Patient Testimonials
“Homeopathy has always appealed to me as it treats each person as a unique individual with the aim of stimulating their own natural healing ability. I approached Chris for help with my children’s ailments and health concerns after having such a positive experience of it for myself.
Chris has such a wonderful way with the children, really understands them and uses her incredible communication skills to get to the heart of what’s causing their distress or illness. That understanding means she can prescribe the best individual homeopathic remedy for the way they’re experiencing things.
Chris has met with my children in parks and made home visits to keep things informal and make the most of the appointment. Homeopathy has always worked for us as a family and has been a welcome complement to conventional medicine for a variety of conditions in my children such as anxiety, hay fever and musculoskeletal problems.
Chris’s genuine, caring, and empathetic nature has made homeopathy a big part of our family’s life. It will be something I always […]
‘In all my birthday photos throughout primary school I’m holding a hankie and have a big red nose!’ Kat sighed. ‘I remember inhalers and cough mixtures. I was off school so much and Dad had to stay with me all the time. I couldn’t breathe. Respiratory problems dogged me all through primary. In the winter it was bronchitis, croup, sore throats, and colds. In the summer it was hay fever, sinusitis, and more colds. Nothing worked. My tonsils were removed at 11. And here I am on the inhalers still; two puffs in the morning, two puffs in the evening.’
One reason for people exploring homeopathy is to avoid using conventional drugs unless or until they are necessary or, as in Kat’s case because they never seem to have worked. To ensure that they will work when we really need them to and to keep our immune systems primed, it is wise to use drugs sparingly.
People are often taken by surprise when I ask them to list their medication intake and […]
‘IBS is a common condition that affects the digestive system and is usually a lifelong problem. It can be frustrating to live with and have a big impact on your daily life’, according to the NHS website. This is not what Katy, in her 20s, wanted to hear.
An ambitious young woman with high standards, extremely anxious but determined not to show it, she was a prime candidate for developing IBS symptoms.
She explains, “I visited Chris to resolve the physical problems I was struggling with – IBS, insomnia, and an irritated bladder. With a high-pressured job and big changes in my life, the problem seemed to stem from extreme anxiety. I had not been sleeping well for months, possibly even years, and it was affecting every aspect of my life.
Chris provided a holistic outlook, taking into account everything about me, not just the physical symptoms. After starting treatment, I began to notice a difference in my habits and symptoms. I’m pleased to say that I have had six months of sleeping […]
According to the NHS website on the subject, around one in five people with shingles will get post-herpetic neuralgia. The main symptom is intermittent or continuous nerve pain in the areas of the skin previously affected by shingles. The pain can be described as burning, aching, throbbing, shooting or like electric shocks. Lindsey was principally affected by a left sided shooting pain in her face.
Most people with post-herpetic neuralgia make a full recovery within a year. But symptoms occasionally last for several years or may be permanent.
At our first appointment Lindsey explained her shingles outbreak had happened 18 months previously. Unfortunately, she had been experiencing several unwanted and unpleasant symptoms since then. These included a burnt sensation on the left side of the tongue, mouth ulcers, a loss of appetite and weight, a low grade swollen/sore throat and darkening of urine.
Three months previously she had been bitten by a dog and had a course of intravenous antibiotics. This triggered daily diarrhoea and contributed to further weight loss.
In considering what homeopathic […]
When Lorna consulted me in February for thrush she was really fed up. ‘I’ve had four prescriptions of Canesten since last summer,’ she said. ‘It’s something I just can’t get on top of. Some months are better than others, but the soreness is always there. On top of that there’s an embarrassing lemon-yellow discharge, sometimes with a fishy smell to it.’
The chances are you will understand Lorna’s annoyance. Up to 75 out of 100 women have a vaginal yeast infection at least once in their life 1. It’s a condition which is both intensely physically uncomfortable and emotionally distressing.
Like Lorna, many of the women I see in my practice have been taking lengthy prescriptions for months on end. Once the antifungal medication is stopped, symptoms return, often more violently, and the cycle is repeated. ‘It’s the relentlessness of it. I’m exhausted,’ she said.
When considering which homeopathic remedy best suited Lorna, we looked at all her symptoms. She was surprised that most could be explained by the candida overgrowth itself which […]
Of all the enquiries I receive from women, the most common subject concerns the menopause and the years leading up to it known as the peri menopause.
Such a patient, Mandy, came to me suffering with chronic sleep loss brought about by night sweats and work worries. It had been going on for three years and this most experienced and capable of women had been ground down. ‘On Monday I cried all morning. I just can’t do what I did before. My brain is in a complete fog.’
The exhaustion and emotional instability were compounded by a demanding work situation and her own over conscientiousness. When things at the office became overwhelming, she would experience headaches with sudden stabbing pains in the eye and increased hot flashes. The unpredictability of physical and emotional symptoms was disconcerting.
The ups and downs of teenage girls at puberty are echoed in menopausal women but 50-year-olds usually don’t have the luxury of being able to scream and shout or flounce out of the room, slamming the door. […]
Some women take the Pill and sail through the experience with no obvious ill effects.
