What Happens During and After a Homeopathic Consultation.

If you are just used to going to your GP for your health issues your first session with a homeopath may come as a big (pleasant!) surprise!

I went to see my local GP surgery recently and I was amused to see a notice that said:

"Only one health issue per appointment please."

I thought WOW! That is so different from a homeopathic consultation where people present their whole health life story. Of course, one reason is because NHS doctors can only give you 10 minutes per session whereas an initial homeopathic session will typically last 90 minutes.

So that is the first difference with a homeopathic consultation. You get to talk about everything and you will be encouraged to talk about everything. You may come with, say, back pain but actually end up talking about your husband at length because that is the issue that is REALLY bothering you.

In homeopathy whatever problem you come with we need to find the INDIVIDUAL aspects personal to you about that problem. Say you come with PMS. There isn't one remedy for PMS. The remedy chosen will depend on the exact nature of the PMS individual to you. Do you get anxious? Do you eat more sweet things? Do you want to hit your husband? Whatever it is, these are the things that will lead to the remedy similar to your precise suffering and will create a cure.

The basic principle in homeopathy is expressed in a latin phrase: SIMILIA SIMILIBUS CURENTUR which means any drug capable of producing detrimental symptoms in healthy individuals will relieve similar symptoms occurring as an expression of disease.

So in the homeopathic consultation we may ask seemingly strange questions about every aspect of your life. What would make you cry? How do you react to criticism? What makes you angry? Many questions seem to be completely unrelated to what you have come for but they all help in building up a profile of you as an individual.

Then once the homeopath has crunched all this information and come up with the remedy personal to you that's when the magic starts (assuming the information you give is complete and the homeopath has made the correct choice). Reactions to a remedy fall into 3 major categories:

1. The symptoms ameliorate and your sense of well being improves dramatically.

2. There is a brief aggravation of your symptoms or a return of old symptoms and the as for 1.

3. Nothing happens.

Number 1 is easy to understand. But Number 2 is very interesting. Your body is intelligent and wants you to be healthy but to achieve that sometimes a 'spring clean' effect is necessary. So you may experience a bit of diarrhoea, some sweating, maybe your actual symptoms get a bit worse temporarily. Or you may have even a discharge of stuck emotions, briefly feeling more irritable or even want to have a good cry. When our patients report this, homeopaths are notorious for exclaiming 'OH THAT'S GREAT' because we know that the good times are coming and you will shortly feel much better.

Number 3 reaction usually means that the homeopath hasn't fully understood the real nature of your case, hasn't found the correct remedy or your expression of your symptoms is incomplete. This is quite common actually and is nothing to be concerned about. Sometimes it takes a little time to find the right remedy for you. But oh is the wait worth it!!