Should a Client Take an Herb They Don't Like?

Now found at the NEW student blog HERE:

http://earthschooling.info/thebearthinstitute/students-blog/

The Vocabulary of a Healer

Now found at new student blog HERE: http://earthschooling.info/thebearthinstitute/students-blog/

Reflexology Success Story!

Now on the new student blog at: http://earthschooling.info/thebearthinstitute/students-blog/

Consulting Tips for Aromatherapy

Now can be found at the new student blog here: http://earthschooling.info/thebearthinstitute/students-blog/

Student Excerpts: Panic Attacks

This is an excerpt from a student exam this week. The point she made about practicing these techniques before-hand is a very important point. It makes the difference between this method being effective and ineffective. It is often these "small details" (like how, when or how much to take of an herb or where to buy it) that can make the difference in natural healing. Be sure not to miss the small details. If you do, you or a client or friend or family member may be led to believe that natural healing does not work!

Excerpt:

3. Name two ways you can stop a panic attack

Do deep breathing. Deep diaphragmatic breathing and can be used during times when you are feeling anxious or panicky. It is a powerful way to control hyperventilation, slow a rapid heartbeat and promote physical comfort. For this reason we will call it the Calming Breath.

Here's how it goes: Take a long, slow breath in through your nose, first filling your lower lungs, then your upper lungs. Hold your breath to the count of "three." Exhale slowly through pursed lips, while you relax the muscles in your face, jaw,shoulders, and stomach. Practice this Calming Breath at least ten times a day for several weeks. Use it during times of transition, between projects or whenever you want to let go of tension and begin to experience a sense of calmness. This will help you become familiar and comfortable with the process. And use it any time you begin to feel anxiety or panic building. When you need a tool to help you calm down during panic, you will be more familiar and comfortable with the process.

Consulting Tips - Don't Miss the Obvious

I learned a good lesson about #5 (see previous post) when I had a recent bout with allergies. I am severely allergic to molds. Although I can tolerate small amounts (due to my healthy diet and herbal therapy years ago) and short term exposure I get very ill when exposed to them in an intense or frequent way. This is usually easy to avoid. I don't sleep in basements, I wear a mask when cleaning the bathroom and am careful to check the house for molds and use vinegar on areas that need "cleaning up". Sometimes I will even employ the help of a friend if I find a large patch. I wear a mask when raking moldy leaves in the Autumn and Spring and don't usually worry about the problem very much at all. After all - how often will you be exposed to mold without realizing it?

That is why I didn't even consider mold as the culprit when I became ill during a trip four weeks ago and during another trip 2 weeks ago. During both trips I assumed that perhaps I was feeling overworked, my nerves were tense from the anticipation of travel and perhaps it had made me more sensitive to things in general. That can happen. During times of great stress a person can actually be allergic to things they were never allergic to before or their old allergies can increase in severity. Sometimes I sneak in a bit of junk food when healthier food is not available on the road and perhaps I reacted to one of the additives? Or perhaps it was the hotel room?

However, the intensity of the "attacks" confused me. My diet was good. I was not exposing myself to many allergens, I wasn't feeling very anxious. I was actually feeling very relaxed and at peace. And, I had not eaten any differently than I usually do at home. So why was I having these sudden allergy attacks?

I made the cats sleep in another room for a few nights, I avoided all things I was even slightly allergic or sensitive too, I took herbal teas and homeopathic remedies. And I was fine. Until I went to an Irish Concert last weekend. It was very confusing. I was completely fine and then somewhere in-between my home and the concert I had been exposed to something. What could it have been? I had been so careful? And how could I go from feeling perfect to so severely disabled in ten minutes? What could cause such devastation?

It was driving me crazy...

(there is a hint in that last line)

Have you figured it out yet?

I didn't.

It was not until my friend said the following words that it all made sense:

"I'm sorry my car is probably not making it any better with that musty smell in it."

Suddenly everything became clear. My attacks had coincided perfectly with the three times I had rode in their "new" used car! We tested the theory for the next week (by avoiding the car and using mine) and I was completely cured.

It had not occurred to me that the ventilation system in the car could be so filled with molds. However, it was. And many cars are. I felt so silly for missing "the obvious". It also taught me a lesson - don't ever assume or leave any stone unturned. Even if you have never had trouble with something before, don't leave that out of your detective radar. The problem could be in your clothing, your car, your pet, your diet, even a new appliance. Make sure you search well and don't miss the solution that is sitting right in front of you.

