As a Herbalist, it takes many years of learning, mixing, smelling, tasting, looking and comparing the quality of herbs in their natural raw form to establish in depth herbal knowledge. A thorough understanding of the relationship between the botanicals: roots, twigs, leaves, seeds, fruits is paramount. From here, we can source the highest quality of herb as a priority.
The flavour of the herb, thermal quality, nature, function, how it affects Qi, yin, yang, blood, spirit and indications of use, help guide a herbalist to how and when to use the herb. Formulating a herbal prescription is like blending the perfect ingredients for a recipe; all the elements are required to blend in harmony.
Similarly, a well harmonised herbal prescription aims for the best possible ingredients to create the best possible result to address the condition. How the herb reacts within our client’s body and whole system, is where the fun begins, but that’s after all the stringent work that has already taken place to get it to this point.
Formulas often need to be tweaked along the way as the body changes and the body-mind system also begins to harmonise and regulate. This is the beauty of an individual herbal prescription that is tailored to consider your unique constitution. It’s certainly easy to use a patent formula off the shelf, as opposed to an individually prescribed formula, which is specific to your body's needs, however the benefits are obviously less optimal.
There is also great merit in including acupuncture with herbal treatment. The beauty of combining herbals with acupuncture is that we’re able to work deeper on the root cause of disharmony, the constitutional factors, and the branches, which is where the symptoms of the condition present.
This is basic 101 holism at its best.
