How I work: your Life Script
Not a generic protocol. Not a list of things to give up. A plan written for your life, as it actually is right now.
When you work with me, you do not leave with a one-size-fits-all programme. You leave with a Life Script: a personalised plan for the way you actually live, eat, move, sleep, think and connect, built around the two or three changes you are genuinely ready to make. It is called a Life Script because it is a script for everyday life, and because it changes as your life changes. The aim is never to overwhelm you. It is to find the gentlest, most doable first step, and to walk it with you. Importantly, we work on this plan together. You own it. This could include dietary modifications, sleep habits, building movement into your day, making new friends, cutting out alcohol, daily breathing or grounding practices to deal with stress or journalling.
What a Life Script actually is
Most health advice fails for the same reason: it is written for a person who does not exist. The one with endless time, a calm life and no competing demands. Your Life Script is written for the real you, with the job, the kids, the ageing parents and the 3pm slump.
It is built from three things you are ready to do. Not thirty. Three. Chosen by you, in your words, because it is your health, your life and your habits. I am the navigator; you are the driver. I might say turn left here, slow down there, but you are the one moving the car.
"Each patient carries his own doctor within. We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work."
Your first consultation
A first consultation runs around 75 to 90 minutes, because the whole point is to not rush you. In that time I listen to the whole picture: how you eat, sleep, move and digest; your stress, your relationships, your family history; and the story that actually brought you in. I am looking to understand your daily habits and routines. As a naturopath and a counsellor, I can hold the biology and the story at the same time. They blend beautifully, because in real life they are never separate. I also review your blood test results which can give me clues about your physiology – be it an underactive thyroid, elevated HbA1c or liver enzymes or insulin-resistance
Somewhere in that conversation I will usually ask about your energy and where you feel your exhaustion: in your head, or in your body. The answer tells me a lot. Energy is the currency of health, and I want to understand where yours is leaking.
The six-pillars self-assessment
I use a simple lifestyle medicine self-assessment, the same one you can take free on this site. You rate yourself, gently, across the things that shape how you feel: how you are eating, moving and sleeping, how you are managing stress, how connected you feel, and, importantly, your sense of purpose. That last one matters more than people expect. When everything else looks fine but purpose is low, that tells me where the real work is.
Then I ask the question I always ask: what stands out for you? Which two or three things, if they shifted, would change how you feel? You choose. That choice is where the change actually begins. I provide you with the tools required to make that change. Maybe an anti-inflammatory diet protocol, or tips on how to improve your sleep, or about meditating daily, walking after a meal. The thing is I want you to leave the consult feeling empowered, energised and motivated to make tiny changes to your lifestyle.
How the plan is built
Once we know your two or three non-negotiables, we make them small. Genuinely small. If sleep is the priority, we might bring bedtime back fifteen minutes and put the phone away a little earlier, rather than overhauling everything at once. Maybe journalling every night. Or walking after dinner. Avoiding ultra processed food. Making new friends. Staying hydrated. Meditating. We write it down, often on a simple habit tracker you can stick on the fridge. Swap, don't stop: I will never hand you a list of things to give up. We swap, gently, towards something that nourishes you. The plan is list of 3-5 changes that YOU are ready to make in order to feel better and live more.
Herbs and nutrients or teas definitely have a place in your plan. They support the changes you are making. I will always explain how and why you need them. The aim is for you to understand your own body well enough that you are not dependent on a cupboard full of bottles. Importantly, the focus is on making tiny changes to your lifestyle to be a better version of yourself.
Walking it together
The habit-forming stage is where people need the most support, so this is where I stay close. When you come back, I am not looking for a perfect report card. I am looking for what you were able to do. If you fell off, we start again, kindly, and we make the step smaller. Show up, even for two minutes: put your shoes on and step outside. You kept a promise to yourself. It is consistency, not intensity, that changes a life.
What this approach deliberately rejects
No quick fixes. No shame. No restriction-based diets that burn you out in three weeks. No doom and gloom. Health is a long game, a marathon, not a boot camp, and the cost of good habits is in the present while the cost of bad habits is in the future. We are playing the long game, together.
What this can look like
A client arrived flat and exhausted, sleeping poorly, living mostly on packaged food, certain that nothing would help because nothing had. We did not start with a diet or a stack of supplements. We started with sleep, a little morning light, a few gentle food swaps, and honest conversation between sessions. Over several months the energy came back, the mood lifted, and the changes held, because they were never extreme in the first place. Details have been changed for privacy, and every person responds differently.
Common questions
How long is the first appointment?
Around 75 to 90 minutes, so there is time to look at the whole picture without rushing.
Do I have to take supplements?
No. They are the last layer, not the first, and only ever to support lifestyle change. Many clients do very well with very few.
Is this naturopathy or counselling?
Often both, in the one room. If you are not sure which you need, make an appointment and we will work it out together.
Will you take me off my medication?
No. I work alongside your GP and medical care, never instead of it, and I never start by trying to change your prescriptions.
Raji Samprathi, Naturopath and Counsellor, Canberra ACT. Member, ANTA and PACFA.
Reviewed by Raji Samprathi on September 2026. Refreshed every six months.