If not for that chance comment by my friend I might still be baffled about it to this day. However, I am certainly going to start including this question in some of the forms my clients fill out now - especially if they drive a lot or commute to work. I'll add that question after the question that says "What kind of water to you shower in?" (to see if they have a lot of chlorine exposure).

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.

Sharing Information with Clients

When I talk to clients about the results of their consult and give them suggestions about lifestyle changes they can make I find it is essential to give them reasons for those changes. Often, people have been told the same things all their life - "eat right", "eat more vegetables", "don't eat so much meat", "don't eat so much bread", "exercise more". What you need to do is describe to them what EXACTLY their habits are doing to THEM to cause THEIR issues (that they have described to you). This description will often be different for different clients. For example, if a client is consuming too many starches and/or too much bread and they are overweight I may talk to them about how starches help you gain weight. If a client complains of irregular menses I may talk to them about how starches can put your menses out of sync. In addition, giving details can make your evaluation more effective too. Clients often appreciate details such as ingredients, scientific studies or more. However, you must also remember that clients need to hear things in laymen's terms and you need to make it as short as possible. They don't always have time to read that entire book that inspired you or even to take a course. This is why I enjoyed the following article so much. The following article is one of the most effective ones I have seen to date that describes the dangers of fast food in an effective, yet concise way. I have files it away to share with future clients. I am sending the link to you so you can do the same.

The Shocking Facts About Fast Food
We all know it is bad but this article has some great DETAILS...
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/45380/4-shocking-secrets-about-fast-food/

Client Tips: The Short Checklist

When I return a client consult form with their results I make sure I check the following items so I am sure I have provided them with the best program possible. This is the short list of items I go over in my head:

I always make sure my clients are "on track" with a number of things - this is my brief check-list:

1. Sleep - quantity, quality and rhythm

2. Diet - quality, proportion of healthy and unhealthy foods, amount of sugar in diet, amount of wheat in diet, amount of vegetables and fruits in diet, drinks consumed, amount of caffeine in diet, rhythm of diet, times and amounts eaten.

3. Lifestyle - stress factors (even exciting things), repetitive movements like working on a computer for hours at a time or sleeping on your arm at night, walking with the same shoes daily, etc...

4. Exercise - gentle -vs- intense, how often and does it include stretching?

5. Spiritual life - find a comfortable place

6. Personal relationships - need to resolve conflicts

7. Finances - bad-vs-good, develop coping mechanisms

8. Herbs and supplements - make sure they are the right ones, being taken at the right times, for the correct length of time and that they are quality supplements. Make sure the client does not have any contraindications in their condition or temperament to that therapy.

Each of these is just as important as the next one. There is not one that is more important than the other (although exercise, positive thought and spirituality have shown evidence that they may be) so each must be considered.

If you have any favorite consulting client tips please share them with other students on the list.

Blessings & Health,
Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND

Client Consulting: Depression

Question:
I am almost ready to send in my 1st answers. I have a question about one of my client's and her son if you can help - The boy has been put on alot of medicines and labeled anything the parents asked about.so they have him on only 1 med but would love to get him off it and help him His moods are way up or way down and then she gets depressed also. I wondered if you had any specific reflexology tips to use on them I am also going to use reiki on them since I just finished reiki11.

Answer:
I would recommend doing a temperament evaluation on him and seeing which temperament he is first. In terms of mood swings it is really essential to know where the "normal" is for that temperament. For example the Sanguine has mood swings as a normal part of their life - it is called "seasons" and any extreme can be balanced, but cannot be eliminated. The melancholic can often go into depression and then out but the swings are usually not extreme. This is also normal. The choleric does not usually stay in a depressed mood for long at all. They snap out of things quickly so if they stay depressed that is bad. The phlegmatic can seem depressed most of the time. They just function at a slower pace and take things in stride more and don't get too excited about things although they can get very angry when pushed out of their comfort zone (which is much smaller than most people) so they CAN exhibit signs of mood swings if they are in their comfort zone they can seem depressed (but they are not) and when they get pulled out of it they can get really angry and lash out to protect themselves. It is really good to know this baseline first.

Secondly it is good to check his sleep habits and eating habits. Any caffeine at all will up his testosterone levels and hormone fluctuations can wreak havoc on a young kid. Also, in general check his rhythms - any "mood swings" are usually an indication that some rhythm in his life is off kilter - it could be his sleep rhythms, eating rhythms (sugar and junk foods - caffeine, etc...foods that cause big ups and downs can throw this off), lifestyle rhythms, etc...any thing like this can cause mood swings as it is the body's attempt to get itself back into balance.

