Dr Brian Kaplan
MB ChB FFHom
Medical homeopath and provocative therapist
Profile
Dr. Brian Kaplan is a medical doctor of 28 years clinical experience. He believes that patients need both conventional and holistic approaches to their problems and the choice depends on the condition, the patient and the circumstances. This is the essence of Integrated Healthcare.
Dr. Kaplan believes that wherever possible the whole person (or holistic approach) should be given priority, as its ethos is to stimulate the inherent self-healing ability of the body. Of course in life-threatening situations, surgery or drugs should be used immediately if indicated. Dr. Kaplan will help you choose the most appropriate medicine for you and your condition.
Dr. Kaplan is trained in three main fields:
- He has worked as a qualified medical doctor since 1980.
- He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Homeopathy and has used homeopathy for nearly three decades.
- He is a member of the British Autogenic Society and has used Autogenic Therapy, a method of achieving profound relaxation, in his practice since 1987.
- He is president of the British Institute of Provocative Therapy. This is an short-course form of psychotherapy that is at the cutting edge of the use of reverse psychology and humorous insights in medicine and therapy.
Conditions treated
Issues with drugs and alcohol, Obesity and eating disorders, Couples counselling and family mediation, Anxiety, Depression and low self-esteem, Work problems and relationships with colleagues, Family difficulties, Meeting financial challenges, Phobias, Body image issues, Underachievement, Sexual problems including not having a desired relationship when is wanted, Sleep disorders, Panic attacks, High Blood Pressure (Hypertension), Asthma, Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Muscular Pain and Tension, Migraines and tension headaches, Unexplained fatigue, Bladder disorders and sexual dysfunction, Unresolved grief and unexpressed anger. Digestive Problems: indigestion, heartburn, reflux and irritable bowel syndrome, Inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's Disease. Skin Diseases: Eczema and dermatitis, allergic skin eruptions, warts and Molluscum contagiosum, Psoriasis. Female Reproductive problems: Menstrual problems such as heavy bleeding, dysmenorrhoea and PMS. Cardiovascular Problems: Hypertension, heart problems. Male Reproductive Problems: Erectile problems. Urinary problems: Cystitis, urethritis. Respiratory System: Coughs, frequent colds, flu, bronchitis. Musculoskeletal System: arthritis, muscular problems. Psychological Problems: Anxiety, pre-exam nerves, fear of public speaking and other phobias, depression.
Therapy
Published material
| 2001 | The Homeopathic Conversation: Dr Kaplan describes his journey through medical school and training at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital to become a medical doctor who uses holistic approaches such as homeopathic medicine. The quality of the doctor patient relationship is discussed in detail. This book is on the required reading list of most homeopathic colleges. |
| 1987 | Studies of Homeopathic Remedies, by D. M. Gibson. Dr. Kaplan co-edited this classic homeopathic text of 100 commonly used homeopathic remedies. |
| ? | Passionate Medicine, edited by Robin Shohet. In the first chapter of this book Dr. Kaplan describes from a personal perspective, the joys and vicissitudes of a doctor who chooses to follow his heart in medicine. |
| ? | Die Kunst der Fallaufnahme - das homoeopathische Gespraech Uebersetzt von T. Schreier (German translation of The Homeopathic Conversation) |
Links
- www.drkaplan.co.uk - Dr. Kaplan's professional website and blog. This contains useful information and articles by Dr. Kaplan
- www.provocativetherapy.co.uk is the official site of the British Institute of Provocative Therapy of which Dr. Kaplan is president.
- http://briankaplanmd.blogspot.com is Dr. Kaplan's Provocative Therapy blog
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Why I am a member of the New Medicine Group (NMG).
Working alone versus being part of a team.
I have been in private practice as a doctor specializing in whole person medicine for 27 years. I have worked at various clinics including The Nature Cure Clinic, The Hale Clinic and the thriving Letchworth Centre for Healthy Living. All these centres gave me freedom to practise the sort of whole person medicine I have consistently been drawn to in my medical career. However at all these centres, although I was supported as a doctor, I still felt ‘lonely’ as a clinician. There were no clinical meetings where I could discuss cases with other doctors and practitioners. To my amazement I began to miss things like radiology meetings from my days in hospital medicine – simply because these would require me to sit in a room full of doctors in order to discuss X-rays and their implications for the patients from whom they were taken. Freedom in medicine is a great thing; feeling isolated as a lone practitioner is not. This all changed when I was invited to join the NMG in 2006.
