There are different schools of thought for New Years Resolutions- that they can be a tool for growth and change, or that they can be overly ambitious and set up for failure. It does depend on how you design these though- if they have no details, no way of checking in and being accountable, and no plans for achieving it, then it is much easier to discard the ‘goal’ than work towards completing it. I also tend towards goals because …
At the moment we have an outbreak in New Zealand… of fear. There is a lot of effort going into scaring the population about measles and its complications, and pushing MMR vaccination. My personal opinion is that vaccination is a personal choice- and if you consider all of the risks for the disease and the vaccine, and you choose to go ahead with vaccination I am happy to support you- this includes with homeopathy and targeted supplements like vitamin C …
There are two remedies from cannabis in our homeopathic literature: Cannabis Indica and Cannabis Sativa. Cannabis Indica is what we call marijuana, while Cannabis Sativa is hemp. John Henry Clarke notes in his Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica that they are botanically identical, and that Cannabis Indica is East Indian Cannabis Sativa, what is different is the soil and climate in which they are grown. However, as we now know, there can be differences in plants considering the quantities of …
Every year as a Pharmacist I need to identify two goals to focus on for my Continuing Professional Development. This year, I chose to look at Medicinal Cannabis, as we are dispensing more CBD and THC, and I recognised I didn’t know much about it. For me, writing helps me learn and assimilate the information I have found out, so over the next couple of days I want to discuss Medicinal Cannabis, and then to take it back to homeopathy, …
My children have been obsessed with this movie and the songs for weeks. Despite hearing the music on repeat every hour of the day, it took a wet day for me to sit down and watch the move for them. I’ve always been a fan of musicals, so animated K-pop movies are not that big a stretch and I really enjoyed the movie. If you haven’t seen it, this does contain some spoilers, so be warned! What the premise of …
Last year I looked at three remedies through the lens of Te Whare Tapa Whā. If you would like to read about Phosphorus, Nux Vomica and Sulphur you can find them here: https://www.homeopathbarbara.nz/homeopathic-remedies-through-a-te-ao-maori-lens/ This year I have chosen three other remedies that I use often, and have taken a new look at them. This is a snapshot of each remedy and does not encompass all the possible symptoms, but I have tried to get the essence so you too can understand …
I have recently finished a 9 week course on Astrology for Homeopaths, and I have been amazed at the depth of information from an astrology chart. I’ve never really resonated with the daily or monthly horoscopes you used to get in a newspaper or magazine, it never made sense that everyone within that 30 day period would have the same response and reaction. Now I have done this course I understand that there is so much more to astrology than …
When I studied homeopathy I learnt to be careful of Staphisagria. That it was indicated for “honeymoon cystitis” but in cases of abuse it could bring back flashbacks, and Morrison’s desktop guide even cautions using it when there is a situation the client cannot get out of as it can make them more reactive and potentially cause more ‘turmoil’. I was extremely cautious about using this remedy for a very long time. I then used it with a client …
One of the tricky things in homeopathy is trying to predict how healing will happen, what is the exact effect that a remedy will have for someone with a chronic or long term condition. Because the remedy is stimulating the body to make changes, and the body itself has it’s own level of importance, we cannot predict the effect of a remedy like you can with a drug, herb or supplement. With medicines, we have pharmacodynamics, which is the study …
Thank you for all your good wishes for my time away- I am back working and all caught up on my many emails now. I thought I would do a brief recap of my holiday, and also talk about the conference, my reason for being there! I will have a few more in depth posts about certain parts of the conference over the next week or so, until everyone is thoroughly sick of hearing about it. Flying to Greece was …
𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐊𝐢𝐭 When you’re travelling, there is a balance between packing light, but also taking everything you need as well as some “just in case” remedies to be prepared. The good thing about homeopathy is that the doses are small, so you can take a good number of remedies and it takes up less space than supplements! Despite this, you still want to keep your kit small, and what you take depends on both where you are going and the availability …
We are looking for New Zealand Homeopaths to complete a survey and then be interviewed by a member of the research team. After the 2023 Demographics Survey, questions were raised: What does success as a Homeopath and meaningful practice look like? How and why do Homeopaths balance other jobs and practice? How does unpaid work and commitments impact on practice? This research study is open to qualified, practicing Homeopaths living in New Zealand. The survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes, …
