It was in childhood illness that the seeds of her passion for health were sown. She suffered from stomach aches, fatigue, migraines and, eventually, panic attacks. So severe were the problems that, by age 30, she could hardly crawl out of bed without an elaborate ritual.

"Everybody had said to me you have to live with it," she says.

"I really always felt there's a greater picture, there's something else out there."

That something materialized when a friend spotted a bruise Ms Weinberg acquired at karate practice and suggested the herb arnica as a remedy.

After a single visit to a naturopath, she felt better. "I felt totally elated. My life had changed," she says.

Ms Weinberg dove in, reading everything she could about homeopathic medicine, herbal remedies, and reiki, a reflexology-like technique aimed at channeling healing energy.

She began treating her own family, eating healthy foods and went back to school for three years to become a homeopathic doctor.

"I'm living a healthy lifestyle and I'm kind of in maintenance right now," says Ms Weinberg, who has now been practising for eight years.

Her husband, Jeff, and her two university-age children, Evan and Staci, have been supportive of her efforts, she says.

Moreover, she has seen how genetics factor in, having found out her mother, a Holocaust survivor, was once known as a healer in her native Poland.

These days, Ms Weinberg works out of a home office, another downtown and with Thornhill's Soul Spa studio. Her business card can barely contain the long list of skills she now possesses, but that list is growing longer still.

Ms Weinberg is launching The Feel Good Company, a line of bamboo fibre athletic wear. An avowed foodie, she is also behind a new line of vegan cookies.

But most significant has been the completion of a three-year effort to write Go Forward, an autobiography. "This has been a profound year. It's an extension of what I do," she says.

"It's my story of how I got to now. All about my trials and tribulations from childhood on."

The book is written with the same light, humorous, passionate tone she uses when she talks, Ms Weinberg says.

"It was so healing for me to be able to write it and say I can share this and also look at the pages and know I lived through it," she says.

Attitudes towards her areas of interest have changed over the years, with natural remedies becoming more common and yoga becoming a popular form of fitness and meditation.

Ms Weinberg admits even she was nervous when she began her explorations.

"I needed to grow with it. I need to understand it. Now, I'll pull out my pendulum anywhere," she says with a laugh, about her energy balancing tool.

Her initial training was in graphic design and marketing, both of which have served her well in getting her new self out there.

"Life is all about lessons and I've learned a lot of lessons, I've been involved with a lot of pain, a lot of sorrow, a lot of fear, it was the terrain from birth. And I just see it all coming into such a wonderful place and understanding and helping people. It's fantastic."

For more information, visit www. roseaweinberg.ca or order Go Forward at www.chapters.ca