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Sitting at an imposing desk, the rear wall of her office festooned with certificates, Lorraine Whitby appeared nothing if not authoritative.
It was an impression she was keen to reinforce. “When people say, ‘Can you do what you say you can do?’, it's like, “Look at the wall, yes I can’”.
The patient sitting in front of her said she was worried that her usually happy toddler had recently become unsettled.
But smiling from behind the desk, the Essex-based homeopath reassured the mother that her treatments would ‘a hundred per cent’ solve the issue.
Ms Whitby was quick to zero in on her preferred culprit: the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab and other routine NHS immunisations given to the young girl after she had turned one some months earlier.
"Were there any vaccinations going on proceeding the change?" she asked.
According to the homeopath, some people ‘susceptible’ to vaccinations can exhibit adverse reactions ranging from a "mood change" to obsessive compulsive disorder, Tourette’s or autism.
"Something’s caused that and unfortunately vaccinations do that," she said.
Despite stressing she was "not anti-vaccine" and that she was "not saying it’s vaccinations", Ms Whitby then went on to advise the mother abstain from giving her older children - three year old twins - any further booster jabs.
"Truthfully, you’re better off boosting their immune system and not giving boosters," she said.
"Boosting with vitamins?" asked the mother, who was also in fact an undercover reporter for this newspaper.
"Oh no, no, with homeopathic remedies," Ms Whitby replied.
She could not advise parents on whether to vaccinate, she said, but added: "You’ve got to decide, is it worth the risk?"
Ms Whitby also told how she had never vaccinated her own daughter, now an adult. "If I had gone ahead with that, and then she’d been damaged in some way, how would I ever forgive myself for that? I would rather make her stronger."
The vaccination programme, she claimed, was designed to "take the strain off the NHS". "It's money, that’s what you got to understand, it's just money, it's not health orientated."
At the end of the appointment, the homeopath charged a total of £96, including £5 for a homeopathic remedy made from shells.
If this did not address the toddler’s issues, then they would have "proof" that she had been affected by vaccines and further homeopathic remedies would be needed.
Such treatments, it transpired, were her stock in trade, specialising as she did in "undoing the effects of vaccinations."
Unfortunately, however, there is little credible scientific evidence behind such a claim. Moreover, advising parents against immunising their children could have potentially catastrophic consequences.
Last night Ms Whitby declined to comment.
A falling uptake in the MMR vaccination has resulted in the UK population losing its "herd immunity" to measles – which can lead to complications that are potentially fatal - and it is no longer classed as free of the disease. Worldwide, the number of measles cases is currently at a 13-year high.
Suspicions over what is fuelling the decline have been directed towards some homeopaths, whose scientifically unproven methods concentrate on stimulating the body to defend itself "naturally" rather than with medical intervention.
Earlier this week Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, warned that "there is a rise of misinformation about vaccines – some of which is apparently promoted by homeopaths – and which poses a significant danger to human health."
The Society of Homeopathy insists that it tells practitioners not to advise against vaccinations as that would be "unethical."
In order to find out what some homeopaths are actually telling patients in private, an undercover reporter from the Daily Telegraph made appointments with a number of practitioners.
In each case, an undercover reporter contacted the homeopath to ask how they could help her youngest child, aged around 17 months old.
The journalist said that the usually happy child had lately become more fractious and clingy, and that she had also suffered from constipation since she weaned off food at six months old.
The mother then asked for the homeopath’s views on vaccination, saying that her older children – healthy three-year-old twins - were due to have their pre-school booster. In one of the cases, the reporter also claimed to be pregnant.
It soon became apparent that Lorraine Whitby was not the only one steering patients away from the NHS-recommended jabs.
While being careful to make clear that the decision of whether or not to vaccinate their child was up to the parents, all of the homeopaths visited suggested the reporter research the issue by looking at sources which were clearly against the use of vaccines.
Keith Smith in Eastbourne warned the reporters not to listen to "unqualified workers in the National Health Service, and politicians," and instead "go to the top" – to authors like Trevor Gunn, a homeopath whose books include "Vaccines: This book could remove your fear of childhood illness".
He declined to comment on this story.
Meanwhile Ursula Kraus-Harper, who runs her clinic from her cottage in rural Buckinghamshire, handed the reporter a DVD of the documentary "Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe", directed by the disgraced Dr Andrew Wakefield.
Ms Kraus-Harper, an economist turned homeopath, said that the MMR vaccine could trigger autism and claimed that people in the UK and Europe were more likely to die from being vaccinated than from catching measles.
She admitted that it would be "unethical" of her to advise a parent whether to vaccinate their children, but added that she would avoid all vaccinations if she had youngsters now.
"If I had little ones now I wouldn’t. But that’s because it has taken, that has taken me ten years to come to that conclusion." The controversy over whether to vaccinate was, she said, like a "religious war".
Yesterday she defended her actions. "As in all healthcare professions there is a range of opinions on which treatment is appropriate. Some misinformed homeopaths do endorse vaccines. I clearly advised the undercover reporter to make an informed decision by considering opinions and evidence around the subject. This is the basis of informed consent," she said.
Some of the homeopaths were more outspoken than others.
Alan Freestone, a self-proclaimed autism specialist, usually offers appointments via Skype, counselling patients around the world about how to treat autism from the clinic he runs from a house in suburban Birmingham.
Unusually, he accepted an in-person meeting with the Telegraph reporter, who in this case claimed to be pregnant with her fourth child.
Like the other homeopaths, he claimed that he could not advise the mother what to do. But then he went on to do precisely that.
Asked by the reporter what he would do in her shoes, "where you’ve got kids who are broadly healthy", he said. "If I was in your position I wouldn’t vaccinate."
Gesturing towards her early pregnancy, she asked: "And what about with this one? Just none of it?"
"If I was in your position, I wouldn’t vaccinate at all, yeah," he replied.
As far as the homeopath is concerned, the NHS’ immunisation programme will be looked on unkindly by history. "In a hundred years...they’re going to look back and think what were those people doing?"
With a captive audience in his front room, he argued that vaccinations are, in fact, all part of a conspiracy theory.
At "the good end" of the spectrum, he argued, the government is aware that vaccinations are ‘damaging some’ but has decided that if you "want to make an omelette you’re going to have to break a few eggs".
Yesterday he did not respond to requests for comment.