Inspired by her own experience with homeopathy, Clare Gregory, founder of SWIFT, set out to make professional homeopathic support more accessible to families whenever they need it. Through their 24/7 online clinic, The Homeopathic Helpline and the SWIFT Acute Academy, she is bringing homeopaths together, supporting practitioners and working to raise awareness of homeopathy among a new generation of families. Here, she talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind SWIFT, the challenges of building a round-the-clock service, balancing business and family life, and her ambitious plans for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
My own journey into homeopathy began through my struggle with postnatal depression. I had seen family members struggle with the conventional medicine approach and knew that, for me, I wanted to explore something different.
Homeopathy was a revelation. I found it gentle, effective and non-toxic, and those little white pills changed the direction of my life. I was so inspired by my own experience that I went on to train as a homeopath, wanting to help other people discover an alternative approach to their family’s healthcare.
I worked in private practice for eight years and, during that time, became increasingly aware of a gap. People didn’t only become unwell conveniently between nine and five. Parents needed help in the evenings, at weekends and sometimes in the middle of the night, yet accessing a homeopath at those times could be extremely difficult.
That was the idea behind SWIFT: to make professional homeopathic support accessible when people actually need it.
My passion now goes far beyond my own practice. I want to raise awareness of homeopathy, introduce more families to it and make it a realistic healthcare choice for the next generation.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
SWIFT was ambitious from the very beginning. The vision was never simply to create another homeopathic practice; I wanted to build a service that could make homeopathy genuinely accessible, 24 hours a day, wherever people happened to be.
The idea was to bring qualified homeopaths together as one team, working across shifts and time zones, so that instead of waiting for an appointment, someone could come online and access professional homeopathic support when they actually needed it.
From day one, I wanted SWIFT to become a significant force within homeopathy: not only providing consultations, but raising awareness, supporting practitioners and helping to bring homeopathy to a much wider audience.
We launched with that vision firmly in place, and although the systems, team and services have continued to develop, the ambition hasn’t changed. SWIFT exists to make homeopathy more accessible and to help secure its place within modern family healthcare.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
One of the biggest breakthroughs has been bringing together two very different ways of accessing homeopathy.
SWIFT provides a modern, 24/7 online clinic, connecting people with qualified homeopaths wherever they are. More recently, we also became the custodians of The Homeopathic Helpline, a much-loved service that has been supporting callers in the UK for around 30 years.
For me, that was an incredibly important moment. We weren’t simply growing a young online clinic; we were being entrusted with the continuation of a service with a remarkable history within British homeopathy.
Today, the two services complement each other beautifully. The Homeopathic Helpline provides telephone access in the UK, while SWIFT provides 24/7 online access to homeopathy more widely.
It represents something I feel very strongly about: respecting the history of homeopathy while finding new ways to make it accessible to today’s families.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
I’m not sure I would claim to have perfected this one!
When you create a business that you genuinely believe in, it can very easily become all-consuming. And when that business operates 24/7, technically there is always something happening somewhere.
I’ve had to learn that I don’t personally need to be available 24 hours a day just because SWIFT is. Building a strong team around me has been incredibly important.
I also make time for the things that take me away from work – my family, walking, the gym, playing golf and simply switching off.
I think running SWIFT has actually taught me that balance isn’t necessarily about dividing your time perfectly. It’s about recognising when work needs you and, equally importantly, recognising when the people you love need you too.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
Building something with a big ambition brings plenty of challenges.
One of the biggest has been creating the infrastructure behind a service that needs to operate reliably 24 hours a day. It isn’t simply a website with homeopaths behind it. There are practitioners, shifts, technology, training, communication, aftercare and standards of practice that all have to work together.
There is also the much bigger challenge of raising awareness of homeopathy itself.
Many people still know very little about homeopathy, and others have preconceived ideas about it. Changing that doesn’t happen overnight. It requires education, visibility, professionalism and a willingness to keep having conversations.
Like any growing business, we’ve made mistakes, changed direction, learned quickly and occasionally had to go back to the drawing board.
But I have always been very clear about the bigger purpose behind SWIFT, and that makes the difficult days much easier to navigate.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
The greatest advantage is having the freedom to take an idea you genuinely believe in and turn it into something real.
There is an enormous sense of satisfaction when somebody contacts SWIFT at a moment when they need help and one of our homeopaths is there for them. I also love bringing practitioners together and creating a community where homeopaths can work collaboratively, learn from one another and be part of something bigger.
The downside is that the business never completely leaves your head!
There is always another idea, another opportunity, another problem to solve or something I think we could be doing better.
Running your own business also means the responsibility ultimately sits with you. You enjoy the successes, but you also have to own the difficult decisions and the things that don’t work.
Would I swap it? Absolutely not. I love what we’re building.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
The ambition for SWIFT is much bigger than simply growing the number of consultations we provide.
I want SWIFT to play a part in making homeopathy more visible, accessible and relevant to modern family healthcare.
Alongside our 24/7 online clinic and The Homeopathic Helpline, we are developing education and training through the SWIFT Acute Academy, helping homeopaths build confidence and experience in acute homeopathic care.
We also have some exciting plans for the future and are continually looking at new ways to increase awareness, strengthen the profession and make high-quality homeopathic care easier for people to access.
But the biggest ambition remains awareness.
I would love to reach a point where a parent considering healthcare choices for their family knows that homeopathy is available to them, understands that it can be part of their healthcare choices, and knows where to find professional homeopathic support.
For me, success isn’t simply about building a bigger SWIFT.
It’s also about helping to build a bigger future for homeopathy.
Visit the SWIFT website to find out more, and connect with them on Facebook and Instagram.
