Better Mental Health with Natural Remedies

To book an appointment:

 

Please don’t book an appointment until you’ve read this terms and fees page so you can make an informed decision.
 
 PS if you live in Australia/Asia you probably won't see appointment times that work for you, if that’s the case email me for more time options.  

Is this the right therapy for you?
I don’t want to take your money if the services I offer are not a good fit for you.
The natural self-help therapies I offer, involve eating a very healthy diet, taking a lot of natural supplements and doing some brain training exercises, if this is not what you are looking for please do not book an appointment, if this is what you are looking for then I’d love to work with you :-)
 
We now know that the health of the brain can be significantly improved with diet and lifestyle treatments, in my practice I’ve seen when several of these approaches are combined together at the same time, all pulling in the same direction, it can produce a powerful therapeutic effect. Overcoming a mental health problem is more than just taking a couple of supplements, you must expect to have to work on your condition with a multi-pronged approach.
 
Healing the brain and overcoming a mental health problem often involves working on other areas of the body outside the brain such as gut health, managing stress responses, chronic inflammation and more, during the appointment we will discuss which of these applies to you and how to treat them.
 
Fees
The first appointment lasts from 90 minutes to 2 hours and costs £180.

After the appointment I develop an individual prescription of natural supplements based upon your individual health issues which you receive by email some days later. 

Follow-up appointments:
60 mins: £80
 (30 mins quick review or Q&A appointment (For previous patients only): £45, 

Payment is made by secure PayPal or credit card.  
 
Is this a good time for you to make changes and try something new?
Although I wholeheartedly believe that many people can do a better job using natural self-help therapy approaches I highly recommend up whenever possible you work with the assistance and support an appropriate local medical practitioner.
 
Remember the principle rule of medicine: “first do no harm”. I would hate for someone to miss-use the information I provide on my website or in an online consultation and come to any harm, please be safe, do not suddenly stop taking any medicines that you need to keep you safe.
 
Ask yourself is this an appropriate point in time for you to experiment with these self-help techniques? Do you have an adequate level of understanding or education? Do you have adequate support structures, coping strategies and self-awareness?
 
Are you booking the appointment for someone else?
If you are booking an appointment for someone else please read the information below.
 
Disclaimer (make an informed decision)
As a competent adult you are free to choose what you do with your own body and what medical treatments you use, I am only giving advice on how you could use natural self-help therapies and supplements if you chose to try them, any decision to change your medical prescription and try something else is entirely yours as an adult (or an adult caregiver/parent).
 
You are ultimately responsible for your own health and for gathering enough information and understanding to be able to make an informed decision before trying any new remedies or techniques.
By booking a consultation with me you are consenting that you are choosing to try these therapies and that you are wholly responsible for any and all consequences.
 
I’m not encouraging anyone to give up any conventional medication or treatments, if however you choose to try an alternative approach and want advice about how to do that, this is what I offer.
 
Unfortunately, scientific research into the effectiveness of these techniques is lacking and I am not able to make any specific claims of effectiveness.
I can say however that I use these methods to treat my own bipolar disorder and eradicate anxiety, I can also say there is quite sufficient scientific evidence to at least claim that we can at least improve our brain and mental health with natural therapy techniques including diet, supplements and meditation brain training exercises.
 
When you try alternative self-help therapies and supplements to treat any medical condition you are trying treatments with very little scientific research behind them, just because a technique has not been well researched does not mean to say it is not potentially effective, there are many treatment techniques that are effective but will never attract serious research funding because they cannot be patented and therefore there can be no financial return on the investment.
 
A lot of the advice I give is based upon my own personal experiences and observing the effect of different supplements  with my patients over 34 years of practice.  For example there are some scientific studies showing the Chinese herbal formula Xiao Yao San can have antidepressant effects, my expertise is knowing when to use this compared to another formula or single supplements such as Rhodiola or magnolia bark, which brands are reliably and how much to take; this expert knowledge is one of the main services that you are buying from.
 
In addition to understanding the natural supplements I also have a lot of experience in different psychotherapy techniques and how to match the right therapy for the right condition, and when to apply a specific therapy technique to match the phase of the treatment or condition; for example trying CBT therapy for anxiety before one has strengthened the back connections from the cortex to the amygdala is less likely to be effective.
 
I cannot give you an official medical diagnosis
Because I’m not a medical doctor I cannot give you an official diagnosis that you can use for insurance or work purposes, however, I have a lot of experience with understanding and interpreting these labels and the conversation we have may help you to understand or determine the right diagnosis for your condition; distinguishing between different types of anxiety for example you have bipolar type I bipolar type II.
We can also discuss the pros and cons of using these mental health diagnoses and labels, for me they’re just a starting point and never to be used as a negative limiting label.
 
Medicines Interactions
I have used natural remedies non-mainstream therapies to treat my own health problems since 1986, I wholeheartedly believe in self-help medicine and that these techniques are safe. I have never had a patient come to any harm by trying the techniques I use in my clinic and to the best of my knowledge they have no harmful side-effects when used properly. However, it’s possible for some of the remedies I use to produce harmful interactions when taken at the same time as prescription drugs, for example taking the amino acid tryptophan together with an SSRI antidepressant may hypothetically produce too much serotonin, or taking turmeric and a blood thinning medication like warfarin can make the blood too thin, and we must be very careful when using any antidepressants not to provoke uncontrolled maniac/hypomania in bipolar.
 
Just for the record I’m not a medical doctor
I am not a medical doctor, however, I have qualifications in naturopathic and functional medicine nutrition, Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, cognitive hypnotherapy and teaching meditation, before that I studied human sciences at University.
 
Refund policy:-
If you need to reschedule or cancel an appointment use the links in the confirmation email you received from Calendly and click the reschedule or cancel button.
  
No refunds are given after we have had the appointment.
 
Rearranged Appointments.
Appointments can be rearranged online for another date without charge, but please don’t do this more than once or twice, and give me as much notice as you possibly can.
Use the link in the confirmation email and select REARRANGE.
 
Missed Appointments
If you missed your appointment you can reschedule it for another date free of charge but to set up another appointment without being charged again I will have to send you a one-off appointment booking link. Please send me an email and text message to arrange this.
You can miss and reschedule appointments one or two times but please don’t abuse it otherwise I will refund your money minus a £15 charge and probably not accept further bookings.
 
Are you booking the appointment for someone else?
If you are booking the appointment for someone else an important question is does the other person want to do this type of therapy? Are they interested in changing their diet, swallowing handfuls of supplements every day and performing some meditation brain training exercises?
Obviously self-help therapy is only going to work if the actual patient wants to do it.
I often work with parents and caregivers, but you do need to consider how much of this type of therapy the actual patient will be willing/able to do.
 
Paying for someone else’s appointment: if you want to pay for an appointment for someone else there are two ways to do this:-
1. Book an appointment yourself any time (a few weeks out in the future) and pay for an appointment, then forward the confirmation email and texts to them. They can then go to the diary page and select REARRANGE to choose a time that suits them.
2. You could enter the other persons name, email address and phone number into the appropriate fields and then book the appointment any time (a few weeks out into the future), pay for it and then the other person can simply rearrange the time using the information they received on the confirmation email page. I haven’t had anyone test this second method, it may not work because PayPal and your credit card may detect the conflict between the email addresses and phone numbers they have on file versus the ones you are entering to make a booking.