Deborah Olenev

I have been a homeopath for many years now, and I have seen many hundreds of patients during this time. What I would like to do in this article is scan my memory to see what attitudes in the patient hinder or benefit the healing process, and also see what I can do to make the treatment as beneficial for the patient as possible. Many times prospective clients call me and they ask what is my success rate.

This is a question that is very difficult to answer, because I often don’t know what happens to clients after they leave my office. I may never see them again, or I may see them a year or two down the road, and only then find out that the treatment was beneficial. There are also many clients who do not follow through. I may tell them at the conclusion of the first consultation that I see evidence of three or four remedies in their case, such as one or two nosodes and a constitutional. They may take only the first remedy, and then if they do not see as much improvement as they expected give up on me or homeopathy without following through on the treatment.

There are also many unusual scenarios, such as clients who are afraid to take medicines, who after the initial consultation refuse to take the treatment, or just postpone it indefinitely. Every year I do see three or four clients where this is the case. Fear to take the medicine is, in fact, a symptom of eight of our homeopathic remedies, so it is often an excellent confirmatory symptom for the remedy that was selected for them. I have learned now to try and administer the remedy to these people while they are in the office, rather than sending it or mailing it home to them.

Another scenario is the client who comes into the office reluctantly, who was dragged in by a spouse, or parent, not because they believe in the system, or really want to be there, but simply to appease the other person. These people may be skeptical, and are often unlikely to follow through on the treatment, even after experiencing great benefit from it.

Then there are people who are shoppers. They may be undergoing treatment from four or five practitioners of one or another modality at the same time. They are doing homeopathy along with acupuncture, chiropractor, cranial-sacral and western medicine simultaneously. Often these people have very high anxiety about their health, and will do
their best to put to rest any symptom that may arise. In this situation it is often difficult to know what is or isn’t working, and what may be interfering with the treatment.

In homeopathy different symptoms may arise as the healing process unfolds, like old symptoms from the past reappearing, the exteriorization of symptoms, the moving downward of symptoms, and the moving of symptoms from more vital body systems or organs to less vital systems. These changes are excellent indicators that the healing ishappening. When the patient goes to see other practitioners who are unfamiliar with how homeopathy works they may unwittingly interfere with the successful outcome of the homeopathic treatment, by giving drugs to suppress these manifestations. The interference can even potentially be worse when using other energetic modalities, that can meet homeopathy on the plane where it works.

This can happen with acupuncture and cranial-sacral work, and other energetic modalities. Examples of this type of interference are clients who go to a dermatologist to treat a skin rash, itch, or a crop of warts that may have appeared following a very successful homeopathic prescription. All of these symptoms are evidence of exteriorization, or the traveling outward of symptoms. In homeopathy we believe that this is the right direction for symptoms to go as the patient moves toward cure.

Homeopaths discourage any interference with this process, such as the application of topical medicines, like hydrocortisone cream, because they can reverse the exteriorizing process and drive the eruptions back inside, where they revert to all the typical symptoms that one may have in the interior of the body. Homeopaths believe that as people get better their symptoms move from the inside to the outside, and if they are getting sicker the opposite is true, symptoms move from the outside to the inside. This is why dermatologists can often do great mischief when they suppress an itch. The eczema-asthma connection is well known, in which suppressed eczema turns into asthma, a much more life threatening situation than eczema.

Another example of interference is even more disturbing, and that is the suppression of emotional states that may come out following homeopathic treatment, with antidepressants and other mood modifiers. An example I had of this was a young woman whom I saw recently for allergies. Aside from the allergies, she was in very good physical health, but poor emotional health, and inundated with personal as well as professional problems. She was dismally unhappy in her marriage, and was working at a job with which she was unhappy. The young woman was highly responsible and gave 100% of herself to her job. She stressed terribly over deadlines, and fought valiantly to keep on top of everything, not allowing herself time for a lunch break, lest she fall behind in her work and be criticized for negligence. Her husband was unemployed and stayed at home with their child, which is what she really wanted to do. She felt the burden of carrying the financial weight of the family on her back, and the guilt of not being at home with her child.

Two weeks into the treatment, she and her husband had a huge fight, followed by a much improved relationship. Her husband in the meantime, had found some work, and she realized that she couldn’t bear her job anymore. She couldn’t hold up that stiff upper chin any longer, and hide what she was really feeling inside. She then started to cry and she cried and she cried. All the feelings, which she wasn’t letting herself face came out in a stream of endless tears. She was beginning to put out a beautiful picture of Pulsatilla, a very healthy women’s hormonal remedy.

One of the characteristics of Pulsatilla is having a tendency to cry. The remedy that she had previously was Carcinosin, a remedy for people who tend to be very perfectionistic, and highly responsible, who suppress their anger, and hide their true feelings. Frightened at these changes in herself, the young woman went to see her doctor and therapist who suggested she go on an antidepressant, which the young woman did choose to do. It is left to be seen whether she will continue on with her homeopathic treatment as well. The homeopathic remedy can still work while she is on antidepressants, but not as effectively.

Homeopaths believe that suppressing moods with mood altering drugs can lead to a lowering of the health of the whole person, by driving the disease even deeper, perhaps to the mental plane where symptoms such as memory loss, lack of concentration, and neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s can arise.

I have talked about some of the things that may compromise the homeopathic treatment, now I want to talk about factors that enhance the possibility of successful treatment outcomes. The best situation as far as the homeopath is concerned, is when she has the confidence of the client, and the client believes in homeopathy. The ideal client is one who has been referred to the homeopath by someone whom she has seen has been helped by the treatment. This prospective client is usually very optimistic and has faith in the practitioner. She is also more likely to follow through on the treatment.

The next best is the potential client who has heard about homeopathy, perhaps even read a little bit about it and who can see the beauty of the system and would like to try it him or herself. These people are usually very open and curious and want to experience it, and are very appreciative of the help they receive.

After this comes the people who turn to homeopathy as a last resort. They have tried everything else without success, and in desperation they call a homeopath to see if there is anything that can be done. These people can sometimes be difficult to help, because they may be on a lot
of medications, or have had many surgeries, and it may take time to work through the many layers of added on complexity.

On the other hand, their problems may be so simple from the eyes of the homeopath, that they may get the miracle cure for which homeopathy is well known. What the homeopath (that is me) loves to do is to develop a healthy long-term relationship with the client. She wants to win the clients confidence by doing good work with her or him, so that when problems do arise, the client will remember her and turn to homeopathy first rather than last for help.

I treat so many families where I see the mother, the father, the children, and the grandparents for their health problems. I may see the individual family members only once a year or even less often than that when my advice is needed. They know that I am there for them and that they are getting excellent care from an experienced homeopath, who is practicing a truly beautiful system of medicine. Please don’t hestitate to call me if you have any questions about homeopathy and your health. I will do my best to help you. My phone number is 650-569-6219.