About Dr Vav Simon DC AMC MMCA MCC

Vav has been healing since she can remember being on her uncle's farm as a little girl. While the other children were asked to find the chicken's eggs or clean the horses' tack, she would be given the broken animals to fix. "She's got the way with her", they said.

Ever since, she has had horses, dogs and cats of her own. Usually, they would find their own way to her - needing care and healing, and would then stay.
 

Professional Associations

• Registered with General Chiropractic Council, required by the profession, renewed annually

• Member of McTimoney Chiropractic Association, renewed annually

• Past Chair of the Animal Sub-Committee, McTimoney Chiropractic Association, three terms

• Member of Faculty of Animal Chiropractic, Royal College of Chiropractors, renewed annually

• Committee Member, Faculty of Animal Chiropractic, Royal College of Chiropractors, three terms

• Vav has also trained and practiced as a teacher, and holds the FETC qualification

What People Say About
Vav and her team

She trained in massage and then chiropractic to become a freelance professional. She rapidly became known for her direct manner and her answer to skepticism about natural therapies from both owners and professionals.

Some of the secrets of Vav's success lie in her use of all her senses, her long experience  of the 'situations' that develop with animals, and her acute understanding of the animals themselves.

Vav was brought up with animals – there was always a dog in the house, and she got her own when her children arrived. She was first sat on a horse at the age of 18months, learned to ride at two and was riding independently at four. She competed in 3-day events through Pony Club, and bought her first horse at 14. She was bringing on horses to sell by the age of 15, having worked on her uncle’s farm breeding Clydesdales and smaller family horses. She has been rider, groom, breeder, nurse and rough-rider before becoming a therapist.

Vav at work: well-splashed
by a swimming dog!

She has practiced on the Isle of Wight over the last ten years, successfully developing her own visiting chiropractic business. She is a fully trained, qualified and registered chiropractor working with both humans and animals. She has occupied senior positions in the national committees of her two professional associations. For years, she lectured, tutored and examined on the course that trained her (the only one in the Northern Hemisphere).

She also works closely with senior colleagues in other disciplines – for instance, she has contributed to the effort to overhaul the law on Complementary Health treatments for animals, as organised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. She was invited to give the first lecture on healing at the annual conference of the vets Natural Therapies Association.

Vav always wants to improve the service available to animals. From research, she discovered that hydrotherapy works wonders for dogs in a variety of situations. After two years of successful hydrotherapy work, she had to close the facility because it was not paying for itself, and she refused to compromise her standards of excellence by cutting corners. It is such a shame, as it exceeded her expectations as a therapy, but it just could not be justified.