She now runs two other clinics in Cirencester and Kempsford and plans to celebrate a decade in clinical practice with an anniversary event with clients and friends once the lockdown is over.

The 54-year-old said: “Covid-19 or not, I do intend to virtually celebrate my 10th anniversary in business.

“It’s been a fantastic decade -long journey…”

“It’s been a fantastic decade-long journey of learning and development and I’ve seen during that time a much wider recognition of the benefits of working with a naturopath like myself.

“People are beginning to understand that it’s important to take a truly holistic approach to their health and seek natural ways to support the body’s return to health rather than find a quick fix to treat symptoms.”

“At junior school, I was referred to as ‘fattie’ on more than one occasion but as I grew older, I was always interested in sport and keeping fit and in food, cooking and eating well.”

Taking the plunge

Ms Peyton had worked as a procurement manager for BT in Swindon for 17 years but she’s always had a lifelong interest in nutrition.

She added: “When the opportunity came to take voluntary redundancy in 2008, I knew I wanted to work in the area of nutrition and I devoted myself to completing my training over the next year. I’d been studying part-time up to that point and that was the moment I was able to take the plunge.”

When Caroline qualified, she became a founding member of the Naturopathic Nutrition Association which is one of the professional associations for nutritional therapists. She specialises in nutritional therapy, gut and digestive issues and she’s an advocate of wellbeing in the workplace.

She added: “I’m fortunate to have spent 10 years helping people with all sorts of complaints from Irritable Bowel Syndrome through to the more serious IBD conditions like Crohn’s Disease. Whereas the medical profession is skilled at identifying these issues, they are often limited by what they can do other than deal with the distressing symptoms or, in extreme cases, carry out surgery. I seek to find the root cause and look at natural ways to dampen down the problems.

“In recent years there are more companies that are seeing the value of promoting wellbeing in their teams – from helping them to eat more healthily through to facilitating them to deal with very specific and individual difficulties. To date, I’ve worked with teams in Nationwide, Sodra Wood and TT Electronics.”

To see more of what Caroline offers visit www.peytonprinciples.com. You can contact Caroline directly on 07730 513303 or email caroline@peytonprinciples.com.