Homeopathic Practice: general guidelines for clients
Welcome to In Health Clinic, Homeopathic Practice!
My name is Reena Abraham, Classical Homeopath.
I look forward to working with you!
Below you will find some useful information to help you understand how your visits with me will help you in your quest for improvement and lasting change in your overall health and well-being.
You, the Client
Homeopathy can be subtle and gradual in its curative action. However, there are combinations of certain general responses that indicate a movement toward healing.
Homeopathy encompasses the individual as a complete being; and as such, explores all the different subtleties in the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual make up of that person. It is this all-inclusive understanding of the individual that sets Homeopathy apart, as the one, true holistic healing modality.
Your Homeopathic Consultation
With this guiding principle in place, your consultation appointment with me will be very different from your experience at a conventional doctor’s office.
Your first appointment will be a pleasant, in-depth intake session approximately 1.5 to 2 hours in length. This is where I get to know you, and to understand your symptoms in full detail.
Because the basis of Homeopathy is like cures like, the more information that is gathered in this appointment, the better the match of the remedy prescribed for you. I am assessing your overall Constitution; that which makes up who you are as a person.
This is the beginning of the quest to find and match your specific Constitutional remedy. This match can take some time, but the healing you will experience in the process will be noticeable and sound. Once your remedy has been prescribed, it is important to take it as directed. I will provide this information to you via email within 24 hours after your first appointment. This email will include your prescription , details of pharmacy or online links to purchase or order remedies.
Follow-up Appointments
Follow-up is an essential part of your process toward cure. During the time you are taking the remedy, regular follow-up visits are strongly recommended, to give me an idea of how things are progressing. They will help me assess your progress and evaluate your response to the remedy.
Even when you are doing well or continuing to make progress, it is important to keep your follow-up appointment. The follow-up appointment will help nurture the healing process, by keeping me up to date and helping me to assess whether to adjust your remedy or change it all together. This is also a time to discuss things that happened in-between your appointments. If you kept notes during this time, the follow-up is the best time to share them.
Everything is important when you are on a remedy. The reason the first appointment is so long, is in order to give me a baseline from which to work with you. Then each follow-up appointment, will help me see your progress and decide whether or not your remedy should stay the same or needs to have some changes made to it.
The follow-up visits are scheduled at varying intervals, or as needed. They may fall anywhere from weekly, once in two-weeks, or monthly, depending upon the individual characteristic of each person’s progress.
Once you are making steady progress on your remedy, your remedy will also help you resist disease in the future, by increasing your resistance to emotional stress. Of course, diet and lifestyle must also be factored in to the equation.
Sometimes, a follow-up appointment seems unnecessary, when we feel good and are making progress. We are all used to the conventional idea of going to the doctor only when we are sick. However, our observation has been that those patients who return for their regularly scheduled follow-up appointments, complete their Homeopathic treatment in a shorter time and with better results. Although you may be taking Homeopathic remedies and be under active care for as long as two years, or more, it is important to keep in mind that the ultimate goal of Homeopathic treatment, is to reach a high level of health and allow our bodies to take care of its needs, naturally, without the crutch of constant allopathic care.
I welcome and value your questions or concerns about your treatment.
Antidotes to Avoid
Homeopathic medicines can have a powerful effect when properly chosen and given at the correct time. Certain environmental factors may, however, prevent or hinder their action. Please read the following instructions carefully. Please note that all of the remedies have a labeled indication on the bottle of “Headaches.” This labeling is a requirement of the FDA, but does not indicate the condition for which you are being treated.
Taking the Medicine
- Avoid Touching the Medicine. Make sure that your hands are free of strong odors. Shake directly into your mouth, or use a disposable plastic spoon. The Homeopathic medicine should be taken sublingually or dissolved under the tongue.
- The Mouth Should be Substance Free. When taking the medicine, the mouth should be free from food, liquid, gum, toothpaste, mouthwash, etc. Avoid eating, drinking, or brushing your teeth for twenty minutes before and after taking the medicine. In acute situations, rinse your mouth very well with water if it is not possible to adhere to this.
- Protect the Medicine. Direct sunlight, heat over 110 degrees (such as a car in summer) and strong odors will often destroy a medicine before you even take it. Avoid wearing perfume when you take a medicine.
- Discard Spilled or Transferred Medicine. If, by accident, some of the medicine should spill from its container, do not return it to the container. Discard it. Do not transfer the medicine to other containers or bottles that have contained other substances. Do not reuse the containers when they are empty, as they may still carry medicinal properties.
Ways Homeopathic Medicines May be not effective
The everyday items on this list are antidotes that will cancel the effects of your Homeopathic Remedy and should be avoided.
- Coffee. Coffee may antidote Homeopathic medicine in certain sensitive people, occasionally, after only one cup. If you are particularity sensitive, please avoid it. Decaffeinated coffee will also antidote sensitive individuals. Please also avoid coffee flavored foods and drink (Kahlua, coffee ice cream, coffee yogurt etc.) Black tea, herb teas, Coca Cola and other caffeine containing substances generally will not antidote.
