A Twickenham woman has visited Malaysian Borneo four times in three years to provide holistic therapy to sun bears.
Network and security consultant Claire Thompson, 45, uses her allotted holiday to provide holistic care at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre.
She first visited the sanctuary in Sabah, Borneo, on a trip to see her sister who works in marine conservation, and entered holistic animal care to be a better owner to her cat, Donut, whom she met in a sanctuary in Cyprus in 2013.
Thompson said: “I fell in love with the bears.”
Holistic therapy is an umbrella term for treatments which consider the mental, physical, and spiritual factors influencing an individual’s well-being.
Treatments include Reiki and quantum touch, two energy healing techniques Thompson uses on the bears.
Thompson sees herself as a facilitator, allowing the bears to self-medicate by providing them with a range of essential oils and plant extracts.
She said: “It’s 100% an animal’s choice – that’s the magic of it.”
Found in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, Sun Bears are the smallest bear species at 70cm from the shoulders, and are often confused with dogs.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has listed Sun Bears as threatened due to heavy deforestation, poaching, and wildlife trade in Southeast Asia.
Orphaned cubs whose mothers have been poached are often traded as pets.
The BSBCC currently look after 43 Sun Bears with traumatic backgrounds who need rehabilitation before they return to the wild.
Two of the bears include Noah, aged nine, who came to the BSBCC dehydrated and with four of his milk teeth crushed, and the recently deceased Kukoton, who was kept as a house pet in a small cage for four years.
BSBCC bear care officer Jacquelyn Jill Jepiuh, 29, was initially sceptical about holistic care but changed her mind after seeing Thompson carry out her sessions.
She said: “It is obvious when she manages to break through that wall, which allows the bears to be calm and less stressed.”
These practices particularly worked for Kwong, aged three, who struggled to leave his cage and explore the forest enclosure.
By providing a food trail and spraying the path with Valerian, an essential oil Kwong found calming, Thompson and the team gave him the space to visit the enclosure confidently.
Thompson’s favourite bear, whom she calls her spirit bear, also benefited from her sessions.
Along, 14, is one of the more anxious bears in the sanctuary and would often pace frantically around his cage and deliberately hurt his head from bumping it against the walls.
Thompson provided Along with essential oils and minerals, and he would indicate which ones would calm him down.
Through their sessions, Along gradually became more relaxed, slowed himself down, and stopped himself from pacing.
His favourite oils are orange blossom and peppermint.
Thompson said: “I feel in his heart and his soul that he is the most gentle, loving bear.”
Thompson’s work is not a substitute to veterinary care, but an addition.
Laura Ann Saunders, 26, is a PHD Candidate in comparative and evolutionary psychology at the University of Portsmouth, focusing on the rehabilitative behaviours of wild animals.
Saunders was an affiliated researcher at the BSBCC between 2022 and 2024 where she first met Thompson and took an interest in her work.
When considering the usefulness of holistic care at the sanctuary, Saunders said: “A personal and holistic approach is definitely needed.
“All of these bears are completely unique – we need multiple methods to support them, it’s not biologically rooted anymore.”
BSBCC CEO and founder Doctor Siew Te Wong, 56, is fully supportive of Thompson’s holistic animal care as well.
Dr Wong said: “My thought is: Why not? What if it works?
“If we don’t try to believe in it, there is no chance at all.
“If we take the opportunity to believe this and practice this, if it works, then it is wonderful.”
Thompson also runs a holistic therapy business for pets in Twickenham named Animal Stories and in the next couple of weeks, she will make her fifth trip to Borneo.
When it comes to future plans, Thompson said: “If I’m really being honest with myself, I would love to be an expert in this area.
“I really do think we can make a difference for wild captive animals.
“I don’t feel that they should miss out on healing because of what humans have done to them.”
The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre opened in 2008 and became open to the public in 2014.
Feature image: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre
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