Your health. My care.
Herbal Medicine
What is Herbal Medicine?
Put simply, Herbal Medicine is the medicine. It is the reason we are all here - because our ancestors successfully treated their ailments with plant medicines. Today’s Medical Herbalists combine a comprehensive understanding of the body’s functioning with deep knowledge of the plants.
Western Herbal Medicine uses the plants which grow in UK, Europe and the US and whilst the traditions are less linear than Chinese or Indian practices, have nonetheless been around as long. As long as there have been plants and people, there has been herbal medicine.
My joy and great passion (aka my job!) is to bring you and your daily health experience together with the plants which will facilitate the health changes you need.
Journeying with me
The best results come from a beautiful synergy between us. That synergy is reflected in the blending of herbs chosen just for you. It also facilitates me in finding the right food and lifestyle habit changes for you, your life and preferences. I am a truly whole-istic practitioner and my ‘job satisfaction’ comes from finding the sweet spot of changes for your health requirements. I prescribe, devise and blend your prescription just for you, based on everything you tell me and as I dispense it, I imbue it with a vibrant, deeply healing intention.
This is where the magic starts…
To get to our desired change, we need to make change
Given the wonderful changes I have seen occur in my patients, it’s easy to think there is magic at play but your job is to be totally invested in your desired outcome. As, despite a sneaking suspicion of magic, the herbs alone are not a magic wand! It is true that we can acheive great symptom relief and health changes with the herbs alone. It is my experience that to create lasting, positive change, comes when the herbs are in combination with the other healthy changes we explore for you as well.
I love working with people who are genuinely ready to welcome change into their lives. It’s not always easy - we’ve developed our habits because we like them - but this readiness brings a wonderful energy to the exchanges we have. And that fosters an openness to receiving the herbs’ medicinal actions and a desire to experiment with other suggested changes.
Don’t worry, I won’t hit you with a complete life overhaul all at once! It’s about finding your readiness. This comes in the form of a food diary, doing a quiz about your accountability and taking one step at a time. Together.
There is no ‘one-size fits all’ answer (I wish I could tell you there was). But you already know that, as you’ve tried all the ‘this superfood/supplement/diet solves everything’ tricks on the net!
Between us, we will find the perfect combination for you with herbal prescriptions, food changes and lifestyle adaptations.
Herbal prescriptions
Creating prescriptions is a true joy and is where I find the alchemy and artistry of herbalism really comes to life. I will always ensure that the (reason I have chosen the) herbs resonate with you. This is a fundamental player in our creative trio of you, me and the herbs.
All-inclusive package - £654 (12 weeks)
Contains:
3x 1-2-1 appointments with me (total of 3.5 hours)
12 weeks of bespoke herbal medicines (1260ml of herbal tincture and 300g of herbal tea)
Food and lifestyle additions and tweaks
1x check-in appointment (30m)
Our first appointment is 90-minutes long and in-person. This gives us opportunity examine all the aspects of your past medical history and the symptoms you are experiencing in-depth and begin our journey of getting to know each other properly.
I want to know all about how you fuel your body, how you relax your body, how good your sleep feels and if you get enough for you and how you move your body.
Physical examinations such as taking your blood pressure happend during the first appointment.
After the appointment, I formulate your bespoke herbal prescription. You get an email detailing what I suggest and why.
When it comes to taking a tincture… “it’s really simple, you just pour out a measure, dilute it and pop it down the hatch! Job done” — Chloe, Mulberry Osteopathy
At the end of 12-weeks, I would expect you to have noticed significant differences in your health. You will have adopted some healthier habits and will be feeling healthier and more vibrant. We can now make a choice for continuing your forward health.
You’ve got the health changes you would like, confident to fly solo and manage your health.
You’ve made changes and wish to continue with the prescription. We can move to a prescription-only model with 6-monthly brief check-ins - you continue with the changes and manage your health yourself.
You’ve made great progress and you would like to continue with support for your health. We’ll discuss the best options for you.
More information about appointments…
Before your appointment
Before I see anyone for an appointment, we have a free online compatibility chat for 15-20mins. I believe that a good therapeutic relationship is key to a successful working relationship. This is when we can ‘suss each other’ out and decide whether we think that will be there.
Once we have agreed to work together, I will send you an email with a few things to do prior to our first appointment. I ask you to keep a 4-week food journal charting how you fuel your body and the symptoms you experience for 4 weeks. This gives us both an opportunity to see any emerging patterns and any missing nutrients.
The other things are:
a quiz about how you make changes
a detailed health questionnaire
an invoice for payment to secure your appointment slot.
During an appointment
The clinic
My clinic room is in my home. It’s a comfortable room with the full dispensary on display! Many comment it’s like a scene from Harry Potter. I tend to think of it as being like a 21st Century apothecary.
I have comfy chairs where we’ll sit and talk in private.
We devote all our time to exploring the reasons you have come to see me and how it affects you in your day to day life. As part of that, I will ask you to think back to when it started, whether other things were also happening, what else is associated with it and what you have changed to accommodate this experience in your life.
Physical examinations
With your consent, I will examine areas of your body including:
taking blood pressure
pulse and respiratory rate
and others such as listening to your chest and heart, or palpating your abdomen - dependent on your health concern.
If you have any test results from previous investigations, please have them available so that I can see them.
The prescription
During the appointment and at the end, I will check in with you on what I have heard from what you’ve told me about your experiences. I will tell you about herbs I have been thinking of and how they might act in your system and the outcomes I am choosing them for. This way, we choose what’s right for you together. You gain a sense of empowerment from participating and an understanding of the ways the herbs may act for you.
Some herbalists don’t reveal the herbs to their patients. I prefer to as this knowledge helps you to engage in your treatment and become invested in the outcomes you might anticipate.
Accessibility
Unfortunately, as my clinic is in my home, I have no waiting room and the toilet is upstairs. There are several steep stairs and a slope up to the front door. The parking is round the corner on Sempill Road. If you have mobility concerns, this may not be suitable for you and in that instance, we can consider an initial home visit.
After the appointment
Email and research
After our appointment, I will spend time researching further details around the condition you have, the potential herb:drug interactions for any medications you take and devising your lifestyle and herbal prescriptions.
I send you a detailed email outlining:
Herbs I have chosen and which actions I have chosen them for - Dr Google doesn’t know that
Suggestions for things you might do to begin to support the herb changes
I wll also invoice you and once you let me that the herbs prescription intentions sound good, you pay for them and I make them up.
The herbs
This is where the science of medicine meets the artistry and alchemy of herbs and this is the part which I consider to have just a little bit of magic. I love devising prescriptions, incorporating the health aspects you wish to change, incorporating your emotional health needs and choosing the herbs with several actions which make them just right for you.
Collecting your herbs
The majority of people collect their herbs from my doorstep. I have a wooden crate in the porch where you will find a bag with your name on it to collect at any time which suits you. If you prefer, I can post them to you. Postage charges incorporate the cost of postage and a fee for packing.
Taking the herbs
Taking your herbs with love and mindfully with the actions described in the email engages you, your mind and body in the process.
The taste
However you find the taste the first time, as you continue to take the herbs, the more you notice the positive changes occuring, the more you begin to appreciate their magic and the better you begin to find the experience. Read more about taking your herbs here