The Full Back Story of My Experience With Water-Damaged Buildings
Why I do this work — and what my own journey might mean for yours.
Short on energy? Here’s the short version
• I’ve lived through water-damaged building illness myself — you’re not imagining it, and you’re not alone.
• For years, no one connected my symptoms to the buildings I was living in.
• I’m both a naturopath and a building biologist — a rare combination that looks at your body and your home together.
• If you or someone you love has “mystery” symptoms, there is usually an answer to be found.
• Getting to it doesn’t have to be overwhelming — small, calm steps genuinely add up.
If you’ve landed here, there’s a good chance you’re tired — not just physically, but tired of searching. Maybe you’re the one living with symptoms no one can explain. Or maybe you’re watching someone you love slowly run out of answers, and you’re quietly desperate to help. Either way, I want you to know: I understand this from the inside, because I’ve lived it.
Before I was a naturopath and building biologist, I was the patient with the confusing symptoms and the growing pile of “normal” test results. So this isn’t a story I read in a textbook. It’s my own — and I’m sharing it because somewhere in it, you might recognise your own situation, and feel a little less alone.
The part no one warns you about
The hardest thing about environment-driven illness often isn’t any single symptom. It’s the loop. The appointments that lead nowhere. The tests that come back “fine” while you feel anything but. The slow, quiet erosion of confidence when you start to wonder if it’s all in your head — because so many people have implied it might be.
If that’s where you are, I want to gently name something: feeling unwell in a way that others can’t see or measure is genuinely exhausting, and being disbelieved on top of it is its own kind of harm. None of that means there isn’t a real, physical, findable reason. Very often, there is. It’s just being looked for in the wrong place.
Where my story starts
I was born three months premature, and from childhood I lived with chronic asthma, allergies, anxiety and gut issues. I thought that was just “me.” Then, in my early twenties — working long hours in hospitality and administration — my health reached a wall I couldn’t climb over. My quality of life dropped away, and just getting through the day became a struggle.
I tried mainstream medicine for months and got nowhere. Eventually, out of sheer desperation (and as a total sceptic), I saw a naturopath a friend recommended. I had no idea that one appointment would reshape my whole life. Six months of following her recommendations, and I’d improved dramatically. Six months after that, my issue had resolved completely. I had my life back — and I had to understand why. So I changed careers and became a student of naturopathy.
Learning that the home holds clues
I graduated with an Advanced Diploma of Naturopathy (from the Australasian College of Natural Therapies, now part of Torrens University), then upgraded to a Bachelor of Health Science in Complementary Medicine at Charles Sturt University. Back then, very few naturopaths did home visits — but I could see how many people simply couldn’t get to a clinic, so I launched a home-visit practice in western Sydney.
I didn’t fully realise it at the time, but I was following an instinct: to really understand a health issue, it helps enormously to see where someone actually lives. As I used to say — “if only these walls could talk!” A clinic has its place, but the richest context often reveals itself at home.
Over several years, a pattern started to bother me. A percentage of my patients simply wouldn’t respond — to naturopathy, or to much else. These were people who’d already seen doctors, specialists and other practitioners, spent enormous amounts on tests and treatments, and still weren’t improving. I heard the same stories from practitioners across every modality at conferences. I wanted to do more for these people. I just didn’t yet know what the missing piece was.
The event that connected everything
In 2018, the home I was living in had a water event. The damage went unrepaired by the insurer for nearly five months — and by today’s standards, sadly, that was a “good” response time. Here’s the part I didn’t understand back then: mould can begin growing within 48 hours. It took me a long time to connect that leak — and, I later realised, most of the water-damaged buildings I’d lived in since childhood — to the symptoms I’d carried for most of my life.
That same year, I heard building biologist Nicole Bijlsma speak at a naturopathy conference about the built environment and health. It was the “a-ha” moment I’d been circling for years. I sat there realising that no matter how many health interventions a person tries, if their air and water aren’t clean — or if they’re constantly exposed to mould, chemicals, heavy metals or other stressors — there’s a hard ceiling on how well they can get.
Suddenly, the patients who never improved made sense. It wasn’t that they weren’t trying hard enough. It was that a whole category of causes was never being added to the equation — because most practitioners simply aren’t trained to look for it. How many doctors have the time or tools to visit a home, check the dust for contaminants, assess the surroundings, or sample the air for mould? And if the very thing a person is reacting to stays in their environment, how could any treatment fully work?
So I went and learned it properly
During the Covid lockdowns, I enrolled to study building biology at the Australian College of Environmental Studies (ACES) — an almost five-year, roughly 1,800-hour training. It covered water and air quality, mould, EMFs, healthy building materials and design, and children’s environmental health (children are often more vulnerable to exposures than adults).
What became obvious to me is that we’re rarely dealing with just one or two things in our environment. It’s often hundreds of small exposures — chemicals, particulates, heavy metals — layered together, every day, right where we feel safest. I’ve come to believe it’s the sum of these things that tips so many people into a health struggle.
What this means for you
Since I began weaving building biology into my naturopathic work, so many patients have improved — especially the ones who’d felt overlooked or misunderstood by everything they’d tried before. I’m not claiming this approach solves everything for everyone. But looking at the body and the building together, through one multifactorial lens, has helped far more people than naturopathy alone.
And I want to say this as plainly and calmly as I can, whether you’re the one who’s unwell or the person trying to help them: there is usually an answer, and finding it does not have to be frightening or overwhelming. As a Low Tox coach, my whole approach is built on small, doable steps rather than fear or a “perfect” checklist. You don’t have to fix everything at once. You just have to start looking in the right place.
If any of this sounds like your story — or your loved one’s — I’d be glad to help you look at the whole picture. Book a consultation, and we’ll gently work through what your body and your home might be trying to tell you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a water-damaged building, and how do I know if mine is one?
A water-damaged building is any home or workplace that has had moisture where it shouldn’t be — a leak, a flood, rising damp, condensation, or plumbing issues — whether or not you ever saw visible mould. Common clues include past leaks or floods, a musty smell, staining or bubbling paint, previous plumbing problems, or symptoms that ease when you’re away from the building and return when you’re back in it. Because mould can begin growing within 48 hours, even a “minor” past event can matter.
Can a water-damaged building really cause chronic health symptoms?
Yes — for some people it can. Beyond obvious allergy-type reactions, ongoing exposure to mould and the other contaminants that come with water damage can contribute to fatigue, brain fog, headaches, respiratory issues, gut problems and more, particularly in sensitive individuals. Not everyone in the same building will react the same way, which is part of what makes it so easy to miss. If your symptoms have never been fully explained, your environment is worth investigating.
I’ve already seen lots of practitioners — how is a naturopath and building biologist different?
Most health practitioners focus on the body, and most building professionals focus on the structure — rarely do the two meet. My work sits at that intersection: I look at your symptoms and your environment as one connected picture. That combined lens is often what surfaces the missing piece for people who’ve tried many other approaches without lasting results.
Do I need to move house to get better?
Not necessarily. Moving is a big, stressful decision, and it isn’t always the answer — sometimes people carry their health burden with them, and sometimes an environment can be improved without leaving it. The right first step is understanding what’s actually going on, so any decisions you make are informed rather than driven by panic. That’s something we can work through calmly, together.
Where do I even start if I think my home might be making me sick?
Start by getting curious rather than alarmed. Notice patterns — do your symptoms change with location or season? Have there been past leaks or floods? From there, a consultation lets us look at both your health history and your environment, and map out small, manageable next steps. I offer general guidance across environmental factors including air, water and EMFs, though please note I’m not currently offering formal EMF assessments.