Consultations

Treatment is tailored to your personal needs

I take a full case history, enquiring about your past medical history and well as the problem or problems which have brought you to me. These consultations initially last one to one and a half hours. Any physical examinations are carried out as appropriate e.g. pulse, blood pressure, tongue and nail examinations, iris diagnosis. Any changes in life style, which will help on the way to recovery, will also be discussed.

Detailed information is sought concerning your diet and any appropriate amendments suggested. This is a very important part of the consultation to aid diagnoses and recovery. A repeat consultation takes between half to one hour and normally takes place monthly to monitor the treatment’s progress.

Prescriptions

I stock at my Wolverhampton practice approximately 300 different Western, Chinese and Ayurvedic herbs. These are used skilfully, not just to eliminate symptoms, but to get to the core of an imbalanced state. We in the West refer to this imbalance as dis-ease (out of ease). It is at the end of a consultation when prescriptions are made.

Whenever possible I use freshly processed organic or wildcrafted plants for the maximum energetic effect, conservation of vital nutrients and for the sustainability of the planet. Since there is moisture content in fresh herbs I normally use them as fluid extracts i.e. 1:1 so that they are as potent as possible. Dried herbs are generally used as tinctures i.e., the herb is steeped in alcohol for two weeks and shaken daily to draw out their properties into the alcohol. The herb is then pressed and the liquid tincture stored in darkened bottles. Tinctures generally have a shelf life of at least five years.

The beauty of using tinctures is that the prescription can be made individually to suit a specific client. At a repeat consultation, one herb can be substituted for another if it seems appropriate and the amounts of each herb in a prescription can also be altered. This is a very flexible approach.

Herbs & Tea

Some herbs are pleasant to drink, e.g. lemon balm. With these, I either advise the client obtains it themselves in tea bag form or I can supply the dried herb(s) to make up as a tea. Several herbs can happily be blended in this way to make a very pleasant drink, which has the added advantage of being antioxidant and therapeutic in its action. Also for a person unable to take the herbs in tincture form i.e. extracted in alcohol and for unpalatable herbs which are unsuitable to use as an infusion (tea) I can grind up and supply these in vegetarian capsules. Spirulina is a good example of a blue/green algae powder which is highly nutritious, being rich in protein and can boost one’s immune system and regulate cholesterol and blood, but whose fishy taste is too unpalatable for most people to tolerate unless it is consumed in a capsule.