Homeopathy is a medical art that uses diluted doses of natural medicine to stimulate the body’s innate ability to heal. It is an art that is fully based on decades of scientific knowledge and works at a cellular level. There are over 4000 homeopathic remedies that need to be deciphered through to pick the correct one to help a patient that is suffering from an ailment. Disease, however, is viewed through a different lens/paradigm. As a homeopath, I try to gauge the strength of a person’s vital force. The vital force is what animates our physical being, sensations, functions, and guides our emotions. This force allows our bodies to maintain homeostasis and when there is illness, imbalance occurs causing the person to experience symptoms in the physical or emotional body. As a physician, I blend both scientific knowledge about causation, prodrome, disease symptoms, and exacerbations with the homeopathic treatment analysis. The totality of symptoms and the vital force is individual to each person and the restoration of health is returned when all of this is considered.

To pick a remedy, I analyze the pattern of pathology in a systems model developed by Paul Herscu, world renowned homeopath. I place symptoms into specific segments and arrange them to describe how one leads to the next. The system is called Cycles and Segments. This synthesizes symptoms and ideas in a cohesive manner that can be understood by anyone. This model is used by many thinkers in adaptive biology and many others who are working in the field of complex adaptive systems.

In general, I take a case by conducting an interview with the patient that resembles what occurs during the naturopathic visit. I ask questions about symptoms being experienced in addition to asking about the status of all the other parts of the body as well as emotions. I then look for themes (the segments) in the case and organize them in a sequential manner, figuring out what comes before and what happens after. Applying the Cycles and Segments model to a case allows me to gain insight about the patient’s particular story, offers a way to enrich the understanding of cases and remedies, and helps me to be more effective doctor. 

All of this not only informs me about what should be given in terms of supplemental and herbal support but also the correct homeopathic remedy. For example, a person needing the homeopathic remedy, Sepia, will have a lot of congestion in many parts of their body leading to lack of motion. This causes them to feel very heavy, which results in lack of movement in all parts of their lives. The lack of motion and/or lack of doing can then cause an anxious feeling leading the person to want things and people. This allows the person to gain more energy and the desire to move. The person will usually want to dispel the energy gained by intense physical movement, which then leads them to burn out or collapse. My perception of what this person experiences or feels is unimportant. What is important is how the person is expressing symptoms and feelings of heaviness and anxiety that in turn affects his/her life force and body.

Personally, homeopathy has affected me in a profound way. It shifted something deep within me and brought life back into my body on an emotional level. Bringing back the life force, which is the base of everything, allowed me to make changes in my life to then heal the physical ailments. My vision, goal and dedication to all my patients is to restore their vitality with constitutional homeopathy, while also supporting them physically with supplements and herbal medicine. I will prescribe a homeopathic remedy on the first or second visit along with other suggestions. I might change the remedy as time goes on and depending on the symptoms that persist. I believe the majority of symptoms, mental states, and diagnoses can be helped by restoring the dysfunction of the vital force, which then allows one’s organs to start detoxing and communicating more efficiently.