Where to find a complementary healthcare practitioner
Where do practitioners work?
Charities and community organisations
Many charities and community health services, such as those for people with alcohol or drug-related problems, mental health issues, cancer or HIV, offer complementary therapies as part of their programme, and treatments may be given at lower cost. You can find out about these services by asking your GP or local library, or by looking up specific charities online.
Healthy living centres
Healthy living centres were originally set up as lottery-funded programmes to offer a range of health services to local people. As part of their promotion of good health, many healthy living centres provide complementary therapies to people who otherwise could not afford to benefit from them. These centres now have to raise their own funding, whether through commissioned services, fundraising events and donations in order to continue to provide their integrated health services.
NHS
Half of GP practices in England now provide access to complementary therapies in some way. Sometimes practitioners work alongside the GPs in the surgery building and some GPs practise complementary therapies themselves. If this is not the case, GPs or other staff in the surgery can sometimes help patients to find a practitioner working nearby. If your GP practice does provide some complementary healthcare you may find that you are asked to pay something towards the cost of the treatment. In general, however, not everyone will find complementary treatment on the NHS in their local area. Each primary care trust, local practice or hospital trust decides individually whether or not to provide complementary healthcare.
Complementary therapies are provided in many hospices and palliative care services and in some hospitals and pain clinics. There are four NHS homeopathic hospitals in the UK which offer outpatient complementary therapy services. These are in Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and London. Glasgow also offers inpatient treatment. You will need to get a referral from your GP to attend these hospitals. If you need help with this, or if your GP has questions or concerns about referring you to these hospitals, you can contact the British Homeopathic Association for their leaflet How to Get Homeopathic Treatment on the NHS.
Some statutorily regulated conventional healthcare practitioners, such as doctors, nurses and dentists, also practise complementary therapies, which include acupuncture, homeopathy and reflexology. They may work in the NHS or as private practitioners.
Private practice
Most complementary practitioners are self-employed, and run their own practices. They may be based in complementary health clinics or have a clinical practice room in their home. There might be a clinic near you that you have seen or you can find listings of complementary health clinics and individual practitioners in your local telephone directory. However, please bear in mind the guidelines suggested here if you choose a practitioner this way.
How do I find a practitioner
In the sections featuring the individual therapies we list the associations that register practitioners of that therapy. For osteopathy and chiropractic, which are regulated by law, the contact details of the regulatory body for each are given. For therapies in which the different professional associations that register practitioners are working together to develop common standards of training and practice, the contact details for the joint, or umbrella, organisation are given. If you contact the relevant organisation for the therapy you are interested in, you should be able to get information about practitioners near you.
It is a good idea to call a few practitioners and talk to them about why you want to see them before finally making up your mind about which one you feel most comfortable with. You can ask them the questions suggested here before deciding.
Word of mouth
It can be very useful if someone you know recommends a complementary practitioner they have found helpful. However, you should still check that the practitioner is trained and registered with a professional association or regulatory body, and ask them the questions suggested here.
