What is Homeopathy?

Homeopathy is a unique and complete system of medicine developed over 200 years ago.  The word Homeopathy is derived from the words “homeo” and “pathos” which means “similar suffering”.  This describes the basic principle of Homeopathy: “Like cures like”. 

Homeopathy considers that symptoms are the body’s way of expressing of dis-ease or imbalance; including mental, emotional and physical symptoms.  Suppression of these symptoms is not the goal of homeopathic treatment.  Instead, we recognize that all symptoms of ill health are expressions of disharmony within the whole person and that it is the patient who needs treatment and not the disease. 

It is the vital force (the dynamis that animates the body) that regulates the homeostasis of the body.  When it is weakened or stressed, it may not always return to its normal balance and the body exhibits symptoms.  It is these same symptoms which guide the homeopath to the correct remedy, which, when administered, will stimulate the vital force to return to balance.  Each person is given individualized treatment, using their symptoms as a guide to find a remedy that matches their “symptom picture” and treat the root cause of their dis-ease.

The remedies act on a deep level, stimulating the body’s own power to heal itself.  It does this by the established medical fact that two similar diseases cannot exist in the body at the same time.  Thus, by giving a remedy that has been known to produce a similar state to the one presented by the patient, a similar dis-ease is produced.  If it is stronger, this new state will overcome the original dis-ease state in the patient and when the effects of the remedy have worn off the patient is cured.

An analogy to this might be if you dropped a small rock into a pond which produced ripples (call this the original dis-ease).  Then, if you dropped a larger rock into the same pond, its ripples (call this the remedy effect) would overcome the original ripples produced by the smaller rock.  When the ripples settled the pond would again be calm (homeostasis), and there would be no dis-ease.