Medicine: Orthodox, Alternative, Complementary, Integrated?
I was invited because the group wanted a doctor specializing in homeopathy, but when the group realised that classical homeopathy was just one of three major holistic tools (alongside conventional medicine) I use as a doctor, they were more than happy to embrace the other two – namely Autogenic Therapy and Provocative Therapy. I was heartened by the ethos of the NMG which sensibly recognises that both holistic and mechanistic approaches have vital roles to play in modern medicine. This is the essence of what is now being described as Integrated Medicine. This is essentially the correct resolution of the old problem of so called Alternative Medicine – which was not particularly improved by being supplanted by Complementary Medicine. For some ‘alternatives’ could be considered when mechanistic (aka orthodox) medicine ran out of options. For others, myself included, holistic stimuli should always be given priority except when there is a risk of morbidity or mortality or irreversible damage or when orthodox medicine has a truly curative reaction (eg. treating syphilis with Penicillin). Integrated medicine, as advocated by the NMG simply chooses what is most appropriate for a particular patient with a particular problem in a particular context and it chooses from a very broad spectrum of interventions (including conventional medicine) as can be seen by the specialities of the different members of our group.
Finding the patient the best therapy and the best therapist
Another very important thing I’ve enjoyed about being part of the NMG is the matching of practitioners with patients. The group recognises a fundamental principle of modern medicine and one that tends to be forgotten as medicine is increasingly fettered by the inappropriate application of evidence based medicine (EBM). EBM, when appropriately applied can be most useful but there is a grave danger in using it as a club to bash whole person approaches exclusively. When inappropriately used,EBM can separate the effect of the medicine from the effect of the doctor or therapist. Sometimes the two are inextricably linked and to insist on separating them can be damaging to patients and even contravening that most famous of Hippocratic dictums – Primum non nocere. The New Medicine Group places value on something we have termed ‘enthusiasm for being able to help the patient’. When a patient is presented at a clinical meeting, the group has a discussion after they have finished talking to and perhaps examining the patient. At the end of this discussion practitioners who feel enthusiastic about taking on the case are able to express why they feel this way. Such enthusiasm is not merely based on the practitioners experience with treating that particular condition. It is also indicative of the practitioner’s belief that s/he will be able to attain rapport with the patient. Although this is perhaps the essence of the holistic approach when it comes to matching doctors and therapists with patients, it is something that I’d not seen before. I have seen ‘gate-keepers’ of clinics interview patients and then allocate them to specific practitioners but this is quite different from a patient meeting a group of doctors and practitioners who study the case on paper and then meet the patient in person before deciding who is the best person for them to consult.
Getting help with my own cases:
The New Medicine Group comprises doctors and health care professionals who communicate regularly to get help for their patients. If I am seeing a patient who I think might benefit from the knowledge of a fellow member of the group, I can simply send an email to the group asking for assistance. All members of the group tend to be generous in that they try to help in any way they can. This might be by giving direct advice, referring me to a useful article on the internet or mentioning the name of a doctor they know who really might be able to help. In the course of a medical career, one tends to build up a network of useful contacts. As a member of the NMG, each member has access to all the other members’ networks. I have found this to be an extremely useful asset.
The New Medicine Group and the future of medicine
In the 80s and 90s, holistic medicine flourished. Then with the more ‘target-driven’, ‘evidence-based’, society of the 00s emphasis shifted to science as the exclusive answer to our problems. The time cannot be far off when the pendulum swings back to a more holistic approach or perhaps if we are lucky to an integrated approach which incorporates the best qualities of both mechanistic and holistic medicine. In the meantime we at the New Medicine Group will continue to develop our model of an integrated approach to illness and patients. I have faith that this will be of great benefit to our patients, to ourselves and to medicine in general.