New Ways in Homeopathy
by Joette Calabrese
When, like me, you have practised homeopathy for many years, new discoveries keep emerging. At least that has been the case for me.
Please don't get me wrong.
I learned classical homeopathy and therefore have a solid grounding. But textbooks don't always reflect real-life situations. That's true in any profession, not just homeopathy. It took me several years of practical experience before I really understood the connection between homeopathy and health.
The sheer number of people I've worked with has allowed me to find answers I otherwise wouldn't have found.
The classical homeopathic teaching is based on the paragraphs in Hahnemann's Organon of the Healing Art. But in life you can't treat everything with the same brush. How could there be a single rule that applies to everyone and everything when there are so many people in the world and thousands of different health conditions and diseases from which they may suffer? It simply cannot be!
The more experience we gain in practice, the more often we learn that there will always be exceptions to the rule... and new ideas that deviate from what was previously accepted. That's what I want to convey to you.
I want to give you an example. One of my clients suffered from very severe arthritis. Her pain was so intense that she could hardly move from her bedroom to the living room. She was unable to empty her dishwasher or move around much at all. The pain was so great that she spent most of the day sleeping because her body couldn't do anything else.
I recommended Rhus tox 1M for her to take once daily.
Now this client had a friend who was training in classical homeopathy and advised her against it: "My God, NO! You simply can't take a dose of Rhus tox 1M every day. You'll 'prove' the remedy!"
And that's exactly what I would have thought as a young homeopath.
But after a few years of practice I reached some entirely new insights. I realised that illnesses and physical complaints often respond very well initially to a homeopathic remedy, but usually recur when the remedy is stopped after a week or so.
Then clients take it again for two weeks and stop again. That goes on for a while — I have observed this with many of my clients. At some point I began to question the method: "Joette, what are you actually doing? Do your clients keep getting worse between doses only because you don't have the courage to give the remedies daily for a longer period?"
It was my problem, not that of the homeopathic remedies. It was MY MISTAKE!!
And so I moved away from a traditional rule of thumb that does not have to apply everywhere and at all times.
Over the years I have learned that my clients almost always 'wean themselves off' their remedies. Either because they feel better and decide themselves to stop the remedy, or because they simply forget to continue taking it at some point. Or the pharmacy was closed and afterwards it wasn't thought of again. There are many reasons why clients stop taking their remedies.
I now have enough 'homeopathic' confidence to accept that there can be no universally valid rules regarding the administration of remedies.
As soon as the symptoms return, we know that the cure is not yet complete. If the symptoms remain away permanently, it tells us that we have made a major step forward.
The same has happened to me with many other rules. Much has changed since I started with pure, classical homeopathic teaching. In the many years as a homeopath I have observed a lot and learned a lot. I now know that a homeopath never stops learning.
Take, for example, the Banerji Protocols. There are countless protocols, but I'd like to present one example to you. The Banerjis made this discovery in their clinic in India, where for decades they have treated more than 1,200 patients daily. I hesitated a little about sharing this story with you, but it is simply fascinating and isn't in any textbook!
It concerns a bursitis (inflammation of the bursa) in the shoulder. Many joints have a bursa to cushion the joint, in which synovial fluid collects. This bursa can become inflamed through injury or overuse and cause severe pain. A bursitis occurs, besides the shoulders, most often in the knees, elbows and hips.
The first remedy we think of for a bursitis (and almost always for shoulder pain) is Symphytum C200, to be taken twice daily until the pain has improved.
By chance – something that can only happen in a very busy and robust clinical practice – the Banerjis discovered that another remedy actually helps even better for LEFT-SIDED shoulder pain! This insight came from a patient who suffered from syphilis and bursitis in the left shoulder. Because of the syphilis Dr. Prasanta Banerji prescribed the remedy Syphilinum.
Do you see where I'm going with this? I think you do, because after taking Syphilinum the shoulder pain disappeared. The next patient with left-sided shoulder pain was also successfully given Syphilinum, then the next and the next... 
The result was a new Banerji Protocol for the treatment of left-sided shoulder pain. (By the way, this protocol applies only to shoulder pain, not to pain in the knee or elbow. Only the shoulders. That's what makes this discovery so fascinating!)
Here, we generally still prescribe Symphytum C200 first, also because it is widely available. But if that doesn't work, you now know what alternatives exist. In any case, you won't forget the story of the Banerji Protocol.
You are always learning. Learn as much as you can! Devour books and soak up the texts! But never forget that only through practice do we become masters and that practical experience gives us many insights. Without that experience we keep making the same MISTAKES. Historical discoveries are our foundation on which we build and continue to develop. So never stop learning!
And of course pass it on! It's worth it!
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Source: https://joettecalabrese.com/blog/my-bad/
