CELEBRITY
The Barefoot Doctor
Ancient wisdom for current concerns
Stephen Russell, better known as The
Barefoot Doctor, wasn’t always known
Keep your eyes open for
for his sense of calm. The 54-year-old
opportunities – whenever
author of several books including Pure
there is great movement,
says, “I was a real little tearaway at
whether towards boom
school. Always getting into scraps.”
or bust, there are more
By Eve Menezes Cunningham
opportunities
S
tephen started studying Aikido when he was 11. All his
classmates were adults but they influenced him positively.
“They were all interested in healing and channelling energy for
healing. I learned to meditate and started doing some yoga. My yoga
teacher was close friends with R D Laing, an amazing counter-culture
psychotherapist,” says Stephen. “He talked about accommodating your
own madness before thinking about others’. I spent three years studying
psychotherapy with RD Laing. And from Aikido, I went to Tai Chi. I
got interested in Taoism in general, Chinese medicine and acupuncture.
I trained as a doctor in Chinese Medicine.”
Stephen spent time travelling and studying. He learned about
Shamanism while living with Native Americans in New Mexico for four
years and kept looking for ways to apply what he was learning to the
world he knew here.
Since 1983, Stephen’s focus has been on helping stressed, busy people
fit some ancient wisdom and relaxation into their heavily scheduled
lives. Because he’d come from a musical family, he decided to use music
and visuals to make the information more entertaining. Drumming was
an important part of this.
He started calling himself the Barefoot Doctor because he says he
used to work barefoot: “Otherwise you’re getting sweaty feet in your
trainers. It’s humbling yourself in front of the patient, too. Barefoot
doctors in China were mostly women. They’d travel around the
country and give acupuncture and healing, making people’s lives more
comfortable and enjoyable. I had all the credentials to call myself a
Barefoot Doctor.”
Stephen continued to add to his toolkit. This included NLP and he
became friends with Paul McKenna. “It’s not the technique, it’s more
about the person practising it, expressing it,” he says. “I was presenting
something ancient and profound in a modern idiom. It had to be in a
light-hearted enough way to appeal to short attention spans. This was
the challenge. As an artist, I was developing all areas. My craftsmanship
was increasing.”
SPECIAL READER OFFER: For one month, Stephen is offering his eight week
He says his time with Laing taught him “to be aware of how
online training course in the Principles of Personal Power for just £187
everything’s connected rather than separated. So watching someone do
(normal price £307). This course is delivered in a series of 48 films and is
EFT I think, ‘OK, they’ve taken that from Chinese medicine’.”
backed up by text and audio. Visit
www.schoolforwarriors.com for more
As he looks back, he says, “I wish I’d known how to relax but then I information (and mention Rapport magazine when signing up).
wouldn’t have gone on this path to learn it. It’s been so exciting.”
24 | Summer 2009 - rapport
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