Choosing a Homeopath
An essential aspect of homeopathic care is finding a practitioner. There are two aspects to consider in this regard: training and/or licensing, and rapport. In some countries, there are professional licensing bodies; finding a homeopath registered with such an organization offers confidence that your homeopath has had a rigorous professional education. In most of North America, licensing and registration for training programs and practitioners remains voluntary and inconsistent. Ontario will be registering homeopaths in the coming years, due to changes in the provincial health act. Until that time, the best way to determine the professional credentials of a homeopath is to inquire about the rigor of their training. Classical homeopaths will have attended a three or four year course of study and had at least one year of supervised practice before practicing independently. There are many programs that incorporate homeopathy into a mélange of other modalities, or weekend programs that introduce people to homeopathy. This is not adequate preparation for quality homeopathic practice.
It is essential that your homeopath is someone with whom you feel a rapport and degree of comfort. Your relationship with your homeopath will be quite different than your relationship with a doctor, as you will spend many hours in conversation with your homeopath and will travel on a journey of self discovery; you want your travel guide to be one you trust and with whom you feel comfortable. Good news travels fast, and word-of-mouth recommendations are an excellent way to find someone that has effectively helped others and in whom you can feel confident.
Types of Disorders
Homeopathy treats a full range of disorders from emergency first aid situations to long-standing chronic disorders. As each patient and each situation is different, the length of treatment required varies enormously. Acute disorders are the everyday illnesses that all people endure, even healthy people – flus, colds, stomach upsets, ear aches, etc. – and these generally are resolved quickly, although the more common the symptom, the more difficult it can be to find an appropriate homeopathic remedy. Many people first experience homeopathy for these kinds of complaints, with varying success. Over-the-counter remedies sold to address particular common disorders are often ineffectual as the individualization of prescribing is essential for all complaints. Other people, who have the correct remedy prescribed to them, start their relationship with homeopathy after a particularly rapid recovery from an acute illness sparks their curiosity.
Most people come to see a homeopath for the treatment of chronic or long-standing complaints because they are unhappy with the toxicity of conventional drugs, or have had no relief from their complaints from mainstream medicine. These chronic disorders such as migraine headaches, eczema, asthma, premenstrual tension, depression or anxiety, irritable bowel disorders, to name just a few, are particularly well suited for homeopathic treatment and are the primary work of most professional homeopaths. Constitutional prescribing refers to the homeopathic tradition of treating prophylactically by addressing an individual’s propensity to certain patterns of disease. Many people also come to homeopaths to address the unwanted side effects of conventional treatments such as chemotherapy.
The Consultation
Because homeopathy addresses the entire individual’s complex of symptoms and tendencies, the homeopathic consultation is quite different from a visit to a doctor. You will be asked to provide details of the symptoms that motivated you to see the homeopath. You are likely to be asked a number of questions that provide very specific and detailed descriptions of those symptoms. You also are likely to be asked a full range of questions about your functions on all levels – mental, emotional, physical – as well as details about your previous health history and your family health history. You are likely to come away from your homeopathic consultation having made connections about your personal health and your patterns of coping with stress and disorders that are new revelations for you. Your initial consultation for a chronic problem can take up to two hours. Follow-up consultations will ask for detailed changes in functioning at all levels, but are usually only an hour long. You will find that your homeopath will come to know you in a very complex and meaningful way. Many people find being listened to so thoroughly and understood so deeply as the first stage of their healing process.
What to Expect
A homeopathic cure is subtle, but very real. The ‘drugged’ sensation many patients dislike in conventional medications is completely absent with homeopathic remedies. Instead, symptoms seem to fall away and patients return to what many describe as normalcy – a state of health and well-being.
In acute situations, homeopathy can quickly expedite the return to health, avoiding “sequelae” – the after effects of illness that often linger for a long time. In some acute cases the cure can be “next to miraculous” – returning a patient to health overnight. Homeopathic treatment of acute illnesses is often a useful introduction to the efficacy of homeopathy for otherwise skeptical patients.
In chronic disorders, the healing process is as individual as the disorder itself. The art of homeopathy lies in understanding what exactly needs to be cured in a patient, selecting the best remedy for that purpose, and then assessing the action of the remedy and making a determination to continue that remedy or change to a new one. In most chronic cases, a classical homeopath will give only a single remedy initially. Assessing remedy reaction and sensitivity to potency can take a few sessions. Usually a patient will be asked to make note of any changes in symptoms or general function and report back in a month’s time – this is the most common duration between an initial consultation and the first follow-up appointment. Generally, patients report a noticeable change in symptoms within the first month of treatment. Almost always, patients report an improvement in their general sense of well-being, even in instances where the presenting symptoms respond more slowly. Moreover, homeopaths are trained to look for signs and signals that indicate a remedy is working in more complicated cases. Generally speaking, the longer a chronic condition has been present, the slower the path to cure. The ultimate goal of a homeopath is to cure a patient of disease. While many patients continue taking remedies for a long period of time (sometimes, only once or twice a year), most patients find their conditions disappear over time, and the homeopath will hear from them again only when another disorder arises.