The meds themselves can cause mood swings so also make sure they chart his mood swings and chart when he takes the meds. He MUST take the meds at the exact same time every day. This is essential for mood meds but a lot of people don't realize this.

In general, they can chart his mood swings and show you the chart after a week or two and that can also help. Also, can they/you be more descriptive about mood swings? How does he exhibit them? What are they like?

Hope this helps!

It really depends on the reason as to which herb he should take or which reflexology points you should use. Does he need an herb for hormone balance? For help sleeping? To balance blood sugar? Etc...

Consulting Client Tips

As I was correcting student assignments today I came across another gem that reminded me of something important that we all need to remember as healers - know how to access a situation and your own ability in that situation. This is an excerpt from the student exam and my response:

Exam Question: Name the three parts to natural first aid and why each is important. Give personal examples when you have them.

Student Answer:

#1 Assistance - It is important to know how to help a person in an emergency. You need to access how serious it is. If it is minor and not life threatening, it can be treated at home with herbal remedies and natural health practices. If it is life threatening such as a heart attack or a fractured skull it is important to call an ambulance and get the person to a hospital immediately. On the way to the hospital techniques like proper breathing, reflexology, etc. can be used. When my daughter broke her arm, I placed an ice pack on it to relieve swelling and pain and immediately drove her to the hospital.

This is a very good point to remember. As a healer we need to know how to properly assess any situation - even if it is not an emergency. We need to know what our own abilities are and when it is time to refer someone to another practitioner for assistance.

Consulting Client Tips: Aromatherapy Oils as Tea

A student a few weeks ago turned in their aromatherapy paper and mentioned using one drop of thyme in a glass of water for her client. This is a wonderful recommendation. One thing we need to remember as practitioners, however, is to emphasize that they should use only ONE DROP in warm water for their essential oil tea. Essential oils are very powerful and more than one drop would be like taking 2 or 3 cups of tea at one time. I find if I don't mention this to clients they tend to "sneak in" a bit extra. We all still have that idea in the back of our minds that, "more is better" and "herbs are natural so they are safe". Neither of these is true when it comes to natural healing. Using essential oils in water is also a good solution for people who travel. I often recommend that people traveling overseas bring tea tree. Adding one drop to your water daily can help prevent infections while traveling.

Consulting Client Tips: Licorice for Blood Glucose?

Note that licorice is often given to clients who have trouble with blood sugar levels. This herb has worked wonders with some of my hyper and hypoglycemic clients. However, this is also an herb to be cautious of for in some clients it can cause an imbalance and a blood sugar spike reaction. If you or your client is using this herb make sure you monitor effects. If a client is having a poor reaction to the herb it could be their body cannot use licorice in this way.

Consulting Client Tip #4: Pace the Client

These answers were taken from a student assignment. This student is working with a client and helping her with some lifestyle changes that will improve her health. I added the following suggestions after her suggestions. The student suggestions are in regular font. Mine are in bold italics:


8-10 glasses of water a day (promotes flushing out toxins, body 80% water, helps with snacking and can help avoid the junkaholic time).

6-8 should be fine. Tell her to monitor. Drink the 8. If she feels ill drinking more then the 8 was enough. Recent studies are showing that too much water can hurt people’s ability to digest or absorb certain foods. If she is thin she may not need the 10 glasses.

Eat 5-10 servings of vegetables a day

However, be sure to tell her that even 3 or 4 is great. Sometimes if we set the bar too high for a client they will become discouraged very quickly. You might want to start her on a less intense program first and then lead her into something more intense. The advantage of this is that you can also monitor her response to your “first level” of suggestions and modify the final program even more to suit her needs.

Consulting Client Tip #3: Where Do You Start Healing with a Client?

A student who turned in her assignment for the Nutritional Healing Course today provided a wonderful client history for her client. It had all the details she needed to give the client the good advice they need. I included the following reminder for her that I wanted to share with other students as well - it may be helpful to you in working with your own clients, friends and family members:

Very good client history. You have a lot of details here to work with that can really give you some good clues and direction with her situation. I always especially mark or highlight things that the client says, ‘I sense this is bad for me” or “I feel badly after eating or drinking these”. The reason I highlight these things is that this is a clue as to where a good place to start with this client is. The biggest obstacle to overcome with healing is the clients willingness or readiness to change. If they have already noticed something is harming them then THAT is the area they will most likely be open to changing.

