Kapil Puri specialises in aromatherapy and reflexology. Based in Belfast, Kapil took part in Get Well's Northern Ireland pilot scheme, treating patients referred by their GP. Kapil has helped many people combat stress-related ailments like insomnia, migraines, aches and pains using his techniques as an aromatherapist and reflexologist.
He said: "Aromatherapy is a therapy using essential oils which work well for various ailments and mental health problems. "At the end of the Get Well campaign the treatment was also used for muscular problems that came up. We would deal with a whole spectrum of pain just by using a range of natural plant-based oils. Reflexology is mainly to do with the feet. We believe there are points on the feet that correspond with every organ in the body and when you are working on those points you are actually working on the whole body. We get good results using both therapies".
Complementary therapies not only look at the patient's complaint but also their general well being and lifestyle. "To start with, many people coming to us have already been given medication", explained Kapil. "We sit down and look at their lifestyle as well as their diet. All of these therapies are very easy to do, so along with working on their back or head or their feet, we can help them to relax and when you relax you are able to cope with the days stresses better and your immunity gets better and your recovery improves. So on its own the therapies we offer helps but it also complements medication to quicken the healing process. We also look at their diet and lifestyle because there is no point in taking something to help indigestion and then going home and eating something that causes that indigestion. So that is how it works".
One patient who came to Kapil had a locked jaw and could hardly move. He said: "The lady's jaw had completely locked and when she came to me she was just on liquid ice cream and soup. She couldn’t laugh and when she talks she could hardly move her jaw so it wouldn’t give her pain. I worked on her head and neck and her face, jaw and upper back. I could see the difference by the second treatment that she was able to smile more and by her third treatment she could smile even more and was showing her teeth. She was able to eat more, like small bits of chicken and vegetables. By the fifth treatment I said to her I was expecting a 70 per cent recovery, but by the end of the session she said it was more like an 85-90 per cent recovery. She wasn’t holding her jaw, she was laughing happily, she was cracking jokes, and she was eating". Before going to Kapil, the patient was advised to get surgery but Kapil says that was unnecessary.
Another patient Kapil treated had been constipated for about five years and was on laxatives. "There was no relief for the gentleman", he said. "I was able to advise what foods to eat and what ones to avoid. He was very fond of banana sandwiches and nobody ever told him that bananas and bread are very bad for digestion. So he was on all this medication but things like his diet were never addressed, and if it had his bad digestion should never have developed. While I was treating him he was able to come off medication as well".
Kapil believes complementary therapies should work in conjunction with general medicine to give the patient well-rounded care. He said: "I believe it is a very cost effective way of giving treatments. It's not like you are getting medication and the problem doesn’t get properly sorted. It gets to the root of the problem so it will never reoccur. If a person gets a headache and takes a pill for it, they aren’t going beneath the headache to find out what is causing it. The headache will keep on occurring until the underlying problem is sorted. We complement the best of medication and we work around it so we make a difference".