What does a homeopathic consultation involve?
During your first consultation (60 - 90 minutes) we will take an in-depth look at your complete picture of health to build up an understanding of how your system is out of balance. I will ask you to describe your symptoms in specific detail - how and when your symptoms started, what makes them better or worse. Also about your past medical history, family history, temperament, emotional states, current life situation, diet, favourite foods/ foods that aggravate, fears, sleep patterns etc. A homeopathic medicine is then prescribed to match your full symptom picture. Often this is one single remedy.
Follow up consultations (30-45 minutes) are recommended every 4-6 weeks until health is restored. Follow ups allow us to assess your remedy reaction to your last prescription. Depending on your reaction, we can then either revise and adjust your prescription as necessary or enhance and optimise your treatment.
I also consult for acute conditions (20-30 mins). Acute health problems are ones which eventually get better on their own e.g. common cold, flu or food poisoning. Sometimes our system needs the help of an individually tailored remedy to reduce the severity of symptoms, and decrease the duration of the acute. Homeopathy is also very effective and safe in the treatment of common ailments such as bruising, inflammation, minor burns and minor skin reactions such as insect bites or allergic reactions.
How long does treatment take?
The time this process takes will depend upon your level of health and vitality when you commence treatment. First improvements are usually seen within the first month, with significant progress occurring over the first 3 months of treatment. If you suffer from a deep, chronic condition which has developed over a long time you may need a number of remedies before health is fully restored.
I recommend committing to at least 3 consultations over a 3-4 month period. During this time you should experience a reduction and improvement in your symptoms. Frequency and severity of symptoms should reduce, and have a less negative impact on your life. You may experience a return of old symptoms – this is a good sign as the body works through the root causes. If you do experience a return of old symptoms, this is usually very short-term and easily manageable.
Once you have completed 3 consultations and prescriptions you will either have 1) fully improved and require no further treatment 2) your symptoms will have improved but some further short-term treatment is required or 3) your symptoms are too deeply ingrained to cease treatment at this stage and continued treatment is required. If symptoms reappear in the future I recommend getting in touch as this indicates that top up treatment is required.
What are ‘root causes’ of illness?
A root cause is an initiating cause of a condition or the fundamental reason for the occurrence of an illness.
Root causes lead to imbalances in our system which in turn lead to the development of signs and symptoms. The symptoms may be many, varied, widespread and manifest on different levels - mind, emotions and physical. As a result they may appear to be unconnected but are all holistically linked, and may often share the same root cause.
Some examples of root causes include:
Hereditary diseases, genetic predisposition, epigenetics.
Adverse childhood experiences
Earlier Life Trauma
Lifestyle choices
Environmental influences and toxins.
There are many reasons why we get out of balance. Some illness really can be as simple as a food intolerance e.g. gluten/ dairy or environmental toxicity e.g. medications, repeated courses of antibiotics or steroids, vaccinations, contraceptives, amalgam fillings, heavy metals, plastics, parasites, bacteria, environmental toxins, glyphospate, alcohol, drugs etc. More often than not it is a collection of factors which disturbs the way our body functions.
Trauma is one of the most common. The human condition is very sensitive to all levels of shock. Depending on unique susceptibility a person’s health can deteriorate following traumatic events such as bereavement, grief, physical injury and accidents, abuse, emotional shocks, sudden change - job loss, relationship separation, change of environment, childbirth (for baby & mother) and economic hardship.
Interactions between the brain and body also determine that adverse early childhood circumstances—even in utero experiences—leave us in the long term with more than psychological and emotional effects. The physical impact of early childhood experiences can also directly promote disease.
The CDC’s Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) uncovered a stunning link between childhood trauma and the chronic diseases people develop as adults, as well as social and emotional problems. This includes heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes, many autoimmune diseases, depression, and suicide. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) range from physical, verbal or sexual abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect, and include having a parent who’s an alcohol/drug dependent, a mother who’s a victim of domestic violence, a family member in jail, a family member diagnosed with a mental illness, and the disappearance of a parent through divorce, death or abandonment. The first research results showed that the risk of health, social and emotional problems increased with more types of trauma experienced. Severe and chronic stress leads to bodily systems producing an inflammatory response that leads to disease.
The effects of trauma become multigenerational through repeated psychological dysfunctions. The new science of epigenetics is identifying the mechanisms that even affect gene functioning. The children of Holocaust survivors, for example, have altered genetic mechanisms leading to abnormal stress hormone levels. Animal studies are showing that the physiological effects of trauma can be passed on even to the third generation.
Multigenerational trauma along with family stresses, poor lifestyle choices, relationship issues, economic insecurity, or social disconnection can leave adults struggling to process and release emotional responses to previous traumatic events. Repressing emotions or extreme expression of emotions can play havoc with our nervous system, hormonal apparatus, immune system, intestines, heart, and other organs. The result can be chronic or acute illness.
How can homeopathy benefit me?
Following are some of the benefits you are likely to experience: feeling better in yourself, increased energy and vitality, reduced severity/ reversal of symptoms, improved sleep, emotional resiliency, reduced need for antibiotics or medications, enhanced self-esteem & confidence, joie de vrie, decreased anxiety levels, hormonal balance, improved relationship dynamics.
Such benefits are the knock on effect of homeopathic treatment addressing and resolving the root cause of why you are unwell.