Consulting Client Tip #2: Are They Ready to Heal?

One reason I only consult with registered clients is that it shows me they are ready to heal. If I am giving advice to random people online or to relatives or friends who mention a bad habit (and I jump in with advice) the person may not really be ready to heal and my words may either make it worse, make the person more resistant to change or be wasted, at best. On the other hand, when a person makes a decision to take time and money from their life to make a change (see a healer) this is a good indication that they are ready to heal. Most people I know take their money and time seriously. Even if you are just asking for a small payment or a half hour of their time this can also indicate that they are ready. However - beware of people who send quick e-mails or want to ask you advice "in passing".

We are notoriously stubborn as humans and are often not ready to heal. One student turned in an assignment this week where she talks about how a friend had to go to the emergency room for strep and got so very ill. She mentioned that this event scared her friend into changing her life. She also expressed regret that she had not been able to help this friend at the beginning of her illness before it became to bad.

However, illness and fear are not always a bad thing. Even when I am ill I think about this. Illness can be a teacher or a messenger. It can be a sign for us to stop what we are doing and change our life before it is too late. Sometimes I actually thank my body for being ill.

There is also a wisdom in letting people make their own mistakes. In this person's case, it was probably a good thing she became so ill and nobody could help her because now she is going to make life changes and she is ready. If the student had tried to help her before she got to ill, she would have gotten better and not been motivated to change her life. Sometimes illness can be a gift.

So remember when you are healing...make sure the person is ready to be healed. I am not suggesting you leave someone with a broken arm at the side of the road of course! I am simply saying that the results on your client will be much better if they are ready to be healed first.

Note: This message does not apply to children, of course.

Student Question: What do I do on an assginment if I don't have clients?

This should really come under the heading of student dialogue since I took this from a test and I answered it in my feedback. However, I feel it will be more useful to students if I file it in "student questions". This student has brought up some good points and has come up with her own good solutions. However, some students may be asking themselves these same questions now and not be able to come up with solutions. I hope this can help those students. This is our dialogue"

Student: This is my submission for lesson 201-4. This one was not easy since I don't have 'clients', so I interviewed relatives for the class lesson.

This is what you are supposed to do. Some students use clients because they have them, but the assignment is to use friends or family that you know. So this is correct.

Nobody was sick at the time, so I interviewed them about 'past' illnesses for which they were treated by medical doctors - way late in the illness because they didn't have insurance.

This is also perfect! When I ask students to evaluate I want them to show that they understand the material and not that they have the sickest friends or family or the best clinic. If needed, I can even send you some “pretend clients”. However, I do find that it makes it more “real” and you learn more if you work with people who are close to you in some way.

The Consulting Corner #1: Depression

As more and more student work comes in I realize how very important it is for us all to share our experience with clients - tips, methods and whatever else comes to mind. The things that I share in this column will be directly related to student work and client work they have done and are posted as a response to that work. If you would like to comment on my posts or to add some information of your own please feel free to press "reply". We have a wonderful group of students here - many are already practitioners of some type - we have the potential to help each other out in so many ways.

Tip #1: Clients and Depression

While depression is a very real and often scary or harmful condition, many clients are overly fearful of their depressions and can be calmed (or even healed in some cases) by seeing that depression can be normal, effective and healthy. Remind clients that feeling bad or being depressed is normal. We are like the seasons around us. We have a winter, spring, summer and fall. Melancholics experience the winter/fall more than spring and summer and that is OK. That is normal and fine for her. She does not have to feel guilty or depressed about being depressed now and then. Of course, it is good to make sure depression is not running your life and shutting you down, but it is also healthy to let her know that sometimes it is OK to just lie in bed all day or feel bad. Sometimes ALLOWING yourself to fully experience the emotion and the pain and the fear will get rid of it faster. By suppressing it or feeling wrong about having it…sometimes it lingers because it cannot be fully resolved.

Student Letter: How do I do consulting?

