Homoeopathic Consultation
The first homeopathic consultation for a chronic condition takes 1-1½ hours. During this time your case history is thoroughly taken - physical, mental and emotional symptoms are all taken into account along with personal tendencies, past medical history and family history, general energy levels, diet, sleep, and lifestyle along with any complaints and details of how you experience them. This is to gain an in-depth understanding of your complete state of health.
Finding out about you, the way you live are important. Anything you say will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Treatment Length
In chronic conditions or acute conditions that occur regularly the nature of the condition and the length of time it has been experienced can change how often you will need to see the homeopath. Generally you will visit twice in the first month and then once every three to four weeks depending on the developments experienced in your condition.
Acute Conditions
A visit to treat an acute condition i.e. a cold, flu or sprain may take as little as 20 minutes and requires much less detail.
Questions asked during a consultation will cover:
- Location – where does it hurt?
- Cause – was there a trigger do you know of any triggers or causation?
- Modalities – does anything make it better or worse?
- Concomitant- are there other symptoms that occur at the same time?
Ongoing Support
Leah provides ongoing support to her clients and encourages regular contact by phone or email to keep track of the treatment progress. During an acute illness Leah will be in touch with you every day until the condition improves.
Follow up visits
The first follow up appointment may be three to six weeks after taking the initial remedy depending on your individual circumstances. Subsequent appointments will vary between 2½ to 4 months but are dependent on your condition. This will ensure that you receive the best Homoeopathic Care.
Consultation for children
If a consultation is for a young child or infant, the homoeopath will be interested in the mother’s physical and emotional state before and during the pregnancy; the pregnancy and the birthing experience; vaccines given and any reactions that took place; the time it took for the infant to reach milestones i.e. teething, walking and talking, and the presenting complaints.
Consultations for older children and teenagers
If the consultation involves discussing any sensitive issues such as behavioral problems, trauma, grief or other sensitive issues then it is best for the parent to make a short appointment before the initial consultation with the child or to bring a friend or family member to the appointment to take the child out for part of the consultation to allow for a discussion in private.
Taking the remedy
After taking a remedy you may experience a range of responses.
- An immediate improvement of physical and mental symptoms
- An increased sense of well-being although physical symptoms still remain
- A return of old symptoms briefly (shows that remedy is working)
- A temporary worsening of symptoms before overall improvement
Can Homoeopathic medicines be taken with conventional medicines?
Homeopathy can be safely taken in conjunction with over-the-counter drugs or prescription medications without any adverse side effects or interactions
Homeopathy works on a different, subtler cellular level in the body and does not interact with other medications or therapies.
Health Fund and Regulations
Can I claim my homeopath consultation costs on my private health fund?
Many health fund lists homeopathy as a claimable benefit. Check that your individual policy covers homeopathy, if it does, then you will be able to claim for a proportion of the consultation fees.
How is homoeopathy regulated as a profession in Australia?
Homeopathy is a regulated industry in Australia. It is regulated under the therapeutic goods regulation as well as through industry bodies such as the Australian Homoeopathic Association (AHA) and Australian Register of Homoeopaths (AroH).
These organisations list the study requirements to enter as well as continual education requirement to stay registered. These professional bodies also set out ethical standard and confidentiality requirements by which members need to comply to.
Further to these professional bodies Homeopaths cannot practice without insurance and this in turn cannot be obtained unless the homeopath is a member of a professional body.