The benefits of homeopathic treatment are long lasting as the medicine matches your genetic predisposition and unique susceptibility. You may feel that there is nothing you can do about your genetic/ epigenetic tendencies towards specific patterns of ill health but fortunately this isn’t true. Homeopathic remedies are deep-acting, and can strengthen inherited weaknesses and reduce your predisposition to certain diseases.
A traumatic event or situation can have a catastrophic effect on your health and well-being. Emotions and feelings develop which may become blocked, stopping you from moving forward or fully healing from the trauma. This may manifest in mental, emotional and/ or physical symptoms. A correctly prescribed homeopathic remedy can release and heal these emotions. Homeopathy can resolve hurt, pain, grief, anxiety etc. by finding a medicine that matches the causation and unique expression of your symptoms.
Environmental root causes and toxin accumulation is becoming more commonplace and destructive to our health. Homeopathic detox protocols alongside constitutional treatment can reverse adverse reactions to toxins in our environment. Homeopathic organ support also promotes detoxification which may be essential if your system is struggling to detoxify adequately.
Is there evidence that homeopathy does help people to improve their health?
Homeopathy is particularly beneficial to individuals with chronic, long term conditions. This was illustrated in the below studies.
An observational study at the NHS funded Bristol Homeopathic Hospital which included over 6,500 consecutive patients with over 23,000 attendances in a six year period; 70% of follow up patients reported improved health, 50% reported major improvement. The largest improvements were reported in childhood eczema or asthma, and in inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, menopausal problems and migraines.
In 2008 a study in Germany followed over 3,500 chronically ill adults and children receiving routine homeopathic care from GPs over an eight year period. At the start, 97% of participants were diagnosed with a chronic complaint with 95% declaring previous conventional treatment for their condition. The study found that, “patients who seek homeopathic treatment are likely to improve considerably” and that health benefits were steady and long term.
What makes people want to try homeopathy?
Often people turn to homeopathy when they have reached the end of the road with conventional medicine for a particular symptom or condition. Conventional treatment may have offered little or no improvement, their condition may have worsened, or they cannot tolerate the side effects of medications any longer so they look around for other options.
Homeopathy is an attractive option because it is effective, gentle, non-toxic, and has no side-effects. It’s radically different approach which utilises small doses of natural medicines to catalyse what the body is already attempting to do to repair itself, instead of going against the body with opposing medicine starts to makes sense. Especially after suffering the knock-on-effects of treating symptoms in isolation with suppressive medications, which may have brought short term relief, but potentially made symptoms worse in the long term, or caused iatrogenic disease.
When should I go to see a homeopath?
No one medical system has all the answers for all individuals and ailments. This is why it is important to know when to employ the appropriate medicine.
Conventional medicine with it’s diagnostic and surgery tools has profound life saving capabilities.
Where homeopathy shines is in the effective treatment of chronic conditions, and the prevention of such conditions reaching a critical stage.
That is not to say that homeopathy doesn’t have a place in the treatment of life-threatening acute conditions. There is considerable data to back up the claim that homeopathic medicine could make a huge difference to the rising mortality rates due to antibiotic resistance. Such is it’s success in the treatment of serious bacterial and viral infections without the risk of creating further drug resistant organisms.
Reliable and extensive clinical and public health records have been carefully examined internationally, looking for evidence of homeopathic medicine’s efficacy during some of the deadliest epidemics of the past 200 years. The main findings of this research show that when homeopathic medicine was employed during these deadly events, mortality rates were routinely very low. This constancy remained regardless of the homeopathic physician, time, place or type of epidemical disease, including diseases carrying a high mortality rate, such as cholera, smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid fever, yellow fever, influenza and pneumonia.
This highlights the importance and necessity of a paradigm shift towards integrated medicine where homeopathy is fully incorporated into the mainstream medical model. In an ideal world people would be able to go to their health centre or hospital and avail of the best of both medicines, but unfortunately we are not there yet. In the meantime it’s advisable to seek treatment from your GP or hospital with any serious, red-flag symptoms and use homeopathic medicine alongside conventional therapies.
How widespread is the use of Homeopathy?
According to the World health organisation Homeopathy is the 2nd most popular system of medicine worldwide. It has been estimated that 450 million people across the world use homeopathy on a regular basis (Boiron 2007). In Europe 100 million EU citizens i.e. 29% of the EU’s population use homeopathic medicines in their day-to-day healthcare. Homeopathy is used by 15% of UK citizens (around 9 million people) and trusted by 27% of German, 40% of French, and 16% of Italians use homeopathic medicine once a year. India leads in terms of number of people using homeopathy, with 100 million people depending solely on homeopathy for their medical care. There are over 200,000 registered homeopathic doctors currently in India. This compares with 400 practitioners here in Ireland and 1,500 in the U.K. Homeopathy is included in the national health systems of a number of countries e.g.Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
What is the best source of homeopathic research & evidence?
The Homeopathic Research Institute (HRI) is an international charity created to address the need for high quality scientific research in homeopathy. In collaboration with the Carstens Foundation, the HRI website provides a clinical research database that contains over 1015 studies, from randomised controlled trials to observational studies. It is the most comprehensive and academically rigorous database of it’s kind in the world. HRI therefore aims to provide decision-makers, academics, healthcare practitioners and patients with reliable, academically sound information about homeopathy research. https://www.hri-research.org
