Mel Abbott

Following a head injury as an 18 year old, I spent 11 years on an invalid benefit with chronic fatigue and pain. I lay on the couch all morning and slept every afternoon from 3-6pm. I could barely walk up one flight of stairs, and wore a neck brace for six of the 11 years. I was assessed as 54% impaired by ACC and my cortisol levels were triple the normal healthy rate.

I was so scared that I would never recover and so sad for all the experiences I was missing out on in my 20s. I felt total despair when I was told by a chronic fatigue specialist that there was no cure, and I would have to “manage my symptoms” for the rest of my life.

But suddenly, aged 29, I made a full recovery in just two weeks!

I attended a 3-day mind-body course based on NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). From the first day of the course, I stopped having afternoon sleeps. A week later, I danced until 4 am.

Another week later, I knew I was all better!

The answer lay not in a magic pill but in using my own mind to calm my body’s stress response and allow my body to heal itself.

"If I ever recover, I will help others do the same.”

And that is exactly what I have done.

Over the past decade, I have fulfilled that promise, helping more than 3,000 people achieve remarkable results across a wide range of health conditions. With over 80% reporting great results, I am proud to have made a meaningful impact on so many lives.

In addition to working with individuals, I am passionate about advancing awareness of mind-body health.

I hold a BSc in Psychology from the University of Auckland and am certified as an NLP Master Practitioner from London. From 2018 to 2021, I served as President of the NZ Association of NLP.

I have had several TV appearances and I regularly present at the National GPCME Conference, where I was honored to be voted Best Speaker two years in a row (out of 200 speakers). My material has also been adopted as a resource at the University of Otago Medical School, helping students explore the potential of mind-body therapies.

In 2024, I am proud to be a Medallist in the Inspirational Woman of the Year Awards for changing lives in the mind-body arena.

I am a high-energy trainer with lots of positivity. I give a lot of encouragement (one client commented that he enjoyed my over-use of superlatives!). I am also a firm trainer who challenges people directly if they are doing patterns that are sabotaging their recovery (not always my most popular trait, though one that is usually appreciated in the long run). I am a careful observer of clients' body language, so that I can see when people have had a breakthrough and when they need more coaching and challenging. Having worked with so many clients, I have become a lot more intuitive at picking up underlying patterns that are the cause of each client’s illness.

Warm Regards
Mel Abbott

Founder of Empower Therapies
and creator of The Switch.

Certified NLP Master Practitioner
BSc (Psych), Dip.Clin.Hyp NLP Coach