The mind-body connection
A lot of people ask me if homeopathy can help on an emotional level as well as a physical one and whether or not your emotions can affect your health. In short, the answer is yes. Homeopathy is great for helping heal emotional trauma and in fact, most likely emotional traumas are the direct cause of the physical complaint! In this post I will explain how the mind-body connection is a huge part of the homeopathic process and what I, as a homeopathic practitioner look for during a consultation.
How homeopathy works
Homeopathy is form of holistic medicine that uses natural, non-toxic remedies to stimulate the healing capacity within our mind and body.
It was founded 200 years ago by Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician who, not only created a radically new form of therapy; he also formulated a scientific system to understand health, and healing on a fundamental level.
Isn’t he a stunner? 😉
Homeopathy and the mind-body connection
One of Hahnemann’s guidelines is the understanding that to effectively treat an illness the whole person, mind and body must also be considered, alongside any environmental factors as well.
Hahnemann viewed symptoms as an attempt by our body to do its best to keep the disease where it would do the least harm and to signal to us that something is wrong so it can be treated. Homeopaths view symptoms as a guide to finding the deeper underlying cause.
Although homeopathy can be used and administered by anyone as a very effective form treatment for short-term health problems such as colds and flu etc, solutions to long-term problems on a physical and/or emotional level are best achieved through treatment from a professional homeopath.
It is the task of a homeopath to perceive what needs to be healed in the patient and to match what needs to be healed to a remedy that has been shown to help that problem. A big part of the homeopathic consultation is asking lots of weird and wonderful questions about your health problem, your state of mind, and even whether you tend to feel hot or cold, prefer mountain air or sea air. To an outsider the information given in the consultation can appear completely chaotic! But with literally thousands of remedies to choose from, the homeopath must pin point which remedies suit the patient best by asking specific questions in order to narrow down the remedy selection.
Painful legs – Julia’s story
A really great case study of the mind-body connection at work is through client of mine called Julia. Julia came to me in 2012 complaining of pain in her feet and legs, symptoms she had suffered with for 5 years, completely baffling doctors and showing no significant improvement with more conventional therapies. When taking the case I asked Julia a number of questions in relation to what had been going on 5 years ago. We covered everything from possible medications, operations, moving house, changing jobs to whether she had suffered a grief or even a break-up with a boyfriend. Every possible emotional and physical causation was explored but led to a dead-end.
I decided to change tact and asked Julia to do a time-line with me. This is a homeopathic tool which helps list all significant events in a client’s life from birth until present day. We reached only a few months prior to the pains in her legs starting and Julia told me that around that time her mother had been diagnosed with cancer. Clearly this had been quite traumatic and significant event, yet Julia had forgotten what an impact it had had on her at the time. From a homeopathic perspective this upset and shock had been suppressed and her body had manifested this emotional pain into a physical form.
I prescribed the remedy Gelsemium, which lists ‘ailments from bad news’ as one of its key symptoms. It also fit well with the pains too. Julia had only two sessions of homeopathic treatment and the pains completely vanished.
The power of homeopathy never fails to astonish me.
So, if you have been suffering with a physical problem you might like to consider how you felt prior to feeling unwell. Consider any significant emotional traumas and whether these may be affecting your health. You might like to explore these with a fully qualified homeopath who in turn can select the right remedies to restore balance to your mind and body.
Until next time, have a happy, healthy week!
Claire Zarb LCPH
t: 07582 269569
e: claire@clairezarb.com
w: www.clairezarb.com
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