About Sybil
Contact
Insurance
Book Your On-Line Appointment
|
Homeopathy
What is Transformational Homeopathy?
Homeopathy is one of the most profound systems of natural healing ever developed. First founded in the late
18th century by a German physician, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, it spread throughout Europe and then to every continent
of the world, including North America. In Europe, many physicians use homeopathy as part of their arsenal of
patient care, and in some countries, such as India, it is primary care medicine. Homeopathy was prevalent in
U.S. medical practice and training during the 19th century and underwent a period of suppression in the early
part of the 20th century, but it has rebounded in popularity and practice since the late 1960s.
Homeopathy uses infinitesimally small doses of natural substances (based on plant, mineral, or animal sources) to
stimulate a person's inherent self-healing ability and thereby bring about improvements on the mental, emotional,
and physical levels. The goal is to find, from the thousands of remedies available, the one that most closely
matches his or her unique state..
When a truly resonant remedy is found, a person can experience a truly
transformative process that encompasses the spiritual, emotional, and
physical aspects of one’s being. This is the promise and the essence of
transformational homeopathy.
How Does Homeopathy Work?
To better understand why and how this type of therapy works, it helps to know a few of the basic principles on which it is
founded. For example:
- Vital Force: Everyone has an inherent ability to self-heal. Western medicine might label this concept the
immune system, but in homeopathy we refer to it as the Vital Force because it encompasses the spiritual and emotional
aspects of human beings as well as the physical. The Vital Force can be damaged by genetic tendencies, stress, trauma,
medications, and significant crises. Stimulating and enhancing the strength of the Vital Force is our primary goal.
- Treat the individual person, not the disease: Let's say you know ten people with insomnia.
In conventional
biomedicine, all ten might receive the same pharmaceutical drug to help them sleep, with varying success. In
transformational homeopathy, though, we recognize that each person is an individual. One person having trouble sleeping might be anxious, another
might be worrying about work or family, a third might habitually overeat or drink too much alcohol before bedtime,
another might be anemic from heavy menstrual flow, and so on. Each person would receive a different remedy
customized to his or her unique "big picture. What makes you different from anyone else is the key to finding a remedy
that allows you to heal from within.
- Totality of symptoms: In transformational homeopathy, we want to know more about this "big picture." A person's physical symptoms are important (all of them, not just the ones related to the main problem!), but so are life traumas, emotional and social habits, food likes and dislikes, factors that make the problem seem better or worse, sleeping positions, reactions to weather changes, and more. The better you can describe these, the easier it will be to find the most resonant remedy.
- Law of similars:The shortest way to describe this "law" is by the aphorism, "What a substance can
cause, it can cure." For example, a plant which, when taken whole as an herb causes acid indigestion, spasms,
chills, and irritability, can relieve those very same symptoms when it is prepared as a homeopathic remedy.
- Provings: The law of similars is also at the root of the way new
homeopathic remedies are discovered and characterized. In a proving,
a substance prepared homeopathically is given to a group of healthy
individuals (not ill ones as in pharmaceutical medicine). The symptoms
that these healthy people experience as a result of taking the remedy
are the symptoms that the remedy can reverse. The proving process
provides a detailed picture of the type of person who might need this
remedy.
- Minimum dose: Getting the right remedy is important, but so is getting the right potency. Less is more: The higher the
potency, the less of the original material substance remains in the remedy, but the stronger the healing effects become.
(This paradox stems from the way an original substance is successively diluted and succussed, or shaken, to increase its medicinal
powers). Western science found this paradox difficult to understand until recently. European and Asian scientists, however, are now
discovering that homeopathic remedies may act in a nonmolecular way, by imprinting energy "patterns" on water clusters, in much the
same way that instructions are programmed onto a silicon chip. Truly an information-age natural therapy! Homeopathic remedies
are safe, nontoxic, and without harmful side effects. But our goal is to
find the lowest possible potency to achieve the desired results.
- Law of cure: During homeopathic therapy, improvement progresses
in a specific order. Symptoms typically disappear first from the mental
and emotional realms, then from vital internal organs, and last of all
from superficial organs such as the skin. This is why people feel a
sense of improved well-being even before physical symptoms start to
change.
Who Can Benefit from Transformational Homeopathy?
This form of therapy is useful for both acute and chronic conditions. In acute
conditions, finding an appropriate remedy is often straightforward and based
on assessment of a few key symptoms. Yet, seemingly “acute” health crises
are often the visible tip of an underlying chronic iceberg, and in these
situations, a much more thorough case must be taken.
Homeopathy is often considered a natural therapy of last resort for chronic
conditions, after sufferers have tried many other approaches. It is for these
kinds of situations that homeopathy can work its most profound
transformations:
- Recurrent illnesses (for example, repeated ear infections in children, lifelong tendencies to urinary tract infections)
- Extremely sensitive individuals who are highly allergic or cannot tolerate perfumes, medications, and so on
- Illnesses that originate in unresolved emotional trauma or dysfunctional ways of coping
- Various stages of chronic or degenerative illness
Preparing for a Homeopathic Interview
An initial consultation can take up to two hours. Before your first visit, give
some thought to how your illness first began, what kinds of stresses might
have led up to it, and what factors (e.g., time of day, food, weather,
seasons, social situations, movements, pressure, etc.) make you feel better
or worse. Consider any habitual fears, worries, or other emotional tendencies
that are unique to you, and share those with the homeopath. Feel free to
discuss any and all situations in your life that are important to you at this
juncture. If the patient is a child, input from both the child and the parent(s)
will be important.
After your consultation, your therapist will provide a remedy chosen for its close resonance with your condition. It may
be given as a dry dose (pellets) or in liquid form, and the potency will be chosen according to your environmental
sensitivity, the state of your Vital Force, and other factors. A follow-up consultation will be scheduled for four to
six weeks into the future.
Taking Your Remedy
You will receive specific written instructions for how to take your remedy. In
many cases, you will take only one dose (not daily doses like pharmaceutical
medications), which will work its effects for a period anywhere from days to
several weeks or longer. Sensitive individuals or those who take several
prescription medications daily might receive a remedy that they can likewise
take daily. It's important to be observant about any alterations in your
emotional or mental state during treatment, as these could change before
your physical symptoms do. Be aware of dreams, differences in the way you
relate to others, and of course, the symptoms of your original complaint.
Keeping a diary or jotting down personal observations in a little notebook can
be helpful in this transformational process. Also, keep in close touch with
your therapist by e-mail or phone with any observations or questions you
might have. Your insights might help reveal when the remedy has stopped
working and when it is time to take another dose or change to a different
remedy.
Summary
You are in for a special treat when you choose to embark on this
transformational journey. It is a journey of greater self-awareness, enhanced
freedom to live more fully, and heightened life energy to face your current
and future challenges with vitality.
|
