Have you got an embarrassing health problem - one that you might just about manage to mention to your GP, but nobody else? Perhaps you're constipated, got piles, heavy periods, fungal skin infections, excess hair, urinary tract infections, thrush, mood problems...(hopefully not all at once!) You may think that talking to a medical herbalist would be just like talking to someone at work or at the gym, you can't really trust people to keep quiet, and what if they laugh!
But you couldn't be further than the truth. The oath I took when I became a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists included a promise to keep all information from my patients absolutely confidential. And that spills over into my personal life as well...if you mention anything private to me in Tescos, the climbing wall or in the High Street, even if you're not my patient, it stays private.
As for laughing - as herbalists we really have seen and heard it all before. In addition to this, I worked in a pharmacy for eight years from the age of 15 - so I've been unshockable from quite a young age! The moral of the story is - don't be too embarrassed to seek help.