The Consultation process
An initial consultation can take up to 90 minutes. During this time the practitioner is seeking to understand the nature of the disease or problem by considering its origins, the symptoms themselves and the way they affect your life. In order to make an accurate prescription we also need to develop a sense of your underlying constitutional health and hence ask questions about your energy levels, body temperature, bodily functions and sleep patterns.
We also need to understand you a little; what makes you tick, at what pace you live life, what you’re drawn to in life. All these things have a strong relationship to how you experience and manifest disease. We also find that dreams can sometimes provide a strong indication for a suitable remedy. Lastly, we may ask you about your favourite colour-extensive work has been done in Germany about homeopathic remedies and colour affinity and it’s helped us immeasurably in our practice.
We may also ask to examine visible physical symptoms such as inflamed throats, ear conditions, and skin conditions. We may also ask to look at your tongue, facial lines and colour, and the condition of your nails and hair, in order to assist with the diagnostic process. In some instances we will ask to take your pulse and blood pressure.
Consultations for children and babies
If you are bringing a child for treatment we may also ask about favourite games, animals and places, make believe wishes, and relationships both at school and at home. These are useful indications of the temperament of your child which assists us in our selection of the most appropriate medicine.
If you are bringing a baby for a consultation we will ask you about the pregnancy, labour and the early days of life. We will also want to know about sleep patterns, feeding patterns, digestive processes and temperament.
Analysis and Diagnosis
The main part of a consultation is about gathering information to gain understanding and insight, the latter part of the consultation is about analysing that information in order to make a prescription and other recommendations. As part of this process we will be looking at books and computers, this is standard homeopathic practise. We utilize several thousand different medicines at The Natural Medicine Centre and it simply isn’t possible to retain all of this information in our heads.
Whilst we don’t make a standard medical diagnosis we may make an energetic assessment based on the five elements system.
A note on confidentiality
A homeopathic consultation is an intimate process and as such it’s important to acknowledge that the information you share with your practitioner is respected and kept confidential. That said, some of the practitioners at The Natural Medicine Centre are also educators at local teaching colleges and internationally amongst the professional community. We may seek your permission to record a consultation for teaching purposes. We request that you give this due consideration and feel at liberty to decline if you feel uncomfortable in any way.