One thing I do when I’m learning about something is try and make connections with things I already know. This is part of Piaget’s theory of learning, where first you try and assimilate knowledge into what you already know, before accomodating the knowledge and coming into balance with your new understanding. It’s probably also why homeopathy can be a hard paradigm for people to understand, as if you come from a conventional medical background it is completely contrary. I’m not …
One of the most important things about being human is the urge to create. This creative force is what brings children into the world, creating life from two mere cells from separate parents. Women then grow this life and facilitate this creation of a human being in the womb. While the physical is important, equally, it is creativity that feeds the soul. In my practice I see more women than men, and sometimes when we are identifying what is …
This is one of my favourite remedies for infection as it is one of homeopathy’s most septic remedies. It has a long history of use for severe infections in a time before antibiotics, including sepsis and typhoid which often were fatal. Reading cured case snippets in references like Clarke’s Dictionary of Materia Medica is worth doing if you have any doubt about pyrogen’s life saving ability, or for interest to get a glimpse into a different world. Pyrogen is made …
Antibiotics were life saving when they were first introduced- and they still can be. However we overuse them, and resistance is a rising problem. In addition to the wider societal implication of antibiotic overuse, there is also a personal cost. Usually antibiotic therapy is not targeted to a specific causal “bad” bacteria causing the problem. Instead they are “broad spectrum” which means they wipe out all bacteria, good and bad. As we have a large range of essential commensal bacteria, …
A few weeks ago I watched Moana with my children. I really love this movie, the storyline, the music all really resonate, much deeper than any other Disney movie. I can’t help but think remedies when I watch movies, especially when I’m re-watching and able to look more at what is going on for each character. So here are some of my remedy suggestions for some of the characters in Moana, along with my reasons why. Spoiler alert- if you …
I see people for all sorts of things, from emotional distress, to trauma, to physical complaints. I hold space while they share their life story and what their current challenges are, then I take that and prescribe a remedy to support them. I do not heal them. Quite apart from the fact that it is illegal for me to claim to heal anything, I still would not claim to heal a person. Healing is internal, it comes from within. The …
These are regularly confused, and there can even be overlaps between the two, as Homeopaths will give lifestyle advice and Naturopaths use homeopathic remedies. When you go by mainstream medical definitions both are holistic forms of treatment that avoid the use of pharmaceutical medicines. Both health professionals have an in depth first consultation that takes time, and will often spend time after the consultation to look at things holistically and come up with a remedy or plan, however they have …
Sugar. It’s found in so many of our foods, and can have physical and mental effects, including spikes of dopamine our reward neuro-chemical. In homeopathy there are a few different sugar remedies, which we will discuss tomorrow. First let’s look at sugar itself and what happens in the body. Because this is impossible to keep small and then discuss the remedies well, if you want to skip the Biochemistry lesson, come back tomorrow to learn about the remedies. There …
I was recently discussing a case with a friend and colleague, and one of the things that came up was how different Homeopaths approach things, and it reminded me of the idiom that all roads lead to Rome – because there are many different ways of approaching healing, even within Homeopathy. Even back in Hahnemann’s day, there were differences in practice. Hahnemann himself developed the 50 Millesimal potencies, either called LM or Q potencies. There were Homeopaths who favoured organ …
Health is more than the absence of disease. It is a holistic well-being on every level, including physical, emotional and spiritual, and peace and balance with the world around you.* This doesn’t mean that bad things do not happen in your life, but that you have resilience. You feel emotions but do not become stuck in them; you get acutely unwell but recover and get back to health; you have things happen that knock your self belief and your connection …
I have [insert disease name here]- can Homeopathy help? Does Homeopathy work for xyz? These questions, and others like them are frequently asked, but they are not straightforward to answer. For one thing, it is illegal for Homeopaths to say that they can “cure” anything – even with our founding document, Hahnemann’s Organon stating that our sole purpose is to return the sick to health. Secondly, Homeopathy works in an entirely different manner – not by treating a condition, but …
At the moment I am reading Living Free: The story of Elsa and her cubs by Joy Adamson with my 10 year old. This is the sequel to Born Free: A Lioness of two worlds, and they chronicle the amazing true story of a lioness who was born wild, raised by the Adamsons in Kenya in the 1950s, then released back to the wild. There are three books, finishing with Forever Free, about Elsa’s pride. If you have not read …