Homeopathy Tips Newsletter

One subject that gets asked about a lot is constitutional types. I find that there is a great assumption in modern homeopathy to classify certain types of individuals into “constitutional types.” Several authors have written extensively about this and painted many pictures about what Sulphur or Lycopodium or Natrum Muriaticaum “constitutional types” look like. I find this very dangerous in homeopathy.

Every case before us stands on its own unique set of symptoms. No two cases are the same even if the same remedy is given. To create a box or group to file certain attributes of a remedy together and then fit a person to the box is not homeopathy. Learning any system that does this is very dangerous and leads to poor homeopathic prescribing.

I was studying from Kent’s Lesser Writings and he said it best:

“Why should we attempt to classify constitutions as an aid in prescribing? Every individual is a constitution, and no two sick persons can...

Asthma affects about 19 million people yearly in the United States. It is a very serious condition that can be fatal. It requires the expertise of a skilled physician to treat it correctly. The allopathic treatment of asthma rarely cures but can often prevent death due to the constriction of airways and suffocation. It is a delicate road to healing asthma with homeopathy but the path is one that can help a person heal at their source.

Asthma is a condition of the constriction of the airways in response to certain stimuli. The airways are made up of a smooth outer muscle layer, and a middle and inner layer that form the airway. During an attack, there is a spasm of the outer layer and inflammation in the middle and inner layer that swells and narrows the airway so it becomes increasingly difficult to breathe. Often, because of the inflammation, a mucous plug can be formed that can totally block airflow. This is potentially a fatal condition.

In a more severe attack, the person is...

It is important to know about the remedies in our Materia Medica and their relationships. I often see a case improve dramatically with a given remedy but not go on to cure. With knowledge of remedy relationships, some of the more perplexing cases can be improved by giving a complementary remedy to the first remedy prescribed. It must always be that this second remedy is indicated and not just given routinely.

When you see a child with recurrent high fevers that yield to Belladonna but the fevers continue to reoccur, then often Calcarea Carbonica will be the chronic remedy for these acute states.

Natrum Muriaticum sustains the same chronic relationships to Apis and Ignatia. It stands to reason since Natrum Muriaticum shares many common themes to both of them. One can see the relationship of the crystalline structure of Salt and the crystalline structure of the honeycomb and crystallize of honey. Often it will be difficult to tell the difference in skin eruptions that have a...

In the course of chronic prescribing, many symptoms can appear during an extended time of treatment. One mistake that the homeopath can make is to start chasing symptoms. This can lead to a very confusing picture of the disease and extend healing indefinitely for the client. Here are a few reminders that may help you to avoid this mistake.

When a remedy has been selected, we do not know how the vital force will respond until we are able to observe the response. In the evaluation of the response, it is critical that we understand what is being expressed. Many times, the vital force will produce many symptoms during this healing time and one of the most common mistakes is to try to treat each of them. Often, the client will come and beg for a remedy for the symptom. It is imperative we understand what is happening before we treat any symptom.

One possibility is a return of the old symptom and we commonly call this the aggravation. If the aggravation is mild and there is not too...

By far the most common complaint I receive from my clients is stress. It is a condition arising from daily life especially here in America where the pace of life is so very fast. It can also come from more unusual circumstances but is the result of the person being challenged in ways that they find harder to cope with. But homeopathy can help.

Most stress arises from issues of work, family, health, and money. These for the underlying conditions that cannot be corrected easily or quickly thus leading to stress. Most often the condition is outside of any direct control the person has in relation to the problem. Yet these conditions can cause great suffering when our relation to the problem does not bring the solution. Then the problem does not go away and seems to weigh the person down. This is our stress response. If their relationship to the problem could change, the problem would then change as well. It all has to do with our ability to manage our emotional response, anxiety, and...

It helps to have a guide when receiving cases. It is easy to get lost in the process and miss a valuable opportunity to get to really know about your client. The hardest part is being an unprejudiced observer. It is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking we know something that may or may not be true for our client. I find that letting go and asking for divine help to be the fastest way to get out of my own way. It is the most effective way to release our prejudice.

Here is a list of points to remember during the case. Following this will help greatly so you will not miss anything your client offers. Your clarity will be the difference between a perfect prescription and failure. The key is getting out of our own way. 

Case Receiving Protocol

1. Ask for help - Set your intention by aligning yourself with "Divine Help." Be an open channel so all will be revealed and to be a clear, unprejudiced observer. Do not attach emotionally to the person. You might as well be...

Hahnemann recognized the spiritual basis for homeopathy. He spoke about it often in the Organon and gave us a guide for spirituality as well as healing. He referred to the vital force as a spirit like dynamis that animates our body (Aphorism 15). As homeopaths, we must always remember that it is the outwardly manifesting derangement of the vital force that is recognizable as dis-ease. In every case, we should be diligent to keep this in mind. Doing so can be a constant reminder of our own spiritual essence.

Hahnemann also told us to be unprejudiced observers (Aphorism 6). This means to lay our prejudgment aside. We must not hold contempt for another and treat them with respect, dignity, and as if we have never seen or heard a story like this before. It is a good practice to be this good of a listener to all people. When we meet another, it is following the higher call of homeopathy if we meet them without prejudice.

Hahnemann also told us that our high and only mission was to...

There are many challenges for the practitioner of homeopathy. Probably the greatest is understanding what is asking to be healed for the client they are working with. One way to never lose your way in case receiving is to ask the questions, “What and Why?”

When a person is giving their case, it is the homeopath’s job to figure out what is asking to be healed. The best way to never lose your way is to ask very simple questions. The most common question I ask is "what." Please tell me what that felt like, or what were the circumstances that this person's story were taking place in. This really opens the door for further dialogue and better descriptions of how they feel.

Without understanding the story, the homeopath has nothing to really base the case on. It is one thing to know a few symptoms and quite another to have those symptoms make sense in the context of the person's life. Asking what...

Somewhere along the line of our human development, we learned to always try to do our best. Many times this is translated as "we need to do better." In many cases, as a person is healing they go through a phase of seeing their dis-ease as never before, as if finally the clouds parted and they can now see the sun. I often call this process "moving into the observer." But in the course of healing, I see another common pattern of thinking that people go through. As they become more consciously aware of their dis-ease, they often go into self-reproach.

We all have learned and probably taught our own children through discipline. When the toddler runs into the street for the umpteenth time after being told not to, eventually some discipline may come. After repeated attempts by the parents to discourage the behavior, the child learns (eventually) that discipline works. We often don’t see evidence of this until the child grows up and becomes much more responsible...

It is easy to become fanatical about homeopathy, especially when dealing with other modalities that can be suppressive or interfere with the healing process. It is one of the biggest challenges to homeopaths today in this world of allopathic medicine. What is the best way to deal with this when your client is seeing other doctors and using other modalities as well?

I have found that educating my client is a process that needs time and needs to be repeated often. I find during the initial interview and discussion that the usual client hears and retains about 20% of what was discussed. They will come with a list of all of the drugs being taken and all of the different modalities of healing they are using in their approach to healing. Some of them do not work so well with the homeopathic approach.

The first step is getting them to take responsibility for their own healing. I usually share what I know to be true about homeopathy and how it can help them. It is really necessary to get...