What is homeopathy?

According to World Health Organization (WHO) reports, homeopathy ranks among the most frequently used complementary medicine systems in the world. More than 200 million people worldwide use homeopathy regularly. These people — and a steadily growing number of patients — turn to homeopathy mostly with chronic health problems.

In the late 1700s, the German physician Samuel Hahnemann — troubled by the harsh, wearying medical practices of his time — believed there had to be a gentler path to healing, and developed the system of homeopathy.

During his years of translation work, Hahnemann became acquainted with the "like cures like" approach found in old medical texts. When a malaria epidemic broke out in Europe, he noticed in another old medical text that cinchona bark produced malaria-like symptoms. He decided to test the plant on himself and, despite being healthy, showed malaria symptoms when he took it. When he diluted it, freed it of its material force and potentised it through succussion, he observed that the same plant helped malaria patients. With this discovery, Hahnemann and the hundreds of doctors who followed him began testing on themselves the plant, mineral and animal sources capable of producing the signs of illness — turning each one, through succussion, into a remedy that helped the states of illness it resembled.

There is an invisible, dynamic energy that keeps us healthy and in balance — what Hahnemann called the "Vital Force" (Vital Principle). According to the Organon, disease is not merely a malfunctioning organ or a pathogen from outside; at its deepest level it is a disturbance in the tuning of this vital force. The symptoms we see in our bodies — pain, fever, insomnia or skin eruptions — are not the disease itself; they are the signs the vital force shows of this inner disturbance. From this angle, the vital force is always actually dealing with "a single disease." 

The simillimum and the artificial disease: how does healing happen?

Homeopathy's most striking and revolutionary approach is to create an artificial disease in the body with natural substances that imitate the symptoms rather than suppress them. It works like this:

• The homeopath looks at the whole of the patient's physical, mental and emotional state and decides on the one unique homeopathic remedy that most resembles the entire picture of that moment. This correct match is called the "simillimum."
• Given to the person in homeopathically diluted and potentised form, this remedy creates an "artificial disease" state in the body that closely resembles the existing illness — yet is temporary, trace in amount and completely safe.
• The body's vital force responds immediately to this new, fine-frequency stimulus. The vital force takes the artificial disease introduced through the remedy for an illness coming from outside. In response, it sets in motion all the bodily processes that would heal that illness — so the fighting mechanism the original state of illness needed is activated too. While healing what it believes to be an illness from outside, it heals its own disease as well.

In this sense, homeopathy is not herbal medicine. It is a health method that works the body's self-healing mechanism through a highly technical method and diluted products, bringing healing that is lasting and effective yet also gentle — a method whose rules and effectiveness have barely changed in almost 300 years.

According to homeopathic principle, a person never has more than one disease at a time. There is a single disease: the vital force having fallen out of balance. All the signs and symptoms gathered under disease names are indicators of that imbalance. As homeopaths, we use these indicators to understand what the vital force needs, and we help it return to balance with the simillimum remedy or remedies.

What began as a radical discovery rests, through Hahnemann's deep analyses of human nature, the miasms (the roots of chronic disease) and the vital force, on an exceptionally solid philosophical foundation. Laid more than 200 years ago, these foundations have allowed homeopathy to live on today as a modern, refined and entirely individualised system of medicine consulted by millions of people worldwide.

Today, homeopathy is a complementary practice used by thousands of people in the United Kingdom and many other countries.

You can find more detail about this method in the pieces shared in the Articles section, or by emailing us.

My homeopathic practice

So how do I use this framework in my daily practice?

Good case-work begins with an unhurried story. That is why our first session is a long one. I listen to when and how your complaint began, what aggravates and relieves it, your sleep, your appetite, your temperament, your worries and your joys. In the homeopathic tradition, the body and the inner world are never read apart; that is how I read them too.

Then I look for the remedy that most "resembles" your story as a whole. This is called the simillimum — the remedy most similar to your picture. If you tell me "I used to feel cold, now I run hot," that is no ordinary detail to me — it is a signpost. The vital force speaks most through the body — and the body doesn't lie. Where needed, I use organ remedies and take notes on when we will work on the miasmatic blocks. 

I don't call myself a "classical homeopath." That label usually describes the search for a single "constitutional remedy." My practice stays faithful to Hahnemann's Organon: I read whichever complaint is troubling the vital force most at that moment, and I give the simillimum of that moment. As the picture changes, so does your remedy. That is why I follow up closely and in detail, and re-take the case from the beginning at every follow-up session — because when you change, the picture and your remedy change too.

Between sessions, I want to hear from you and to know what is changing — because all of it is an important part of your process. 

After 18 years of practice, my compass is still the Organon. Following the vital force as it unfolds layer by layer in its movement, I give each individual whatever their vital force needs. Without allowing speculation or interpretation.