Pat Kitto - Co-Founder of the Totnes Natural Health Centre

Portrait and interview - 1991 

Pat has strong connections with the Totnes area, having been involved in various occupations at Dartington Hall School, whilst her husband Dick, was secretary to four headmasters.  They arrived at Dartington in 1951 intending to stay for just one year, but became so captivated by the amazing and revelatory methods of teaching, which was of great interest to them both, that the year stretched to twenty-five.  During the last three years, they were involved in setting up, together with Royston Lambert, an experiment in education in Conisbrough, a mining community in Yorkshire.

On her retirement from the school in 1976, Pat decided to investigate the ideas she had for creating a Health Centre.  With the help of twelve other people, her vision was eventually realised, and the Totnes Natural Health Centre was opened on 24th September 1978, the first of its kind in the UK.

‘I didn’t know how to go about setting one up, so I advertised for anybody interested in a scheme, to come to a meeting which I called ‘Towards Total Health’.  I expected about fifteen people certainly not the hundred that came from as far away as London and Cornwall.  The eagerness that night was tremendous and showed what a great need there was for such a scheme.’

It was agreed at the meeting that whilst they looked for premises, they should start educating themselves on all the various aspects of health.  An evening class was set up with fifty people on the register.  Twice weekly, a doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, Samaritan or a counsellor would come to address the largest of the three groups.  These sessions were then each followed by a lengthy question time, which created tremendously vital meetings and offered great insight into the nature of the speaker’s work.

The Health Centre’s first site was in Castle Street in the building which is now Castle Electronics.  During those early days, one person held the desk and the other person saw the clients.  The Centre moved to two more properties before settling into its present premises above the National Trust Shop on the Plains in 1988.  As a registered charity, the aim of the Centre is to offer treatment and information about natural therapies and all aspects of health and wholeness, working in co-operation with the NHS and Social Services.  Therapies currently available include healing, herbal medicine, counselling, acupuncture, homeopathy, hypnotherapy, osteopathy, reflexology, shiatsu, psychotherapy etc., with each therapist being a fully qualified member of their professional body.

Pat was also connected to the Bristol Cancer Help Centre, founded by Penny Brohn, Christopher Pilkington, Pat Pilkington and Dr Alec Forbes.  She worked there as a part-time counsellor for four and a half years.

After leaving the Bristol CHC, Pat set up her own practice in counselling, working mainly with cancer patients, teaching deep relaxation and visualisation.  She also works with people suffering from life threatening illnesses, runs workshops and practises as a healer.  Pat is Vice Chairman for the National Federation of Spiritual Healers for Devon and Cornwall.

Pat was born in 1916.

Pat was insistent that I only use natural light for the 'shoot' which I found to be totally in-keeping with her life's work and ethos.  

Update: Pat died in Totnes in 2004.