Preparing for Your First Herbal Consultation: What to Expect and What to Have Ready

A first consultation with a medical herbalist can feel rather different from a short conventional healthcare appointment. At Elder Roots, the aim is not simply to identify a symptom and match it with a herb. The first consultation is designed to build a much broader picture of your health, what has changed over time, what may be contributing to the problem, and what kind of support is both appropriate and realistic for you.

For that reason, an initial consultation is usually around two and a half hours. That may sound like a long time, but complex health rarely fits neatly into ten-minute boxes.

This guide explains what to expect and how you can prepare.

Before your consultation

Before we meet, you will normally be asked to complete some initial information about your health.

This gives me an opportunity to begin reviewing the important clinical details before the consultation itself rather than spending the first hour simply collecting names and dates.

Where relevant, it is useful to have information about:

• your current diagnoses and significant past medical history; 
• prescribed medicines; 
• over-the-counter medicines; 
• vitamins, minerals, herbal products and other supplements; 
• allergies and previous reactions to medicines or herbs; 
• recent blood tests, scans, letters or other investigations; 
• previous treatments and whether they helped; 
• significant operations or hospital admissions. 

You do not need to produce a beautifully organised medical archive worthy of the Dickens. Bring what you reasonably have.

If you have access to recent blood results or relevant clinical letters, these can often be particularly useful.

Have your medicines and supplements nearby

One of the most useful things you can do is have your actual medicines and supplements beside you during the consultation.

That includes things you may not think of as medicines, such as:

• painkillers;  
• antihistamines;  
• antacids;  
• sleep products; 
• vitamins and minerals; 
• protein or nutritional products; 
• herbal remedies; 
• mushroom products; 
• CBD or similar products; 
• anything else you take regularly or intermittently for your health. 

Names, doses and frequency matter.

This is especially important where herbal medicines may be used alongside conventional treatment. Part of responsible herbal practice is considering whether a proposed herb is appropriate alongside your existing medicines and medical conditions.

Think about the story, not just the diagnosis

If you have a diagnosis, tell me. It matters.

But a diagnosis is rarely the whole story.

It can be helpful before the consultation to think about questions such as:

When did this begin?

Was the onset sudden or gradual?

What was happening around that time?

There may have been an illness, operation, infection, injury, major stress, pregnancy, menopause, bereavement, change of work, medication change or another important event.

What has changed since then?

Some symptoms disappear, others appear, and patterns may develop over months, years, or decades.

What makes things better or worse?

Consider food, sleep, activity, rest, stress, weather, emotions, contact with certain people or situations, menstrual cycle, work, posture, time of day or anything else you have noticed.

You do not need to arrive with the answers worked out. Part of the consultation is working through these patterns together.

We will talk about much more than symptoms

A holistic consultation looks beyond the immediate complaint.

Depending on the situation, we may explore:

• digestion and appetite; 
• sleep;  
• energy;  
• pain;  
• movement and physical activity; 
• skin;  
• menstrual and hormonal health; 
• bowel and urinary function; 
• nutrition;  
• Drives now and then;
• alcohol and smoking; 
• work and daily routine; 
• stress;  
• What you used to be like;
• nervous-system patterns; 
• significant relationships and caring responsibilities; 
• important life events; 
• Spirituality and religion;
• what your health currently prevents you from doing; 
• what you actually want treatment to help you achieve. 

None of this means that physical illness is being dismissed as psychological.

It means that human physiology exists within a human life.

Someone with persistent pain, for example, may simultaneously be dealing with inflammation, poor sleep, medication effects, previous pain or illness in a similar situation in which you are currently living in, loss of strength, fear of movement, financial pressure, issues with a neighbour, and disrupted daily routines. Treating only one of those pieces may miss much of what is maintaining the problem.

You do not need to remember everything

People often worry that they will forget something important during a long consultation.

That is normal.

If there are three or four things you particularly want to discuss, jot them down beforehand.

You can also make a short note of:

• your main symptoms; 
• roughly when they began; 
• your biggest concerns; 
• what you have already tried; 
• what you most hope will improve. 

This can be especially useful if you have a complicated medical history.

There is no prize for delivering your history flawlessly from memory.

What happens during the consultation?

The consultation is a conversation, but it is also a clinical assessment.

We will work through your current concerns and medical history, and I will ask questions where more detail may help clarify the picture.

That may include reviewing:

• diagnoses;  
• medicines;  
• investigations;  
• symptoms and their chronology; 
• family history; 
• nutrition;  
• lifestyle;  
• constitution and individual patterns; 
• previous treatment responses; 
• possible safety concerns. 
• And so much more.

Sometimes the most important outcome of a consultation is recognising that something needs further conventional investigation.

If I think a symptom should be assessed by your GP, another healthcare professional or urgent medical services before herbal treatment is appropriate, I will tell you.

Herbal medicine should complement good clinical judgement, not compete with it.

What happens after the consultation?

The work does not finish when the video call or appointment ends.

I may need to:

• review parts of your history; 
• examine relevant investigations; 
• check potential herb–medicine interactions; 
• consider different treatment options; 
• review research; 
• formulate an individual herbal prescription; 
• prepare nutrition, lifestyle or other recommendations. 

Where herbal medicine is appropriate, the prescription is selected for you, rather than simply being taken from a standard list for a diagnosis.

Two people carrying the same diagnosis may receive quite different prescriptions because their wider health patterns, medicines, constitution and priorities are different.

Will I definitely be prescribed herbs?

Not necessarily.

Most people who consult a herbalist probably expect herbs to form part of the treatment, and frequently they will.

But prescribing something simply because a consultation has taken place would be poor clinical practice.

There may be circumstances where:

• further investigation is needed first; 
• a medicine interaction needs clarification; 
• another healthcare approach should take priority; 
• lifestyle or nutritional changes need attention; 
• herbal treatment is simply not appropriate. 

Sometimes the most useful recommendation is not another bottle.

Preparing for an online consultation

Most Elder Roots consultations are conducted online.

Before the appointment:

• choose somewhere reasonably private; 
• make sure your device is charged or plugged in; 
• check your camera and microphone; 
• have your medicines, supplements and relevant paperwork nearby; 
• have a drink available; 
• allow yourself enough time so you are not rushing immediately afterwards. 

You do not need a clinically immaculate background. I am interested in your health, not whether you folded the laundry.

What if my health is very complicated?

That is not a problem.

Some people come to Elder Roots with several diagnoses, extensive medication lists, years of investigations and symptoms affecting multiple systems.

You do not have to simplify your story to make it easier to present.

Complex consultations simply require more time and more careful clinical synthesis.

Where appropriate, I offer a longer Complex Initial Consultation specifically for people whose health history or treatment situation requires additional review.

If you are unsure which consultation is appropriate, you do not need to decide beforehand. Send a brief enquiry and I can advise you.

What should I send through the website contact form?

Only a brief outline.

The website form is intended for an initial enquiry, not for transmitting your entire confidential medical history.

Something as simple as:

“I have been dealing with fibromyalgia and persistent fatigue for several years and would like to know whether you may be able to help.”

is enough to begin.

Detailed medical information can be collected through the appropriate clinical process once we know that a consultation is suitable.

The most important thing to bring

Bring your questions, your concerns and your own experience of what has been happening.

You do not need to know the right medical terminology.

You do not need to have identified the cause yourself.

And you do not need to arrive knowing which herbs you think you need.

That is what the consultation is for.

At Elder Roots, the aim is to understand what is happening, what changed, what may be keeping the problem going, and what might realistically help you move towards better health.

Considering a consultation?

You can read more about the Elder Roots approach, consultation options and fees on the website.