“The first meeting was incredibly valuable and gave me the confidence that I was quite self-aware, and I felt supported in that…”
Your first appointment helps to form the basis for your herbal treatment, and usually lasts between 1.5 to 2 hours.
On arrival, you’ll be given a warm welcome to my consulting room and offered a cup of your choice of beautiful tasting organic herbal tea (or simply water, if you prefer). We then settle into having a in-depth and relaxed chat about your current health needs and how you’re feeling at the moment, and work through your whole health history, from childhood, up to present day. In addition we’ll discuss your family health history and any medication you may be taking (as I’ll need to take these into account when making your herbal medicine prescription). We’ll also look at your eating habits (sometimes it’s good to make simple dietary changes to help improve your health) and your constitution (adding to the picture of who you are).
If you’re happy for me to do so, I also like to check your pulse and listen to your blood pressure at this first meeting, as it helps to add to the picture of your health, as whilst the readings themselves are important, you can also learn a lot about your body by the feeling the quality of the pulse, and listening to how the blood pressure sounds.
Sometimes, if you’re experiencing trouble with a particular body system, as I’m trained in clinical diagnostics, it can be additionally helpful to check that area of the body for you. So, for example, if you’re experiencing pains in your abdomen, carefully and gently examining the area with light palpation (touch) can help to understand what the issue is, just as having a listen to your lungs, or checking your peak flow readings would do, if you’re experiencing trouble with your breathing.
“I feel very much respected as an individual and an equal partner in the decision-making process…”
As I see the process of coming to see me as a “health partnership”, towards the end of the appointment, we discuss and confirm what you would like to achieve from the herbal medicine, to help to move you towards a greater state of health.
“I’ve never met such a good listener. Seriously!”
You will experience a relaxed and reassuring style to your appointments, and because of my own experience of seeing health professionals over the years, and having felt “hurried-along” by some, I am not one to “clock-watch”, nor do I charge extra if we end up talking for a little longer than the average appointment times (why should you pay more if your health history is a little more complicated than someone else’s?). I fully respect you and your health and I feel the best outcomes are gained by allowing you enough time to tell me your story. Every detail is important.
From all of the aspects of your health that we discuss and look at, in your first appointment, I am able to get a comprehensive, clear, rounded, “holistic” picture of you and your health, and consider potential underlying reasons for ill-health, so that I can then create a personally-tailored, bespoke herbal medicine prescription for you, in whatever form that may take. Usually (if you’ve come to my clinic), this is made up for you straight after the appointment, in the same room, and I like to tell you a little about each herb as I add it to your prescription, and sometimes let you smell them individually to allow you to understand more about them. This also gives you an extra chance to ask any questions that you might have thought of as we’ve been talking. We’ll also arrange a mutually agreeable time and date for your first “follow-up” appointment before you go, which is usually around 2-3 weeks later.
Home-visits
If I’ve visited you on a home-visit, as I don’t have a mobile dispensary, I’ll need to pop back to my clinic to make your herbal medicine prescription, and then either hand-deliver it at a pre-arranged time (if you’re within a 5 mile radius of Lincoln), or post it out to you in discreet, secure packaging, usually within two days of us meeting.
