Naturopath in Brunswick, Melbourne

A first consultation is $160 and runs about an hour. Follow-ups are $110 for forty minutes, and a first fertility consultation for couples is $250 for ninety. No referral is needed for any of them.

Some extras policies include naturopathy and others have reduced or removed it in recent years, so it comes down to the policy you hold rather than to which fund you are with. Your fund can confirm it in about a minute — the number is on the back of your card. Funds only discuss a policy with the member named on it, so checking cover is always a call you make rather than one the clinic can make for you. Supplements and herbal medicines are never covered, whatever your policy says about consultations.

Clinic appointments are paid on the day. Telehealth is prepaid, which is what holds the time — how telehealth works.

Full fee schedule and opening hours

Consultations can be in the clinic or by video, and the appointment itself is the same either way — the history, the questions and the plan do not need you in the room. This is the modality where remote works best, because almost all of the work is conversation.

The one practical difference is that anything dispensed from the dispensary has to be posted to you rather than handed over, so allow a couple of days.

Prepay the consultation and the time is held for you — $160 for a first appointment, $110 for a follow-up if you have been seen here before. Book the time on the naturopathy calendar, choose the phone or Zoom appointment type, and there is nothing to settle at the end of the call.

Most people who book this have been trying for a while, and have usually been told to relax. That is not a plan.

A preconception consultation looks at both partners where possible: cycle pattern, any results you already have, thyroid and iron status, sleep, alcohol, and everything you are both already taking. Irregular or absent cycles, a known condition, or a year of trying without success all need investigating — and that investigation starts here rather than somewhere else. Cycle and thyroid presentations are everyday naturopathic work, and the naturopaths can arrange the pathology that shows what is going on. If a fertility specialist is the next step, we'll provide a detailed letter outlining our findings and recommendations, including the specialist we believe is best suited to you, helping ensure a smooth transition to the next stage of your care. Naturopathy sits alongside that care, not instead of it.

What it can reasonably offer is the nutritional groundwork: getting folate, iodine, iron and vitamin D where they should be before conception rather than after, and steadying sleep and stress. What it cannot do is improve the odds of an IVF cycle succeeding. The evidence does not show that, and no one here will suggest otherwise.

Through pregnancy, the usual reasons people book are nausea, energy, iron, constipation and sleep. Any herbal medicine is checked against pregnancy safety first, and against whatever your obstetrician or midwife already has you on.

A first fertility consultation for couples runs 90 minutes, so both of you are assessed in one visit rather than two.

A good deal of it is, and it is worth being specific about which parts — you have probably already read someone arguing the question is settled in one direction or the other.

Much of what naturopaths work with is very well supported: dietary change, fibre, sleep, stress management, and specific nutrients where there is a genuine deficiency. That is the bulk of what a consultation here produces. Some traditional treatments have thinner evidence behind them, and both things are true at once.

The practitioner worth your money is the one who can tell you which category a particular recommendation sits in, and who says so unprompted when the evidence for one is weak. That is how the naturopaths here work, and it is a fair thing to hold them to.

At Brunswick Health, seven allied health services work together under one roof — naturopathy, colonic irrigation, chiropractic, physiotherapy, podiatry, massage and acupuncture.

The benefit for you is simple: if what you describe turns out to suit a different practitioner here, you do not need to start over somewhere else. There is no searching for another clinic, no long wait for a new appointment, and no need to repeat your entire health history. The practitioners here can communicate directly and work together to provide more coordinated care.

Examples of how this helps

• ✓A digestive plan where a colonic would also help — two of the naturopaths here practise both, so it is one practitioner and one history rather than two.
• ✓Fatigue that turns out to be carrying a musculoskeletal load — poor sleep from a neck or back problem is a chiropractic or physiotherapy conversation, and they are along the corridor.
• ✓A preconception plan running alongside pregnancy massage and, later, care for the back and pelvic pain that often comes with it — booked on one system.

You get the right practitioner at the right time, without repeating your history or joining another waiting list — the practitioners here can talk to each other directly, so your care keeps moving.