Search Results for: homeopathic prescribing


My Path to Homeopathy

I came to homeopathy because I was searching for another way to help my sick child. Conventional medicine was not working and I longed to understand the “why”. What began as a personal quest became a professional passion and then a vocation. In the journey I found that not only did homeopathy offer permanent, safe and gentle treatments but it also paved a way for me to look at the healing process from a completely different perspective.

In The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, a book that teaches lessons that can be learned in dying to the living, there is a story that beautifully defines what could quite possibly be the most profound gift that we can offer to our patients as homeopaths.

The author, Sogyal Rinpoche, writes about a friend, who had just graduated from a famous medical school and started work at one of the larger London hospitals. On her first day on the ward, four or five people died. It was a terrible shock for her and nothing in her training had equipped her to deal with it. One old man was lying in his bed, staring at the wall. He was alone with no family or friends to visit him and desperate for someone to talk to.

She went over to him. His eyes filled with tears and his voice trembled as he asked her the last question she expected to hear: “Do you think that God will ever forgive me for my sins?” My friend had no idea how to respond: her training had left her completely unprepared for any spiritual questions. She had nothing to say; all she had to hide behind was her professional status as a doctor. There was no chaplain close by. She stood there paralyzed and unable to answer her patient’s desperate call for help and reassurance about the meaning of life.

The young doctor asked, in her own pain and bewilderment: “What would you have done?” The author said that he would have sat by his patient’s side, held his hand, and let him talk.

“I have been amazed again and again by how, if you just let people talk, giving them your complete and compassionate attention, they will say things of surprising spiritual depth, even when don’t think they have any spiritual beliefs. Everyone has his or her own life wisdom, and when you let a person talk, you allow this life wisdom to emerge. You can help people to help themselves by helping them to discover their own truth — a truth whose richness, sweetness, and profundity they may never suspected. The sources of healing and awareness are deep within each of us, and our task is never under any circumstances to impose our beliefs — but to enable others to find these within themselves,” writes Rinpoche.

This story taught me as a practitioner (mother/wife/friend/neighbour) that the greatest gift I could offer would be through the simple yet profound act of providing a quiet and safe space for my patients to listen and reflect and find their own wisdom/truth. Perhaps this is why patients often say that they feel better and why they appear somehow lighter after the initial consultation – before a single remedy is prescribed. They have begun their own healing process through the simple yet profound act of awareness and reflection.

Through this reflection begins the healing process which is where complementary medicines and therapies recognize the mind/body connection. That is why I love homeopathy – it truly is the only complete medicine.

 

Read Other News from Jennifer…


Learning from the World’s Leading Homeopath

Recently I had the privilege of attending the annual conference of the American Medical College of Homeopathy in Redondo Beach, California. The trip was a chance to go home and remember how sunshine feels. My primary reason for attending, however, was to see Rajan Sankaran, a contemporary visionary who has written more than a dozen books on homeopathy.

Sankaran runs an academy named The Other Song – International Academy of Advanced Homeopathy in Mumbai (India), which is dedicated to the education and training of homeopaths worldwide. His approach using the Sensation Method considers symptoms alongside the sensations that patients experience as guides to (homeopathic) remedies. His belief is that by understanding the sensations the patient experiences, the homeopath can prescribe remedies which get to the core of the patient’s dis-ease, leading to deep, lasting healing.

For example, consider a patient with a headache that is worse on the right side who has flushed cheeks and thirst, accompanied by the sensations of radiating heat and throbbing, pulsating pain. Combined with the physical symptoms, these sensations lead to remedies also found in clinical studies on the remedy Belladonna.

Sankaran, who I was inspired to meet both personally and professionally, proved to be funny, humble, and deeply concerned with the future of homeopathy. His Academy stresses the importance of clinical experience with extensive demands on his pupils to treat hundreds of patients under supervision before they enter private practise. He pointed out the lack of younger homeopaths entering the profession and the numbers of students who train but don’t practise or stay in the field as fundamental issues that are preventing the growth of homeopathy. Sankaran’s Academy also videotapes and then broadcasts live patient consultations (for clinical training) which are viewed at centres worldwide.

During the conference Sankaran showed several of these videotaped consultations. As a homeopath, I found it fascinating to see how he drew symptoms and sensations from patients with diverse personalities, ages and cultures. For example, in one case he took the words of a patient describing his headache as crushing pain that made him want to hide, which revealed a deeper association and connection to other memories that were relevant in detecting the remedy he needed. What equally impressed me was his declaration that his method is a tool but not appropriate in all cases. One memorable case was of a patient who had no intention of cooperating, about which Sankaran then commented that ‘to continue would have been torture for me…and the patient.’

There were about 150 homeopaths and GP homeopaths at the three-day conference, which also included Frans Vermeulen, Roger Morrison, Linda Johnson, and other leading homeopaths. In addition to the main presentations, there were panel discussions, a charity dinner and auction in aid of the AMCH, a cocktail reception, and numerous stalls selling books, software, and remedies.

I came away from the three days feeling inspired to continue my own training and further my competence as a practitioner. I see the Sensation Method for what it is: another tool for gathering information, remedy selection, and another way of understanding the expression of dis-ease.

 

Read Other News from Jennifer…