A private health clinic providing professional herbal medicine and nutritional treatment.
SERVICES
About Us
Our fully qualified clinical herbalist treats all health conditions both acute and chronic, using quality , prescription only herbal and nutritional products, and dietary advice.
Keep an eye on our website noticeboard or sign up for our newsletter to hear the latest in Vividus news and promotions. You can also visit us on facebook or ask us a question through the vividus blog.
Vividus is now providing Southlanders with Natural Fertility Options
Natural Fertility offers you evidence based and professionally taught natural options to manage your fertility throughout life.
Many women struggle with the side effects and hassle of contraceptive options. For women considering pregnancy there is often the concern of how long their natural cycle will take to re-establish and what their nutritional status will be following the effects of oral contraceptives and other hormonal methods.
Natural fertility New Zealand Incorporated (NFNZ) is a national organisation of trained and continuously up-dated fertility educators. Educators who work under NFNZ have undergone extensive training in natural fertility management and can provide education on fertility awareness and teach fertility management to individuals, couples, medical and health professionals.
NFNZ educators teach clients how to use the sympto-thermal method of natural fertility a method which uses both basal body temperature and mucus symptoms to establish when a women is fertile in her cycle. This method can be used to avoid pregnancy and also to assist with timing intercourse to achieve pregnancy. When taught by an accredited teacher this method is more than 98% effective when used by knowledgeable and motivated clients. Clients are taught the method over 3 consultations to recognise their own naturally occurring signs of fertility so that they can either avoid intercourse during the fertile time or choose to use a barrier method during the fertile time.
The Vividus Clinic is proud to provide this service back down South with Lena Williams now as a fully accredited Natural Fertility Educator.
Click HERE to view Contraceptive Options
Click HERE to view Help with Conceiving
Herbal Medicine at Vividus Clinic
We often prescribe herbal supplements and tinctures to our clients. Herbal supplements come in tablet, capsule and dried form and a tincture is simply an alcohol extract of the raw herb.
Herbal medicine at our clinic is based on botany and biochemistry as each plant contains naturally occurring chemicals. When we consume that plant material we digest and absorb some of these chemicals and the chemicals we absorb will usually affect the body in some way. A good example of this is the coffee bean, see diagram to the right.
"Just like coffee many herbs contain chemicals which affect the way our body works."
In general most herbs will have fewer and less serious side effects compared to allopathic drugs. Herbal medicines contain much lower doses of the active ingredient, compared to allopathic medicines so they will often need to be taken for a longer period of time to have a similar effect.
Our clinical herbalist will often avoid treating just the symptoms of a disease. For example if you suffer from constipation she will endeavour to discover the root cause of the constipation. If the constipation is found to be caused by underactive thyroid then Lena will suggest herbs and nutritional supplements that will assist with improving your thyroid function and therefore help resolve the constipation. By treating the root cause you are more likely to get long term relief and complete resolution of the illness.
Herbal medicine is gaining more and more support as scientific evidence of its efficacy grows. Its popularity has caused a boom in the natural health supplement industry resulting in a huge variety in the quality of these supplements and advice that goes with them.
Herbal Practitioner
The Vividus Clinic is run by Lena Williams a qualified Clinical Herbalist. Lena studied herbal medicine at the Canterbury College of Natural Medicine in Christchurch for three years and gained the diploma in Clinical Herbal Medicine in 2009. She is now studying towards a Bachelor in App. Health Majoring in Complementary Medicine through the University of New England in Australia. Lena is also training to be a Natural Fertility Educator with Natural Fertility New Zealand. This will enable her to provide natural help for couples trying to conceive and those wanting a natural contraceptive method. Please refer to the Natural Fertility tab for more information. Lena also holds a diploma in speech and drama making her an enthusiastic and exciting presenter. Lena is available to talk to groups about natural fertility, fertility education sessions for teens, herbal medicine and nutrition.
Nutrition
At the Vividus clinic we believe in giving our clients the information and education they need to make good dietary decisions. Healthy eating should be manageable, affordable and enjoyable, so each of our clients leaves the clinic with a personalised food plan to suit their individual needs.
We tailor food plans to suit a variety of needs such as:- Weight gain
- Weight management
- Weight loss
- Thyroid conditions
- Pre-conceptionPregnancyPost-pregnancy/breastfeeding
- Detox plans
- Food intolerances
- Gut problems
- High cholesterol
- Pre-diabetes and diabetes
We support healthy eating and avoiding the extremes of dieting. Our food plans will usually include a decent amount of protein, plenty of complex carbohydrates from unprocessed sources, a nice amount of healthy fat from oily fish and plant sources and a small amount of animal fat from meat and diary.
Weight Management with Vividus Clinic
We offer weight gain, weight management and weight loss programmes for our clients.
We adapt our plans to take into account individual factors such as upcoming events you wish to loose the weight in time for, financial limitations, other conditions you may have and we like to break it all down into manageable short-term goals so you can take it one step at a time. We offer options such as weekly food dairy’s and weight ins, additional supplements to help you along and healthy protein snacks for when you get caught short.
You can even opt-in to be on our in clinic weight loss graph where clients compete anonymously under a designated letter.
Watch out for our HOT seasonal weight loss special!
At the beginning of every season we take on 6 weight loss client at a special discount rate and guide them through their weight loss journey.
Food Intolerances
Food intolerances seem to be an increasingly common problem. If you are getting bloated after bread, gassy after glucose or just feel something is ‘off’ with your digestion it may be worth further investigation. Eating foods to which you are intolerant or allergic can be very hard on your body, continually triggering an inflammatory response and tissue damage. Over time the damage to your gut tissue can impair effective absorption of your food leading to fatigue and nutrient depletion.
We can guide you through the whole process.
Options include full blood testing using the ELISA method through US Biotek Labs to determine which foods you are intolerant or allergic to and to what degree (see an example).
Another option is to plan a rotation diet for you to see if we can manually determine which foods are causing problems.
Once the culprits have been identified we can then proceed with repairing your digestive system, reducing inflammation and improving all aspects of digestion. When testing has shown you only have a mild-moderate intolerance to a food it is usually a reversible situation where the problem food may be able to be re-included into your diet after a period of avoidance and some repair. Only foods to which your are severely intolerant and allergic usually need to be removed permanently.
Products and Services
Vividus offers a great range of high quality products and services.
Visit our Products page to find out more about our prescription only products as well as our unique 'made to order' products. We also have a range of loose leaf herbal teas instore.
Visit our Services page for an overview of our services, tests, and prices.
Alternatively drop into the clinic and take a look at our range of products or speak to our Clinical Herbalist.
Service Categories
Allergy Testing / Treatments, Herbalists, Mens Health, Natural Fertility Management, Nutrition, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Weight Loss, Womens Health
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