The Casebook.
Wildroot & Wood.

Mr. C., forty-eight, sleeps four hours a night for the past six months. Cup of coffee at four in the afternoon, two glasses of red after dinner. Two children under six. Tired Exhausted. Doctor offered zolpidem, he declined; here in lieu.

We talked for half an hour about the cup of coffee and the two glasses of red. He nodded; I did not argue. Took the rest of the hour to write down his sleep, his eating, his exercise (almost none), and what his shoulders feel like when he gets up at six on a Saturday with the children.

Proposed a six-week formula. Skullcap and passion-flower in tincture, twenty drops at twenty-one hundred, twenty more before bed. Magnesium glycinate four hundred milligrammes, before dinner. A one-cup tisane of chamomile and linden, instead of the wine, for three of the seven evenings. Not all four glasses removed; just three.

He left smiling, which is not always how new clients leave. Six-week follow-up booked for 18 May.

Ms. R., fifty-three, perimenopausal. Flushes at 03:30 most nights. We have been seeing each other since 2022; the flushes have been unhelped by partially helped by sage and motherwort for the past six months. She would like to push further.

Added black cohosh (tincture, 30 drops twice daily) and a daily chasteberry capsule. Kept the sage; reduced the motherwort by half. She knows her body better than I do; we adjust gently.

We talked about sleep, about the wine, about the meetings she runs at 14:00 each day. We talked about a holiday, which she has not had since 2019. Eight-week follow-up.

The L. family — parents, two children under twelve. Annual herb check-in, the third year I've seen them. The parents drink one of my evening tisanes nightly; the children get a daily morning tonic of elderberry + rosehip in honey.

This year the elder child is twelve, asthmatic, and asked for something new. Added a daily mullein infusion to her morning routine — gentle on developing lungs, supports the inhaler her doctor has her on without contraindication. Discussed with her mother and her father; they agreed.

Family fees discounted at fifty percent — only the second time I've done this. The children come three times a year, and it matters that they should keep coming. The herbs are not the only thing that brings them.