The Importance of Taking the Health History

I was on the phone the other day with a client. We spoke for almost an hour about her child. In addition to that hour she had sent me a few e-mails with descriptions of him as well as a 28-report by a child psychologist which was very impressive! After all this information, though, I still felt something was missing. It was a bit like looking at a large puzzle and realizing one of the pieces are missing. It is almost done...but not quite. Then I decided to go a little farther back into his health history. I askedm "Did he have any health problems as a baby?"

"Well, yes," she replied, "He did have eczema but not as much any more."

As I pursued this new "lead" it emerged that he had struggled with eczema his entire life and that she had used and was still using hydrocortizone creams as his only "cure". In addition, he had never been tested for allergies.

What amazed me is that this essential piece of evidence had not been shared with her local doctor or naturopath and was not anywhere in the 18-page report. It was essential to her child's healing and provided a major reason for the health issues she was complaining of and yet it had never been considered. Hopefully, with the real culprit behind his health issues unmasked he can now start on the road to healing.

However, it is not by any fault of the mother that this information was not shared before or connected to his present condition. Even the most perceptive healer can sometimes miss the obvious. To make sure you don't miss the obvious do the following:

1. Follow the client intake form provided for you in the Consulting Unit. Add to this form as needed and make it yours.

2. Make sure you ask about the health history of the client and use their answers as a clues to what additional questions you should be asking.

3. Don't accept short answers. Make sure you get details on everything.

4. Don't make assumptions. I almost missed the eczema connection with this client because I assumed she had included everything important in the forms she had already sent me. After all the forms were so complete! I couldn't imagine she would have left something out. As it turns out she simply did not answer one of the questions in very good detail or didn't think this answer applied to the current situation.

5. Explore everything and leave no "stone unturned". See my next post for some details on this.