Without the understanding of constitutional types, the practice of herbal medicine can often result in the oversight of important clinical clues. As physiological patterns express in the psyche and the physical body, morphology leads to a clearer understanding of the patterns that create imbalance in a patient. The tongue provides an excellent energetic map to the body's processes-balanced or imbalanced-and can add immensely to the clinical skills of western herbalists. This common sense western constitutional model and the technique of reading the tongue are readily accessible and easy to learn.