FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions about feng shui and feng shui consultation

If you have a question related to feng shui and it’s not answered here please email it to me and I’ll be very happy to answer it for you.

1. How can feng shui help me?
2. How long does the feng shui consultation last?
3. What’s involved in the feng shui consultation?
4. How much does the feng shui consultation cost?
5. How does the follow-up consultation work?
6. What is feng shui?
7. How does feng shui work?
8. How to choose the best feng shui consultant for my needs?
9. I’m confused about different feng shui schools and styles. How do I know which type of feng shui is appropriate for me?
10. Is feng shui astrology an important aspect of the feng shui consultation?
11. How long does it take to see tangible results after the feng shui consultation?
12. I’ve read that clutter is a big problem in feng shui?
13. Do I need to do anything before the feng shui consultation?
14. Why number four (4) is considered unlucky in Chinese and oriental cultures?
15. Why shouldn’t people google how to feng shui their homes or workplaces?

1. How can feng shui help me?
Your immediate environments – your home or the place where you work – will directly affect your life on many levels: physically, emotionally, mentally, and even spiritually. If you want to improve any aspect of your life – such as work/career, relationships, family, finances, health, and so on – by improving the feng shui of your home or workspace you’ll create a better environment for working and living. Most people are unaware of whether their home or place of work is actually working for them or against them!

2. How long does the feng shui consultation last?
On average, about two hours depending on your individual needs, environmental problems and the size of the property.

3. What’s involved in the feng shui consultation?
•  Finding out what your specific needs are.
• All aspects of feng shui (Bagua, placement, colours, layouts, orientations, images, symbols, etc).
• Checking Sick Building Syndrome (SBS): geopathic stress and solutions, EMF /electromagnetic smog pollution, dirty electricity.
•  Feng shui space clearing if required.
•  For home offices: advice on maximising website potential and branding/logo impact.
• Feng shui astrology analyses (If required please provide DOBs before the consultation) for up to 4 resident family members.
• Actual consultation onsite or online – which will last up to 2 hours
• A complete written feng shui report (by email).
• Full support during the whole process (via email / Skype/telephone).
• Follow-up fine tuning consultation (onsite or online) if necessary once you’ve done most of the improvements (within 3-6 months).
• If feng shui remedies (i.e. dirty electricity filters, etc) or interior design interventions (i.e. mirrors, images, etc) are suggested by the consultant, these would be at an additional charge or you are responsible for purchasing them.
The consultation fee is dependent on your location – please call me on 07956 288 574 or email me for a quote giving your location (ie postcode) and the size of your home.

4. How much does the feng shui consultation cost?
The cost of my feng shui consultation depends on your location and the size of your property. Feng shui consultation’s cost in London starts from £800 (depending on where you live). Feng shui consultations outside London are more expensive, but if you can’t afford this kind of fee – I also offer a less expensive distant/remote feng shui consultation as an alternative – starting from £500 (depending on what you need).

5. How does the follow-up consultation work?
All of my feng shui consultations include a follow-up “fine tuning” session – either on site, by Skype or on the phone.  You are also welcome to contact me with any feng shui-related questions.

6. What is feng shui?
Feng shui is a holistic interior/exterior design process similar to Environmental Psychology (except that feng shui is not a recognised science as such). Feng shui is a combination of art and philosophy.  Literally translated, feng shui means ‘wind-water’ (not wind and water) and although the name is Chinese, some core feng shui principles can be applied universally and people all over the world have a similar understanding of how different environments affect us. The people who built Stonehenge or designed St Paul’s cathedral or constructed Victorian houses all had their own specific appreciation and application of the core feng shui principles. Read some definitions of feng shui

7. How does feng shui work?
One of the best definitions of how feng shui works come from Winston Churchill who said, “We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.” Colours, shapes, layouts, placements, objects and personal possessions will affect how you feel and can also affect your performance. Psychological principles of priming and anchoring will also be at work. By optimising your environments you’ll create empowering settings that will work for you and support your goals and dreams. Watch this video if you need a scientific explanation how feng shui works

8. How to choose the best feng shui consultant for my needs? Feng shui checklist.

Not all feng shui consultants are equal. If you want to optimise the feng shui of your home or business, you need to choose the best of the best.

