Anna Venables is an accredited auricular acupuncture and ear seeding expert specialising in supporting anxiety, weight reduction and ADHD. Anna has over 25 years experience and is the owner of MTAT, providing auricular therapy education, training and treatments – driving health and behaviour change, naturally. Here, she talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind what she does, the story behind her work, the fabulous services she offers, the challenges she has faced along the way, and her plans for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
In 1997, I became a young first-time mom. I wasn’t prepared. Not only for the sudden, relentless sleep deprivation, but the responsibility of a tiny life relying on me to be a perfect mother felt overwhelming.
Before my daughter was born, I worked in BBC TV Drama. My long days were shaped by TV scripts, filming schedules and fast-paced production life. But even though I found switching the demands of TV production with on-demand breastfeeding difficult, I knew I didn’t want to go back to my old life once she was here. I needed to find a way to work and nurture my daughter’s wellbeing, naturally.
That instinct led me to train in holistic therapies, and I qualified in reflexology and aromatherapy in 1999 and in 2002 in ear acupuncture. This ignited a 25-year and counting obsession with auricular therapy and a professional career in health (NHS and private) and education sectors, supporting the wellness of adults and young people.
How did you get to be obsessed with ears 25 years ago?
I was invited to support adolescents at Birmingham’s only young persons’ substance misuse service, HIAH, and became their Lead Complementary Therapist. Whilst at HIAH, I trained in auricular or ear acupuncture using NADA 5 point Protocol with John Tindall, a pioneer of the protocol in the UK. The protocol started out as being widely used for detoxification from drugs and alcohol. Now it robustly evidenced to also support cancer care and mental health.
Witnessing the rapid, often immediate onset of deep relaxation, calm and sleep that ear acupuncture brought about to clients was transformative. The treatments bypassed the need for language in a service demanding the retelling of personal trauma stories. Treatment process prioritised silent healing of trauma instead of repeated rehashing of it.
Watching the profound change in people’s states sparked my lifelong commitment to auricular therapy. I use ear seeds, a needle free non-invasive form of acupressure and auricular acupuncture to silently repair the burnt out nervous systems of clients and bring relief from what Bessel van der Kolk calls “gnawing interior discomfort” through an ear, brain, body connection. This connecting is backed by fMRI scans.
Tell me something surprising about how ears can support health naturally.
According to Mother of Auricular Medicine, Dr Li Chun Huang, our ears are a record of our medical file, past, present and future. She says, ‘It is as if your ear can speak for and express itself’. Your brain projects an imprinted map of your body and brain anatomy in the shape of an inverted foetus on the ears which are richly innervated by cranial nerves. Even removed organs and scars can show up as markings on the ears!
Learning to decode the language of the ears and interpret their meaning for health is simple, complex and important. It’s something I call Ear Talk. Noticing ‘diagnostic signals’ (Terry Oleson) on the ear helps us understand areas of dysfunction and create a more complete ‘jigsaw’ of our health picture (Romoli) for which we can seek medical advice.
