With my husband Duncan and son Mani, Summer 2017
My story starts on a farm in Southland, where I was more often found outdoors than in. My love of the outdoors continued and as an engineering student I learnt to kayak and any free time was spent exploring the wilder parts of New Zealand. It seemed only natural that my OE took me to the Western US, kayaking, skiing, biking and horseriding, much of it with a Southern Colorado kayaking cowboy. He introduced me to John Milton from The Way of Nature and before returning to New Zealand in late 1996, I joined John on one of his nature retreats, which included 7 days camping on my own at the base of the Colorado mountains.
I gained a lot more from this experience than I expected. The ponderosa pine literally held me as I cried and the termites entertained me. I can still see the look of pure love from the deer that graced my site, and I learnt more about the flow of life from that small creek than I had kayaking any river.
I also really got how one way my love affair with Nature was – Nature gave, and I took.
John also introduced me to the work of Paul Hawken who had just written The Ecology of Commerce. I could now see how business can be a vehicle for positive change and that this was my path.
Fast forward over 20 years, I’ve co-founded and exited a technology business and I’ve been involved in several other tech-related start-ups, both here and in America.
In 2014 I founded Love and Care Ltd, to apply my skills in technology and business with my love of the environment. I’m also currently the part-time Strategic Advisor for TrustaBit, a California based company developing a flight disruption management solution, harnessing the power of blockchain and smart contracts to improve the customer experience; part-time Business Advisor to The Formary, focusing on their Used to Usable textile reuse programme.
I was recently a Fellow with Cohort 4 of the Edmund Hilary Foundation – you can read more about my story here.
Qualifications and memberships
Henry the tuatara – at Invercargill Museum. Tuatara’s are born with an open third eye.
- Deborah’s qualifications and memberships include
- Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Canterbury in 1990. (registration obtained in 1994)
- Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from 2001 to 2006 (approx).
- Post Graduate Diploma in Design from Massey University in 2006.
- Reiki Master – 2006.
- Graduated with a Diploma in Facilitation from Zenergy 2007.
- Way of Nature - Student since 1996; Guide in-training since 2015.
- Graduate of the Constellation Facilitator Learning Programme (2014-2015) through the Human Systems Institute.
- Member of the Institute of Directors
- Member of Bay of Plenty’s Enterprise Angels
- Member of Sustainable Business Network
- Member of Blockchain NZ
Personal Journey
HOME AFTER MY 28 DAY WILDERNESS SOLO – OCT – 2015
The Way of Nature has been foundational in Deborah’s personal development, with the WoN 12 Principles now integral in how Deborah lives. Here she is being welcomed home by her family in October 2015, having been away for 6 weeks. 28 days of these were spent on her own in the high mountains of Colorado. She refers to this time as the “unfolding of the aspects of my being”. She told her husband if felt like she had a new operating system installed and she wasn’t sure if the old programmes would still work!
In addition to WoN, discovering Family and Relational Constellation Therapy in 2012 has taken things to a new level in terms of understanding and healing her own “stuff” and empathy for others peoples lives. It furthered her understanding of how we hold memory in the body and how healing is more than a cognitive process. She undertook extensive Constellation Facilitator training with Joanne Chartrand and Dyrian Benz in Santa Barbara in 2013-2014, and with Jane Peterson in Portland, 2014-2015, with a particular interest in what this method offers to business organisations.
Deborah is also a reiki master and is open to other healing modalities. Deborah has a strong community of healers and teachers in her life and is enthusiastic in supporting others find what works for them in the plethora of resources available. “Each has their own path”.