Disease begins with a disturbance of this force. When our vital energies are compromised, symptoms will follow. Homeopathy treats the cause as well as the symptoms. It uses medicines that affect the vital energies of the body and help you re-balance and heal yourself.

The symptoms are not the disease, they are the result of the disease. The first cause is a disturbance in the vital energy of the bodymind. This is the true source of all illness. Symptoms manifest directly from an energetic imbalance in the vitality of the body. Curative treatment needs to address this imbalance. This is the level of action of a homeopathic remedy. Homeopathic remedies are not chemical drugs and they do not have a biochemical effect. They belong to a scientific paradigm which has little to do with the physical or chemical nature of this Universe. Hahnemann discovered a method of diluting the medicine to reduce its toxic chemical effects whilst potentiating its ability to heal. Most homeopathic remedies are serially diluted so often they do not contain any molecules of the original medicinal substance and yet when they match the total symptom picture, they have a powerful healing action. Potentised medicines reach the parts of the human being where the vital energies flow. In the Tao te Ching , Lao Tsu reflects: 'Only that without substance can enter where there is no room'.

Potentised medicines - we call them remedies - only work if they accurately match each individual's response to the disease. Like cures like. When accurately selected to mirror the most individual symptoms of the whole person, the remedy resonates with the disturbance in the vital energies and helps the body come back into balance and therefore to self-heal. There is no such thing as a homeopathic remedy for a disease. Each person will produce slightly different symptoms and respond differently to the effects of those symptoms. Each person will be treated with an individually selected medicine that reflects their nature, their personality and their unique suffering. For example, there are several hundred homeopathic remedies that can treat the symptoms of eczema, but for each of us who suffers this illness, only one or two of them will work. The task of a classical homeopath is primarily to identify which remedies work for each individual.

Please do not try to treat yourself for long term illness, or emotional troubles. The skills needed require a full training in homeopathy and considerable experience in practice.

Modern homeopaths say that health is much more than a physical state. The spiritual, mental and emotional state of the person who is ill is a very important part of the illness, and it should be treated as such. The physical problems are linked to our whole state as a human being. Health in its holistic sense means spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health of the whole person; homeopaths use individually prescribed medicines to treat all of your problems as a whole rather than as separate parts.

We can define health as the ability to make free choices and to smoothly adapt to all situations. This is a function of the whole person, it is therefore necessary to treat the whole person when things go wrong. Disease is a disturbance of our whole living system. The underlying causes must be treated, or the disease will not improve in the long term. The bacteria or virus is only one cause. Bugs grow after the vitality of the person has been compromised and the homeopathic model of disease suggests that a better way of looking at viruses and bacteria would be to view them as opportunists. They take hold of you when the circumstances are right for their growth.

Constitutional Treatment - The Whole Person Approach:

Hahnemann conducted drug trials, or provings, of homeopathic remedies and found that they each produce a unique symptom picture. The symptoms reported by the provers are mental, emotional and physical symptoms. The prover responds to the remedy from their whole being. These initial symptom pictures have been filled in with over 200 years of clinical experience of cured symptoms, to the point where many of the remedy symptom pictures appear to take on a persona. The constitutional approach to prescribing matches the remedy type to the totality of the symptoms, including the personality and the individual characteristics of the person who is unwell. The remedy is then able to stimulate a long-lasting change in all of the imbalances in the body, which can lead to a deeply curative response. The body heals itself. An accurately prescribed remedy reminds it how to do that.

The holistic approach:

• People exist on many levels: spiritual, psychological, physical.
  
• Each of us is an individual.
  
• We have self-healing powers.
  
• Treat the whole person, not the parts.