In this episode of THE+TRIBUTE, we meet Vicki from Great Barrier Island, whose life of travel, teaching and forest guiding was upended by severe health issues following her Pfizer vaccination in May 2021.
“Before I took the vaccine, I was actually living the life of my dreams. I was doing the work that I loved with a passion. I was really stepping into my gifts, right out of my comfort zone to do that. But I felt like I was flying.”
In her late 50s, she discovered forest therapy, a therapeutic practice born in Japan known as shinrin-yoku or forest bathing. Training in the United States as one of the first guides outside Japan and the US, she brought this gentle art back to New Zealand.
“I love to go out into nature and just be present with it and to discover the beauty and the joy in the little things.”
She watched it grow, mentoring others and leading sessions that encouraged presence with the natural world. When COVID-19 hit and vaccines rolled out, Vicki felt the pressure in her tight-knit community. The head nurse framed it as now or never, and travel, a cornerstone of her work, seemed impossible without it. Despite a history of chronic fatigue syndrome (M.E.), which made her immunologically vulnerable, public messaging insisted people like her needed the jab. Her homeopath warned against it— but Vicki felt healthy and able.
“I thought, right, okay, I’m just going to go get this done. And at that stage, I was feeling probably the most well and healthy that I had felt in years.”
She got the shot on May 28, 2021. A few days later, headaches and brain fog set in. Ten days post-vaccination, while teaching online, disaster struck.
“I looked at my page and things were not making sense. I was reading words, but there was complete brain confusion around them. It was just a very odd sensation. And I didn’t know where the heck I was. I didn’t know what I’d said. I lost all memory of the whole morning that had preceded this, and I was in a state of total confusion.”
Her US colleague suspected a stroke, took over the Zoom class, and coached her for three hours until help arrived. Vicki was helicoptered to Auckland Hospital with blood pressure at 200 over 125. Doctors suggested she had experienced a transient global amnesia episode. From there, her health deteriorated into central nervous system dysfunction: headaches, body pain, chronic fatigue and more.
The changes were profound. Vicki had to step down from online teaching due to screen triggers. She now does limited in-person mentoring, planned around low energy as her body craves rest.
“I still find I have quite a lot of resistance to living a life that’s horizontal, because that’s actually what my body wants to do all the time. I still have such a zest for life. I can’t lose that. I’ve been down the bottom of the rabbit hole with this and got very depressed and incapacitated — it was like my whole world had closed in, and I ain’t going to go there again.”
Vicki chose to reframe her ordeal not as defeat, but as an invitation for profound inner work. The enforced stillness allowed for deep meditation she had previously skimmed over in her busy life, and she also chose to foster tenderness and self-care. She is learning to listen to her body.
“I’m still learning how not to push myself through to getting tasks completed. That’s a difficult thing for me, if I start something, I want it done. And my tendency is to push through and then I just crash, I collapse. So it’s a process of learning to listen and say, ‘Okay, you need to go sit down now.’ And giving myself permission to do that.”
Nature remains a lifeline and her sanctuary.
“One of my strategies is going out into nature. Getting my feet in the ocean. Starting my day off with that is just the best thing I can possibly do. Even taking a quick dip, like a skinny dip when no one’s around, it just really revitalizes my whole body and gives me that sense of, ‘wow, life is amazing’, even if it’s only fleeting. But I know it’s there and I know it’s possible.”
She delved into neuroplasticity and psychoneuroendocrinology, retraining her brain to diminish damaged pathways and bolster those promoting hormonal balance and well-being. Spiritually, it became a quest for grace amid suffering, moving through pain without denial, and using it as a catalyst for growth. She consistently works to reframe the experience.
“I’ve always had this thing inside me that knows there is more to life than this body. There’s more to life than just the things that happen to me. I have this strong desire to, not only survive, but to thrive. And I have been in survival mode, but to thrive and, to find my joy. Because I see so much beauty around me. And I think life is a gift—it really is.”
Through it all, Vicki unearthed new gifts in adversity. She learned to receive help, balancing her empathic giving nature. Digging deep, she affirmed her soul’s evolution, while holding space for others’ as well.
“It has provided an opportunity to dig really deep to get to the essence of me, who am I? What am I here for?”
Vicki calls for accountability: vaccine exemptions for any reason, compensation for ongoing costs—she spends hundreds monthly on health, now unsustainable without income—and she wants an apology.
“I would like the government and the Ministry of Health to apologize. Just accepting some responsibility. And I think that would go a hell of a long way for many of us. Just saying sorry—we got it wrong.”
Today, Vicki continues on a slow but steady path forward. It’s a gradual process to see lasting gains in her physical health, but she is experiencing meaningful improvements in her mental well-being. She focuses increasingly on brain retraining, neuroplasticity, and mind-body approaches, supported by helpful online groups.
“There is really good science behind this about how and why this works for many of our chronic wacky issues that the average Medics have no answers for.”
She understands her symptoms as signals from a dysregulated nervous system—triggered by the vaccine and stuck in chronic fight-or-flight—rather than enemies to fight. Acceptance, deep self-listening, compassion, and allowing joy guide her daily life now. At 67, old habits shift slowly, but she takes gentle, tentative steps on this healing journey.
Vicki reflects on sharing her story:
“I want to thank you again for your willingness to share my story through video – it was a pivotal experience for me to speak my truth that day, to be truly listened to and to begin to take charge of my ongoing recovery journey.”
The team at The Tribute wishes Vicki strength, peace, and continued progress in reclaiming her life.
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