ABSTRACT
This chapter considers all the patient's symptoms and all the information available to doctors and assesses the symptoms, signs and information given using this to choose the appropriate remedies for the problem, and offers extra information where available and appropriate. Complementary therapies are used alongside conventional ones, and usually do not claim to replace them by providing a cure. Individual practitioners may make claims which suggest that complementary therapies can offer more than this definition suggests. After the patient has attended a complementary therapist, ask them whether it was helpful and in what ways they feel that the therapy improved their quality of life and their perception of their current state of health. The link between all of the complementary therapies is that they all highlight the individuality of the person and the power of the body to heal itself.
