What is Homoeopathy?

Homoeopathy is a system of medicine that has developed gradually over many years, beginning with some of the ideas held by Parcelcus and later developed and expanded by Samuel Hahnemann and others.

Fundamental principles of homeopathy are based on:

Samuel Hahnemann's Tomb, Paris

• Individualisation - that each person is unique and requires treatment and prescriptions that are specific to them and their symptoms. Medicine which may work well for one person may not be the best choice for another.

• Like cures Like - that substances which can cause symptoms (eg the onion which may cause your eyes to water) also have the potential to remove symptoms (as in watery eyes during hayfever.) This concept allows us to explore and utilize a variety of substances from our environment.

• Simillmum - this is the idea that for each state of health, we can find a homoeopathic remedy that best encompasses a set of symptoms or a person's state. This remedy, the simillimum at any given time, is the most similar to the symptoms a person is experiencing and when prescribed correctly , will assist a return to optimum health.

• Potentisation - this method of making remedies is unique to homoeopathy and describes the processes involved in the preparation of the homoeopathic remedy - dilution and succussion (or vigorous shaking at each step of the remedy preparation). This method seems to give the remedies a gentle curative action without any of the toxic side-effects often found in medicines of greater substance.

• The Minimum Dose - this is a term used to describe the level of medicine given to a client. The homoeopath aims to give just enough of the remedy to any individual so that their own inherent curative abilities will rally and act in a positive way to reach optimum health.

Samuel Hahnemann's Tomb, Paris

• The Law of Cure - this gives homoeopaths a guide as to how their client is progressing with their health. In brief, the body's healing intelligence aims to maintain the individual in the best health possible and will move symptoms to an area of lesser harm as the person increases in well-being. Often, as cure takes place, we can see the individual's symptoms changing in a particular way. This is a guide to the homoeopath of how the individual is progressing.

The system of homoeopathy is a complex blend of art and science and operates under the premise that each individual is a blend of the physical and an unseen intelligent healing force which sometimes needs assistance in order to return the human being to balance and rid dis-ease. The task of the homoeopath is to select the most appropriate remedy which will enable this process to unfold.