on how to take a picture of their iris. I can see everything that is going on through the iris. I always start with iridology and then follow through with the consultation.
Herbal tinctures are my preferred way of targeting areas or issues in the human body as herbs are not synthetic and they are generally organic. I recommend meditation for the heavier, emotional issues that come through and I make use of a lot of herbal teas, as they offer a beautiful, gentle and nourishing way of helping to heal people and making them slow down. I often suggest to my clients that they use the drinking of the tea as a meditative practice and I find that they work very well synergistically together. If need be, I then recommend Bach flower remedies. I don’t like to overload my clients and like to pace my treatments accordingly.
Just how effective do you find Iridology to be and why?
European iridology is very much phrased as questions and this basically approaches a form of therapy. The questions can be of physical or emotional nature, but all the points that are raised can be seen in the iris. Every organ has a specific emotion tied to it and if there are visible signs of vulnerability or weakness, this can always be pointed out and used for the benefit of the client.
It is really understanding why you are like you are, taking responsibility for this, and then using the patterns for a greater good, as opposed to allowing them to control and sometimes ruin your life. Iridology is an incredible tool of empowerment.