Others, like Megan, really struggle with its unwanted effects and it throws them out in dramatic and unexpected ways.
An artistic and dedicated young woman attending teacher training college, she had been prescribed the Pill for heavy periods two years previously. It hadn’t suited her at all. She questioned whether she would be able to complete her training. The unwanted symptoms she listed, all known effects of the Pill, were serious and limited her life. Chief amongst these depression and migraine with on-going headaches. Also on the unenviable list, vivid dreams leaving her waking unrefreshed and feeling anxious with sweaty palms and hot flashes, craving certain foods, and becoming sensitive to things she had previously eaten without problems.
Since stopping the Pill some nine months before our consultation, her periods had become highly irregular and sometimes didn’t appear at all. Her lower back pain had returned […]
With the onset of Spring my phone starts to ring with enquiries from people suffering from hay fever and allergies. I remember one patient in her twenties Natalie, who had suffered with chronic and debilitating hay fever symptoms since primary school. Conventional treatment hadn’t helped, and she was highly irritable and severely itchy. ‘I’ve gone through every antihistamine on the market!’ she told me at her first consultation.
Within 2 months of starting her homeopathic treatment with me, she reported she was able to stop taking her antihistamine on a regular basis and her symptoms were abating. A month later she gave it up altogether. Her gardener fiancé was very pleased as she was able to help him pot up the hanging baskets he sold!
She had always wanted to ride horses but had been unable to do this as a child because of her allergic reaction to them. Two years after her initial consultation she contacted me to say that she had taken up horse riding and was suffering again. On […]
A few days into the New Year an email came in from Ryan’s wife, Nikki. She wrote, ‘Ryan’s been diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. He’s had psoriasis for a few years, just a couple of small patches on his leg. Over the past year he’s started to ache in his joints: wrists, ankles, feet, and the back of knees.
They’ve prescribed cream and anti-inflammatories plus stomach liners which he only takes when it’s really bad. He’s not keen on this long term. Can you help?
There are many problems with the current conventional treatment of arthritis. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (known as NSAIDs) are commonly used. None of them halt the disease process. Acidic in nature, they have powerful effects on the gastrointestinal tract and used long-term may lead to kidney damage. This is the reason Ryan was prescribed a stomach lining drug. In his late forties he did not want to embark on such a regime.
‘At my worst, I feel like I’ve been hit by a sledgehammer,’ he said. ‘I’m struggling to walk. […]
“I love the holistic nature of homeopathy. I’ve consulted a homeopath for my children since they were very young, preferring to use the gentle way in which it encourages the body to heal itself to the harsher medicines often recommended by GPs. Some of the remedies have been nothing short of miraculous e.g., childhood eczema flareup clearing with a few days.
It is interesting that homeopathy works at several levels within the body, not just the physical elements, and that it works on the underlying causes, not just the symptoms.
I cannot underestimate the impact that homeopaths have had on the health of my loved ones and myself over the years.
Working with Chris as your homeopath you can be sure of a very personalised and supportive service. She quickly puts you at ease, takes time to understand you and your issues before agreeing a way forward.”
These are the success stories of some of my clients. They appear with the consent and approval from the individuals concerned.
Always check with your GP or […]
Tim, a 45-year-old stockbroker, first came for treatment in October for chronic relapsing respiratory complaints. Diagnosed as asthmatic at 8, he explained that the change to autumnal damp and cold heralded the annual onset of ill health. During the previous winter he calculated he’d had eight courses of antibiotics. He described it as ‘slugging me down.’ At the time of his first consultation he was taking Seretide and Singulair. Both medicines are used to help prevent breathing problems and asthma attacks. Despite this he was an active cyclist.
A full history uncovered Tim’s worsening health from childhood tonsilitis to adolescent bronchitis and repeated chest infections. He also suffered from bouts of sinusitis, which often didn’t respond to antibiotics and gave him ‘the worst hangover when you wake up.’ With pressure round his eyes and nose and a postnasal drip he constantly had to breathe through his mouth and snored as a consequence. ‘Sometimes my trachea feels full of gunge,’ he said.
Tim also reported an aversion to dairy products, particularly the ‘fatty […]
“As a mother of three children, I have been very used to my children having a multitude of ailments as they have grown up and I have used complementary medicine as an option instead of always going down the GP route.
I first contacted Chris when my middle daughter, who was 4 years old at the time developed mild eczema on her legs. I didn’t want to apply the harsh creams usually prescribed for such conditions by the GP and found homeopathy was exactly what I’d been looking for. Chris invested time in understanding my daughter by talking about the pregnancy, birth, her first few weeks, her likes and dislikes as well as her skin. Getting to know what makes a child feel good as well as what upsets them is all part of the homeopathic approach.
Following that first appointment I have approached Chris over many issues. One which she has been particularly involved in has been my eldest daughter’s anxiety at secondary school. My daughter suffered from acid reflux, IBS, […]