Homeopathy is a healing approach that respects the wisdom of the body. It utilizes the body's own resources to heal itself. The homeopathic remedies stimulate the body's own immune and defense systems to initiate the healing process at all levels, the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. It is an approach that views each person as a unique individual with his or her own constellation of strengths, weaknesses, dreams, fears, pains and discomforts.
Symptoms, whether physical or psychological, are viewed as defenses of the person that attempts to protect and provide healing. Symptoms are defined as any sensation that is discomforting or that limits a person's physical, mental, spiritual or psychological functioning. The implications of recognizing that symptoms are efforts of the body to defend itself are significant. It means health is what is natural and the body has the ability to heal itself. Symptoms are the body's way of giving itself an extra push to regain health when there is a mistunement. Each person, when ill, has his or her own idiosyncratic physical, emotional, spiritual and mental symptom patterns, even when they have the same disease as another person.
Homeopathic remedies are made from minute amounts of natural substances found in nature. The remedies are highly diluted. Since there is such a small amount of substance in the remedy it is safe, without any side effects. If an incorrect remedy is taken, nothing will happen. If the correct remedy is taken, there may be a slight aggravation before healing begins. Homeopathic remedies are rooted in the simple principle: Like treats like. In other words, the best way to get over an illness might be to take extremely small doses of the very substance that, in large doses, causes the symptoms in the first place. As with traditional vaccinations and allergy shots, controlled amounts of these agents introduced in small doses are thought to stimulate the immune system to fight the disease.
A practitioner seeks to find a substance that would cause, in overdose, similar symptoms to those a sick person is experiencing. When the match is made, the substance is given in extremely small, safe doses, often with dramatic effects.
A homeopathic remedy is generally given not simply for a symptom or a disease, but for an entire pattern or constellation of physical, psychological and spiritual manifestations, since homeopathy recognizes that the body and mind are inseparable. A homeopath may utilize information about the person's body type, temperament, disposition and behavioral tendencies, as well as physical symptoms, to determine the appropriate remedy. After a homeopath completes a thorough interview, he or she seeks to find a remedy that matches the essence of the person's totality of symptoms. The essence is important since homeopathy is the science and art of finding the remedy that is most similar to the person. It is not necessary to match every symptom the person has with those symptoms that the substances causes. It is enough to find a substance that matches the essence of the person's characteristics. When the correct remedy is found, it is called their constitutional remedy.
Once a person's constitutional remedy is selected, not only is the person's chief complaint greatly reduced, but he or she in general feels better in many ways. Although a person may actually be cured after a single dose, more often the remedy may start the curative process and a series of remedies will be required to complete it.
According to Joan Spiegel, PhD, licensed psychologist and certified homeopath, the search for a constitutional remedy requires intellectual and intuitive capacities. The practitioner must be part detective, part psychologist and part investigative reporter. Each new case is a wonderful, exciting mystery waiting to be solved. Dr. Spiegel can be reached for consultation at (510) 548-8709.
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