Start with identifying your needs first
Is it to feng shui your home or feng shui your business? Or maybe both. Find out if they specialise in any specific aspects of feng shui.

Find a local feng shui consultant
It might be easier to have follow-up feng shui sessions. Google ‘feng shui consultant + your location’, for example, ‘feng shui consultant London’ or even more specifically i.e. ‘feng shui consultant South Kensington London’. You can also use Google Maps and just type your postcode or use iPhone Maps and search for a ‘feng shui consultant’. If a local feng shui consultant is not available you can find a consultant who practices remote/distant feng shui which now with internet/Skype/FaceTime, etc is possible.

Check their credentials

The longer they’ve been working as a  feng shui consultant, the better – they will have more feng shui experience, knowledge, wisdom and sophistication. I’ve been working as a feng shui consultant for over 45 years and have done over 10,000 feng shui consultations. I also have an MSc degree in Environmental Psychology which is the closest scientific discipline to feng shui. My background is also design, interior design and branding, therefore I’ll be able to advise you on interior design aspects as well as your business and help you align your feng shui with your brand. I’m also a PhD researcher in feng shui.
Check if they’re members of The Feng Shui Society – which is the only independent feng shui organisation which makes sure that all the feng shui consultants are insured and abide by a strict professional code of practice and standards.

Make sure they are qualified to check for

1. geopathic stress (GS)
2. electromagnetic pollution (EMF)
3. dirty electricity (DE).
If the feng shui consultant doesn’t do these basic sick building syndrome (SBS) checks you’ll have to employ someone else separately – so the cost of the consultation will at least double – not to mention that both professionals will have to communicate and agree on certain design aspects. I perform all of these SBS checks, which are included as part of my feng shui consultation at no extra cost.

Speak to the feng shui consultant
See if you resonate with him/her. Please call/text/whatsapp me on +44 7956288574

Check on YouTube
See if there are any videos about their feng shui work. See my feng shui talks and videos

Choose a feng shui consultant who has a person-centred approach

What it means is that he will suggest feng shui improvements and solutions that will work for you and fit your interior design style. A person-centred feng shui approach is not dogmatic, not confrontational and it won’t impose ideas that are not based on common sense or are not evidence-based. Feng shui has many creative ways and solutions for achieving desired results.

9. I’m confused about different feng shui schools and styles. How do I know which type of feng shui is appropriate for me?
There are many different types and schools of feng shui. Many feng shui schools don’t agree with each other and sometimes they even propose completely conflicting solutions. Think about feng shui as a form of art or cooking – no art/cooking style is better than the others – they’re just different expressions of the same function. It’s best to follow a checklist of how to choose a feng shui consultant for your needs (See point 8).
As a rule of thumb: follow modern developments in feng shui. Be aware of dogmatic, divisive, traditional, ‘authentic’ or ‘real’ feng shui which can give you all kinds of ‘false problems’. A lot of traditional feng shui is culture-specific and may not apply to life in the modern western world. Would you use an old map of China to navigate your journey in the UK?  Most traditional, ‘authentic’ feng shui doesn’t take into account modern problems such as electromagnetic pollution, geopathic stress and sick building syndrome. Don’t follow any feng shui tradition that doesn’t make sense to you. Find out what type of feng shui resonates best with you and your belief system. For example, I offer vastu shastra consultancy (which is an Indian system similar to feng shui) for people who come from that culture, although strangely enough, many Indian clients prefer feng shui to vastu shastra. Horses for courses.
There are basically two approaches in feng shui at the moment:
1) Classical feng shui which includes form school and compass school based on ancient Chinese classical feng shui texts
2) Modern or contemporary feng shui includes and transcends the classical feng shui and also utilises modern, evidence-based environmental sciences and approaches such as environmental psychology, Sick Building Syndrome (SBS), electromagnetic pollution and radiation, dirty electricity, geopathic stress, ergonomics, cognitive ergonomics, and more.
In short, modern feng shui is a more comprehensive, inclusive, evidence-based and flexible way of addressing modern environmental problems.

