What to expect during a Naturopathy consultation?
As a Naturopath, I utilise a range of natural therapies such as herbal medicine, nutritional medicine, dietary counselling, and lifestyle modifications.
I work alongside your doctor or any other health professionals to offer the best possible client-centred care. I will also focus on disease prevention and the influence of the environment, lifestyle, and emotions of your health. Naturopathy is suitable for people of all ages, and can alleviate a wide range of conditions.
Initial Consultation
During the initial consultation, I will take an in-depth look at your current health. I will discuss your health history, your current health challenges, and even your family history. The purpose of all this questioning is so that I can gather all the crucial information about your health concerns and goals, what’s going on in your body, and how it is reacting to your diet and lifestyle choices. This gives me a starting point from which we can monitor your progress against, and allows me to develop a treatment plan to offer you the results you need.
Whole health assessment
Once I have gathered the necessary information such as your health timeline and specific health goals, I will then review and assesses all the information gathered and discussed. During this time, I will create your treatment plan and Naturopathic prescription which will be emailed within 1-2 days of our consultation. The treatment plan outlines your health priorities and goals, as well as any dietary and lifestyle recommendations. Based on my findings, I may refer for pathology testing. Functional testing is available to assist in finding the underlying cause of illness. Pathology collection methods may include saliva, stool or blood.
The testing I can refer for may include:
Stool and gut health
Thyroid hormones
Sex hormones
Stress hormones
Nutritional status
IgG food testing
Heavy metals
Your prescription may also include a personalised liquid herbal formula, herbal tea or topical cream, and/or nutritional supplements in the form of tablets, capsules, or powders.
In some instances I may refer you to see another health professional as part of your treatment plan to complement your overall healing. For example, a Women’s Health Physiotherapist (WHP) is beneficial to see for anyone who is pregnant, in postpartum or even during preconception phase for personalised treatment on a range of conditions relate to the pelvic floor that affect the bladder, vagina and bowel.
Once you have had a chance to read over my starting Naturopathic suggestions you’re welcome to contact me for any clarifications on your starting plan.
How do I source my Naturopathic supplements?
Once you have a good understanding of the goals and aim of your treatment plan and prescription, you can source your supplements through my online practitioner only dispensary. Your prescription will be uploaded to this portal and all products you require for treatment will be posted directly to you within 7 days.
You may notice that I only prescribe ‘practitioner only’ supplements. These supplements are listed or registered on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods, so that means they are not available to purchase over-the-counter. Practitioner only supplements can only be supplied by qualified health practitioners before purchasing as they are of a much higher quality, and often contain a more concentrated dosage, than over-the-counter supplements.
How do I track my progress after the initial consultation?
I love to follow up with clients around 4 weeks after the initial consultation. This is to allow some time and space for you to implement some changes recommended in your treatment plan, get your pathology taken if required and for some changes within yourself to take place. Follow ups are to discuss how you have been since the initial appointment, address any changes that have taken place since commencing treatment, go over any pathology results from a Naturopath's perspective and update your personalised treatment moving forward. This is also a good opportunity to go over questions you may have in-depth. Future follow up timelines will depend how you’re tracking with your goals and changes, but generally may be 4-6 weekly at the start then spaced out as you feel better overall.
Once the initial concerns have been addressed, many client’s will do an annual health check-up and annual pathology test check-ins to ensure results and their health are still within an optimal range.
How long will it take for my health resolution to take place?
This will depend what your health concern is and how long you have had the health issue for. For many clients they start feeling positive results within a couple of weeks but can take a little longer in some cases. It is important to understand the healing process once the underlying cause of disease has been found so we can begin to heal the area that requires healing. Mostly clients start to feel good in the healing stage, but it is important to continue with your personalised treatment plan even if you feel better to ensure you have lasting results and do not relapse. My role as the Naturopath is to educate you on your health issues, what has triggered them, how it is going to be addressed from a Naturopath perspective and how we can ensure whole body health moving forward.