New Book By Peter Conway
“The Consultation in Phytotherapy: the herbal practitioner’s approach to the patient” Churchill Livingstone/ElsevierMany years in the making, Peter’s book on the art of the consultation in herbal medicine has just been published. You can find details here.
From the Foreword by Simon Mills:“Peter Conway has in this book… provided a fully 21st century revival of ancient principles. It is a wonderful thing to behold! Peter has made it his business to sit with, often literally, the most remarkable practitioners and thinkers of our time. He has masterfully processed what they share with us into a sweeping and comprehensive insight into the heart of herbal medicine or phytotherapy. On reading this no longer is it possible to say that herbal medicine is primitive and without rationale. Peter has made it truly a strategy for modern times with the added value of also being true to human history and to ancient principles.
There are particular highlights. Peter has absorbed and made relevant the latest insights into the placebo effect, the explosive and largely unprocessed impact on medical thought of Ivan Illich’s work 40 years ago, the insights from observing the properties of complex systems, the role of the story or narrative at the heart of medicine, the profound implications on the business of health care of understanding the lived experience of illness, the healing presence in health care, and the interaction between practitioner and patient… All this leads to a refreshing and muscular riposte to the more absurd manifestations of fundamentalist science that has so undermined core values across all health care.
What emerges is also muscular: a convincing argument for the value of herbal medicine in the modern world… Plants in their primary metabolism provide us with our most effective foods, and in their secondary metabolism with a range of pharmacological constituents that will always be the envy of the pharmaceutical chemist. Moreover these healing agents are often well known in human history, recurring as healing archetypes through all the main cultures around the world. Peter has reclaimed these ancient principles and brought them to life. This book is immensely important for all those interested in expanding their interests in health care to make them more grounded in our nature.”
From the cover:
“The Consultation in Phytotherapy considers the means by which the herbal practitioner can seek to appreciate the patient’s predicament. Written for both herbal medicine students and practitioners, the book tales a radical approach, challenging readers to reflect on the nature, scope and methods of the consultation in herbal practice. The author asserts that the effective consultation represents a therapeutic act in and of itself, and proposes strategies for maximising and realising this therapeutic potential. The book provides both a complement to, and a critique of, mainstream texts on clinical diagnosis and case management. It contrasts the herbal consultation with that occurring in conventional medicine and offers rationales, arguments and tools aimed at developing an enhanced capacity to achieve profound results in the herbal clinical encounter.”Peter Conway
The WellSpring Clinic
1 Clanricarde Gardens
Tunbridge Wells
Kent TN1 1PEMobile: 07973 417553
Email: herbalist1@mac.com
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