Lua McIlraith S.R.N. M.I.R.I

Lua trained as a nurse at St Vincent’s Hospital Dublin. She subsequently worked in London at Guy’s Hospital and the Harley Street Clinic. She then went to work in Boston at the "Robert Breck Brigham Hospital" which was the Harvard University centre for Arthritis Research. She has lived in the Philippines and Ethiopia where she was heavily involved in the provision of health advice on a voluntary basis to the Diplomatic community and also worked for the American Embassy in South America as a nurse practitioner. She was drawn to Reflexology having personally experienced it’s benefits, and decided to transfer from orthodox medicine to Complementary Medicine believing that in the not too distant future both types will be compatible. She graduated from the Beaumont Institute of Complementary Therapies in 1995.

She has done numerous Reflexology Post graduate courses including Advanced Techniques, Vertical Reflexology Therapy, Reproductive and Maternity Reflexology and care of clients undergoing treatment for cancer.

From 1999 to 2002 she was Chairperson of the "Irish Reflexologists’ Institute" an as current Vice-chairperson is still very involved in the ongoing talks with the Department of Health and Children regarding Statutory Regulation of Reflexologists. This proposed legislation will be designed to ensure that Reflexologists are trained to the highest possible standards and that those standards are maintained by ongoing education.

Having come from a teaching family (both parents, both grandmothers, and assorted aunts and cousins) she has always been interested in education and in recent years the whole concept of Adult Education. With the advent of long distance learning it seemed the right time to get involved in what is now being called " blended learning" a combination of regular classes and long distance.