Dr Brenda Davies interview
copyright Victoria Mary Clarke 2002-07-14

Doctor Brenda Davies is a psychiatrist, but she is no ordinary psychiatrist. Freud would be horrified. When she was three, Brenda asked her mother why she was no longer black-she's a white woman from the northeast of England-and when her mother asked her what she was on about, she said that she remembered being black in a previous life, and living in Africa. And she sat on the floor, rubbing her arm where the black skin should have been, and crying. Despite, she says, otherwise being a very happy little girl. At the age of twenty eight, she emigrated to Africa with her husband and their two children. Because she wanted to live in the place where she had lived, in her previous incarnation as a Zulu warrior.

Did anybody tell her that she was mad? She laughs.

"No, I think they just thought it was a fantasy. Up in the northeast of England, we hadn't even seen anybody black."

Did her mother believe in previous lives?

"Not at all. She was Church of England. I just had this fantasy, and eventually my husband got a contract in Africa, and off we went, with all our possessions in a trailer and our two kids. When we got off the boat, I was immediately in tears and I had a pain in my chest. The further north we went, the more excited I became, but the more I had this pain. I really didn't know what to do. And then we got to Victoria Falls and I thought I was going to die, I was so excited and delighted. But I thought I was having a heart attack. And as soon as we got across into Zambia, I had this feeling of having come home."

She starts to cry, now and has to stop talking, for a few minutes.

"We got to a particular spot and I said I had to get out of the car. And I left Les and the kids and walked off into the bush and I suddenly realised that I had found the place where I had died, in that life."

Brenda desperately wanted to stay in Africa and persuaded her husband to renew his contract, even though he wanted to go home. Eventually, after ten years, she was dragged back to England by her family. She became desolate with grief, she says and very depressed.

"The kids were going to school, but I would have done almost anything to stay. It took me years and years to settle in England and sadly our marriage didn't survive."
Another reason why Brenda makes for an unusual psychiatrist is that she sees people's auras and chakras and hears the voices of spirits who have passed on. All of this information, she uses in her work, if the client is willing. She has known since the age of four that she would be using a spiritual dimension in her work. At that age, she met an angel, in her school playground.

"I suddenly became aware of this feeling of having love dripping out of me, which was very strange. I don't know any other way to describe it. And I couldn't move. Then I was standing in the light, even though it was a dull day and I looked up and saw a being made of light. And I knew that my life had changed because of it."
And what did she think it was? She doesn't hesitate.
"An angel."

Did it say anything?

"It communicated a sense of knowing. I knew that I was going to be doing some healing work. And I knew that I could see things, that at first I thought other people could see too."

What things?

'Colours around people. Chakras. Spinning lights, around people, like I can see around you now, if I want to. For a while it was all very confusing. I realised that everybody else couldn't do it."

Did she tell people?

"Yes. My sister thought I was absolutely crazy. They all thought I had a very active imagination. When I was eleven, I shut it off and I suddenly felt bereft. I had always been happy, until then and now I felt lonely. So, when I was sixteen, I became a Catholic. I loved the ritual and the incense and the Mass. But it wasn't what I was looking for. I realised that what I needed to do was just to chat with God. And when I did that, I got back the wonderful feeling."

How did Brenda go about using her gifts?

"My dad had epilepsy, from severe head injuries, in the war. I didn't meet him until I was five. The day he was coming home, my mum sat us down and said "Daddy's coming home today and I don't want you to be frightened, because he might still have stitches in his face." So I said I don't want to see him if he's got white cotton in his face! And I ran and hid behind a trunk in the sittingroom. And he came over to get me and I was terrified. But it was fine. And I came to be the one putting a wet cloth on his head, when he was having a seizure, I was the little doctor. And so I decided to become a doctor for real. And that's what I needed to be."

Brenda's vocation, she says, is to bring together orthodox medicine and spirituality. Jung would definitely approve, even if Freud wouldn't. She became a psychiatrist after having been treated for depression, following her marriage break-up, by conventional methods and having realised that orthodox psychiatry lacked any spiritual dimension.

She qualified, became a consultant psychiatrist and began to see clients regularly, only ever using conventional methods. But another psychiatrist persuaded her that it would be hypocritical not to introduce spiritual healing into the treatment that she was offering, seeing as that was what she believed had worked for her. Which outraged her colleagues. They demanded that she undergo a psychiatric evaluation, in order to assess her sanity. Brenda was found to be entirely sane, her clients were in favour of the new approach, and reluctant as she was to admit to her unorthodox gifts, she began to use them regularly and realised that she was building a reputation for doing so.

"It doesn't take long to teach somebody to make that connection, and to heal their lives in a way that they never thought was possible. And when they are aligned, they can see their lives from that perspective, and see what they have learned, and suddenly everything slots into place."

This sense of meaning and of a spiritual connection, Brenda believes, is what is missing in most people's lives. And is what allows people to let go of anger and hurt and move on to happiness, even in cases of the most severe abuse. Nowadays, she seldom sees individual clients, but instead tours the world, giving workshops and writing books. Her latest book is called "The Journey of the Soul"and is out now, published by Hodder and Stoughton. And this month, Brenda finally returns to live in Africa, where she is opening a school for healing. The money she raises will help fund a home for African AIDS orphans.

More info: www.brendadavies-collection.com