Classical feng shuiModern feng shui
Form schoolForm school
Compass schoolCompass school
Space conditioning (in feng shui called Space Clearing and Clutter Management)
Geopathics and geopathic stress
Electromagnetic pollutions and stressors
Plus evidence-based related disciplines and multi-disciplinary modalities such as:
Environmental psychology
Environmental sciences
Ergonomics and cognitive ergonomics
Sick Building Syndrome (air pollution and quality, noise pollution, lighting, etc)
Holistic wellness disciplines
Neuroscience (especially to do with good sleep habits and environmental stressors)
Design and interior design
Semiotics (the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation)
Ecology & Biophilia
Sleep science
Longevity disciplines
Practical Spirituality Practices / Spiritual Health / Spiritual Intelligence

Choose a feng shui consultant who has a person-centred approach to feng shui

10. Is feng shui astrology an important aspect of the feng shui consultation?
This is a personal preference. Cosmology was an integral aspect of feng shui in China. Please note that there are many different types feng shui astrology which may or may not agree with each other. Astrology is not an evidence-based discipline. I use a Japanese feng shui astrology system, called 9 Star Ki astrology and Chinese astrology.

11. How long does it take to see tangible results after the feng shui consultation?
It all depends. Certain aspects can be improved almost immediately. For example, if you’re not sleeping well due to geopathic stress, electromagnetic pollution, poor quality of air, etc and you improve your bedroom – you should notice the difference very quickly. With other improvements, it makes take some time.

12. I’ve read that clutter is a big problem in feng shui?
Clutter can block the energy flow (which is one of the key feng shui principles). However, if your home is 80% clutter free in the key areas, and the rest of the clutter is well managed (i.e. hidden) then you shouldn’t worry about it. We all have a bit of clutter here and there! Research suggests that clutter and mess are actually good for us. Read my blog about clutter and mess.

13. Do I need to do anything before the feng shui consultation?
You can list areas of your life (personal and professional) that you’d like to improve. The first question I’ll ask you is how would you like feng shui to help you.

14. Why number four (4) is considered unlucky in Chinese and oriental cultures?
In Chinese “si,” the word for “four” has a very similar pronunciation to the word “death,” so oriental people naturally try to avoid living on the fourth or fourteenth floor or in apartments or houses with that number. Also, telephone numbers that contain fours are less popular. The Chinese uneasiness for the number 13 is largely due the influence of Western films – although some argue that 1+3 = 4. The main reason number 13 is considered unlucky in the western culture stems from the Bible (Judas was the 13th apostle). Another example of numerology is Myanmar’s government (formerly Burma) which turned to astrology for policy when in the 80’s they switched the currency form units of 10 to nine, which they considered more auspicious (which caused economic turmoil).
Some of the more popular remedies for houses or apartments with number four are:
a) not displaying the number four
b) adding a letter to the number 4, for example, 4a to change the vibration
c) designing a name for the house and replacing the number with it
d) writing the digit 4 in such a way so it looks like 8 (which is considered a very lucky number).
e) not including the number four in the first place anywhere, as The Lucky Dragon and Casino in Las Vegas (which has been heavily feng-shui’ed) has just done that, by leaving off the number four from the room numbers, telephone numbers and even floor numbers (yes, there is no fourth floor between the third and fifth floor!). Many hotels and casinos have used feng shui and advertised it as a benefit.
Read more about ‘lucky numbers

15. Why shouldn’t people google how to feng shui their homes or workplaces?
For a very simple reason: unless you’re an expert in feng shui – you don’t know what you don’t know. Reading feng shui advice out of context can most likely give you a ‘false problem‘. And then you will have to undo negative priming or negative suggestion (nocebo effect). I see this all the time when people read general advice which doesn’t apply to them and worry about things that are not relevant to their homes or workplaces. In the same way, as doctors don’t advice people to diagnose themselves online or google their symptoms. There was a study comparing doctors and computers on their ability to diagnose medical conditions and doctors got it right 77% of the time and computers got it right only 30%. But it is advisable to read about feng shui to be aware of the issues but don’t assume that you have these feng shui problems.