I still have to finish the Nutrition course (stopped because was having trouble in understanding, but now that you have added the video, I am excited to be able to try again.
What I am wondering is, as you know I have completed a MH program and a Nutrition & Diet Therapy Specialist program, and I am doing my clinical for my Homeopathic Practitioner program as well as the Rosemary Gladstar Herbalist program. The problem is that, I don't feel that my MH program gave me a good enough consultation info. My Homeopathic program teaches that, but again, I am still not feeling as good as I hoped, mostly I believe because I have only worked with my family so far, but still. My Nutrition program defintely didn't teach consults, I also feel it didn't teach anything about taking what a persons current diet is and then determining a healthy diet for them. So, I am wondering if your Nutrition course teaches how to take a persons diet and determine what the appropriate health diet for them is. As well, is there a course on how to do a consult and intake? Although I have learned this, I want to learn more about it because I am very uneasy about this part. I am ok with working with family, but am not confident for me starting my practice to work with non-family.
Thanks, J

Dear J,

I have an entire unit on consulting which I have been considering making part of every unit of the course. Right now it is part of the ENTIRE naturopathic healing course. It is Unit 12. I also feel that this is a very important aspect of learning - you can learn as much as you want, but learning HOW to apply that is very important.

I am not sure if you have access to unit 12 right now. However, I would be happy to give you access (as some time in the next year I will be adapting it to go with every course anyway) and I would appreciate having some feedback from someone with your experience. I have designed the consultation part of the course to give people confidence with consulting and to give them a lot of resources and ideas about how to consult. However, I would appreciate hearing if it actually does accomplish that and if not, how I could improve it.

So, if you have access to unit 12, we can work on that together. If you don't, please tell me, and I will send it to you.

Additionally, when I was first starting out I was in a similar situation. I found I had completed a lot of courses but was not sure how to go about consulting. What you have learned in the homeopathic program might not be enough, but it will help you. It helped me get a base to build on.

Other things that helped me were learning iridology (this is entirely a diagnostic method) and studying typololgy and temperaments as an entire unit of study. Both of these methods helped me immensely in evaluating and seeing clients and their needs.

Blessings & Health,

Kristie Karima Burns, MH, ND

Becoming a Better Healer by Kristie

Dear Students,

This story can help you all become more responsible healers.

A consulting client of mine was doing a large amount of consulting with the clerk at a local health food store. While there are some clerks who are properly trained I still feel that actual consulting in this situation is not appropriate. These clerks are probably the most informed as to the products they are selling but answering any questions outside of this range, without having a full profile on the person in front of them (do they ever ask if you are pregnant, nursing or taking other medications?) can be dangerous.

This is also something we need to consider as healers or as people training to be healers. Are we being responsible in our advice-giving? This is one reason I don't give free consulting. I don't feel that answering a question without knowing someone's full health history is responsible. So I will help guide people in the right direction so they can do some more research or I will give them some "general advice" in a Letter to the Editor response, but in no case can I see that it would be responsible to hand out personal advice without knowing your client more extensively.

Here was my advice to her:

Dear AH,

...However, I just became a bit concerned when I received more than one e-mail about your consultations with the health food store clerk/owner/?.

I am concerned about people who are running health-food stores or natural healing stores offering themselves as consultants. This, to me, is like a pharmacist telling you what medicine to take when you go to the pharmacy. What if the doctor prescribed your daughter a cream for her skin or a certain antibiotic and then the pharmacist said "Oh, no, you should take this one"? It is irresponsible for three reasons:

1. It is a conflict of interest. How can you REALLY trust someone and how can they really trust themselves to give you the best opinion when they are also selling the product?

2. It is irresponsible. You can only advise someone on dosages and formulas once you know their entire story. Unless the pharmacist or store owner is going to sit with you for a half hour and ask questions or read a 4 page questionnaire then they should be more cautious.

3. They usually do not have the proper training. And if they did they would know better than to be handing out advice "on the fly" without a consultation. I cringe. I want to cry every time I go to purchase things at my local health food store and I see the clerk advising someone on an herb to take by opening up a few books they have on the counter and saying "the book says..." It is horrifying! I have actually had clients in my office who were ill from taking herbs that were advised to them in this way.

Books are for reference by a person who already has training in a field. Or they can give you guidelines on where to look or consider healing. They can also be used for things like colds, headaches, etc...However, you need to have a lot of background training to be able to use a book to diagnose and suggest cures for chronic diseases. And the books are often misleading. I have about 60 books that I use on a regular basis to cross reference various things. This is because one book may suggest 4 drops of carrot oil (as is in your case) and another may suggest 40 drops. One book may say never to take a certain herb but in another book it may tell you that it is safe. None of the books say the same things exactly.

This is where training comes in. The person who is trained takes what is in the book (or in their head) and can cross reference it with the hundreds of cases they have seen and dealt with. They can consult with others in their field that they know and in the end they can come up with an educated answer for their client based on a wide knowledge of the client's needs AND a wide range of reference and knowledge of the materials they are using.