- Camphor. Mucous membrane application of camphor may antidote medicines. Avoid anything that has significant amounts of camphor, such as deep heat rubs, liniments, Vicks, Ben Gay, Tiger Balm, Carmex, Noxema products, some massage compounds, some cosmetics, many lip balms (Chapstick, Blistex etc.), some Chinese candies, most cough lozenges and others. Even though ingredients don’t specifically list camphor (ie lip balm) they often have camphor substances such as Mentholatum. Also avoid Tea Tree Oil, Eucalyptus, Listerine, and mothballs.
- Anything to Which You Are Particularly Sensitive: Avoid any food, chemical, or substance which you know causes severe reactions in your particular system–i.e., hives or skin eruptions after certain food, odors which make you faint, things which specifically cause asthma, etc. Moderate use of alcohol and tobacco does not generally interfere. However marijuana will usually antidote and cocaine will always antidote and should be avoided.
- Electric Blankets: Waterbed warmers and heating pads are OK and will not cause a problem.
- Routine Dental Work: Cleaning of the teeth is OK and does not cause problems. However the actual drilling, and perhaps the chemicals, used in dental work often will antidote Homeopathic medicines.
- Traditional Medicine: Traditional medicines are designed to remove specific symptoms without much regard to the person as a whole. This approach often leads to suppression of the symptoms and antidoting of the Homeopathic medicine. Please tell your practitioner about all drugs, strong herbs, diet pills, birth control pills, etc. that you are taking. Under no circumstances should you stop strong traditional medicines without first consulting your Homeopathic Practitioner. An occasional Tylenol or aspirin will not cause a problem.
- Skin Medicines: It is not uncommon for Homeopathic medicines to bring back old skin symptoms. Please do not use locally applied medicine of any kind, without first talking to your practitioner. This is especially true of topical steroids.
- Solvents: Avoid heavy, prolonged exposure to solvents or fumes especially if working in an enclosed space. Also avoid hair permanents.
- Tea Tree Oil: Tea tree oil, as well as Eucalyptus and Melaleuca oil will antidote.
- Immunizations: Immunizations may antidote remedies and disrupt the immune system. Please talk to your Homeopath before having an immunization.
- Diagnostic Tests: Blood work will not antidote. X-Rays, mammograms or ultrasounds can antidote and CT/MRI’s almost always antidote.
- Other Treatments: The balance of symptoms on all levels is a delicate one, and it can be easily upset. It is best not to mix acupuncture, polarity therapy, psychic healing and other energy plane manipulations with Homeopathy. Magnets can antidote.
Signs the Remedy is Working
- Your chief complaint, or main reason for seeking treatment has shown improvement.
- Feeling better in yourself. Somehow you feel right, like your old self. Your spirit has come back, you are more confident. Feelings like this are a sure sign.
- Being able to deal with life more effectively and with less stress. Having more energy, feeling more lively, able to do more, able to run again, laughing a lot. Changing your life, even if it just seems to happen coincidentally. Perhaps your job changes or there is a shift in your attitude toward work or study, or toward colleagues, friends or family. Or you may have a more outgoing approach to life, changing your friendships somewhat, getting rid of bad relationships and taking on new ones.
- Becoming more creative.
- The Homeopathic aggravation; After taking the Homeopathic remedy, there can be what is termed an aggravation. This is a limited in duration, aggravation of symptoms; mental, emotional and/or physical, and is an indication that the remedy is acting. This worsening is often based on toxins being eliminated through the outlets of the body, via the stool, or urine, through the skin as rashes, pimples, boils or fever, through the nose as sneezing, a cold, etc. Temporary worsening is not to be interpreted as side effects, but as signs of your body working to heal itself. It is not necessary that every patient should experience this. Feel free to contact me if you have any concern.
- A brief return of old symptoms is good, especially when they return of reverse sequence to the original occurrence in your life. These may be transitory – just a few seconds like a flashback – or lasting longer like a cloud passing. This is called the Law of Cure and happens occasionally. This Law of Cure also means that symptoms will be eliminated in an order, from serious to less serious ones, from internal organs to external or less critical ones, from inside out as we say, from above down. However, respiratory and heart improvements can go up and outwards as these go from the lungs (serious) to the throat and nose (less serious). The return of a cough in asthma can be a good sign that the chest is clearing out.
- So asthma becoming a skin rash or sneezing bouts is good;
- It is also fine for physical symptoms to just get better, provided the process fits the law of cure.
- Occasionally a meaningful dream or sequence of dreams, even if it’s not understood, could be a healing indication if the dream feels right, important or positive in some way.
Homeopathic Pharmacies to order remedies from: You may order remedies from the following pharmacies
- Hylands.com for cell salts
- Other homeopathic pharmacies:
ABC Homeopathy – abchomeopathy.com
Helios Pharmacy (UK) – helios.co.uk
Natural Health Supply – a2zhomeopathy.com
Pharmaca – pharmaca.com
Washington Homeopathic Products – homeopathyworks.com
Homeopathy Overnight – homeopathyovernight.com