What is Homeopathy?
Homeopathy is an effective system of healing which assists the natural tendency of the body to heal itself. It recognises that symptoms of ill health are expressions of disharmony within the whole person and that it is the patient who needs treatment not the disease.
In 1796, a German doctor, Samuel Hahnemann, discovered a different approach to the cure of the sick which he called homeopathy (from the Greek words meaning 'similar suffering'). Like Hippocrates two thousand years earlier,he realised there were two ways of treating ill health: the way of opposites, most commonly used by conventional medicine and the way of similars.
Hahnemann discovered that diluting and succussing (shaking) remedies, which homeopaths call potentisation, not only produced fewer side effects but also produced better results. Homeopathic remedies are drawn from the natural world and prescribed on the principle of treating “like with like” or the way of similars.
What is “like with like”?
Take for example, a case of insomnia. The way of opposites is to treat this by giving a drug to bring on an artificial sleep. This frequently involves the use of large or regular doses of drugs which can sometimes cause side effects or addiction.
The way of similars, the homeopathic way, is to give the patient a minute dose of a substance, such as coffee, which in large doses causes sleeplessness in a healthy person. This can then help the patient to sleep naturally. Of course, this is a simplified example. Homeopathy is patient-centred and a homeopath will prescribe based on the totality of your symptoms and how you, as an individual, experience them.
This also takes account of you as a person - your individual characteristics, both emotional and physical. Homeopathic remedies, properly prescribed, are safe and can also be given to pregnant women, babies and children (1).
About Emma
I work from Craven Clinic in Skipton which is a lovely healing space. I feel grateful that I am involved in this system of healing which I am able to offer to others to increase their health, and through working with people enable them to go on to achieve their full potential in the world. Read More