A message from Simone…
“23 years in practice has taught me a lot about the human side of healthcare, which began with my own experience of a totally avoidable full-term stillbirth in 2001. I learned that although modern medicine is often nothing short of miraculous when it comes to life-saving and acute health problems, it is (IMO) fundamentally ineffective when it comes to the human face of health addressing long-term chronic health problems.” I decided that I would go back to university after working in the corporate world since graduating in 1992, and that I would set up my own clinic based around my own healthcare values.”
- Being fully present and LISTENING to the patient can get to the root cause of the problem a lot faster than pouring through medical text books, so I spend 90-minutes with my clients on our initial consultation.
- Treating symptoms does not resolve chronic health problems, it masks them and allows them to deteriorate. This is why I chose to study FUNCTIONAL medicine and not CONVENTIONAL medicine.
- One size does not fit all in healthcare. I believe in informed choice and values-based medicine. An INTEGRATED approach to healthcare in which we all strive to be as healthy as we can NATURALLY, using food, lifestyle, exercise, meditation and community as a first port of call for our health, then turning to modern medicine if, as and when needed.
- I have trademarked my D.A.R.I.N.G. ApproachTM to healthcare (see video on home page)
- White Coat Syndrome should not exist! My hobby is art and interior design so I have always turned my consultation rooms into an inviting, healing environment that puts people at ease.
Simone Buehner BA, BSc, DipCHM
- BA Modern Languages (joint honours with Strategic Studies ie military strategy and international security)
- BSc Acupuncture
- Post Graduate Diploma in Herbal Medicine
- Diploma in Nutritional Therapy
- Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Diploma
- Interior Design Diploma
- Art & Design Level 3 Diploma
- Permaculture Design Certificate (Geoff Lawton)
Simone Buehner Professional Memberships
- Senior Associate Royal Society of Medicine (membership number 00718237)
- Institute for Functional Medicine
- British Acupuncture Council (Registration number 958346)
Background
December 14th 2001 seemed like the worst day of my life, but 21 years later I can honestly say that the tragedy of being told that at 40 weeks pregnant minus one day, my baby had died, eventually turned out to be the turning point I needed in my life. I can only describe it as being a tragedy that led to transformation and since that time I have met many other people who found the courage to follow their dreams only when they felt they had nothing left to lose.
Following Alex’s funeral on Christmas Eve 2001, I needed a damn good reason to get out of bed and the board room of multinational companies was certainly not it! I resigned from a ‘good’ job to follow my heart, much to the consternation of my then husband and the rest of the family! I wanted to be an herbalist. Everyone thought I had gone mad because no-one else in the family had ever done anything like that, it just wasn’t on the radar. I contacted the College of Integrated Chinese Medicine who told me that herbalism was a post-graduate course of study and I had to complete a 4-year acupuncture degree first – so I did!
What happened around this time can only be told in a series of blog posts and you tube videos, but my life took another drastically unexpected turn when I traced my Dad through having a recurring dream that I eventually acted upon, then I found out that he was Jamaican and living so far away that we could only communicate via intermittent phone calls. One one of those calls I told him I was doing my final exams in herbalism and that I was totally passionate about it but couldn’t remember enough, I was going to fail my exams and everyone was putting pressure on me to ‘just go back to Vodafone’… imagine my consternation when he started laughing at my distress!
He said “well you know why I’m laughing, don’t you? Your Great Grandmother was a Medicine Woman in the ‘country’ and she lived to be 114. Even the doctors from the hospital in Kingston used to travel to get treatment from her….”
It was 2 years before I met my Dad, but eventually I was able to go back to my Great Grandmothers garden in Jamaica with him as he helped me to trace my roots.
So a lot has happened since that phone call over 20 years ago, including flying out to Jamaica on 2 occasions when my Dad was allegedly on his deathbed and one occasion when he was at risk of having his leg amputated. Suffice to say that as of April 2023, my Dad spent Christmas dancing without so much as a walking stick and I have just taken over paying the taxes on my Great Grandmothers land in Jamaica where she grew her herbs. As for the rather big ‘bit’ in between, you’ll just have to subscribe to my you tube channel to see how this story continues to unfold 😀