The Consultation in Phytotherapy the Herbal Practitioner's Approach to the Patient

Description

The Consultation in Phytotherapy considers the means by which the herbal practitioner can seek to appreciate the patient's predicament. Written for both herbal medicine students and practitioners, the book takes a radical approach, challenging readers to reflect on the nature, scope and methods of the consultation in herbal practice. The author asserts that the effective consultation represents a therapeutic act in and of itself, and proposes strategies for maximising and realising this therapeutic potential. The book provides both a complement to, and a critique of, mainstream texts on clinical diagnosis and case management. It contrasts the herbal consultation with that occurring in conventional medicine and offers rationales, arguments and tools aimed at developing an enhanced capacity to achieve profound results in the herbal clinical encounter.

Table of Contents

Dedication
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Chapter 1: Phytotherapy in context
Chapter 2: The therapeutic relationship in phytotherapy
Chapter 3: Aims and structure of the consultation
Chapter 4: On profiling and diagnosis: appreciating the patient’s predicament
Chapter 5: History-taking: hearing the patient’s story
Chapter 6: Physical examination and clinical investigation: other ways of knowing
Chapter 7: Concluding the consultation and providing ongoing care: coherence and continuity

Appendices:

A1: Self care
A2: Interprofessional communication
A3: A note for students

Index

Author Information

By Peter Conway, Dip Phyt, MNIMH, MCPP, DTM, Cert Ed, Praticing herbalist and teacher, UK

Peter Conway is a practising medical herbalist and has been involved in developing and teaching on several BSc and MSc courses in herbal medicine. He is the President of the College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy and a Director of the European Herbal and Traditional medicine Practitioners Association. Peter helped draft the National Professional Standards for Herbal Medicine and sat on the Department of Health Steering Group on the Statutory Regulation of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine.