Joette Calabrese Podcast

IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:

02:13    Life’s hardships

05:59    Different remedies for emotions

17:12    When to take what

23:53    Coffea and Aurum metallicum    

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

Aurum metallicum 200

Coffea cruda 200

Ignatia amara 200,

You are listening to a podcast from practicalhomeopathy.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition.

Kate:  This is the Practical Homeopathy Podcast Episode Number 69 with Joette Calabrese.

Joette:  This is Joette Calabrese, and I’d like to welcome you to the Practical Homeopathy Podcast. Women and men worldwide are taking back control of their families’ health and learning how to heal their bodies naturally, safely and effectively. So, if you’re hungry to learn more, you’ve come to the right place. Stay tuned as we give you the tools — and the inspiration you need — as I share my decades of experience and knowledge using this powerful medicine we call homeopathy.

Kate:  Hey Joette, how are you today?

Joette:  I’m doing well, Kate. How about you?

Kate:  Well, I’ve overwhelmed actually. My mom, who had a severe stroke in December, is struggling today. There are so many …

Joette:  Today? No, you and I have been in close touch regarding this. No, maybe she’s struggling again after making some real headway.

Kate:  Oh, yeah! That is it. You know, I have to remind myself that our health isn’t a linear graph.

Joette:  That’s right.

Kate:  Just like you say all the time, Joette. It is ups and downs, and it’s never going to be perfect.

Joette:  It’s two steps forward, one-and-seven-tenths backwards. And then another five steps forward, and then four-and-a-half steps backwards. So, we’re always looking for the net gain.

So, excuse me. We’re kind of going off on a tangent. It’s not really what we planned on talking about, did we?

Kate:  Right. No, we had a whole podcast planned, but after chatting for a few minutes, we thought it might be helpful for the people who listen to your podcast to kind of walk along a journey with us and hear about how health can be a struggle. It can be super-high when we find that right remedy, and our health has changed. It can be a low when we’re trying to figure what to do. Especially the emotional rollercoaster, Joette, that is what I have found difficult. I think you have a few things to help me.

Joette:  Well, I’ll do my best. But I’ve decided that life’s a tragedy. Just give it up. Life is just a big tragedy. If you can avoid some here and there, so you get some time in between to enjoy your family and your life and the sunshine and the birds and et cetera, then you’ve kind of made it.

But basically, it’s a tragedy. The reason I say that is because I just lost my father a year and a half ago. It was just … it’s a killer. He was going to be 91. It’s not like he hadn’t had a nice, long life, but it still hurts a lot.

So, I was telling you earlier, and I never finished the story because then we decided, “You know, this is what we ought to be discussing.” I was saying earlier that just about a week ago, I had gotten some news from a friend of mine that she has cancer. She’s a very dear friend. That normally does not scare me. In fact, it didn’t scare me; it just took the wind out of my sails.

You know, I listen to people’s sufferings all day long every single day except Sundays — and sometimes even Sundays.

Then right after that, I was going through my phone, and I saw my father’s phone number. I pushed it to dial it. I was bracing myself thinking, “Oh, my gosh! What if that phone was never deactivated (because my brother took care of it, you never know), and I would hear his voice! I would just fall to pieces.” So, I was bracing myself. In some ways, I was quite thankful. In other ways, I was disappointed that, of course, the phone had been taken down a year and a half ago.

Then I had a case of a client, a little boy who was not doing well at all. It was just another hit for this little person. Three things hit me very deeply all in one day. I don’t know if it was just the alignment of my thinking, but boy, it really got to me. Normally, I mean I listen to sad stories all day long. They don’t make me sad. I don’t think they do.

Kate:  I don’t know how you do it.

Joette:  Well, I always wondered if I would be able to do this, too, when I first started studying homeopathy to become a homeopath (which was not actually my intention originally). But this is what I’ve done; I’ve parsed it out.

Now, this particular circumstance, I went into a depression with these three events, the first one, of course, being my friend.

My husband said, “Oh! For crying out loud, Joette just take Aurum metallicum 200.” That’s Aurum metallicum 200, folks. Now, my husband is not a studied homeopath, but what he is, is he’s studied me and has helped me in the past. Aurum metallicum has helped me in the past. Sometimes it has not, but it has done a lot of good work.

Kate:  So, let’s stop just for a minute Joette because people might wonder, “How do I know when I need Aurum metallicum versus Ignatia.”

Joette:  Why don’t you say that?

Kate:  Yeah, that’s what I was just saying.

Joette:  Oh! Oh, I thought you were going to stop the recording!

Kate:  I didn’t mean stop the podcast. I actually meant let’s stop and figure out … you said using Aurum metallicum, but I know you also talk about using Ignatia 200. So, how do we differentiate when to use the Aurum versus the Ignatia when we’re sad?

So, let’s maybe talk about me for a second.

Joette:  Oh, why not! Why should it be about me!

Kate:  Why shouldn’t this podcast be about me?

Joette:  Right!

Kate:  I think this is helpful because, for instance, I’m a caregiver right now. I’m overwhelmed with the daily struggles of caring for my mom and trying to balance my children, and work, and so many things, and dealing with the emotions, the ups and downs of my mom every day. I think this is maybe a good example. How do we know when to use Sepia, Ignatia, Aurum metallicum? What’s the difference?

Joette:  Now, those differentiations between remedies is a study in itself, but let me see if I can distill it down pretty easily. The first thought my husband had when I said, “I just want to go away.” I mean not far away to an island; I would just want to go with my father and be with Jesus. I mean that’s the way I was thinking. “I want to end it all. I just don’t want to be here anymore. It’s too painful, too much suffering. My friend is now going to suffer. I just can’t take it.”

First, he said, “Maybe you should take Ignatia.”

Then when I started to talk like that, he said, “Oh no, no, no, no. This is Aurum.”

So, what’s the differentiation?

Ignatia is — and you don’t hold me to it a hundred percent, but generally speaking — Ignatia is certainly being overwhelmed with duties, feeling a little skitterish, emotions can be all over the place. Laugh one minute, cry the next. It doesn’t have to be there. None of these aspects of Ignatia must be there, but these are little characteristics that can help you determine whether or not it could be a good remedy for you. It’s anxiety; there are a lot of fears. I didn’t have that. I had downright, frank depression. It came on pretty quickly. It came on one day. Maybe it was two days after I learned about my friend. It was wanting to die.

Aurum metallicum has suicidal thoughts. Now, I didn’t actually have “suicidal thoughts.” I wasn’t going that far. I just knew that I didn’t want to be here anymore for that day and a half/two days.

Ignatia is different than that. Ignatia is lots of anxiety and fear and some depression, but they don’t think like that generally. Those who need it don’t think that way. So, getting back to Aurum so that I can give you an example, I took a dose of it, and he was absolutely right. Within a couple of hours, I could feel it lifting.

It’s not as though I felt anything different. It’s that I was going back to myself. So, it’s easy to say, “Well, I didn’t feel anything dramatic.”

Well, are you still depressed?

“No.”

Do you still want to go to the other side?

“No.”

Okay then, I guess it worked.

“Yeah, I guess it did.”

Kate:  You know, I have to say, you suggested that I take Aurum metallicum not long ago. I did, and I had the same experience where before, I had a thought of just driving my car off into the sunset. I just want to be in heaven. It’s hard. This life is hard. Again, I’m like you. I didn’t have any suicidal thoughts per se. But it’s just the feeling of this is too overwhelming. This is too much.

I took the Aurum metallicum, and then it made it so much easier to deal with coming and watching my mom suffering and dealing with everyday life. I didn’t have that feeling of overwhelmed. My feeling was, “I can do this. It’s going to be okay.”

Joette:  That’s it. It’s the absence of symptoms that lead you to know that you’ve chosen the correct medicine. It’s the absence. Don’t expect to be high and feel like you just smoked a joint or something like that! So, those potheads out there who I’m shaking a finger at by the way — that’s a whole ‘nother podcast.

So, I don’t let the sufferings of my clients … most of whom I’ve gotten to know quite well, and I very much like. In fact, I could say I even love them! I have great relationship with my clients, and I feel close to them. They have allowed me into their world. They hand me their pearls of wisdom. They teach me what I need to learn, too, in terms of what life is really about and how to take life.

So, I could easily go down and fall apart every time I hear a sad story from one of them. But if I do that, I’m useless to them. That’s not my girding, although that is valuable. My real girding is I am there to discover the answer: the right medicines, what potency, what frequency, for how long to use it, to give them some encouragement if I can. That’s my job. My job is as a detective. What’s the remedy? So, my focus is so myopic that I don’t allow the emotions to get in the way. Now, if I did, I guarantee I’d be useless to them and to myself and to my family. So, I don’t allow that to happen.

In spite of the fact that this friend of mine is going to be working with me, once I start working with her, and I come up with the medicines that need to be used for her, I will be able to put up a “scrim.” That’s the best way to put it. It’s kind of like a scrim on the stage where you see them, but there’s a little protection, a gentle diaphanous film between them and me that protects me from going down the sad road with them so that I can gird them up and hold them in place.

Kate:  And the homeopathic remedies like Aurum metallicum help us to do that?

Joette:  They do. And then I will also say that Aurum metallicum stopped working for me after a couple of days. I could feel it coming on again, so I took another dose. It didn’t stop working. I felt as though it just needed another hit, so to speak. I took it, and I did not see improvement. That’s when I decided — for me — I decided to use Psorinum. That’s spelled P-S-O-R-I-N-U-M, Psorinum 200.

Now, that’s not one of our main medicines in our protocol for depression. It’s a tertiary medicine for depression. But the reason that I chose it — and I’ll tell you why, for those of you who want to read up on this, and I urge you to do so — Psorinum is for an underlying sadness that feels as though life is not worth it. It’s like being like Eeyore.

There are often skin issues. Just around the same time, I got a little patch of eczema under my left eye. It’s gotten swollen and itchy, and I haven’t had eczema since I was 13. (So, in some ways, I guess I’m grateful because it means that perhaps I’m cleaning something out. Who knows? I don’t try to figure that kind of stuff out necessarily.)

So, that was itchy. Then I was feeling itchy all over — my ears, at my scalp. There were no eruptions; I just felt itchy all over. I said, “Oh, for goodness sakes, it’s got to be Psorinum.” So, I took it, and I have felt much better since that time. I feel just more like myself.

Kate:  So, you took Psorinum because there was a complete picture. It wasn’t just the emotions. It was other things.

Joette:  Yes, ma’am. That’s exactly why I chose it. I didn’t just say, “Oh, Aurum metallicum didn’t act.” Because what I could have used was Aurum metallicum 200, every other day and Coffea 200, twice a day. That’s a great combination for depression. But I was so itchy. I’ve had that experience of itchiness throughout my life here and there. I know through experience that Psorinum has often helped. So, that’s what I took.

Kate:  I talk to people in the study groups that I lead, and I tell them to be very careful with the nosodes. Psorinum is considered a nosode because it is made from a disease.

Joette:  Yes, it’s made from scabies.

Kate:  So, if we’re going to use a nosode, we have to really know that that is the correct remedy. We have to know what we’re doing.

Joette:  Well, the reason I’m giving you this story is because I want to be able to express that as well. I don’t believe nosodes are any more dangerous necessarily — or safe necessarily — than any other homeopathic medicine. But when it comes to stepping outside of a protocol, now we need to be a little more cautionary, just because.

What I mean by that is people say homeopathy is perfectly safe. I don’t believe it is! I think it’s relatively safe. You can cause some trouble with homeopathy if you use it willy-nilly, if you don’t follow the rules properly. One of the rules is to make sure that you got your diagnosis correct.

Kate:  Right. When you’re using the protocols, you need a diagnosis. Now, sometimes that doesn’t necessarily mean going to the doctor.

Joette:  No. I didn’t go to the doctor. At first, I didn’t know what was happening to me. That’s why my husband had to chime in. (Which is, by the way parenthetically, something everyone ought to know is that their spouses ought to know the medicines that work for them — especially those that are psychological medicines for them. Because when you’re sick, your brain turns to mush if it’s an emotional discord.)

Kate:  Yes.

Joette:  I would not have been able to think. I didn’t know what to do. All I felt was this deep sadness, and I couldn’t think straight.

Kate:  Not only when you’re sick, but when someone that you dearly love like a child is sick, your brain can also turn to mush because all you feel is that empathy. It’s hard to get past that.

Joette:  I have people say to me oftentimes, “I feel so sad for my child.” I want to say … sometimes I do, depending on the circumstance. If it’s on my blog, then I might not go this far, but certainly, when it’s a client, I will say, “Don’t feel sad for your child. Feel determined for your child. Feel ready, willing and capable of learning what to do to take care of your child because if you allow yourself sadness, you’re going nowhere fast.”

Kate:  Yeah. That’s how we started out this conversation. I was saying how I felt so bad for my mom because I didn’t know how to help her. We have trouble communicating with her. You stopped me, and you said, “No, you can’t go down that road. You have to take a step back and take the remedies that you need. Then try to be analytical because it’s going to destroy you if you go down that road.”

Joette:  Well, I know I’m going to turn some people off by saying this, but you have to be more like a man. I’m serious. You have to put the emotions aside and take the task at hand seriously. That’s a very masculine way of thinking.

I’ve learned a lot from my husband because that’s the way he is. When his parents passed away, he grieved, but when it was done, it was done. For goodness’ sakes, I’m still carrying on about my father; it’s been a year and a half! “Hello, Joette, get a grip!” I mean, really, it’s time to … I mean, I think I have moved on, but there are those moments that it comes back, and it hits me. It’s always when I feel weakened by other bad news.

But this does not affect my husband. It doesn’t seem to affect my sons — these kinds of things. I observe it all the time. It didn’t affect my father. I don’t see it affect … well, maybe my brother. But I observe the differences between men and women because I love them, and I celebrate them. I want to learn from my partner. I’ve learned a lot from him because of that. He’s very sturdy, and I need to remain sturdy, too.

Kate:  Okay, so let’s get back to knowing the difference between the Aurum and the Ignatia and Sepia because those can all be used for that overwhelmed emotional state.

Joette:  Aurum metallicum takes on responsibilities. People who need Aurum metallicum are often the responsible ones in society who take on everything that they come across. They take it on with aplomb. They go all the way.

Look at what you’re going through right now: You don’t just visit your mother; you live there. You only go to bed late at night to your own bed and then start again first thing in the morning. We’re doing this podcast from your mother’s room for goodness’ sake. I know what that rehabilitation center looks like now because you and I have met a number of times.

Sometimes you can use Aurum metallicum, and then a couple of days later, you might need Ignatia.

Sepia is very specific. It’s very female, hormonal and is often for a middle-aged woman or a woman who’s had children.

But Ignatia has a lump in the throat. They start pulling their hair out a little bit. They start picking at their skin. They start doing things that are central nervous system oriented, too. Ignatia can often present with trichotillomania. Trichotillomania, it’s a long word.

Kate:  What is it?

Joette:  Yeah, what is that?

Kate:  What is that?

Joette:  It’s a hair-pulling disorder. It’s a central nervous system response that results in an urge to pull out hair, whether it’s eyelashes, eyebrows, hair from the head, the arms, wherever it might be. That is what can happen with Ignatia. But we can also see a lump in the throat, a chronic little nervous cough I’ve seen in people, ailments from grief, all of that.

Now, when I talk about my father, is it an ailment from grief? Well, yes, but that’s way further back. What I was describing to you was: bam, bam, bam! Three hits. Three big emotional hits that hit hard — which shouldn’t have but did.

So, the sadness of my friend, her suffering, I wasn’t grieving necessarily. The thought that I missed my father, and then this child was suffering. Is it grief? Well, there’s grief somewhere in there, but what was the hierarchy of symptoms was this overwhelming depression. I just wanted to go to the next life.

So, that’s how you differentiate. You have to figure out what to say because some people say, “Well, it is from grief, too.”

No, no, no. No, no. Don’t go there. Go with what is presenting most overtly.

Kate:  So also, another clue that you might need Ignatia is that sighing, right Joette? The “Aaaaah,” someone who does that, that’s an Ignatia thing.

Joette:  And sobbing alternating with laughing or feeling easily offended. Someone says something that’s perfectly normal, and you see it as the complete opposite. “Oh my gosh! You must mean … You are … You must be prejudiced! You must be a white supremacist!”

“Oh, for crying out loud, get a grip. I just said let’s put up a fence!” The whole world needs Ignatia. It’s the only thing … excuse me for getting political here … we just need to kind of get a grip on our borders. That’s all we’re saying here. When everybody is saying, “Oh, he must mean he hates Mexicans and South Americans.”

Really? Is that how far you’re going to pull this apart?

When we see life that painfully, and we feel so victimized, then that is Ignatia.

Kate:  Okay.

Joette:  When we talk about Ignatia, I always talk about it in a 200C, twice daily. Twice daily, every day. Twice a day: morning-night, morning-night, morning-night, until it’s over with. When it’s over with, you stop. When you feel better, then you put an end to the use of it.

When it comes back — and it likely will because if someone has that strong feeling, they have a propensity for it; it will come back. Of course, as I said when we started, life’s a tragedy. So, it is going to come back at some point where you take it again. Even if it’s a week later or a year later, you just start it again. Now you know what medicine works for you.

Kate:  How about the Aurum metallicum? How often to take that?

Joette:  Aurum metallicum, we like to use only in a 200C, every other day. Aurum metallicum — here’s something that’s valuable — not always, but it has an accompanying … Not always; remember this, folks. Because everyone thinks they have to line up all the symptoms, and they all have to be perfect in order to use one medicine or another. There can be fatigue: chronic fatigue or the fatigue is just … it’s again, part of the central nervous system (is my guess. That’s the way I see it.)

And it’s great for men. That Aurum metallicum is a wonderful boost for men’s low testosterone, low sperm count, men who can’t perform sexually anymore or are having difficulty with that. They have so much responsibility, but they’re stoic. They hold up because they know they should do the right thing — because that’s the way Aurum metallicum people are generally speaking (those people who need it). They’re stoic. They just keep trudging through in spite of how hard it is. So, Aurum metallicum — not always, again — Aurum metallicum is more often a little more masculine. We think about that a little bit more for men.

Ignatia is a little bit more feminine. Ignatia has, I know this is going to anger people (some women), but I’m sorry: There’s hysteria with Ignatia sometimes. They’re bouncing all over the place (bittybeep-bittybop-bittyboop). They’re all over the emotional spectrum. “I’m crying. I’m laughing. I’m hysterical. I take everything in bad turn. I’m freaking every time you say something. What did you really mean by that? I know what you meant.”

Kate:  Aurum metallicum is that Type A personality where, “I’m going to get it done. I’m responsible. I’m going to be there. I have the weight of the world on my shoulders, and I can do it.”

Joette:  That’s right.

Kate:  But they’re tired doing it.

Joette:  But they can be tired, and it can drain them hormonally for men.

Kate:  Okay, so our emotional rollercoaster is going to come to an end because we all know what to do to help us, so Aurum metallicum, Ignatia, Coffea. For those women who are in their early years of having young children, then that’s a Sepia possibly thing as well.

Joette, you mentioned Coffea when you were talking about Aurum metallicum and how those two can be used together. Can you elaborate on that a little?

Joette:  Sure. I used Aurum metallicum by itself. I could have used Coffea 200. I suppose actually, now that I think about it, I could have added that in instead of going to the Psorinum. But, Psorinum was so compelling because of the itchiness in my skin.

But had I not had that skin irritation, I might have stayed with Aurum metallicum 200, every other day and added Coffea 200, as I said earlier, twice daily — particularly if I was having difficulty sleeping, or if I would fall asleep and then wake up. I hear this often from folks. I fall asleep, and then I almost startle. I wake up, and my mind starts going. That’s Coffea 200.

Just like when someone has drunk too much coffee. (Which parenthetically let me mention, if you’re drinking coffee, and that happens to you, stop the substance! Stop the coffee. I mean, really that’s just kind of logical. You don’t have to stop it abruptly. You can just cut back by half or something or drink it only in the morning.

But I also will tell you that when people drink coffee in the morning, they think, “Oh! That will never affect me at night.”

Really? You don’t think that if you take a drug at 6:00 in the morning that that won’t affect your sleep at 10 o’clock that night? Absolutely, it will! So, why wouldn’t coffee do that? Coffee is a substance. It’s caffeine, and it’s strong.

If people drink a lot of it, and they usually drink it quite strong, and they think that they could drink it like they were in college, sorry. You can’t do anything like you can when you’re in college. That’s true. I mean, I used to eat a lot of chocolate and be able to get away with it. I used to be able to drink coffee all day long and never give it a thought. I used to be able to stay up until 3:00 in the morning and party and all. I used to drink alcohol, and I never had any trouble at all. Well, if I did any of those even in small amounts, I would be paying for it.

Kate:  Well Joette, I think you’ve given us a lot of clarity on how to use these medicines. So, thank you for helping me and so many people who are probably going to go right now to their homeopathy cabinet and pull out that Aurum metallicum or Ignatia or something.

Joette:  Kate, allow me to wrap this up by saying our very core is shaped by the adversities that we endure. There’s no doubt about the fact that life is difficult. As we march through time, the more that we can overcome, the more it shapes our character. So, don’t worry about adversities piling up too much. They’re going to! Just learn how to deal with them the best you can in a pragmatic way, if possible. If not, make it philosophical and say, “Oh well, onward.”

Kate:  I feel like I should be encouraged but …

Joette:  “I’m more discouraged than ever now. Thanks a lot, Joette!”

Kate:  No. Thank you for sharing, but honestly life is hard. Yeah, we just have to trudge on like you said.

Joette:  Well, let it run off your back like a duck. Imagine that. Really, truly put that image in your mind. The duck goes down in the water, comes up and the water just rolls right off his back. That is the way you want to see life. Otherwise, we will accumulate all the sufferings and all the tragedies, and it will just keep going. And cling to your faith. It’s very important.

Kate:  Yeah.

You just listened to a podcast from PracticalHomeopathy.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shares her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com.

IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:

06:14    The Gateway Gals

11:57    Information on the website/organizing remedy cards

15:22    Polymyalgia

19:45    Broken foot and fall injuries

27:24    Simple steps to take in starting homeopathy

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

Gateway to Homeopathy I and II Study Groups

“Just One Drop” (Film from Blind Dog Films; Laurel Chiten, Director)

Top 100 Remedies Kit

How I Cured My Fibromyalgia with One Simple Medicine

 Joette’s Course Page

Kate:  This is the Practical Homeopathy® Podcast Episode Number 68.

Joette:  Each day from my office, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe, and I want to share them with you. Some of my students have really caught my eye. Some of you have done all you can to learn how to cure those around you using homeopathic medicines, and your successes inspire me. They’re glorious and powerful, and I can’t keep these successes a secret any longer. So, with help from my roving reporters, we bring you a mini-podcast series that I call “Moms with Moxie.” Sometimes we even interview “Dads with Audacity.” See how regular mothers and others, average people who want to cure those around them, have gone from freaking to fabulous with homeopathy.

Kate:  Hi. This is Kate. I’m here with Kelly who is a “study group enthusiast,” I guess I would call her. She is excited about study groups and homeopathy. I think you’re really going to enjoy hearing from her and her experience with the Gateway to Homeopathy study groups — and also the experiences that she’s had with homeopathy, and how she has been helping her friends and spreading the word. So welcome, Kelly.

Kelly:  Hi! Thanks for having me.

Kate:  So, Kelly, tell us a little bit about yourself, maybe where you’re from and a little bit about your family.

Kelly:  I grew up in West Virginia, and I live in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia right now. I’ve been married for 37 years. We have two grown sons who are both married with four grandchildren and another one on the way. I work part-time with family back in West Virginia. So, I enjoy going back home to see family, and it’s just a nice change of pace for me to be able to not have a 9-to-5, 5-day-a-week job.

Kate:  Okay! So, I have to ask. When you said Shenandoah, that song came to mind. Do you remember that old song? It talks about the Shenandoah River. Is there a river there?

Kelly:  Yes, there is.

Kate:  Maybe I’m just really old. I don’t know who’s going to know what song I’m talking about.

Kelly:  I think I’m a little older than you. But yeah, there is the Shenandoah River here, yes.

Kate:  Nice!

Okay, so why don’t you give us a little bit of background as far as how you came to hear about Joette and the Gateway to Homeopathy study groups.

Kelly:  I’ve kind of been on a journey for about the last 15 years, and I’ve been introduced to different types of natural things. The first one was like food and trying to make a change in our diets. Of course, then I went through the essential oil phase where I was concerned a lot about natural things and what I put on my skin and clean with and different things like that. So, I kind of had these two pieces to the stool, but I needed a third piece.

When I was introduced to homeopathy … my sister, actually, she invited me to a documentary. It was called “Just One Drop.” That was actually one year ago in January of 2018. She says, “Oh! My doctor recommended … it’s some kind of natural type of healthcare.”

I was like, “Oh, I’m all over that.”

Kate:  So, her doctor recommended “Just One Drop”? What kind of doctor is this?

Kelly:  He’s a more integrative-type doctor. He tries to use natural things, supplements, different kinds of modalities and therapies, but he’s not big into using traditional medicine. I guess more like an integrative doctor.

Kate:  Okay, well good. That’s exciting that a doctor recommended that.

Kelly:  Yeah. And a matter of fact, he invited two other doctors from the area. We had a Q&A after the documentary.

Kate:  Wow! That’s exciting!

Kelly:  It was very exciting. So, that was a year ago. I had never really heard about homeopathy.

Kate:  So, you went to see this movie. You never heard of homeopathy. You learned about it, and then you were intrigued.

Kelly:  That’s exactly what happened.

So, I just kind of sat on it for about a month or two. Then I went to visit a friend. This is a friend I’ve known for years and years. She’s very into the same things I am, the same kind of dense nutrition, essential oils — I mean, we’re all on the same page.

I said, “Have you heard of homeopathy?”

She goes, “I’m glad you asked that.” She goes, “I have this kit in my closet, and I’ve just kind of started using it.”

I said, “Well, can I see what it looks like?” So, she brings out the 100-remedy kit.

Then she goes, “I’ve been listening to this homeopath.”

I said, “Well, who is it?”

She goes, “It is Joette.” She goes, “She has the best website. She gives tons of free information.” So, I wrote her name down because I couldn’t quite figure out how to come up with it. “Joette Calabrese,” it’s a little different, but she has a very catchy name.

Kate:  Yes. So, you went, and you did some investigation on the website?

Kelly:  Oh, yeah. My friend said that she has lots of free information. She goes, “Read her blog posts. Look at podcasts.” So that’s what I did.

Then I saw, you know, she had these study groups. So, I’m talking back and forth with my friend. We should do one of these. We should do one of these. Then I started talking with some of the neighbors. Many of them were kind of frustrated with traditional medicine and are trying to look for more natural type of options.

Kate:  So, it was all friends and neighbors that you knew? You spread the word, and they were interested, and you asked them to join? Were you the leader of that study group?

Kelly:  Yes.

Kate:  That’s so great! You’re just learning! I love this because I always say that you don’t have to be an expert to lead a study group. Anybody can do it. So, I think that’s fantastic that you jumped right in!

Kelly:  Yeah, I was a little nervous because I knew nothing. I felt unprepared. I’ll tell you what … I was stocking up on remedies already. We started our Gateway I in August. So, between March and August, I get the 100-remedy kit — ordered it from Joette’s website so I could get all the other information that’s so helpful to have. I’m sharing it with the neighbors and my daughter-in-law who lives about 10 minutes away. So, I’m feeling all these people in, you know: “We got to get ready. We got to do this class. Go to the website. Sign up.” So, we get this group of women together. There’s nine of us.

Kate:  Nine, whoa!

Kelly:  It was a nice-sized class.

Kate:  Yes!

Kelly:  We started in August, and this was before she had Gateway II ready. So, we’re going through this. We were having a lot of success stories, people sharing — especially with a few of the women who had actually used some homeopathic remedies and were using it more and more in their families.

We had a lot of healthcare people in our class like a nurse, a nurse practitioner, a dental hygienist, some dental assistants. So, we had some people who knew the medical field much better than I did because I had really no introduction to anything except for what I have read and taught myself.

Kate:  Well, that’s a great mix of people. I think that’s super-helpful when you have people in the medical profession because they bring a whole different perspective to it.

Kelly:  You’re exactly right. They come from more of a traditional standpoint. That’s a whole different paradigm or way you’re looking at stuff.

Kate:  Isn’t that exciting? I have a lot of medical professionals in my Gateway group right now. It gives me great hope that medical professionals are starting to look at alternative solutions to allopathic medicines.

Kelly:  I think it’s wonderful. To give these professionals options — to help patients who are looking for something more natural — is a great idea. The interesting thing about it is we had a nice range in age from like young mothers to retired people almost.

Kate:  You have the wisdom of those who are older and then the younger people to bring the fresh perspective. What a great mix for your group!

Kelly:  Yeah, we had a lot of fun. When we were finishing up the course, that’s when Joette’s email went out about Gateway II. So, we’re like, “Oh my goodness! We need to do Gateway II.”

It was a lot of fun having my daughter-in-law in the class because she’s got, two young kids. So, it’s like, “Oh, let’s try this on them.” It’s a learning experience. It’s a whole different way to think about treating diseases — acute and chronic. The women are very open to it. They were excited to start using homeopathy and integrating it into their families. We just had a lot of fun learning together and then each week coming back. We would always have a time of sharing, just listening to their success stories or where they shared it with another family member.

Kate:  I think that’s an important part of the groups … is to take that time to hear from people what they’re doing and what they found success with. Just like you said, it’s so helpful to everyone else in the group to hear those stories and learn from all those successes.

Kelly:  The nice thing about it was if you had a situation, you had a quick answer. Like we would be texting or emailing back and forth, “What do you think about this or what would you use for this?” It was just a nice sounding board to have that group of women together to do that on.

Kate:  So, how did you guys stay connected? Was it with text message group, or was it emails? How did you stay connected?

Kelly:  We did both. The thing about several of the women, they are right across the street from me, and then my daughter-in-law is 10 minutes away. The furthest person was 40 minutes away. So, it was phone calls and texts … was probably the best way we stayed in touch with each other because we’re all local.

Kate:  Okay. And your daughter-in-law went on to start her own study groups, right?

Kelly:  Yes. We finished Gateway II, and she put out a little blurb. She got a lot of response from that. So, she’s kind of narrowed it down and got a group of ladies. We just started Gateway I with her group. We just started in January. We’re meeting at her house, and there are eight people in that group.

Kate:  You guys are really expanding!

Kelly:  Oh, yeah. It’s exciting to see other women get excited about homeopathy. We’re not even through three of the classes. They’re like, “Oh! Are we doing Gateway II?”

Kate:  I guess you are!

Kelly:  Yeah! So, I said, “We’ll be happy to.”

Kate:  Now, you have to share with us a name that you’ve come up with for your study group women.

Kelly:  Oh, okay. So, I was just thinking about Joette’s book, Gateway to Homeopathy I and Gateway to Homeopathy II. When I would email the girls, I’m like, “I don’t want to just say, ‘Hey’ or whatever.” So, I came up with this little thing that I was going to call the girls: The Gateway Gals.

Kate:  So, you guys have dubbed yourselves the Gateway Gals. I love it!!

Kelly:  It’s kind of catchy.

Kate:  Joette’s Gateway Gals, yeah. It’s great. And you told her, and she loved that, too.

Kelly:  Yeah.

Kate:  So, Kelly, besides the Gateway groups, what else have you done to continue your study of homeopathy?

Kelly:  So, what I’ve tried to do is read a lot more information. I have spent a lot of time on Joette’s site because she just is so generous and kind to share a lot of what she has learned. And one of the things we found out in the group was that the girls would continue to be frustrated in finding what they needed quickly — because oftentimes you have these acute conditions, and they don’t have time to look. So, I decided I would spend evenings and weekends on Joette’s website reading every one of her blogs and every one of her podcasts to get every one of her cards.

Kate:  That is commitment, Kelly! That’s a lot. That is a course in itself, right?

Kelly:  Oh, yeah. And see, you learn so much more doing that. So, I was reading the blogs and not in-depth, but I was like, “Oh wow! I could use that. Oh gosh! That’s helpful.” So, I was printing out all these cards. So I would spend a couple of hours at night or on the weekend, and over the course of our Gateway I and II, I had accumulated 300 remedy cards.

Kate:  Wow!

Kelly:  Yeah. So then, I took them into a printer and got them to format them. Here, let me show you one so you get an idea.

Kate:  That’s beautiful!

Kelly:  Then I had them add lines because we want to take notes about our stuff.

Kate:  You could write down different situations that you’ve used that remedy or just different information on the remedy itself.

Kelly:  Right. Sometimes what’s really nice is if you found it worked for a certain family member or something, you can jot it down on that card. The girls were super-excited about the cards. So, I got them printed. We got them all handed out. The other thing we did is we categorized them into acute and chronic, so we can pull out what we needed quicker. Then we pulled all the pregnancy ones out and made them a category unto themselves.

Kate:  Oh, good idea. I was just going to ask you: How do you store those remedy cards?

Kelly:  We bought little binders.

Kate:  Since those of you listening can’t see what she’s showing me, can you explain them a little bit?

Kelly:  So, the cards are printed out and then formatted. The remedy section is at the top with lines underneath, then a three-hole punch. Then we can store them in little hardcover binders.

Kate:  Okay, so just a three-ring binder basically.

Kelly:  Yeah, a smaller one because the big 8½-by-11 was too big. We just felt that the 6-by-9 would work better.

Kate:  So, you have them in there according to categories. In those categories, you have them alphabetized, I would assume?

Kelly:  That’s correct, exactly.

Kate:  That’s a great tip. Thank you for sharing that with us.

Kelly:  Then the other thing you’re going to want to do is make a blank one. Because what you’ll find out is when you’re going through Gateway I and II, there might be something in there that’s not on the card. Or, when you’re taking one of the classes, you’re going to find out stuff that, “Wow, that’s not in any of my remedy cards. I want to write that down.” You can just add it, throw it in alphabetically — based on acute or chronic.

Kate:  I would love to hear your successes with homeopathy, how you’re using it, how your friends are using homeopathy, and what you’re finding.

Kelly:  Okay, so … we have some really cool things that happened with our group. One of the most exciting things is I have a cousin that doesn’t live around here, but I started sharing it with her. She jumped on it quick. She was all about it. In the course of talking to her — now this is before we’ve even started Gateway I — I’m talking homeopathy with her. She has a disease called polymyalgia.

Kate:  What is polymyalgia?

Kelly:  It’s a condition where you have severe pain in your shoulders and hips. She was having tremendous amount of pain. She was just basically eating Motrin, and nothing was touching it. Her doctor’s only recourse was steroids or prednisone, which she says, “I’m not taking.”

So, she was like, “If you got anything that will help me, let me know.”

This is another thing that’s great about Joette’s posts. I got on there, and I had just read about fibromyalgia. I said, “Polymyalgia, fibromyalgia — oh, they kind of have the same ending.” When I was reading through some of Joette’s posts, I heard her talk about fibromyalgia. And I thought, “Well, that’s the place I’m going to start.” So, I went back there. It’s often helpful to read through comments at the bottom. People ask questions — and she may or may not respond — but I was like, “Oh well, I’ll try.”

Kate:  Yeah!

Kelly:  I got down to the bottom, and I typed this little response, trying to fish for some info. “If someone has a condition of polymyalgia, would this same protocol for fibromyalgia be helpful?”

So, I waited. I thought this is going to take days. But you know what? It was a gift from the Lord because I’ll tell you what: 30 minutes later, I got this, “Yes!” (with exclamation points).

Kate:  Oh my gosh! You had your answer that fast.

Kelly:  Yes. She must have just been looking at the right place at the right time. So, then I asked another question. Maybe I’ll get an answer pretty quick.

Because she was having such severe pain, it was very hard to sleep. So, I thought, “If you’re having tremendous amount of pain, can you add Hypericum into the protocol?” It wasn’t long, and I get, “Yes, you may use the remedies together.”

Okay, so I sent her stuff because she doesn’t really have anything. I sent her some stuff, and she gets it, and she starts on a Friday — whenever it gets there. You know, I gave her the Camphor 200, one day. “Start your protocol the next day.”

I have yet to have a class! This is all from just reading Joette’s stuff.

Kate:  Okay!

Kelly:  So, I wait three days. I hear nothing. On the fourth day, I was like, “I got to know if it’s helping.”

Kate:  Curiosity.

Kelly:  Well, it is because she was really in severe, I mean, severe pain to the point where she couldn’t sleep. So, I called her. I said, “How are you doing?”

She goes, “I don’t want to say.”

I said, “Are you okay?”

She goes, “I don’t want to jinx it.”

I said, “So, that’s good?”

She said, “You won’t believe it. I took this stuff the first day, and I slept. It was the first time in so long that I didn’t have pain when I went to bed.”

Kate:  Oh, that’s great!!

Kelly:  Yeah. So, she’s been on it for about five months or so — five or six months. She’s had incredible, incredible results.

Kate:  Hey, good work! Good detective work! And all you did, like you said, was read the blogs and study the information that Joette has for free.

Kelly:  Exactly. The other thing is — and I’m sure Joette, I know, she talks about this — where a lot of the remedies for one condition will also help with something else. Well, the polymyalgia was so severe. Her arthritis was kind of not in the forefront. But lo and behold, it’s helping with that condition as well, and it’s the same protocol.

Kate:  Nice, wow! I just think that’s so great that you were helping people, and you’re really digging deep to try to get all this information and using it for the benefit of so many others. So, it’s great.

So, give us some more stories about using homeopathy.

Kelly:  I actually broke my foot at this cousin’s house — which was bizarre. I had a lot of pain and some swelling and just thought, “Well, I’m just going to take Arnica.” I thought, “I’m going to add Ruta into that.”

So, I walked around on it for three days and thought, “I better get an X-ray.” We’re going to be heading out to another place, doing a lot of walking and different things. So, I better find out did I sprain it, did I break it? What’s going on? So, we go to the doctor and lo and behold, I have kind of like a spiral twist break on my fifth metatarsal on my foot.

Kate:  Oh, wow!

Kelly:  The nurse is so funny. She goes, “Oh my goodness! What can I get you for pain? What do you need?”

I said, “I’m fine. I don’t really need anything.”

She goes, “Oh! But your foot is broken. You need something.”

I said, “No, I really don’t!” All I’ve been taking was Arnica and the Ruta. That’s all I continued to take over the next several weeks or so until the pain calmed down, and then that was all I used through the rest of the fracture until it healed.

Kate:  Yeah, I think that’s super-funny. The same thing happened to me when I broke my arm. They kept asking me if I wanted pain meds. I kept saying, “No, I’m good. I’m good.”

Kelly:  Yeah, they were really trying to get me to take something. Then they’re going, “Well, you absolutely have to take ibuprofen or something for the swelling and the inflammation. You really need that.”

I said, “Well, I’ll think about it, but no.”

Kate:  Right.

Kelly:  Yeah, it just kind of pushed it off to the wayside. Then one other really great story happened to my sister, the one that introduced me to homeopathy. She’s in our Gateway I class now. So, she’s in the one with my daughter-in-law. It’s where we’re going through like Aconite and Arnica and several other remedies. She just had been reading that the day before she fell off of a barstool onto the ground and hit her head, and busted her knuckle, and twisted her knee, and banged up her shin with a goose egg. I mean, she just completely had a huge fall.

She just read this in the book. She did take Aconite first. Then she followed that up with Arnica. She calls me. She goes, “What do I do? This is what happened.”

I said, “Well, you did the right thing.”

She goes, “It was just in the book.”

So, I said, “Well, so let’s continue with this.” I told her, “Let’s stick with the Arnica.”

She was still a little jittery and upset. So, she had another Aconite dose in there. Then later that night, her neck and stuff became stiff. So, we added in some Rhus tox. The next day, we were together at a birthday party. She goes, “Look at this.” She won’t even believe it. The knuckle that she banged up was swollen and black-and-blue. In one day, there was no discoloration and there was no swelling. Her knee looked so much better. The knot on her shin had calmed down. I mean it was amazing.

Kate:  That’s great! What a timing that she just learned about those things.

Kelly:  Yeah, that was what was so amazing!

Kate:  Well, good. Aconite is great for shock — shocky situations. So, that’s wonderful.

Okay, so, Kelly, you mentioned that you went through all the blogs and podcasts and really studied those and printed out the remedy cards. You’re also taking now one of Joette’s courses, right?

Kelly:  Correct. The first class that we had, the girls in that group — several of us after we finished Gateway II — went ahead and decided to take some of Joette’s courses.

Kate:  So, you all are doing courses right now, and you are also starting another Gateway I group. You said you’re going through that. You’re just continuing on, continuing to learn together. That’s great! I love it!

Kelly:  Yeah, so what we’ve decided to do with the first group is we’re going to have a little reunion next month and get together.

Kate:  Aww!

Kelly:  So, we’ll get together and chat about what we’re learning and just success stories. We’re going to put our books together a little bit better, so things like that — and just a chance to share and touch base.

Kate:  You have a little surprise for them planned?

Kelly:  Yes, I do! I get kind of excited about homeopathy. I kind of think of ways, “Oh gosh! How can we share homeopathy, and people will be interested in it in a very casual setting?”

So, what I’ve decided was to make mugs for all the girls. It’s got a homeopathic symbol on it with our little name called the “Gateway Gals.”

Kate:  If you guys could see it, it’s so cute. Maybe we’ll put a picture after the podcast so you can all see it. They are so cute, and you have something else that you showed me.

Kelly:  Yes. So, I was trying to find a way where I could be out in public and have something that would maybe be a conversation starter. So, I also had a shirt made that says, “Gateway Gal.”

Kate:  Aww. That’s great. I love it. It’s super-cute.

You are so good at sharing about homeopathy, I feel. You told me a story about how you shared with someone at the airport. Can you tell the listeners about that?

Kelly:  My husband and I were going on a cruise. I was like, “I’m not going without my remedies.” So, I decided to put them in my carry-on. So, when we went through airport security, it went underneath the scanner thing. Next thing you know, I’m being pulled to the side, and this woman has decided to look into my carry-on. I’m over there talking with her, and she opens up my suitcase, and she sees this little box of stuff. She’s got her little stick there, and she goes, “Now, is it okay if I open that?”

I said, “Sure.”

So, she opens it up, and she says, “Well, what is this?”

I said, “Well, that’s my homeopathic remedies.”

She said, “Well, what is that?” I said, “Well, this is a way that you can use natural medicine to help your body heal and restore itself when you have situations where you might be sick, or you have something you’re struggling with.”

She said, “Well, I’ve never heard of that.”

“Yeah, it’s great,” I said. “There are no side effects. It’s not addictive.” I said, “You can take it with other medicines.”

She goes, “Well, I need some of that.”

I said, “You should really learn about it.”

She goes, “Well, I think I’m going to.” She was so funny. She was all excited.

Kate:  I’ve had that happen as well at the airport where they didn’t know about it, and then they were very interested in finding out more. So, yeah, another great way to share homeopathy!

Kelly:  The interesting thing I find out is people and even myself — as much stuff that I have read over the years and look for things — I never came across homeopathy.

Kate:  I know. Why is that?

Kelly:  I don’t know. I was like, “This is the third leg to my stool, and I feel pretty steady now.”

Kate:  You have all your tools.

Kelly:  Exactly. That’s exactly right. It is a tool in your toolbox. That’s the thing. It trumps. Like I used to say, “I got oil for this.” Now I say, “I got a remedy for this.”

Kate:  Right, exactly. It’s so powerful. Well, Kelly, thank you for sharing your enthusiasm for homeopathy. The ways that you’ve used homeopathy and how you run your study groups, I think it’s pretty exciting what you’ve done.

So, what advice do you have, Kelly, for those people who are just getting started with homeopathy or wanting to start using it, take a study group … things like that?

Kelly:  I think one of the best places to start is taking Gateway I that Joette has to offer, and also getting on her website and starting to read through some of the information that she has there. And getting your 100-remedy kit. It is really important to have that at your disposal because as you get into Gateway I and you start learning, you’re going to need to have those remedies on hand.

Then the next thing I would do would be trying to find a group of ladies that you had that common ground with, that you can have those conversations back and forth, and just share what you’re learning, or what you’ve had success with, and just encouraging that relationship.

Then when you’ve kind of finished your course, I would highly recommend taking one of Joette’s classes. It’s incredibly informative. You do have to pace yourself; there’s a lot of information. And then maybe getting back with some of your friends and just talking and sharing and getting back on Joette’s website.

Always kind of just read the stuff she puts out there. I kind of call myself the “Joette Junkie.” She makes it easy to understand. Her style of teaching is easy to follow. She is so generous with her information. And having that camaraderie with other women makes just everything work out well together.

Just using it, that’s the thing and not to be afraid of it — to respect it because it is medicine — but not to be afraid of it.

Kate:  Right.

Kelly:  Because it is so powerful, and it’s amazing when you hit the mark, and you see such improvement. It empowers you as a mom, as a grandmother, as a friend. You just have that confidence. It starts to build your confidence, and then it just moves on from there.

Kate:  Good words, Kelly. Thank you for your tips and sharing with us today.

Kelly:  Oh, you’re welcome. I’m happy to do it. I’m excited about homeopathy and where it’s going to go in the future, and who you can share it with.

Kate:  You just listened to a podcast from PracticalHomeopathy.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shares her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com.

These Moms with Moxie podcasts are designed to be inspirational, not specifically educational. No Remedy Card is provided.

IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:

02:41    Gateway to Homeopathy

06:07    Starting a Study Group

14:44    Promoting the Study Group

25:23    Cost

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

Gateway to Homeopathy: A Guided Study Group Curriculum

Podcast 62 – Dads with Audacity: A “Guys Only” Study Group

Joette’s Study Group: Find your new Study Group Friends’ Facebook page: how to join a study group or get one started

Students of Joette Calabrese’s Facebook page (a closed group reserved for students of Joette’s to discuss homeopathy)

Gateway to Homeopathy II:  Only available for purchase through your resource page, after having taken the prerequisite Gateway to Homeopathy I (referenced above)

Kate:  This is the Practical Homeopathy® Podcast Episode Number 67 with Joette Calabrese.

Joette:  This is Joette Calabrese, and I’d like to welcome you to the Practical Homeopathy Podcast. Women and men worldwide are taking back control of their families’ health and learning how to heal their bodies naturally, safely and effectively. So, if you’re hungry to learn more, you’ve come to the right place. Stay tuned as we give you the tools — and the inspiration you need — as I share my decades of experience and knowledge using this powerful medicine we call homeopathy.

Joette:  Hi folks! Joette here, and we’re going to switch the tables a bit. Instead of Kate interviewing me, I’m going to interview Kate!

There’s a really good reason for it, not only because I like her, but also because she’s been a student of homeopathy for some time and is now a teacher. She runs study groups. And I thought it would be interesting for us to talk to her about how she came to starting study groups, and how she gathers up the members for the classes, et cetera. So, I like to really delve in and get to know Kate and see how she goes about doing this.

“Da-da-dan-dan-dan-da-dan-dan-dan-dan-dan-dan.”

Kate:  That’s the intro music.

Joette:  I know.

Kate:  Dancing girls!

Joette:  Yeah, yeah.

Kate:  Thank you for having me. It’s weird being on this side of the interview. But yeah, I’m excited to talk about it because I love doing the study groups. I don’t even know how many I’ve done now. Maybe, oh, I don’t know, eight, nine, ten? Something like that.

Joette:  Wow! Kate, I had no idea! So, we’re talking about Gateway I, Gateway to Homeopathy, which is my curriculum. We use that as a springboard for lots of folks who are interested in learning, not just about homeopathy and how to use it practically, but the protocols that I use. It introduces just enough so that folks can get up and running and start using the blog and using my books and my other courses — if they choose to go that route. So, it’s a good um … it’s a good “gateway.”

Kate:  Right. Appropriately named, “Gateway.”

Joette:  Yeah. And we’ll have all of the information on how to join a Gateway or get one started, et cetera, down below [see above in “Links and Resources”].

Kate:  Well, Joette, one of the things that I think is very interesting is a lot of people think the Gateway to Homeopathy I … that it’s just for people who are very new to homeopathy. That’s really not true. What I find is there are many people who have studied homeopathy for years, or who have used it with their family for years, or who are professionals in the medical field, or have taken many of your courses, and they go back and they take the Gateway to Homeopathy study groups because they want to learn with a group of women, a group of men, whoever they may be and really build that community and learn together. So, it’s surprising how many people who have a lot of experience actually join these study groups.

Joette:  But it wasn’t always like that with the groups that you have organized, or has it been that way?

Kate:  I think yes and no. There are a lot of people who have never studied homeopathy, who this is brand new to them. For instance, in the study group that I’m leading right now, I have some people in there whose mom said, “Hey, I want you to take this study group.” And she paid for a bunch of her daughters and her daughters-in-law to join the study group. She’s babysitting their children. They’re starting at ground zero. Then we also have someone in this group who has been practicing homeopathy for 20 years as a classical homeopath.

Joette:  Isn’t that great?

Kate:  So, these people are learning together. They’re helping one another. They’re teaching one another. They’re supporting one another, and it’s beautiful to watch. So, while we’re doing the study group, there’s actually a chat box, and these women are communicating with each other. They’re saying, “Hey now, what was that remedy? What was the name of that? How do you spell it?” And the ones who have the experience, they’re helping the new people. And they’re helping them learn the remedy names. They’re giving them tips. So, there’s sort of almost this side-study group going on as we’re going through the Gateway lessons.

Joette:  Well, the best way to learn is to teach. There’s no doubt about it. When I first began teaching homeopathy, I found that I’d better be boned-up on my history. I’d better really know how to explain things simply to be able to get the complex and be able to give it to people in a way that they can use it readily. So, it does force you — as you’re teaching this as the instructor, also, for those who have been using this for a while who are helping others — it forces you to really fine-tune your understanding and be able to explain very succinctly in a very short couple of sentences exactly what it is homeopathy is.

Kate:  Right.  But I don’t want to let that scare people because with the way the curriculum is laid out, you really can do this without having any experience. If you read the chapter, if you look at the questions and the videos ahead of time, you can do it. So, don’t let it intimidate you just because you’re new to homeopathy.

Joette:  Well, and those neophyte questions I would imagine, they’ve come forth from people who are brand-new. Again, they help solidify the thought process of those who have been doing it for a while. I think it’s all great. It’s intended to be that way. We never come into the world with an equal playing field. We’re supposed to be all at different levels with different experiences. So, I love this. I love that you’re doing it like this.

So, I think it’s really interesting that you told me earlier before we began recording that you have someone in the class who is from Finland. We have people coming in from South Africa and England and Ireland, et cetera, South America, to these groups. What’s fascinating about it is that when you have this chat groups available, then they’re six hours ahead, 12 hours ahead depending on where they live. Questions can be answered for others in the middle of the night perhaps, when everyone else might be sound asleep in your area of the U.S. for example.

Kate:  Right. So, what you’re talking about, Joette, just for clarification to those listening is that a lot of times what people do with these study groups is they will start a Facebook group for their study groups. And then everyone in the study group can join in and communicate as you said at any time of the day.

Joette:  So, that’s what you’ve done, right? Now, do you have a Facebook group for each and every one of these separate groups that you’ve taught? Or do you have one big group, and everyone melds together?

Kate:  Yes, one big Facebook group, and everyone who’s ever taking a Gateway study Group with me, they all join into that one Facebook page.

Joette:  Is the reason that you’re able to do this is because you’ve been using homeopathy for quite a while, Kate, or do you think that even someone who’s a neophyte can start a study group?

Kate:  Yes, as I mentioned before, I think anybody can do this because of the way that the curriculum is laid out. It’s very easy to follow. All the answers are provided. So, I don’t want anyone to be afraid of starting a study group.

In fact, part of the instructions of the study group curriculum is that if you are new, you can each take a turn leading a certain lesson and share the responsibility so that each of you can study certain parts of it. You can all help each other out.

Joette:  That’s the way we did it when we formed a study group when I first started to learn about homeopathy back in the early 80s. That’s exactly what we would do. We would take turns. We would assign to each other, “Okay, you study this particular remedy and then report to us. Then someone else is going to study this particular condition and come back and report to us on how we use this or that medicine.”

So, I love that idea. But what I was wondering is I thought you were talking about how easy it is for someone who is new to this to join. But you’re saying also, even if you’re new to homeopathy, you could actually start a study group without any background in it as well, right?

Kate:  Right. You’re going to learn as you go. You’re going to learn as you do it, as you read the chapters. That will force you to do some research, and you can help each other.

Joette:  Well, in the land of the blind, you know, the one-eyed man is king. So, I don’t know. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed homeopath is queen.

Kate:  There are some other things that you can do to make it easier as well. You can actually assign people to read different things that are supposed to be read aloud. You can assign people to answer certain questions so that it’s all laid out ahead of time. I actually ask the questions of the study group and let people take turns answering. So, you don’t have to know everything.

Joette:  What kind of people — I mean we touched on it for a moment — but what kind of people are generally joining? I’m sure that you have a whole slew of the whole demographic but give me an idea of who joins these kinds of groups.

Kate:  Right. Moms that are new to homeopathy and have babies at home. We have nurses. We have doctors, people with medical degrees. We have naturopaths. We have classical homeopaths. We have students of yours, Joette, that have taken many of your courses. I have many people who have taken these study groups who have taken all of your courses, Joette. So now they’re going, and they’re taking the study groups together because they want that camaraderie. They want to take everything that you’ve written or taught, and they want to learn it all.

Joette:  Oh, that’s exciting! That’s really exciting. Then, of course, there’s the father’s group …

Kate:  Oh, my gosh!

Joette:  …that you interviewed a few months ago that was so great. It’s just dads. For those of you who haven’t listened to that, you got to make sure you listen to that podcast because it’s just young fathers who live up … I think they live in Oregon. They happened to live close to each other. But that’s another part of this picture is that these people can live anywhere, right? You can do it all virtually, or you can just get a group and meet in your church basement or in your living room — and some of them are in your living room, and some of them are in another part of the country. I mean this can be a whole mixture of locales. Is that right?

Kate:  Right! I have people from all over the world joining in — East Coast, West Coast. So, I try to choose times that will allow for people on either coast to join into the study group, and it’s not too inconvenient. It’s a little difficult to get the whole gamut of all the time zones in there. But that’s one suggestion that I would have is choose a time that is accessible to people from all over. It’s impossible to, of course, please everyone but think about that. Keep that in mind as you plan your study groups.

The other thing, Joette, as you hinted at is you can have study groups that are all online. You can have study groups that are in your home. But what I love the most is having a combination of both. So, I love the feel of women sitting around a table and chatting. And then we have the computer screen, and we have a whole another 20-30 women that are joining via conferencing software. So, we have a melding of both usually. I find that very energizing.

Joette:  Yeah and gives it depth too. Last night, I taught one of the classes, and I think four or five of the women were in Southern California. Another woman was … I think, pretty sure … she was in Mississippi. So, it gives a completely different flavor. The backgrounds of the people are different. Their experiences are different. I think it’s just fascinating.

One of the things that really struck me one time was when another group — and I don’t think it was your group — there were a large number of people in this group. It was all women. I want to say there were 99 people in this group. That number stands out for me. Across my screen, as I was coming in at the 8th class (because that’s what we do … we could talk about that in a moment), there were 99 little squares across my screen with all these people from all over the world.

One woman was on her cellphone. While we were looking at her, while she was aiming it at herself, you could see behind her was her llama. She was pulling her llama, honest to goodness, across a mountain field! She was in Bolivia. It was hysterical. I said, “Oh my gosh! That llama is going to get homeopathy. It’s so great. The next time he starts spitting, she could calm him down and get his temper tantrums down to a purr instead of a full-fledged spit.”

Kate:  Oh, my goodness! That is hilarious!

Joette:  I know. It is hilarious. It is.

We’ve had mothers nursing, and I’ve seen that many times. I’ve also seen lots of kids in the background running around. I loved one time, there was a woman who was in her bedroom. This mom was wondering, “I wonder what remedy would be best for my child?” As we were watching her, behind her — she was in her bedroom — behind her, there was a child running from the wall up to the bed, jumping on the bed (bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce), jump off the bed, hit the wall, BANG! Turn around. Run back to the bed (bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce), jump off the bed to the other wall, BANG! For a solid 15 minutes.

We all wondered, “Could this be a child who has hyperactivity?” You can’t help but notice that kind of thing.

Many times, I’m getting off on a little tangent but many times, we as mothers don’t see what our children need so readily because we’re so close to it, and all the kids are like that. Maybe the mother is like that, too, and not realizing that that is hyperactivity. If a child can do that for 20 minutes straight — or even 30 minutes or even five minutes, for that matter — then that means there’s an aspect of hyperactivity. That’s helpful because you have to be able to step outside of your perspective. Others seeing that can make all the difference in the world in giving you the right perspective.

Kate:  Yeah, so, these women, these men, they help each other.

Joette:  Yes, it’s great. It’s great. That’s what this is all about.

So, Kate, how do people find out about this? You advertise this somewhere when you’re going to start a group?

Kate:  Well, first, I think about what’s a good time to start a study group. Right? I don’t want to start it right before Christmas or, you know. There are certain times where people are more apt to join study groups. All you have to do is put a notice on Joette’s Study Group: Find your new Study Group Friends’ Facebook page. So again, that’s Joette’s Study Group: Find your new Study Group Friends. So, that’s one place to advertise that you’re starting a new study group.

Another place is on your Students of Joette’s Facebook page. For those who are on that page, once a week, there is a post that Natalie puts up, and anyone who is starting a new study group can reply to that post or comment on that post.

Some of the other things that I’ve done, Joette, is advertise in our local health food store, on our forum for our homeschoolers in the area. So, those are the main ways that I let people know that I’m doing a study group. Oh, one more way. On my personal Facebook page, I have had people that said, “I didn’t even know you did this,” or “What is homeopathy?” It’s kind of funny because a lot of people, as you know, think that homeopathy is an umbrella term for natural medicine. So, that’s a great way to open up the conversation and tell them, “No, homeopathy is something a bit different. Let me tell you what it is.”

Joette:  So, Kate, have you ever had anyone join your study group, and when they finish it, they join another study group, and then another? They’re starting over and over, but now with new people, to meet new people, to make sure they’ve really got the material down to a science. Do you ever see anything like that?

Kate:  Yes, I do. I see people all the time go through the study groups with different leaders. Or they go through a study group, and then they start a study group on their own. I just want to encourage everyone out there to start a study group. Find people in your area. Find people online that want to learn about this. This is a great opportunity to tell people there is an amazing way to heal your body without allopathic drugs.

And also, Joette, I have people who take the study group over and over again. So, I always advertise when I’m doing a new study group on my Facebook page for the people who have already taken my study group. I let them know I’m going to be doing another Gateway group. If you want to join in, it’s no cost. Just jump in, and I give them all the information. So, I love it that …

Joette:  No cost. I love that part: no cost.

Kate:  Yeah. So, the people who have joined in before, let’s all come together again, and we get to continue to build those relationships. Then they help the new people, and it’s just beautiful.

Joette:  Kate, do you find that there are folks who bring in their skeptical relatives or friends, or are people who join these groups already committed to homeopathy? What do you see is the most prevalent kind of person who joins in?

Kate:  There is no “most prevalent” kind of person. It is every kind of person. There are people who, I think, are not sure about homeopathy. In fact — oh, this is a funny story —I have a dear friend of mine (and I know she’ll listen to this podcast), she joined the study group, and the whole time, every time we met, she would ask these super in-depth, difficult questions. And I love her dearly, but it was a challenge for me in a way because she didn’t believe in homeopathy when she started taking this.

So, it was funny. But by the end, I think she started to see that there is something to this. Then we joke around because her husband was asking her, “What are you doing? What are all these things coming in the mail?” And now, we call her our supplier because in our town, she has the biggest supply of homeopathy.

Joette:  So, if you come with an inquiring mind, and it becomes satisfied, that’s when you can move on and really fly with this. There’s no doubt.

Kate:  This woman is very intelligent, and she had great questions — valid questions. So, we just worked through all of those together. She heard you on the Q&A that we do on the last week. So, it was just really neat to see how she came to understand and learn about homeopathy. She’s taking your courses now and moving on, and she knows a ton.

Joette:  So, do you think that part of what encouraged her to move along was because it was more than just you telling her this as a friend? And that now that she was part of a group, that made a difference?

Kate:  Oh, 100%. I think she heard from all of these other people about how homeopathy worked for them in their lives. She also heard from you, Joette, and then she started using the homeopathy. I think that was the clincher actually … is that she had enough knowledge that she could now start to use these remedies, and she saw them make drastic changes in her family’s life. She’s still working through some things, but she saw them affect many people in a positive way. I think all of those things combined made her a believer in homeopathy.

Joette:  So, during these meetings — I realize you’re following the workbook, going page by page — but I would imagine that folks are reporting their successes. So, you’re hearing, “Oh my gosh! I cured my child’s ear infection. I had no idea it was going to be that easy.” Or someone else talks about a mistake that they made, and how they corrected it. That gives everyone in the group an opportunity to hear the pros and the cons. Is that right? I would imagine that must happen.

Kate:  I’m so glad that you brought that up because I feel like that is what gives these groups the flavor. That’s what gives the people the encouragement is that we’re all sharing about how homeopathy has worked in our lives.

In fact, I make a PowerPoint that I use for each of the weeks of the study guide. You don’t have to do this. It’s just something that I find helpful for my online study groups. I have a PowerPoint that goes right along with the book. In the PowerPoint notes, I have inserted little things like, “Tell the story of Lucas on his bike.” So, that reminds me to talk about when Lucas needed Aconite — or different scenarios when I’ve used it and seen major results from these different remedies that we talk about as we go through the weeks.

And then I ask other people, too, “If you have any stories that you want to share, I’d love to hear that as well.” So then, people jump in, and they talk about just like you said, how it’s helped them in their lives.

Joette:  So, do you meet weekly, or do you meet monthly? How do you generally run this group?

Kate:  Well, we meet once a week. I know different study groups do it different ways. One of the things that I found helpful is to have two study groups, and they meet at different times of the week. So, they’re running at the same time. So, people can join in on a Monday night, or if they can’t make it that Monday, they join the Wednesday.

Joette:  Oh, that’s great! That is great.

Kate:  So, each week, they can come in on both sessions. It’s the same.

Joette:  Immersion. Immersion, people, immersion!

Kate:  Or, if they can’t make it that night, they come in on the morning class.

Joette:  Oh, that’s really, that’s really very smart putting it together on a calendar in that fashion. That’s great.

Kate:  So, we follow just along with the weekly progression. And then the last week, we have a Q&A with you, Joette. I make sure to remind them in the very beginning, “We need to get this Q&A scheduled with Joette. So, please let me know if you want to do that Q&A,” because I know your schedule is super tight.

So, if you’re interested in doing a study group, really think about your dates and call Joette’s office and get that booked right away.

Joette:  Well, I’m interested in knowing the logistics of this, too. So, do you stay in touch with these folks during the week, or do you give them a calendar, or do you have a place where you post information or changes, say if a holiday comes up or something?

Kate:  Everyone does this a little different. But what I do is I have an email group, and I add everyone to that group who’s doing the Gateway together. So, I just have to click on one little link and send an email out each week reminding people that we have a meeting coming up and letting them know what the homework is. As many reminders as you can give people, it’s helpful — because as you know, we all forget.

Joette:  Right, that’s right. So, you have homework. People actually follow up with the homework? I mean, I know that’s the way we set this up is for folks to be able to study something during the week before the next meeting. But do you find that people get to it? I mean, most mothers have very busy lives — and grandmothers.

Kate:  I feel that most people do get to the homework. They’re usually pretty good about it. It’s helpful to read those blogs or listen to the podcast, and it’s not that hard. It’s not very long. The homework doesn’t take that much time. You can listen to a podcast while you’re doing the dishes or driving in the car. So, I don’t think it’s a burden to have the homework, but it does enhance what you’re learning. So, I would encourage you to do the homework.

Joette:  Yes, it’s great.

Kate, do you have any groups that continue on forever? I mean, if you started one five years ago — I guess it wasn’t five; it was probably two and a half to three years ago when we started these. Do you have any that keep going or they stayed together and now they’re lifelong friends? Or have you seen anything like that occur?

Kate:  Yes. I have as a matter of fact. A number of the people who started one of the original study groups that I did, they’ve melded into one Facebook group. They all encourage one another.

Joette:  Oh excellent! Excellent, love it.

Kate:  So, they continue to study together different things. So, yeah, it’s really good.

Joette:  Yeah, that is good. The group that I joined back in the 80s that I was referring to earlier, we met every Thursday night for four years. We became very close friends. One of the members of that group is also a homeopath, a professional homeopath as I am. Another one went on to become a midwife who uses homeopathy nearly exclusively. Then the others just use it for their families. So, I love that we see people springboard from these kinds of meetings and these kinds of groups to find their way, whatever it is that they’re looking for in their lives.

Well, Kate, I’m very encouraged by what you’re telling me tonight. I know what’s going on, and I have a basic understanding because it is connected to me very keenly. But I want folks to know about the cost because that is a factor, especially for those people who are new to homeopathy. They don’t even know whether or not they want to invest in anything yet. So, can you talk a little bit about that?

Kate:  Yes. I think that’s one of the reasons why people start off with these Gateway groups is because the cost is relatively inexpensive to get the curriculum. Then that’s it.

Some of the study group leaders will charge an additional fee because to be quite honest, it’s time-consuming to put these groups together. You have to pay money for a video conferencing software. So, it’s not that we’re trying to make money. It’s that this does take time. Some groups don’t charge anything. So, you have a choice of who you want to be in a group with, and what you want to invest.

But the cost is low. So, I would say for those people just starting out — you’re right, Joette — this is a great place for them to start without making a huge investment. And the bonus is that after they complete all the lessons for this Gateway to Homeopathy study group, they get a discount to purchase remedies from OHM Pharmacy in Texas. So, that’s also a huge savings. I love OHM, and I order from there about once every month or two. So, that right there is worth its weight in gold.

One of the other huge benefits to joining the study group is that after you complete the eight lessons, which some groups do in six weeks or eight weeks, it just depends. Every group is a little different. But there are eight lessons. So, once you complete that and you’ve gotten the certificate that you’ve completed the Gateway to Homeopathy study group, then you are eligible to participate in a group buy of your courses. So, people love that. There are people getting together all the time participating in these group buys but you have to have taken the Gateway to Homeopathy study group to participate in it.

Joette:  Kate, talk a little bit about Gateway II because that has been formulated because folks finished Gateway I, and they said, “Okay, now what?” They weren’t ready to start in full-fledged courses. So, talk about Gateway II if you don’t mind.

Kate:  Sure. So, Gateway II … how you developed it, Joette, I know was you were thinking about what do people want next? What are the questions that they’re left with after the Gateway I? What’s their next step?

So, Gateway II just sort of takes you to the next level of understanding in a deeper way about homeopathy, learning more of the protocols. So, most people go on, and they do Gateway II together either as that same group, or they join different groups. So, that’s a great stepping stone.

Joette:  When I was a little girl, my mother spoke just enough Italian to me for me to understand here or there. She used to say, “Arrangiati,” which means “arrange yourself.” It was a way of saying, “Get yourself together. Stop acting the way you’re acting and get it together.”

So, what I want to tell folks is this is a new year. This is it: 2019. This is the year, folks. Arrangiati. Organize your life. Arrange your life. Look for what it is you want out of life, what you want to get out of this year and put it to action. If this turns you on, by all means, join in. They can join your group for just about, well, I don’t know. Can they join your group any time, Kate?

Kate:  Yes. I usually do a group about three or four times a year, so sure.

Joette:  Beautiful, beautiful. So, with that, I say start your year off right. God bless everyone. Thanks, Kate, for this wonderful interview.

Kate:  Yes. Go and start your study group.

Kate:  You just listened to a podcast from PracticalHomeopathy.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shares her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com.

IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:

05:47    Bovista and gut issues

10:01    Thyroid and more gut issues

12:45    Success stories

15:12    Resources to use

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

Gateway to Homeopathy: A Guided Study Group Curriculum.

Good Gut, Bad Gut

Allergic?!

Cell Salts: The Easy Homeopathy

The Antibiotic Alternative

Gateway to Homeopathy II (Only available for purchase through your resource page, after having taken the prerequisite Gateway to Homeopathy I as referenced above)

Weston A. Price Foundation

Joette’s blogs

Students of Joette Calabrese on Facebook (A closed group for students only.)

Kate:  This is the Practical Homeopathy Podcast Episode Number 66.

Joette:  Each day from my office, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe, and I want to share them with you. Some of my students have really caught my eye. Some of you have done all you can to learn how to cure those around you using homeopathic medicines, and your successes inspire me. They’re glorious and powerful, and I can’t keep these successes a secret any longer. So, with help from my roving reporters, we bring you a mini-podcast series that I call “Moms with Moxie.” Sometimes we even interview “Dads with Audacity.” See how regular mothers and others, average people who want to cure those around them, have gone from freaking to fabulous with homeopathy.

Kate:  Today, I want to welcome Rose to the podcast. Rose has some amazing experiences to share with us about how she has used homeopathy very successfully with her family. So, welcome, Rose, to the podcast.

Rose:  Thanks, Kate. I’m glad to be able to just kind of share what I’ve gone through in my journey.

Kate:  Yeah! It sounds like you have a lot of incredible success stories with homeopathy. So, I’m looking forward to hearing them.

Let’s start off first by getting a little sense for who you are, maybe where you live and your family, things like that.

Rose:  We have five boys. We’ve been homeschooling them for about 10 … 12 years now. I’ve been on a quest — really since my oldest was born — for health because he had a lot of issues medically, anaphylaxis and things like that. So, I’ve been into natural things.

It was about the spring or summer of 2016 when a friend of mine locally said, “Hey Rose, I found something,” (because we were doing essential oils at that time). She knew I’d been doing different diets and stuff for our kids. She said, “I found something even better.” She had actually found Joette first.

Kate:  So, she’s the one that got you pointed in the direction of homeopathy. Had you ever heard of homeopathy before that?

Rose:  No, I just thought it was a generic term for home remedies. Right? So, no, I had not heard of it. Of all the digging I’ve been doing over almost 20 years, I couldn’t believe that I never stumbled upon it before.

Kate:  I know! This is such a common story that I hear over and over again … that they’ve tried all different things, healing with food, with oils and herbs. Why is it that we have to find homeopathy last?

Rose:  I don’t know. I just wish that … and believe I had to be on the journey I was to appreciate where we’re at now. But I would have certainly taken the help 20 years ago!

Kate:  Right. I know. Oh well, we’re going to teach our kids.

Rose:  That’s right. Well, it’s great because I’ve got little ones yet, and they are learning very quickly on what to take. So, that’s fun.

Kate:  Yes. So, why don’t you give us a little bit of information about the courses that you’ve taken, or how have you come to learn more about homeopathy?

Rose:  Sure. So, this friend of mine said, “I want you to take a look at this.” She was doing the cell salts at that time, but we started together with about three other ladies meeting every other week over that summer in the first Gateway I course. And I was hooked.

By that fall — I remember starting September 1st — I was going to fix my thyroid. I was going to fix every single person in my house and get better and be done with the way we were living. So, I started with that class. And then the very next one I took — because I knew we had gut issues — I went right into Good Gut, Bad Gut.

As soon as that one was taken care of (Renee and I chomped at the bit), and I went that next spring and took Allergic — because the boy that homeopathy helped the most took the Allergic class with me. He took the cell salt class with me. I did the Antibiotic class on my own. Then I’ve also … I’ve just found other things to just continue overall learning … just I think it’s supportive.

Kate:  I think some of the listeners may want to know, how did you get your son to take the class with you?

Rose:  This was the trick. We homeschool, and he wasn’t doing very well in Advanced Biology at home with me. I didn’t like it either. I said, “Tell you what. We did one semester of the book.” And I said, “If you listen to these courses with me online, and if you can start memorizing protocols and learning how remedies work and all that, we will call this Advanced Biology.”

We did supplemental things. It wasn’t just the book and then just listening to Joette. We did other things as well. But ultimately, that’s what learning is about. I mean, schooling and learning is knowing how to take care of yourself. So, that was totally advanced biology, because how do these remedies work and how did we get to where we’re at?

So, he took that, and to fulfill the rest of the semester requirement, we did the cell salt class, too.

Kate:  Oh nice! That’s wonderful! I also have incorporated that into schooling. I think that has been a key. So, I love that tip. Thank you for sharing.

Rose:  Well, he much would rather listen to Joette than read the dry textbooks. So …

Kate:  Right. Joette’s easy to listen to, for sure.

Rose:  Yes.

Kate:  Okay, so, you’ve taken the courses. You’ve done the Gateway I … or have you done Gateway II?

Rose:  I have not done Gateway II. I just hadn’t made it a priority yet, but I hope to get that scheduled as well.

Kate:  All right. So, I’m anxious to hear more about how you’ve used homeopathy with your family because you have some pretty exciting things to share. So, go ahead and tell us about your son.

Rose:  Okay, actually, the son that was doing the schooling with me and learning homeopathy, he had a vested interest. He was in sports and in football, and all the sports that he was in, they would be traveling on buses. He just can’t really take salad with all these other football players on a school bus. He was kind of teased. He was well-respected on the team, but he was teased because of his sad, little diet. He had to just be so careful. He had so many issues. If he ate something wrong, he would just get so sick every time, and it was never worth it. But he so wanted to be a teenager, a normal teenager.

So, starting homeopathy that fall (after I took my intro course), we stayed on the diet, but we started on Bovista, for example, and some of the gut protocols for healing up the gut. It took from September of that fall until March of the next spring. I decided after hearing Joette once say, “How do you know if you can tolerate any more without trying it?” We decided to go for it. After six months of being on some gut healing protocols, we tried real pizza outside of the house. It was full of gluten, full of dairy, full of … I’m just going to say “junk,” and we all survived.

Kate:  Wow!

Rose:  It turned my husband’s head, who said, “Whoa, you’re ordering pizza?” (after years of not). So, my son (was his head turned), he’s like, “Okay Mom, I didn’t really get too sick.” Now again, we still are dealing with the acne and some other issues, but the fact that he didn’t have significant issues after eating it — that he would have had six months prior — it was miraculous!

Kate:  Wow! Yeah, that is life-changing. I want to step back just a minute. When you’d say, “We’re taking the protocols for gut issues,” what you’re saying is that those gut issues really manifested themselves in the forms of food allergies. Is that so?

Rose:  Yes. He wasn’t anaphylactic, but yes, he was definitely sensitive. So, he had food intolerances such that we needed to address.

Kate:  Yeah, it was affecting his life.

Rose:  Totally affecting his life. So, our goal was to be able to eat college food on a college campus. That was our goal. I just launched him this past fall on a college campus, and he’s eating their food. Now, I don’t necessarily agree with the food he’s eating, but he’s able to eat and live a college life!

Kate:  Wow!

Rose:  So, I sometimes let him know, I hang it over his head. I say, “You know, you wouldn’t have been able to do this had we not done homeopathy.” He said, “I know mom.”

Kate: In fact, you sent him to college with something.

Rose:  He took a kit, kind of a prep kit to have because he was two hours away from me. I have another son in college who’s only 40 minutes away. So, if he needs something, I can get to him fast. But I can’t get two hours fast. Well, he took the kit, but we did have to be very specific: it had to look more like a pencil case. So, if anyone saw it, they would just think it’s a pencil case!

Kate:  Oh, my gosh!

Rose:  It’s black so it’s masculine, and he keeps it in his drawer. But, I had made a little cheat sheet of note cards of what he has and what they’re used for if he needs anything.

Kate:  Okay. So, how did you make that cheat sheet? Just you wrote it on a piece of paper? Did you like laminate some cards?

Rose:  I just took index cards and wrote them in ink and just tucked them right in there and told him what he had. I tried to walk him through it, but he was a boy, a college kid. Thinking about homeopathy, he could care less what was in the kit. But he knew that if he needed to look something up, it was laid out for him. He’s been able to navigate this on his own.

Kate:  Yay!

Rose:  Yay!

Kate:  Now, when we were talking earlier, you told me that you didn’t see the changes right away, that it did take some time. So, just talk a little bit about that and tell me how did you know when to try pizza?

Rose:  Well, we weren’t actually seeing any change. After the eight weeks, I haven’t seen any difference, and neither had he per se. But I was so new at it, too. But the reason why we decided to go for it, I thought, “Well, we know what could happen. We just need to stay close to home if we eat pizza and play it out over the next day or so.” But after hearing Joette in one of the courses — I can’t remember which one. I want to say Good Gut, Bad Gut — she had said, “You just need to try it, and you shouldn’t have to stay living a restrictive life.” I thought, “Well, six months has been long enough.” So, I gave it a shot.

Kate:  I know you have some other things to share, as well.

Rose:  Yes. So, at the same time I started him on healing his gut and helping him eat some different foods again, I started working on my thyroid, as well as my gut issues because I knew I was now sensitive to dairy and gluten, as well. So, it wasn’t just my kids that had trouble with the foods. It was myself. I knew gluten was a problem, and my thyroid was a problem, and sometimes they can be linked, I think.

So, I started working on my thyroid, and I had been gluten-intolerant. So, by March when he had that pizza, I had some, too, and I didn’t notice any major effects. I thought, “Okay, we’re onto something for me, as well.”

That spring when we started the gluten and dairy again, I had decided that I’d been on the protocols long enough for my thyroid that I was willing to start shifting down off of my thyroid medication. So, again, at about the sixth-month-mark — that’s when I had started weaning myself off of my thyroid medication very slowly and just seeing, “Okay, am I symptomatic going down?” — I continued to be able to wean myself off. That took about nine months then, and I was able to get off all of my thyroid medications.

Kate:  Yay!

Rose:  Yay. Yes, very yay. But I still needed to go longer. I wasn’t completely done yet, but I was definitely seeing improvement. So, I just kept going and looking for my markers.

Kate:  Are you still taking those protocols for your thyroid?

Rose:  No. I’m pretty much now just kind of in a maintenance zone of acutes that come up … things like that. I’m eating gluten. I don’t eat it every day just because I’ve tried to kind of follow more of a Weston A. Price diet, loosely. But if I want to go to a restaurant, we go to a restaurant.

Kate:  Nice.

Rose:  Yes, it is.

Kate:  It sounds like your lives had a lot of restrictions before, and now you have so much more freedom.

Rose:  I was spending my days preparing so much of the food to work around eating traditional foods — or not traditional but more like … how do I say it … today’s “standard” foods. I didn’t want to eat like that anyway, but there are conveniences to be able to just whip up something quickly.

Kate:  Or when you go to a family event or a birthday party.

Rose:  Yes, that’s what’s really freed me up because I was taking an entire meal for all seven of us to any family event, and my boys hated it. We were taking a big cooler just to eat at a family event. They couldn’t eat what their cousins were eating. The first time we showed up to an event without a cooler, we turned heads!

Kate:  I bet.

Rose:  “What did you do?” And I started telling them. But then they just like shut down; they really didn’t want to know that I had done something different. Then it was almost misbelief like, “Well, maybe you guys were never sick to begin with.”

Kate:  Of course.

Okay. So, you’re healing; your family members are healing. What other stories would you like to share with us?

Rose:  Well, something funny about the same son is that all of his brothers didn’t like it that he never had to wash the egg pan because every time he did, he would hive up. They’re like, “He’s getting out of work, Mom!” But it was visible he would have a rash (hives) from washing the egg pan.

This boy then now? Two days ago, I made him eggs for breakfast. So, that’s nothing short of miraculous as far as I’m concerned. So, that’s a pretty cool addition to him, and his brothers were happy, too.

Kate:  That’s all they cared about.

Rose:  That’s right. That’s right. Again, this same boy, we just had so much healing. He had mold issues, chemical sensitivity issues. He couldn’t tolerate hair sprays or gels from even me in the house, and I was not wearing high-perfumed things. Now, he’s wearing his own commercial gel on his hair. So, he went from not smelling mine to putting it directly on his body!

Kate:  Oh, my gosh!

Rose:  Yeah. He would come home from basketball on a Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening just coughing and coughing and hacking and nagging. I figured out, “Oh my gosh, that’s Ipecac: nag and gag.” I would give him that one or two times as soon as he got home from basketball. So, there’s something about the gym that he was going in. After three Sundays of this happening, we were done. He would come home pretty much symptom-free. We didn’t need any more Ipecac.

Kate:  Did you use Ipecac 30 or 200?

Rose:  Ipecac 30, and the first time he needed it three times. The second week, I probably needed another two or three times. By the third week, it was like, “Do we even give it? Let’s see how he does.”

I never at first initially thought it was nagging and gagging. Like, “Wait a minute. Yeah, that is!” So, my perception was off a little bit on what “a nag and a gag” was. But as soon as I gave it, you could clearly see his symptoms diminishing.

Kate:  Wow! This kid has really had some major successes with homeopathy.

Rose:  Yes. Well and I just think priming him with the good diet prior to that helped him — got him a certain point. Then homeopathy kind of cleared everything else the rest of the way. He’s also had wisdom teeth under my care. From the time he came home from the oral surgery, we did only homeopathy for his recovery. So, that was huge success as well that we managed it all — all of his pain, his recovery — completely with homeopathy.

Kate:  Wow! Good for you! I have a question that I wanted to ask you. How did you learn what protocols to use for your son who had all of these allergies?

Rose:  Sure. So, Joette’s blogs and the student forum on Facebook were invaluable. Then there are a couple of friends that I met that are from the same state as me. She, in particular, had helped me in the middle of the night or whatever. Just, I kept digging and digging and kept asking and kept trying to ask a different way. I wasn’t giving up. I reached out to a lot of different people. Everyone — Joette’s students — were just so helpful. If they couldn’t help, they said, “Well, I’ll see if someone else does.” Or, “Try this.”

So, the forums, the blogs, and the classes … and I had to re-listen to Good Gut, Bad Gut. I had to re-listen to Allergic. I didn’t get it the first time. I just couldn’t absorb it all at once.

So, as far the student and learning, you can’t stop! You just have to keep going. You hear it once, and you might need to hear it again and click something else because new symptoms have arrived or something like that. So, I would say as even just words of encouragement if you’re just starting out, just be patient with yourself! Just don’t give up! There’s an answer. You’ve just got to keep digging.

Kate:  Yeah, that’s what I like to say too. There is an answer; just keep searching for it.

Rose:  Yes, yes, I agree.

Some other just quick successes: We’ve had bedwetting success. When I know somebody personally has gotten off their antidepressants. We’ve had the eczema clear up, the acne clear up, bumps, bruises, that kind of normal “Mom stuff.”

The more you use it, the better you get at it.

Kate:  You’ve had injuries as well.

Rose:  Yes, we had. One of the football players again got really hurt on the field. We healed him up. Again, same boy, homeopathy just really worked well with him. They told him he was going to be done for the season because of what happened to his shoulder. They said, “You’re done.”

We got him back on the field two weeks sooner than the season over. As a captain in a Senior year, he got to play the last two games.

Kate:  Oh! That just gave me chills!

Rose:  Yeah. Sport meant everything to this boy. He was a captain. In fact, I kept giving him Arnica on the field. He wouldn’t go to the emergency room, because he said, “Mom, I’m a captain of this team, and I’m not leaving until my team leaves.”

So, we went to ER very late that night because he sat there, and I kept popping Arnica to him nonchalantly on the field. Most boys don’t let their mommas come down on the field. He did, but he was healed two weeks sooner than the doctors had even imagined.

Again, that was all homeopathy.

Kate:  So, I have to ask the question. Did you use Arnica 200, or did you use a higher potency?

Rose:  On the field, I only had 200 with me, but after we got home and got him on to ER, we used 1M. I believe I probably used Ruta, as well, but it definitely was Arnica for the swelling and the pain.

Kate:  You felt like that kept it under control?

Rose:  With frequent dosing, yes, because he was in a lot of pain. But he’s also strong, and he handles pain pretty well, too. People have different tolerance levels.

Kate:  Okay. Well, it sounds like you have really done miraculous things with homeopathy in your family. I’m really thrilled that you could share that with us because I know that there are so many people who have these food intolerances and different issues and are trying to figure out what’s the best way to learn these protocols. So, you’ve given us some great information and great tips.

So, anything else that you want to share with us as we depart?

Rose:  I don’t think so. That it’s just been great, and it’s been life-changing. It has been a game-changer for my family. We’re moving forward in seeing how else we can improve our health.

Kate:  Well, thank you, Rose for being with us today. It’s been a pleasure meeting you.

Rose:  Yes, thanks so much, Kate.

Kate:  You just listened to a podcast from PracticalHomeopathy.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shares her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com.

These Moms with Moxie podcasts are designed to be inspirational, not specifically educational. No Remedy Card is p

IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:

02:00    The sewing incident and St. John’s Wort

10:35    Eye injury

12:48    Combination remedies

14:55    Botanicals

19:53    Why not just use herbs then

23:48    Buster and Crataegus

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

Hypericum 200 Arsenicum 200: Banerji protocol to ward off infection in puncture wounds

Ledum 200: for puncture wounds

Silica in a 6X: debris embedded in the eye

Optique®: eye allergies

Trusted homeopathic pharmacies:

Boiron

Hyland’s

Washington

OHM

Hahnemann Pharmacy

A Materia Medica: Practical Homeopathy® for Busy Families

Dr. James Tyler Kent’s Materia Medica (free online)

Chamomilla 200C: teething, fractiousness

Kate:  This is the Practical Homeopathy Podcast Episode Number 65 with Joette Calabrese.

Joette:  This is Joette Calabrese, and I’d like to welcome you to the Practical Homeopathy Podcast. Women and men worldwide are taking back control of their families’ health and learning how to heal their bodies naturally, safely and effectively. So, if you’re hungry to learn more, you’ve come to the right place. Stay tuned as we give you the tools — and the inspiration you need — as I share my decades of experience and knowledge using this powerful medicine we call homeopathy.

Kate and I love hearing from you. So, consider taking a moment to share your thoughts about this podcast. For example, Ophelia wrote this comment about another podcast. She said, “I search every possible issue that comes up with my little ones and my family to find the remedy that will help. Let me tell you, Joette has everything you need in her articles, podcasts and helpful remedy cards. Thanks, Joette for helping me get on the homeopathy path.”

Thank you, Ophelia, for mentioning it.

Kate:  Hi Joette. It’s good to be with you today doing another podcast.

Joette:  Hi Kate. It’s always good to be with you, too.

Kate:  I’m excited to hear what you have to share with us today. You always have great stories, Joette.

Joette:  Well, you told me, “Okay, we got some ideas. Why don’t you see if you can come up with something?” I was thinking, my husband and I, and I have my mother with me (she lives with us now), and our dog, Buster, have all moved to Florida. We did it quite a while ago, but now we’re totally settled in. We’ve got a little townhouse and things are moving along. We’re not too far away from where my in-laws used to live in Florida. So, it got me thinking about spending time with mother-in-law.

There was a time, I’m going to say it was probably about 25 years ago, and we were visiting. We were staying with my in-laws. We had, I think … I think we only had one son. So maybe, it was longer ago … maybe it was 28 years ago. My mother-in-law did a lot of sewing, and I loved sewing too. So, we got out her sewing machine, and I started to sew. I was not accustomed to working on her sewing machine. But years ago, I used to actually sell sewing machines in Chicago at a fabric store.

Kate:  You did?!

Joette:  I did. It was called the Fabric Barn. I just loved learning about things like sewing machines because it was a big part of my life. I also did alterations and dressmaking for people back then, too. We’re talking long time; we’re talking 1973, folks. So, it was a long time ago.

Kate:  Joette, you have a lot of hidden talents.

Joette:  Oh, well, I don’t know how talented I was. I was willing, let’s put it that way. So, I’ve done a lot of sewing, actually. (I don’t know if we want to go into this.) So, I’ll just tell a little bit more about sewing because it was a passion of mine. When I first learned how to sew in about seventh or eighth grade, it was part of our curriculum in public school back in Buffalo, New York. Once I learned, I just couldn’t stop. I wanted to make all my clothes. It was just too much fun, and I started to make all my clothes. In high school, I made everything except — we used to call them “shells” — except the knit shell. But I would make my miniskirts and my jackets and my pants. I even covered belts. I even covered shoes with fabric. It was just too much fun! I loved doing that.

Kate:  Oh, my gosh, Joette!

Joette:  I used to actually go to the fabric store. I don’t know if people really want to hear this story. But I used to go to the fabric store and buy three or four fabrics — all prints. In those days — back in the 60s — it was the Piccadilly look. 

Kate:  What’s a Piccadilly look?

Joette:  Piccadilly Circus, it was an area in London, England, that was putting out these kinds of fabrics that were tiny prints, very vibrant … red with yellow flowers … and kind of “flower power” was the look.

So, I would buy three or four fabrics and press them all, lay them all out. And I would use one thread for all three of them, so, I made sure it was unifying color. So, if I had red with yellow, blue with yellow, and orange with yellow, I had yellow thread. I would cut them all together. I would make miniskirts. It was a … what is that called … an assembly line!

Kate:  An assembly line, yeah.

Joette:  An assembly line of skirts! And I would do this every weekend, so that I had three new skirts for the week every week.

I know.

Kate:  Oh, my gosh!

Joette:  It was crazy! I was so good at the zipper foot and putting my zippers in and my buttonholes. I got really good at it. I could hem a skirt in 20 minutes flat. So, I did this all the time, and I loved it.

But, I hadn’t sewn for a long time, and I was visiting my in-laws, staying with them. We were on this sewing machine that I wasn’t that familiar with. I was stitching along. I don’t remember what I was making, and my thumb went under the foot, and the needle went directly into my thumb — clear through my entire thumb.

Kate:  Oh, my gosh!

Joette:  I mean you could see the needle from both ends, on the top of my thumb and the bottom.

Kate:  Oh, my gosh!

Joette:  I was impaled by this sewing machine.

Kate:  Oh, yes, you were.

Joette:  Of course, it freaked me … totally freaked me out. So, I yelled out. My husband came and detached the needle from the machine because it was still attached to the machine. My thumb was attached to the sewing machine. It didn’t get as far as the bone. It didn’t go that deep. It went more off to the side a little bit, and it didn’t touch my nail.

I was freaking, of course. In those days, my in-laws did not own a homeopathy kit. Otherwise, I would have taken Hypericum, Ledum, and I was feeling like I was going to faint so maybe even Ignatia. But I didn’t have any of those with me.

But I did have, they did have a bottle of St. John’s wort. The reason they had this bottle of St. John’s wort was because in those days, my father-in-law used to have a little difficulty sleeping, and I used to make St. John’s wort for him. I used to collect it from the meadow around our home back in Colden, New York. I used to make big jugs of this stuff for him. They had some because I had given it to him for Christmas. It’s made in vodka. I got the bottle, and it was not a little, tiny amber bottle. It was a whole big, fat amber bottle!

Kate:  Oh, my gosh!

Joette:  I just gulped.

Kate:  Oh, wow!

Joette:  Just anything to calm my nerves. The pain was not as severe as you might think. It was really more my nerves — just looking at it. It calmed me down right away.

My mother-in-law and father-in-law said, “You’ve got to take her to the hospital. You’ve got to go to the emergency room.”

My husband said, “I’ll take care of this.” He said, “Where are the pliers?”

Kate:  Oh, no!

Joette:  I know. They weren’t even needle-nose pliers! He used big, fat, honking pliers. He got the pliers, and he pulled, and I’m shaking — but actually the St. John’s wort helped me a great deal.

Kate:  Was it the St. John’s wort or the alcohol that was…

Joette:  Oh! I know. Other people have asked me that. I don’t think I drank enough for it to be the alcohol. But I actually thought for a moment, “Oh, I’m just going to live like this. I’ll just live with a needle impaled into my thumb for the rest of my life because I do NOT want this needle to come out. Just the thought of it having gone in, and now it’s got to come out? I’m just going to live this way.” But I came to my senses and realized I really had to have this thing removed from my body.

So, we pulled it, and I continued taking St. John’s wort.

Now, I don’t know why … Oh! I know why I didn’t have the remedies with me … because I was actually staying with my parents as well because my parents were down here, too. I could get the remedies later on.

But meanwhile, I took that St. John’s wort, and it made a huge difference in my demeanor. Now, when you get an impaled body part, you really want to take Hypericum 200 (is what I would have used had I had the homeopathic). I might also now today — knowing the Banerji Protocols — I might also have used Arsenicum 200 along with it to protect from infection. But another great medicine — and at that time, that’s what I knew to take — was Ledum 200.

When I got back to my parent’s place, I started taking Ledum 200. Meanwhile, the St. John’s wort really acted well. I was calm — not drunk. I was calm. The pain wasn’t bad. I pressed time and again on the wounds — two wounds, mind you (the wound going in and coming out) — to get blood. Thankfully, I did get blood because that is a good way to keep it somewhat clean because it releases any bacteria that the needle might have carried.

Kate:  Right. Now, Ledum was because Ledum is for any type of a puncture wound.

Joette:  Puncture wound, that’s right. That’s right.

So, I took the St. John’s wort for the next several hours, and then eventually, we got to my parent’s place, and I started taking Ledum. In that case, then I took it as I recall — it was long enough ago that I wouldn’t exactly remember if — it was about every 3 hours.

Then the next day, it hurt a little bit. It really wasn’t bad, surprisingly. The next day I took Ledum two or three times and the following day, two or three times. Then, by the end of the week, I’d gotten down to about twice a day (over that period of a week).

Kate:  Okay. So, you continued to take the Ledum for about a week.

Joette:  Yes, I did. Just in case there was bacteria.

Kate:  But did you take anything else?

Joette:  No, I just took the St. John’s wort from time to time. When I say I took it, the first gulp was a couple of good gulps. But after that, you draw up the pipette in a regular tincture bottle, and it automatically draws up about 15 to 20 drops. I used that — put it in water and drank that throughout the day here and there — throughout that first and second day.

Kate:  I bet they couldn’t believe that you weren’t going to the emergency room, huh?

Joette:  Well, they saw how calm I was, and that my husband was very calm about it, too. My husband is kind of a rugged guy and really into sailing long distances. He’s had a lot of those kinds of experiences. So, he knows what to do. He also knows how to calm me down, “Just don’t worry. Here, drink this.”

Kate:  Funny.

Joette:  I know. I know.

Kate:  You guys balance each other out well.

Joette:  Yeah, we do, we do. So, that’s my sewing machine. I think we’re going to title this particular podcast, “My Sewing Machine Attacked Me!”

Kate:  That’s a good title, yes.

So Joette, as long as we’re on the topic of injuries, what other stories about injuries do you have?

Joette:  Yeah, I was just thinking about that. When there’s an impalement into the body like that, we automatically think Hypericum 200 and Arsenicum 200 for the infection. And then Ledum, as well, which is also great for infections, but it is also great for puncture wounds.

However, when there is an injury to the eye, now it’s a different remedy. Now instead of Ledum, we use Aconitum. A lot of folks call Aconitum the Arnica for the eye. But any injury to the eye is most often it’s Aconitum. So, whether it’s a puncture wound or a punch in the eye or any kind of injury, we always think of Aconitum.

Kate:  Now, isn’t Ledum also really good because I’ve used that when someone got…

Joette:  A black eye.

Kate:  A black eye, yeah.

Joette:  Yeah, Ledum is great for a “shiner,” as they sometimes call them in colloquial terms. So, it’s also great for any time there’s a black and blue around the eye, then we would use Ledum.

Kate:  Aconite is more for an injury like say …

Joette:  To the eyeball itself.

Kate:  Okay, all right. Good. What if someone has something in their eye?

Joette:  If there’s debris in the eye, and it’s stuck, now we go to Silica [Silicea] — because Silica automatically sets up a suppuration to push out anything that’s foreign that should not be there. We usually use Silica in a 6X or a 3X. We could take that over a couple of days. That will often push it out or, of course, just an eyewash.

Kate:  Oh, I really love the eye drops by Boiron. It’s called Optique®.

Joette:  Yes! I love those, too. They’re great.

Kate:  I’ve used them for pinkeye. I’ve used them for just raw, irritated eyes. They are amazing.

Joette:  Yes. They can also be even for allergic situations when there’s a lot of lacrimation — tearing, tearing, tearing — or they’re raw and itchy and burning and rubbing from pollen, et cetera. That’s a good place to start. It’s not the only place we go, but it’s a great place to start.

Speaking of that, Kate, I love combination remedies! Boiron does a great job; so does Hyland’s; so does Washington; so does OHM; so does Hahnemann Pharmacy out in San Francisco. I like these combination medicines that you can find often at Wal-Mart which is where they belong! We want remedies at Wal-Mart. We want them there. We don’t want this to be exclusive to only high-end health food stores. We want everyone to have access to these medicines.

Kate:  Yeah, my friends and I, we stock up when they go on sale, whether it’s online or locally. So, we love the combination remedies. It’s nice to have. Especially, they make great gifts for people who don’t know a lot about homeopathy. If you want to recommend to a relative or a friend who doesn’t know a lot and just, “Here, keep these with you.”

Joette:  Yes, leg cramps or teething tablets. Now, what I tell folks is, look, if you really want to learn homeopathy, there are many different ways to “up” your knowledge. One of them that I think is great is if you use a combination medicine, and it’s working nicely for you or your family member, turn it over. Turn that little bottle over and read the ingredients. Now, read those ingredients and look each one up so you understand why that medicine acted for you or your family member.

Open up your materia medica — my materia medica or go online and look at Dr. James Tyler Kent’s materia medica. You can find that for free online. It’s rather extensive, and it can be a little overwhelming sometimes. But, definitely, you want to look up why did that medicine act. It will teach you your materia medica.

You want this knowledge because there are unifying threads that you’ll find, “My goodness, look at this. This Chamomilla helped my baby with teething, but look at this: it also helped the baby not be irritable. So, maybe next time the baby’s just plain irritable, and there’s no teething, maybe I should just consider Chamomilla.” That’s how you learn and extend and draw out your knowledge.

Kate:  Yeah, good suggestion. Good tip.

Joette:  We were going to talk about herbs, botanicals. I mean, since St. John’s wort (harkening back to my story) was so effective, people might say, “Well, why not just use herbs?” And I say, “Sure, why not? Use herbs. Botanicals are wonderful. I believe, however … and this is founded in my years of experience of having used herbs and making my own tinctures from scratch by harvesting the plants in my area. (Or if I didn’t have those plants available to me, sometimes I would buy them in bulk and make my own tinctures.) So, it’s a great idea to learn botanicals so that you can utilize that information and extend it further into your homeopathic knowledge.

But homeopathy just takes it to the next step.

Kate:  Yeah, just another tool to use, but if I had to choose one, definitely homeopathy.

Joette:  You bet.

Yes, homeopathy is so efficacious, and there is so much information on how to use it. Especially if you use these protocols that I teach on the blog and in my courses, it makes it so much easier. It takes the mystery out of “What potency?” “What frequency?” “How long?” “What am I watching for?”

The problem with just plain, old classical homeopathy and plain, old herbalism is that you don’t know how far to go. What’s next? “Okay, I know what medicine to use. Now, what?”

That’s what I try to take the mystery out of. That’s why we call itPractical Homeopathy®. 

Kate:  Practical, yes. It’s practical. That’s why it’s practical.

Joette:  It’s like a recipe.

Kate:  Let’s talk a little bit more about some herbs. How about when you have an abrasion, a cut? Because I think there are some herbs that we can do topically on a cut that you have talked about in the past.

Joette:  Well, if it’s not a really deep cut, then I would use a tincture — because if you use a tincture on a deep cut, you could send the person through the roof because of the pain from the alcohol. Now, there are products that you can find made by Boiron and Hyland’s, et cetera (from online and also health food stores) where they make ointments, or you can make your own ointment.

I often made my own ointments which was really great. I would gather the St. John’s wort flowers, for example, and calendula flowers. I actually grew my own calendula. I would put it in a double boiler and put it in some olive oil. The double boiler would have, of course, the hot water underneath so it would keep it warm. Then I would steep these plants in the olive oil. It would not cook it. It’s not meant to be cooked. It’s meant to be steeped in slightly warm — well, I shouldn’t say slightly — warm water, pretty warm to the touch, so that they release their plant ability.

Kate:  How long do you do that for?

Joette:  Well, sometimes I would do it all day. I would just have it on the stovetop while I was preparing meals and taking care of my family. It would just go all day on the back of the stove.

I’m sure that those who are botanical experts might say, “No, no, no, that’s too long.” Or some might say, “Oh no! It should be longer than that.”

That’s the way I always did it.

Then I would strain the flowers at the end of the day. Sometimes I’d let them sit all night long in the olive oil. Then I would strain them and put those flowers into my compost. And then the oil that was rendered with the curative action of these plants, to that I would add beeswax. So, I would shave little bits of beeswax in there to tighten up the emulsion and make it more an ointment instead of a liquid — although you could certainly use it just like a liquid. But I often made these into Chapsticks and salves. That’s right. So, I would add the beeswax until I could see that it was thickening enough to get a good ointment, or the texture and the thickness and tightness of a lip balm.

Kate:  So, you still collect herbs to this day, don’t you?

Joette:  No, I don’t do it anymore. I’m in Florida now. I haven’t found any natural places yet to start digging around. But, I did up until about a year ago, yes. But I’ve got to find out what’s around here. Now, I have something new to learn.

Kate:  There are always so many fun things to learn. I think that’s the fun part of life, so much to learn and know.

Joette:  Oh, we want to be students forever.

Kate:  Yes, and with 6,000 homeopathic medicines, we can be students of homeopathy forever.

Joette:  Oh, my goodness! Yes, it’s forever. No doubt about it. It’s a definite forever.

Kate: I think there’s more actually. And they’re continually making new homeopathic medicines, right?

Joette:  Yes, they are. Yeah, they’re called “provings.” I have a friend who works on these provings pretty regularly. She travels the world and does so. It’s great because you learn how to use plants or matter, whatever it might be that they’re studying in a new way and make a medicine from it.

Kate:  So Joette, we’re talking about the difference of herbs and homeopathy.  If herbs are so great, why not just use only herbs and not homeopathy?

Joette:  Let me give you an example. We were talking about Chamomilla earlier for teething for babies and children. If you have a child who is teething, and you happen to have chamomile growing in your yard — or if you don’t, you can just certainly buy it  (you can buy it in tincture form or in capsule form, et cetera) — you can give it to the baby, and it will help with the teething. There’s no doubt about it. It will calm the child down a little bit. It will often help with the pain. You have to give it frequently. Or you could make it into a tea, because if the child’s really young, you certainly don’t want to give them something that is made with alcohol. But you could make some tea, and it will work.

Now, however, get that Chamomilla flower and make it homeopathically. Now, we’ve got a medicine to reckon with. Now, if we dilute it 200 times to the 100th power … and it’s not done by us, of course. You could do it yourself, but we count on these pharmacies — these homeopathic pharmacies — to make these for us. If we buy Chamomilla 200C, now if you give that to your child who’s teething, not only does it eliminate the fractiousness of the child (that irritability that seems so unreasonable, the sensitivity to the slightest touch, the inability to sleep, the crying out in the middle of the night because of the teeth pain) … now when you give that to your child (for example, twice daily for a few days), you not only make the teething more comfortable for the child, but it’s very likely that you may never have to give Chamomilla again even when the next tooth comes in. Or if you do, the sensitivity to the pain won’t be as great. But if you do need to use it again, you use it every time the child needs it. Perhaps by the third tooth or the fourth tooth coming in, you won’t need Chamomilla anymore.

Because what homeopathy does is it takes it to such a deeper level by that dilution process that it stimulates the body’s ability to correct the problem. Because children should be able to teethe without pain and fractiousness and sleeplessness and screaming out in the night and kicking off of their parents when they’re picked up and irritability. Teething should not be a painful condition. So, what homeopathy does is it corrects the whole condition with all of the satellite conditions related to it, not just the fact that the child is teething.

Kate:  It does it in a gentle way.

Joette:  Gentle because it’s so highly diluted as well. Now, think of teething not just for a baby. Think of teething for molars that are coming in for a child who’s a little older. Or how about teething with wisdom teeth erupting in young adults? Instead of having those wisdom teeth yanked from the gums, why not just use Chamomilla 200 twice a day for a few days and calm that pain down — and the fact that there’s even pain in the first place.

Kate:  It’s also great when you get braces. That calms that pain of the teeth moving in the gums and the jaw.

Joette:  Yes, absolutely. So, that’s taking a beautiful, simple plant — Chamomilla — and making it into a homeopathic medicine shows us how the dilution process brings the curative action to the fore and makes it even more powerful.

All right, let me use Buster, my dog, as a good example of using a tincture to help him get past a condition.

Kate:  Okay!

Joette:  Buster, we thought was becoming super-hyper and anxious and having a lot of problems with breathing and anxiety. He was panting frequently, et cetera. I was giving him Ignatia, and it would help. He’s an older dog. He’s going to be 14 this spring. So, I figured it was the anxiety because he can’t stand to have my husband away from him. When my husband leaves the house, the dog stays at the door. I know …  it’s really …

Kate:  I didn’t know he was so attached to Perry.

Joette:  Oh! He’s very attached to my husband. It’s really ridiculous. So, that’s what I thought was going on.

But then I realized, no, it’s not working. Ignatia helps here and there. The panting — I just didn’t know panting can mean so many things in a dog. I treat animals homeopathically pretty regularly, but I do need a diagnosis. I’m not a vet. I need a good diagnosis.

So, my husband took Buster to the vet, and she declared that he had congestive heart failure, and that he had probably had this for quite some time. And I agreed because this behavior that we were observing had been ongoing for … I’m going to say … a good two years.

So, she said to my husband, interestingly, “Homeopathy can’t treat that, you know,” because she knew that we were going to take the dog back and treat homeopathically.

My husband said, “She said, ‘Homeopathy can’t treat this.’”

I said, “Yeah. Okay, right.”

I chose a couple of remedies for him, homeopathic remedies, and I won’t go into because we’ll be teaching this a little bit further. I will tell you the names of the remedies, but I won’t tell you exactly how they’re used because I don’t want people to make mistakes on this. I really want to teach around this. But I used Lachesis, Lycopodium, and what we’re discussing now, I used Crataegus.

Now, Crataegus is a tincture, a mother tincture. It is hawthorn berry. I put the hawthorn berry tincture — or Crataegus — into his water, and he drinks from it every day. So, he gets this every day. That’s one of the protocols that I used for this particular condition.

Now, Buster was so bad that he would pace at night. He would wake us up through the night. It was really getting so severe which is why, of course, we took him to the vet. What is going on? Does he have asthma? This is really awful. He had also this horrible, deep bark like he was a chain smoker. And I know Buster never smoked! That’s why I was thinking this might have been asthma or emphysema or something.

By starting the Crataegus, Lachesis, Lycopodium, Buster turned around at least with the pacing within about four days. By the end of the week, he was no longer waking us up. By the end of ten days, the panting was gone; the coughing was gone. He started to have better bowel movements, and he became chipper. He became puppy-like and playful which we hadn’t realized had been missing from his behavior for quite some time.

He’s a new dog. He’s a new poodle!! I see a completely different dog. Now, he’s been on these medicines, and we will not take him off of them. He will stay on these probably for the rest of his life. Can you hear him barking in the distance?

Kate:  Yes.

Joette:  See how happy he is? He’s happy to greet people at the door.

So, we will keep him on these homeopathic medicines and this herbal, probably, for the rest of his life. It has done wonders for him.

So, another thing that I want to mention that the vet had told my husband was don’t let him go up and down stairs. Don’t let him get into the heat. Don’t let him get overexcited. And he goes up and down the stairs! (We were carrying him for a while until he started to become well again.)

Is he cured? I don’t know. I would call it a cure. At least, it’s a temporary cure even if it only lasted another several months. This has been going on now … he’s much improved for the last … I’m going to say maybe it’s been three months. So, what we see is a new poodle. If it just buys us or him another year out of his life, I’m delighted. But I suspect he’s going to make it quite a good deal further than that.

Kate:  Wow! That’s so exciting.

Joette:  Isn’t it? Isn’t it great? So now, what we’re doing is we’re integrating this herb — because it is part of the protocols, one of the Banerji Protocols — although everyone in homeopathy knows Crataegus is a very important botanical to be used for any cardiac condition.

I would have used it for tachycardia. I use it for my father for tachycardia for years, and he took it every day. This is how we integrate using these botanicals along with homeopathy. So, it’s not as though homeopathy trumps all botanicals, but we use them in conjunction here and there.

Kate:  This brings up a question that a lot of people have asked. That is, what is the difference between an “herbal tincture” and what we call a “mother tincture” in homeopathy?

Joette:  It’s the same. It’s one and the same.

Kate:  For those people who don’t know what a mother tincture is in homeopathy, can you explain it?

Joette:  Well, it means that we’re still getting the original substance such as Chamomilla, the flowers I put into alcohol. They are kept there generally for a fortnight. After that time, the flowers are discarded. Now, you’re left with a mother tincture. From that mother tincture, now the process of the homeopathic potentization is begun, which is the dilution and the potentization process.

Kate:  Yeah, that’s your basis of all of the other dilutions.

Joette:  That’s right. That’s right.

Kate:  Well, I think we’ve covered quite a lot on this podcast today, Joette.

Joette:  I think we have. The message I always like to leave folks with is to clear your circuit board of the old ideas that you need drugs for every this or that. Instead, look at the alternatives. These alternatives are not only just a “potential.” Homeopathy offers medicines and solutions for all conditions — pretty much all conditions.

It doesn’t mean we never use modern medicine. I always want to emphasize that. Surgery can be very, very valuable. I would never urge someone just to hop off of their drugs that they’re already taking. They stay on those medications until an alternative can be found, and then they still stay on those medications until it’s clear that the homeopathic is acting properly.

But I want people to shift that thinking from, “I must use a drug” to, “I wonder if there’s an alternative?” Then what that offers folks — mothers, and now fathers (as evidenced by one of your podcasts with the Dads with Audacity), grandmothers, and those who don’t have children but take care of animals, livestock and pets, et cetera — what this gives you is freedom. And there is nothing like that freedom from fear, freedom from, “Oh my gosh, what do we do now?” You’ll know what to do. You want to plan ahead. You want to learn as much as you possibly can in using homeopathy and those adjunct herbs, as well.

Kate:  Good words, Joette. Thank you for sharing with us today.

Joette:  My pleasure.

Kate:  You just listened to a podcast from PracticalHomeopathy.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shares her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com.

IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:

04:02    The wasp, the jellyfish, and the chipped tooth

08:22    Chemical sensitivity

10:09    Kyle’s stories

13:10    Appendicitis

26:21    Septic tonsils

36:32    Tiffany’s words of wisdom

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

Calc carb for chronic allergies: Is Homeopathy Enough?

Arnica for the Eyes: Podcast 33: New (and Not So New) to Homeopathy Part II

Surgery: Answering Your Questions

Study Groups: Gateway to Homeopathy: A Guided Study Group Curriculum

You are listening to a podcast from practicalhomeopathy.com where nationally certified American homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese, shares her passion for helping families stay healthy through homeopathy and nutrient-dense nutrition.

Kate:  This is the Practical Homeopathy Podcast Episode Number 64.

Joette:  Each day from my office, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe, and I want to share them with you. Some of my students have really caught my eye. Some of you have done all you can to learn how to cure those around you using homeopathic medicines, and your successes inspire me. They’re glorious and powerful, and I can’t keep these successes a secret any longer. So, with help from my roving reporters, we bring you a mini-podcast series that I call “Moms with Moxie.” Sometimes we even interview “Dads with Audacity.” See how regular mothers and others, average people who want to cure those around them, have gone from freaking to fabulous with homeopathy.

Kate:  Hi. I’m Kate. I’m here with Tiffany. Tiffany, welcome to the podcast today.

Tiffany:  Thank you. I am excited to be here.

Kate:  Yes, I’m excited to have you because you have some really great things to share with our listeners today. Why don’t we start up by getting to know you a little bit, Tiffany? Tell us a little bit about you and where you live and your family.

Tiffany:  Sure. I am outside of Houston, Texas. I’ve been married to John for about twelve years now, and we have three kids. My oldest daughter is 9, and my middle son is almost 6, and then my youngest is 3 ½.

Kate:  So, tell us now a little bit about how you came to learn about homeopathy, Tiffany.

Tiffany:  Sure. I absolutely knew nothing about it before two years ago. We had been seeing some functional doctors and holistic doctors trying to get some answers to some questions that we had with some chronic conditions in the family. I enjoyed going to the functional doctors because I learned a lot, but I did not enjoy spending that much money. In the long run, we didn’t ever solve any of the issues. Then I also used essential oils for many years. I still do from time to time for certain things, but I got tired of smelling like the oils all the time.

Then it wasn’t until two years ago in September, I had been praying for a way to help my daughter with some issues that she had — without a functional doctor. A friend of mine was in the room right next to where she was. It was an old house, and so you couldn’t hear between the two rooms. She heard me asking the nurse about different options and things.

So, when the nurse left, she said, “Hey, I’m starting a class in homeopathy next week. Do you want to join?” I said, “Sure!” (even though I had zero clue what it was). I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But I recruited another friend, and then we did the first Gateway to Homeopathy class two years ago.

Kate:  Wow! That was the first time that you’d ever heard of homeopathy?

Tiffany:  I thought, “Well, why not? Maybe she knows something I don’t know.”

Kate:  I bet you’re glad that you did.

Tiffany:  Yes, it has been an amazing two years. It has literally been life-changing. It has become a very huge passion of mine. I honestly cannot imagine going through what we have been through the last two years without having homeopathy. So, I know it was exactly at the right time that we needed this medicine.

Kate:  Yeah. I feel the same way, so exciting — so exciting and life changing. Tiffany, tell us a little bit about some of the ways in which you’ve used homeopathy over these last two years, and how it has helped your family.

Tiffany:  My middle son, we like to say he’s big in everything he does … and that includes him getting hurt. It seems to be a “10” no matter what happens to him. We have treated so many things. He likes to experiment: Like, “Will my head fit through the slats of my bunkbed?” Or, “Will my knee fit through the wrought iron gate outside?” Or, “What happens if I do this?” (And it usually involves him getting hurt.)

Kate:  Oh, no.

Tiffany:  Yeah. With Kyle, we get lots of opportunities to use this medicine. One that happened pretty recently was at school. He got bit by a wasp, walking outside. The nurse called me, and I immediately came and gave him the Ledum. Within a couple of minutes, it had gone down. He had stopped screaming, and he was a whole lot better.

But the fun thing was the next day when I dropped him off at school, the principal saw his leg and said, “Wow! There’s not even a mark there where he got bit by the wasp!” I said, “Nope, there’s not.” I told him that we use homeopathic medicine and it does amazing things.

There was also a time when we were out in the ocean, and he and another little girl got bit by jellyfish. It was pretty bad. Luckily, I brought the Apis to the beach with us and used it on him and the other little girl. Within a half an hour or so, the redness and the welts were down. The dad of that little girl — who’s not into homeopathic medicine at all — was extremely surprised that there were again, no marks at all from where the jellyfish had stung all over their legs. So, that was exciting to let people see the physical evidence of this medicine working, as well as the other aspects of it.

Kate:  Yeah, because they could think it went away rather quickly, but if you see it transform right in front of your eyes, that’s another thing.

Tiffany:  Yes. Another “right before my eyes” was my youngest son. We were in Colorado, and he was 2 ½ at the time (so a year and a half ago). He fell on the cement and chipped a pretty big portion of his front tooth off. When I picked him up, I didn’t know what had happened. He was just stiff, and he was not making a sound. He was clearly in shock. Then I saw the blood coming out of his mouth. So, I rushed him inside.

We were on vacation. Luckily, I had my kit with me. I gave him the Aconite 200, and then I saw his tooth where it had … a big corner of it had chipped off. So, I gave him the Hypericum, and then I alternated with Arnica. It was probably — I don’t know exactly — but within 10 minutes, he was fine. I mean, he still had the blood around his mouth, and I’m sure it was still sore, but he wasn’t complaining.

A 2½ year old, you know, there’s no placebo effect with that. Either they hurt, or they don’t hurt. He was severely in shock when it happened because he was in so much pain. Then within 10 minutes, to see it work so quickly, and I didn’t have to rush him to the emergency room. I didn’t have to go somewhere to get it fixed. I helped him! I took care of that — which is so amazing to have him calm down and to just take care of it. I mean, it’s clean and simple. As Joette said, it’s a beautiful, simple medicine. It really is when you get the chance to see it do things like that.

Kate:  He must have been in a ton of pain like you said. I mean, that poor boy. Oh, my goodness! I can’t even imagine. So, it is so empowering to be able to help our kids, right?

Tiffany:  Yes.

Kate:  To be able to have the medicines that we need at our fingertips and to be able to offer help. Because otherwise, he probably would have been in pain for a long time, and — like you said — in shock. I don’t even like to think about if we didn’t have the homeopathy.

Tiffany:  Yeah. I mean we would have to go to an urgent care place. We were in Vail, so it wasn’t like there was a big place around to go to. You have the medicine with you, and you can use it. It’s just, it’s amazing. I don’t know how else to describe it. You have to be able to use the medicine in situations like that and see it work to be able to get that excited about it.

Kate:  Right.

Tiffany:  Another way that we’ve used this medicine is that my mom has severe chemical sensitivity. She would miss a couple of days of work when there would be, like, the carpets would be installed or cleaned or the Xerox machine. And she … her whole tongue and her whole throat would swell up. This would last about two days. She would take tons of Benadryl, so then she was knocked out. Basically, it was like two days of just laying in bed.

We started her on the Calc carb for chemical sensitivity a few months ago. Then we also now use the Apis if she gets a reaction. However, she had had very few reactions since we’ve started the Calc carb. If she’s had a reaction, it’s lasted maybe 30 minutes.

So, to go from two days down to 30 minutes, I mean, that’s huge. In her life, this was happening sometimes once a week. So, a lot of her time was consumed with this. It’s like freedom that she has now. She can go places and do things without the fear of having her whole tongue and throat swell up. It’s life changing!

Kate:  It is. It is life changing. So, we’re going to post a link below this podcast to Joette’s blog that talks about how to use Calc carb for chronic allergies. But I’m curious to know when she takes the Apis now, how long does it take to act in her body?

Tiffany:  You can see it acting pretty quickly. But within about 30 minutes, it’s pretty much done.

Kate:  That’s just it? It’s done and she’s good to go.

Tiffany:  I mean, there are sometimes when she needs to take it maybe two or three times. But a lot of times, it’s just that one, single dose, and that knocks it out.

Kate:  Okay, good.

Kate:  I know you have some more great examples with Kyle. So, why don’t you share a few more of those?

Tiffany:  Well, so here’s what’s funny. I wrote down — 48 hours after talking with you the first time, Kate — the things that happened with Kyle because sometimes it really just, it amazes me how much we use this medicine with him. Within 48 hours of talking with you, we were sitting at the table doing homework. He drops his pencil and reaches down to grab it and somehow pokes the pencil directly in his eye.

Kate:  Oh, no!

Tiffany:  Yes, it was pretty bad. Luckily, I had known from a previous podcast that Aconite is the Arnica for eye injuries.

Kate:  It sounds like you’re saying something else. But I know that you’re saying Aconite. Is this your accent coming through?

Tiffany:  Yes, this is Texas. We speak differently down here. Sometimes with these remedies because they are in Latin, I make up my own way of saying them. As long as I know what it is, we’re good to go.

Kate:  Right, that’s totally true, but I think it’s your accent for sure. So, that’s fun. So, you gave him the Aconite.

Tiffany:  Correct. I did, and it worked. It took about 10 minutes for it to calm down, but it did work. So, we’re very thankful for that. Then right after that, he was running around, going crazy, and he ended up biting through his tongue pretty bad.

Kate:  Oh, my goodness!

Tiffany:  And then the following day, as I pulled something out of the oven, he wanted to see what it was. So, his chin touched the casserole dish and burned it pretty bad. So, we used Cantharis, and it worked again very quickly.

Kate:  That’s great.

Tiffany:  Yes, that is one you definitely need to have on hand.

And then afternoon as I was picking him up from kindergarten, he was just grumpy and irritable and just not pleasant to be around. So, a little Chamomilla helped with him at that time. Within 48 hours — and I know Joette says don’t use the medicines all the time — but with Kyle, some days we use them quite a lot.

Kate:  Poor boy! Oh, he’s the one that lives “big,” right?

Tiffany:  He does, he lives very big. He’s an amazing little boy. The other fun thing about him is because he knows this medicine works. He knows it, I mean without a shadow of a doubt.

He has been known to ask his friends’ mothers at times, “Hey, do you use homeopathy? Because it works!” He’s had friends that were sick, and he goes up to them, and he says, “You know, homeopathy works. You should use it.” So, he is a little ambassador for the medicine.

Kate:  Yes!

Tiffany:  He’s going to do amazing things in his life as long as we can keep him from injuring himself too bad.

Kate:  Right. Okay. So now, let’s dive into a couple of pretty big things that happened in your family and how you used homeopathy.

Tiffany:  I’m not the type of person that’s really intuitive when it comes to figuring out what’s wrong with my children … what they might be experiencing. I got a phone call Thursday morning back in May from my daughter’s school telling me she had a tummy ache. I went up to school, and I gave her some Nux vomica because she had some egg that morning. I knew she reacted to eggs to get tummy aches sometimes. So, I thought, well, maybe that was it.

So, I left, and 30 minutes later, I got another phone call saying you need to come get her. She is throwing up, and she’s in a lot of pain. So, I brought her home, and I tried the Nux vomica again. And she just said, “It’s getting worse, Mom. It’s getting worse.” I then tried the Arsenicum album because of the throwing up with it. I tried that for the four doses. I alternated between the two. It was very evident that it was not the right remedies for her. I didn’t know what to think because I was like, “Okay, usually these work. Why aren’t they working?”

Then finally Thursday night, I tried Phosphorous. She was throwing up. Her stomach was very painful. That was the other one I could find in the materia medica that fit her symptoms. She did stop throwing up.

The next day, she was not throwing up, but she was still in a lot of pain. She would say it hurt when she coughed or when she lifted her leg, but she was still able to walk around and do things. So, I didn’t really think a whole lot about it. I didn’t ask, “Hey, is it the right side that’s hurting?” I just said, “Okay. Well, just lay down for a while.”

This went on for two days. She wasn’t throwing up, so I thought, “Well, okay, we’re getting better.” But then on a Saturday night, we went out to dinner to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday. I sat in the back of the van with her, and I just casually said, “Hey, does it still hurt?” I touched her on the right side. She jumped out of her seat. I was like, “Wow! It hurts that bad?” She said, “Yes.” Then it occurred to me, “Maybe this is appendicitis!” So, we’re in the van, and I start Googling, “What is appendicitis?”

Then I texted my friend who’s a nurse, “Hey, could this be appendicitis?” Sure enough, she said, “Yes, that’s probably what it is.” We actually went to dinner, and I gave her the Belladonna 6 for the pain because I had that with me.

Kate:  Oh, good.

Tiffany:  That was part of the protocol for appendicitis. What was interesting is for the first time in those three days, she said it doesn’t hurt as bad. So, I knew I was onto something when the pain started getting better. I was like, “Okay, we definitely have appendicitis.” So, I told my husband.

So, we got home, and he said, “We really need to take her to the hospital. We really need to get it checked out.” My niece had had appendicitis, and it ruptured about 10 years prior. So, there was a lot of concern about it rupturing, and what do we do?

In the meantime, I had actually started the Banerji Protocol. I had found it and started it. So, when we got to the hospital — which reluctantly I took her — the nurse checking her in asked her, “What is your pain level right now?” In a very casual voice, she said, “A 2.”

I thought, “Oh my gosh! It’s working! It’s working! We’re here at the emergency room, but her pain now is a 2.”

But we went ahead, and they did the test to find out, you know, is it appendicitis? They did the ultrasound. They did the different workups that they do to figure out what it is. I actually had told the ER doctor that we were using homeopathic medicine. I told her that because we have a very large Indian group here. I thought, well, maybe she might know something about homeopathy. So, I thought it was a safe thing to tell her. Yeah, I do. If the doctors are from India — and we do have quite a lot here — then I share that. I’ve actually had two that knew about it and asked me more questions about it.

So, I told her, and then she then said, “Well, hey, we need to do surgery.” So, I went ahead and started the surgery protocol for her. At this time, it was now 11 o’clock at night on Saturday. She was very anxious about it, so I also gave her some Ignatia. I wasn’t wanting to do the surgery, but you really don’t have much of a choice when you’re in a hospital setting, and they determine that this is something that you need surgery for. So, I went ahead and went along with it. I just gave her the protocol that I knew that she needed to help with the surgery.

Kate:  Plus, she already had this for two days, so you wanted to be safe as well.

Tiffany:  Correct. This was actually the third day going on the fourth day. We were pretty far into this. It wasn’t getting worse though. It had been getting better. I did have some reassurance along the way that this medicine was working. But again, with concerns from family members, I went ahead, and we went to the doctor.

When the doctor came out to tell us about it, he said, “We caught in the early stages.” I said, “What do you mean the early stages?” Because this is now almost Day 4 that she’s had it. He said, “Well, there were no complications with it. The inflammation around it was very minor. So, it looks like we caught it in time.”

Kate:  Oh, my gosh! Wow!

Tiffany:  I knew we had already got three doses of the Banerji Protocol in her before she had the surgery. I know in my heart that that medicine was working. I know it was working. I know based on the way she was not in pain, by the way that she was getting better, and by the way … what the surgeon said.

When we went to go see her, she was in a lot of distress. She had coughed really bad with the breathing tube down her throat, and it had caused a lot of irritation. So, when we went to go see her after surgery, her heart rate was really high. The nurse kept saying, “I need to give her some more medicine. I need to give her more medicine.”

I was able to convince her. I said, “Can you give her just a few minutes, and let’s see if it gets a little bit better?” When she said, “Yes,” I got that Arnica out of my purse, and I got it in her mouth without the nurse seeing me. I’m telling you, in two minutes, her heart rate went down to 85, and she was fast asleep. She didn’t have to have any other pain medicine right then.

The nurse turned (because she had been typing some things in), and so she didn’t see what I had done. She turned around. She was, “Oh! I guess she is okay now.”

I said, “Yes, now she is okay.”

Kate:  It’s great! I’m laughing because it’s so funny how we have to say, “Oh! I don’t know. Gee! What happened?”

I had to do the same thing. I was in the hospital, and they wouldn’t let me leave without pain meds. I said I don’t need pain medication. Finally, I agreed to take a Tylenol, so they would let me out. Then I had taken homeopathy, of course. Then they were like, “Oh well, I guess that Tylenol must have helped. You’re feeling so much better.” Yeah, it’s kind of sad that we have to do that.

Tiffany:  Yes. It really is. It’s just, again, amazing what this medicine can do.

So, tight now, it was probably 1:00-1:30 in the middle of the night. I was upset because we had surgery and most likely didn’t need it. I was tired. When they wheeled us into the post-op room, the nurse was going over all the medicines that they had given her. I was like, “Whoa! Wait a minute! Why the morphine and all these different things? Goodness gracious! Nobody asked for my permission to give her this medicine.”

I was angry. I told the doctor … I said, “Well, I would like to go ahead and give her Arnica — which is a homeopathic medicine — in the recovery room instead of the medicine that you’re giving her, because I don’t know anything about the medicine that you’re choosing to give my daughter. You have not showed me the side effects. You have not told me anything about it.”

The nurse started asking me questions. “What is Arnica? What does it do? Where do I find it?” So, she started writing notes down about it. It was cracking me up because she was interested in it.

The doctor was like, “I can’t let you use that in here.” I said, “Well then, can you at least not put her on a continuous drip of pain medicine and only give it to her if she needs it.” So, I did convince him to do that. I said, “Look, if she ever is in pain, then you can give her the medicine.” So, he said, “Okay.”

Then, of course, I gave her the homeopathic medicine in there, the Arnica. She never needed any more of the hospital medication. In the morning, she was up. She was dressed. She had eaten some breakfast. She has some of her little friends come and visit her at 8:30 in the morning.

So, she had surgery. We got out of surgery about 1:30 in the morning. At 8:30 in the morning, she has some of her friends, and she was fully fine! I mean, it was obviously sore. It should be!

But the doctor came in. It was a little bit before 9 o’clock. He looked at her, and he said, “Oh! Okaaaay.”

I said, “What do we need to do to get out of here?” He said, “Well, I need to see her walk.” I said, “Okay, Allie, go ahead and get up and walk.” She got up — with one little friend on each side of her, held her arms — and she walked down the hall. He said, “Well, I guess you can be discharged now!”

And then he said, “You can use the Arnica at home to help her.” So, I politely said, “Thank you.”

But I mean … to have surgery at 1:30 in the morning and be released from the hospital at 9:00 AM. I mean, there is something else going on than just placebo effect from this medicine. I mean it has to work.

Kate:  It’s pretty amazing.

Tiffany:  Yeah, I mean, it was frustrating that we had surgery, but it was still another way that my daughter got to see the medicine work. I got to see the medicine work.

But then I also learned some very, very important things at the hospital. One, ask more questions. If I had just said, “Hey, can we just wait 24 hours — leave her here in the hospital — but can we wait 24 hours and then do another ultrasound? (Or even 12 hours.) Let’s check the progress of this appendicitis. Is it shrinking? Is it growing?”

Kate:  Yeah, what would be the risks if you waited just a few more hours?

Tiffany:  Yeah, I mean just, “Hey, lay out the plan for me. What risk do we have here?” And they kept telling us the whole time, you know “The appendicitis, there is no function for it. There is no reason to have it.” You do a quick Google search, and you can see that new evidence shows the appendix is very useful in the human body now.

So, the thing that I learned the most was I need to be asking questions. I need to say, “Can you give me X-amount of hours?” or, “Can you please help me understand more about this?” Don’t be afraid to ask and to really dig deeper than just because, “Oh, we need to have surgery, so go along with it.”

Kate:  Yeah, or even, “What’s the plan? What medicines will you be giving her during the surgery, and afterwards, and all of that?” I think you learned about that during this event as well.

Tiffany:  I did. My daughter was also very creative. She said, “Mom, you could have just put the Arnica on your lips and pretended to kiss me and then give me the Arnica that way.”

Kate:  Cute.

Tiffany:  She’s even thinking, “How are ways we could use this?”

The fun thing about it also was she was back at school on Tuesday. So, that surgery happened Saturday night. I guess it was Sunday morning then at that time, 1 o’clock. Then Tuesday morning, she was back at school.

I had a pediatrician and a nurse that day text me and say they were so amazed at how well Allie was doing. They could not believe how quickly she had recovered from having her appendix taken out.

Then that following week — so seven days after having surgery — we were in Colorado, and we were hiking around. We had to tell her, “Hey, you probably shouldn’t be doing that much. You probably need to take it easy. You should not be doing so much,” because she felt fine. She really felt fine! So again, just a huge testimony to how this medicine can work.

Kate:  Yeah, that’s incredible. What a great way for you to share with other people.

Tiffany:  Yes, I wish we hadn’t had her appendix taken out. But, I am excited that I can share with everyone listening now that you can still have success even if you have surgery; that you can still use homeopathy and still help recover even if you have to go through with it.

Kate:  Yeah, help your recovery be so much faster.

Tiffany:  Yes.

Kate:  So, let’s talk about your son, Andrew.

Tiffany:  Yes. So, last year, we all got the flu the first week of December. Everyone in the family got it. I was not real aware of what was going on with my kids because I, myself, was not feeling so well. My littlest guy, he had just turned three. He actually did have strep throat after having the flu which was going around here. It was really common for a lot of the kids to get the flu and the strep at the same time.

But I was not aware of that, and Andrew was not telling me that it was hurting. It was about a week that he just didn’t really talk. He wasn’t really eating. He really wouldn’t open his mouth, and I wasn’t really sure what was going on.

Then I ran into a friend at the store who was a nurse. I said, “You know, what do you think could be going on with him?” She said, “Well, it could be strep. It could hand, foot, and mouth, or it could be tonsillitis.” I said, “Okay.”

Well, we tried opening his mouth to look, and he just would not. He would not open his mouth at all. Then that next morning, his face swelled up. So, I took him into the urgent care just because that didn’t seem like it was the right thing. I’m not intuitive, like I said. But his face swelling up, maybe there is something else going on here. So, we took him in.

The nurse, she had to literally pry his mouth open. He screamed. He screamed and screamed. But when she got it open, she was pretty confident that it was aseptic tonsil. So, she gave us antibiotic to take.

When we got home, I looked at the protocol for aseptic tonsil. I realized I did not have one of the remedies that I needed. So, because I did not have the full protocol, I actually did start him on the antibiotics that night. I did use the remedies that I did have. I had given him a total of four doses of the antibiotic.

We had an appointment Monday morning with an ENT. When we went in to see him, he said, “Wow! I guess the medicine is working.” He was referring to the antibiotics, I’m sure.

He said, “It was definitely aseptic tonsil, but it looks like it’s getting better.” Then he said, “Well, let’s go ahead and do a CT scan just to be sure.”

I said, “Why would you want to do a CT scan if it’s getting better?”

He said, “Well, it’s good to have a baseline in case two weeks later it gets worse. Then we can go back and look at it to see how it’s progressed, or what’s happened to it.”

I said, “You want to do a CT scan on my three-year-old ‘just because?’”

So then, I was questioning him, and he got very defensive and almost angry at me and really was dead set on me having this CT scan before I even left. I very firmly said, “I need to look at my schedule, and I will get back with you.” (I was not going to have a CT scan done for “just in case” on my three-year-old.)

So, we left, and I had actually been able to track down the remedy that I needed. A friend of mine had it, and I picked it up from her. I gave it to him that afternoon. Within 30 minutes of giving him — so, now I had the full protocol — he started talking again, and he hadn’t talked in a week.

I videotaped it because I wanted to show my husband, “Look what just happened! I gave him the medicine, and now he’s completely different.” And then another 30 minutes later, he was so much better. Again, it was just an amazing thing to see when you have the right diagnosis, and then you have the right remedies, how amazing this medicine works and how quickly it can work.

Now, there’s been plenty of times — I can name countless times — where either I had the diagnosis wrong, or I didn’t have the right remedy, and it wasn’t working right away. You think, “Oh! Is this medicine not working? Is it not working?” But there’s human error. I didn’t have it right. But when you do have it right, it’s fun to see it work and fun to be a part of it to know I helped my child. I helped him get better!

Kate:  Right, it’s so empowering. It goes to show you how important it is to have as many of these homeopathic medicines as possible because if we don’t have the right medicine … say we get the right diagnosis. Now we need the right medicine that’s going to help. We need to (number 1) know what to use, and (number 2) have the medicine.

Tiffany:  Correct. And if you don’t have the right medicine, you need to have friends who have the right medicine.

Kate:  That’s right. Exactly! That’s why you need to do those study groups with all your friends, right.

Tiffany:  I’m telling you, it’s a battle out there for our children’s health right now. It really is. I maybe can name a handful of my friends that don’t have one child, at least, with a chronic condition. I mean we have a serious health epidemic going on right now. I feel like we are in a battle. I need as many friends on that battlefield with me that one can have either the right remedy that I don’t have or can help me. There’s been many times where I’ve had to ask them, “Hey, what do you think about this?” Or I get countless texts from them saying, “What do I do in this situation?” We need to have those friends around us.

Kate:  I like what you said about … you call them, “You need to have an ‘army’ around you.” I love that.

Tiffany:  It’s a battle right now … and being prepared.

So, my daughter is reading a book about a Jewish family during World War II that was able to escape before the Nazis took the Jews out of their country. The only reason was because they were prepared. They paid attention to what was going on. They made a plan. They were prepared.

Being educated is great as long as you’re being educated in the right information. I feel like I have the knowledge of this medicine for a reason. It is my purpose right now to make sure and tell as many people as I can about it. I really feel a huge burden to share it with other moms because I know what it’s like to have kids with chronic conditions and not be able to do anything about it.

I also know what it’s like … we had twin boys who were born at 21 weeks, and they died. I went into preterm labor. I kept telling people, “Something is wrong. Something is wrong!” I was under a lot of stress. I kept wanting someone to say, “Hey, here’s what you can do. Here’s something that will help.”

Nobody could offer any hope to me. There was nothing that anyone could do. I need to be that person that can offer hope to someone who needs it. I know there’s remedies that can help stop labor. (Now I know about them!) I know that there’s remedies to help with stress and anxiety and those were the things … If we had had Ignatia and Nux vomica in our house, it might have been a whole different story with our twins.

Kate:  I’m so sorry.

Tiffany:  Again, God allows things to happen for a reason. I’ve been able to help a lot of people because of that. But also because of that, I have a very strong burden to make sure that this medicine is shared with as many people as possible.

I mean, I tell my hairdresser about it. I tell my dentist. When Andrew had his tooth chipped, and we went in to see the dentist afterwards, I told her what we used. She was amazed because the tooth was not wiggly in his mouth as it had been. It had firmed up. So, she was amazed that she saw him, and then we went back, and she saw him two weeks later. She was amazed that it had firmed up so much. So, I’m constantly just telling people.

My son, Kyle (who lives big), he’s asked a few times, “Do people laugh at you because you use homeopathy?” I said, “Yeah, you know what? Sometimes they do, but it doesn’t matter because somebody somewhere needs to hear it. And as long as I keep talking about it, that somebody is going to hear it.”

Kate:  Good words, Tiffany.

Tiffany:  Well, it’s powerful medicine.

Kate:  So, you’ve started a lot of study groups. You’ve been leading and you’re trying to get the word out.

Tiffany:  Yes. This is my third one to teach that we’re working on right now. The fun thing about teaching it is that I learn it better because I have to know it more than they do. Then you have all your friends that are taking it, asking you, “What about this? What about that?” So, then I have to take their cases. (Well, I don’t have to, but I enjoy it.)

Joette says the way to learn homeopathy is to have a huge family, or treat a bunch of livestock, or your friends. That’s how I’m doing it. I’m trying to help as many friends learn about it as I can. Joette’s blog … it’s amazing what she has on there and the podcast. She’s very generous in her information that she gives out. There is so much information on there that people just wanting to look and learn that way, there’s so much.

Kate:  Yeah, that’s a course in itself if you just go through all the blogs and listen to the podcast, right?

Tiffany:  Yes, even looking ahead. Hey, I might have a stroke one day or my parents may have a heart attack. What remedies would I need if that happens? So, that’s what I do in my spare time is I’ll start researching things. What are some likely things to happen in our family? Then I order those remedies, and I learn about them. I make sure that I have them.

Kate:  Tiffany, what would you like to say to people today as we wrap this up, sort of a few parting words of wisdom to those who are either just starting homeopathy or have been using it for a while?

Tiffany:  Let’s see. Two main things I hope people get from this podcast. One, you don’t have to be perfect in the medicine. I didn’t get it right every single time. I didn’t avoid surgery. I did not avoid antibiotics with my son, but I learned from it. I still was able to use homeopathy.

If you don’t get it right with the first two remedies, it’s still okay because there is no damage done. But you don’t have to learn it all to be able to start using it. Then as you get to know more about it, and you have these small successes, then when these big issues come along, you have the confidence to use the medicine. You have the confidence to know that the medicine will act.

Then the second thing is just talk about it. Get excited about it! If you’re excited that you’re using it, then share that excitement with others. I tell parents all the time when we’re at the park. When we are out to eat for dinner or the school functions or something, I’m always talking about ways that we have used it. It is very common to have at least one or two people a week asking me, “Well, would it work for this situation?” Or, “Could homeopathy help with this?” Or, “What is homeopathy?” The more you talk about it, the easier it is to talk about it (for one), but the more people are going to be aware of it. The more people that are aware of it, the more people you have on your side to help you with it.

Kate:  You’re making a change, person by person.

Tiffany:  Well, it’s fun to be a part of something that’s bigger than myself. Joette has said many times that homeopathy is an intellectual medicine for moms. That it’s not only fulfilling a desire to help your family but that intellectual desire to learn something. I mean it is.

I love it. I love the medicine. I love being able to share about it. I think it’s amazing. I mean I am so thankful that Joette has made it her mission to share this with us to get the word out about the Banerji Protocols and to make it so easy to learn.

Kate:  Tiffany, thank you so much for sharing your passion of homeopathy with us and all of the ways that you’ve used it. I appreciate you taking the time with us today. Thank you for being here.

Tiffany:  Thank you, Kate.

Kate:  You just listened to a podcast from PracticalHomeopathy.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shares her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com.

These Moms with Moxie podcasts are designed to be inspirational, not specifically educational. No Remedy Card is provided.

IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:

04:28    Posology

09:10    Start collecting remedies

13:48    How often to administer

18:40    One remedy at a time for acutes

24:06    Fever

27:25    Some cold and cough remedies

31:19    Learning with study groups

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

Join our Community: Get on our mailing list for updates on upcoming, new courses

Gateway to Homeopathy: A Guided Study Group Curriculum

Gateway to Homeopathy II:  Only available for purchase through your resource page, after having taken the prerequisite Gateway to Homeopathy I (referenced above)

Get Your Kids High: blog post on fevers

How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor: Robert Mendelsohn, M.D.

Aconitum 200 with Bryonia 30: general cough

Spongia 200: croupy cough specifically with the sound of a saw sawing through wood

Kate:  This is the Practical Homeopathy Podcast Episode Number 63 with Joette Calabrese.

Joette:  This is Joette Calabrese, and I’d like to welcome you to the Practical Homeopathy Podcast. Women and men worldwide are taking back control of their families’ health and learning how to heal their bodies naturally, safely and effectively. So, if you’re hungry to learn more, you’ve come to the right place. Stay tuned as we give you the tools — and the inspiration you need — as I share my decades of experience and knowledge using this powerful medicine we call homeopathy.

Kate:  Hi Joette!

Joette:  Hi Kate! Nice to see you.

Kate:  Nice to see you. It looks like you’re in Florida. And you know how I can tell that?

Joette:  How can you tell? By my dress that’s all flowers and pinks and blues?

Kate:  That’s right. That’s right.

Joette:  Most folks probably don’t realize that we see each other. We’re remote. You’re up North. I’m in the South. But we see each other, and everyone else just hears us. But we watch each other and do this on a podcast that’s video. It’s fun.

Kate:  Yeah. So Joette, before we get started with the meat of this podcast today, I know that there’s something that you have in the works. Why don’t you just share a little bit about what’s going on?

Joette:  Well, we’re starting a course soon. It’s on the subject of toxins and homeopathy. How to address toxins; how to remove toxins; how to not fear toxins; how to live in a world that might have toxins in it. So, just watch out for that. If you happen to be a student, be sure to go to the student page because it will all be written up there.

If you’re not a student, become a student! Learn how to do all of this. Watch for it, we’ll be giving information out about it on the blog, et cetera. Be sure to get on our email list because that’s where you’re going to get the information.

Kate:  Yes. People will be notified when you have new courses that come out.

All right, well, here we go with another podcast today. I have a subject that comes up quite a bit. We just finished actually a study group for the Gateway to Homeopathy II study guide. I had a lovely group of women. It was super fun. I’m sad actually to be finished with that because — you know how it is — when you can connect with like-minded women every week. It’s just, it’s awesome! So, I already miss it.

Joette:  Yeah, it is awesome because it’s like, you know, like a pajama party.

Kate:  Right.

Joette:  Probably I’m showing my age now, but we used to set each other’s hair, put music on and talk about boys. Now, this is the mature type of pajama party.

Kate:  Exactly. It’s a mentally stimulating pajama party.

Joette:  Right. I can guarantee that the ones that we had in high school were not mentally stimulating.

Kate:  So, these women, when we get together, there are certain number of questions that seem to come up time and time again, or we just always want to dig deeper into them. One of the questions is: when we figure out the right remedy, how do we determine what potency to use and how often to give that particular remedy? I know you’ve talked a little bit about this before, but I was wondering if we could dig a little bit deeper into that today.

Joette:  Actually, I’m going to correct you, Kate. I talk about it all the time. You have not apparently been paying attention.

No, I know you know that. I do mention it frequently. But people who are new to homeopathy may not have gotten that opportunity to hear me say it 500,000 times before. So, I’ll say it 500,001 times, and we’ll make it an odd number today. Let’s do it again because this is an important subject.

The subject actually is called posology, P-O-S-O-L-O-G-Y. I’m going to read this directly from my Gateway to Homeopathy II book — the curriculum that you’ve just been talking about that you use with your group, and that folks would use if they started or joined a study group. The title of this is Posology, and I’ll just read from it.

Posology

“The word posology comes from the Greek words: posos (how much) and logos (meaning study). Indeed posology — the frequency and potency of a determined homeopathic medicine — is a deep study unto itself. Even today, there are differing opinions from homeopaths on how to determine posology. This subject is so complex because there are so many variables.”

So, what are the variables? For example, “How anxious is the person who is offering the remedies?”

I have to mention. This is really important. Just because the mother is anxious doesn’t mean that the remedy that she’s given her child should be given more frequently. We have to have a cool head when something’s going wrong in our child, our husband, our pet, our neighbor, our mother, et cetera. So, don’t use your anxiety as the administrator of the homeopathic medicines as a determining factor to how frequently the remedy ought to be given. That is absolutely not a good way to determine posology.

Kate:  That’s a tall order.

Joette:  Well, it is a tall order but it’s an order that’s worthy of learning how to control. Because if you don’t control it properly, and you get freaked out, you give the medicine too frequently. You’re going to mess things up. Now, it’s not dangerous. It’s not horrible. But you really want to keep a cool head — just like if you were using conventional medications, and you were told to use an antibiotic, for example, every six hours. Do you freak and say, “But the child is really sick! He’s got a high fever, and he’s got strep throat. I’m going to give it every 15 minutes just because I think my child needs it more.” No, no, there are certain rules that we have to follow. It’s the same in homeopathy.

Another example of a variable: “Is someone else hovering over you as you give the remedies waiting for a response?” So, is it your husband saying, “You know, you need to give this more frequently. Something’s going wrong. You got to do something. Do something now. You better move along.” That can also be a factor that can mess up the frequency that you give the remedy in.

“How severe is the illness?” Now we’re getting to something more substantial. Now, we’re getting to the girding of how important it is that you do what’s correct, not what your psychology or someone-else-around-you’s psychology is about. So, how severe is the illness? In other words, if someone is vomiting relentlessly, you’re not going to wait and give the remedy only twice a day. You’re going to give it more frequently.

Or, “How frequently is the person sick, and how healthy are they in general?” These are all questions that do need to be considered.

“Are other medications involved?”

(I’m reading from my text here, and I’m skipping around a little bit.) But, “What access is there to conventional care if needed?” All of these are factors in determining how frequently and even the potency that’s used. So, I’m going to read again:

“However, using Practical Homeopathy® [which is what I teach in these classes] and the Banerji Protocols [which is what most of this is based upon], posology is made easy.” Did you hear me? I’m going to repeat that: Posology is made easy with the method that I teach.

“That is, simply use the protocol that is assigned to the condition.”

I’m going to read that again. “Simply use the protocol that is assigned to the condition. The potency and frequency are given with the protocol so there’s no need to question further. However, when you do not have a protocol to use and need to determine a potency for a homeopathic medicine, in general, I usually teach that it’s best to begin with a 30C or a 30X — unless you are quite sure of your remedy choice, and you’ve done it before, and the symptoms are severe.”

So. There are circumstances in which you don’t have “the recipe,” so to speak. So instead, you have to use the information at hand. That is: How severe is this? Et cetera.

So, “Having said this, I’ve also found that some medicines act more effectively in a lower potency such as a 3 or a 6C. You will see these lower potencies used quite often in the Banerji Protocols.” So, use the protocols first. If you don’t have a protocol, then start — generally — with a 30th potency and go from there.

Kate:  So, this is a good time to ask that, I want to say, age-old question: “Can I substitute if I don’t have the correct potency?”

Joette:  Well, I get this question frequently on my blog. My answer is consistent. You may use any potency you want. But, if you want to enjoy the kind of responses that I’ve grown to expect by using homeopathy and especially these practical protocols (the Banerji Protocols), then use exactly the potency that I’ve taught you to use. For example, in these courses, in these study guides, on the blog, et cetera.

So, if you’re doing this because you’re wondering whether or not you can use a different potency because you don’t want to spend money on another one — you only have it in a 200, and the protocol calls for a 30, or a 3, or whatever — this is not a time to be worried about the cost of an $8 bottle of a homeopathic medicine! If on the other hand, you live in an area where it’s very difficult to get ahold of the remedies, then you use what you’ve got until you can get the correct potency, and then add to your collection. As I always say, she who has the most remedies in the end wins.

So, what I’m saying is start collecting. Get the potencies you need. How do you know you need them? Well, if you go through the blog, take the course of Study Guide classes, and you learn what remedies are used for what conditions in your family.

If you have all boys, then you don’t need remedies that are regarding female reproductive organs. But if you have all girls, you certainly want to have all the remedies — on hand — for those that might be useful for dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia, for all of those conditions, for menses, the menarche that has not begun properly. You need to know those remedies and own them.

There’s nothing wrong with owning remedies you don’t use for 20 years because they last a very, very long time. I don’t even know that they have a true “end date,” even though some of them will have expiration dates written on them. Remedies are investments. I own them from the 1980s. I still use those medicines, and they still act. So, own them, put them aside and consider them an investment in your and your family’s future.

Let me also mention this. By knowing these medicines, by owning them, by owning the protocols, the freedom from fear and angst and worry about this or that condition is so uplifting and so grand that it will be worth your $8 purchase. Sometimes they could be as much as a whopping $18 for a bottle of a remedy that could save someone’s life, that can make your family member more comfortable, that can uproot a strep throat, otitis media, conjunctivitis, flu, eczema. I mean, the list goes on and on. It gives us comfort in knowing that we have the capability of making this happen.

Kate:  It’s funny you should mention that because in the last podcast (tha tI think will be aired just before this one) when I interviewed a group of men who did this Gateway to Homeopathy I study guide together, they talked about that very thing, Joette. They said they felt a sense of freedom that they could handle whatever came along. They didn’t have that fear, that worry, that dependence on someone else to help them in this situation — that they felt that freedom. So, that’s interesting that you brought that up.

Joette:  Yeah. Well, true health is freedom. So, it’s not just freedom from worry because now you know what to do just in case, but also the freedom to be able to live your life fully. As you gain better quality of life through homeopathy, you’ll find that you want even more of it. We humans become greedy. I want even better health than I had before. I want my child to be even smarter than he was before. Some of that can be accomplished. Not all, but some of it can be accomplished through using homeopathy and using these protocols.

Kate:  I would like to ask you to go on reading. You’re actually reading from Lesson 3 (just for those of you who might have — or in the future purchase — the Gateway to Homeopathy II). So, can you just go on? Because this next section, I want to talk about just a bit?

Joette:  Sure.

“Now, let’s say you’ve determined which homeopathic medicine and potency to use and are ready to administer. How often should you administer the chosen medicine? In general, remedies can be administered approximately every 3-4 hours, especially for an acute condition. [That’s what we’re talking about here.] However, taking a remedy every 3-4 hours is only necessary as long as you still have symptoms, and the remedy is helping.

If you’re concerned about waiting because the symptoms are more severe and warrant taking the remedy more frequently, this time may be shortened. In such a case, you would take a medicine every 1-2 hours or even every 15-30 minutes, which might be appropriate in some cases. Make sure that you are doing this because it is warranted and [once again] not out of your fear.”

Kate:  So, I hear a lot of people talking about a “loading dose,” and I think you know what I’m referring to when I say that. Can we just talk about that a bit? What are your thoughts about that? I know what you just read to me. It says, “If it’s severe, we can use the remedies more often. If it’s less severe, you use it less frequently like every 3-4 hours.” So, when they talk about this loading dose, what do you have to say about that?

Joette:  Well, they’re talking about this for an acute condition, right Kate?

Kate:  Yes.

Joette:  Yes, for a flu, or a cold, or an ear infection or something like that. Well, it’s a term that some homeopaths use, and they like to use it like a jumpstart: bam-bam, then bam … bam … bam! There’s nothing wrong with it. I don’t use that method. I don’t think it’s wrong. I just don’t teach it; I don’t use it; it’s not what I’ve learned to use; it’s not what I’ve used for the last 30-some years. So, I don’t discuss it because it’s not part of my method.

But I don’t think it’s wrong. It’s not a bad idea. To me, when people are talking about loading, it means to me that they’ve been studying under a homeopath who uses that method.

Remember now, homeopathy was begun in the late 1700s by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, and then it went throughout the world. So, it’s been used for over 200 years by many, many physicians in many hospitals, clinics and in universities throughout the world — in very large hospitals and very small practices. So, there are many ways to skin this cat. I know folks very much want black-and-white answers. I do the best I can to parse out the complexity of homeopathy and make it super-simple. But … there are many ways to skin this cat.

In France, they do it differently than in Germany. In Germany, they do it differently than in India. In India, they do it differently than in the Midwest of the U.S. I mean now, of course, the U.S. is pretty much all one because of communications. But back in the early 1800s, there were segments of the U.S. that used higher potencies: 1Ms. In other segment of the U.S., there were homeopathic physicians who were using lower potencies.

So, there are many ways to do this. I’m teaching a specific method, and there are variations on that theme. People can use whatever they like. But if you want to see the kind of results, as I said, that I’ve seen using these particular protocols then stick with the program.

Kate:  Yeah, okay, good explanation! You haven’t done that, and you haven’t felt a need to.

Joette:  Here’s another way of looking at that loading. If someone … let’s go back to vomiting relentlessly. If someone’s vomiting relentlessly, I’m not going to say, “Okay, I’m going to give this remedy every 3 hours.”

No! They’re really suffering! We want it to stop! We want to give them comfort, and we want to move the condition along faster. So, we’re not going to give it one dose at noon, and then another dose at three. Of course, we’re going to give it about 15 minutes later. I would call it: you give it closer together until there are results. As you see the results accruing, then you can open it up. Instead of every 15 minutes, you might give it every 2 hours.

So, it’s just really, it’s nomenclature more than anything else. I just don’t call it “loading.” I call it: “Use it as it’s needed.” That could be construed as needing to load up.

We’re not talking about loading on the number of pills, by the way. We’re loading up on the frequency that it’s being administered.

Kate:  Yes, yes, good point. If it’s a cold for instance, you wouldn’t necessarily do that. If they’re not suffering greatly, it’s a cold. They have a sore throat. You would just give it every 3-4 hours.

Joette:  That’s right. That’s right. But … others might say, “Well, that’s loading! Two doses in three hours, that’s loading!” I would say you’re just giving it accordingly — as it’s needed.

Kate:  Yeah, that’s a good point. So Joette, let’s continue reading from Lesson 3 on posology.

Joette:  Alright.

“It is best to use one remedy or protocol at a time, so you know how the remedy is acting or not. This gives you the information you need to determine if you should continue using that particular medicine. If the person is suffering horribly, you can add another remedy as needed for symptoms.”

Now, we’re talking about an acute here, not a chronic. That’s why I’m urging folks to use pretty much one protocol or one remedy at a time, so that we can read the symptoms.

I’m reading again from the manuscript. “If the remedy you have chosen is not acting, stop and consider a different one. Keep good records that include date, time, noteworthy symptoms and remedy choice. I guarantee that unless you have monumental memory skills, you’re likely to lose track of what you’ve chosen and changed.

Remember, this is not a supplement paradigm. These are medicines. Decrease the frequency of the remedies you are using as symptoms improve. STOP taking the remedies [or using the remedies] when you are very much better. You should not continue taking the medicines after you feel well. Compare this to taking an aspirin for a headache. You take the aspirin every so many hours as needed. You do not continue to take aspirin for a headache even after the headache has gone. And finally, if the condition appears to be beyond your capability, get to the doctor! Use medicines [your homeopathic medicines] on the way.”

So, we’re talking here about an acute situation because I know what will probably come of this podcast is people will say, “Wait a minute! I know you used more than one protocol at a time.” Well, yes, but that’s more often for a chronic condition.

We’re talking about an acute such as conjunctivitis, or otitis media, or strep throat or something like that. That’s what we’re discussing now. So, the paradigm is slightly different.

Kate:  Right. But for an acute like a cold, you still may use a couple of different remedies to layer — to address different symptoms if they have some symptoms that really stand out (several of them).

Joette:  Yes. But generally speaking when someone has for example, otitis media — it’s a child who has an ear infection — they generally have a fever, pain, and they might have some cantankerous personality aspect of this, or anxiety, or something. Those three can all be distilled down to one remedy! It can often be Chamomilla.

If the fever is super high, say 104 or 105, then Belladonna fits it — all three of those: the anxiety, the pain, the fever, et cetera (even being cantankerous). So, generally speaking when it comes to an acute, you’re not going to be dealing with otitis media, plus conjunctivitis, plus strep throat, plus sinus infection. Generally, it’s one area that’s being affected. So, in that case, we’re using only one remedy that will probably cover all of the symptoms of that particular condition.

Kate:  Okay, so, let’s go back to the cold example. If you have a cold, you might start with Aconite/Bryonia which is the combination that the Banerjis often use for that, and you recommend. But maybe the person also has a croupy cough along with that. Then are you suggesting we stop the Aconite/Bryonia, although Aconite can be used for croupy cough …

Joette:  Absolutely, yeah.

Kate:  … or it could be Spongia. So, do we keep the Aconite and Bryonia and add the Spongia, or do we …? You know what I mean? Just stick with the Aconite and Bryonia, every 3-4 hours and not add the Spongia in?

Joette:  I know what you’re saying. Aconitum is one of the most powerful remedies known to mankind for croup, so if Aconitum … And Bryonia is for a cough as well. So, if Aconitum 200 with Bryonia 30 is being administered, and the croup is not growing, not getting worse, not coming more frequently and in fact it’s backing off, then the Aconitum/Bryonia is acting. If, however, you’re using Aconitum/Bryonia, and you’ve used it in a few doses — two, three doses — and you don’t see a change, then you abandon Aconitum/Bryonia, and you go to perhaps Spongia or Hepar sulph.

So, for an acute, you will likely find that one remedy — and Aconitum mixed with Bryonia, some will argue is actually two remedies, but mixed together they make one. So, I consider it as one remedy. It’s one protocol. So, if you find that that one remedy is not acting, and you’ve given it a good try (three, four doses), and you’ve seen no improvement — then it’s time to abandon it and go to something else for that croup.

Now meanwhile, if the child has a little diarrhea or is lethargic, et cetera, et cetera, but they have a croupy cough, what is the most obvious thing we need to go after? A little diarrhea, fatigue compared to croup cough? Croup becomes the king, and we have to pay attention to the king. So, that becomes what we need to focus on. Everything else is subjected to a croupy cough. And, it will likely abate dramatically once a croup cough is corrected with the correct homeopathic.

Kate:  So, the child has a fever now, and they’re super uncomfortable because of the fever, do you then add in a remedy for the fever?

Joette:  If the fever is 101, 102, 103, let the child be a little uncomfortable. I’m serious about this. We don’t treat symptoms. We treat the person. We use the condition. So, instead of worrying about a fever — and I’ve talked about this many times — I would urge you, folks, to go to my old blog titled, “Get Your Kids High.” Just look that up, and it talks about fevers.

Fevers are not innately dangerous. So, allow the fever to do what it’s supposed to do. A fever is intended to cook off the virus.

Now, if the fever is causing delusions, and now, the fever is up at 105 or 106. And, even then, to be honest, I let my first child go to 105.5, and it worked beautifully. When I gave him the remedy Sulphur 30, it came down right away, and everything that he was sick with was cleared up.

So, if it’s just a little garden-variety 103 fever — I know many mothers think 103 is high — that is not high. That is average, and it’s normal. It’s to be expected, and we want it.

The danger with fever always is dehydration. That is the danger! I’m going to say it again. The danger with fever is dehydration. Now, we’re talking about garden-variety childhood illnesses. We’re not talking about a fever from a head injury. We’re not talking about a fever after surgery. That’s not what we’re discussing here. We’re talking about regular, old, croup- cough, childhood illnesses for most children that are normal. So, by making sure the child is hydrated and allowing that fever to cook itself off, we’re going to get the best results in the end. So, I don’t treat fever per se, unless it’s something that is out of the ordinary.

Now remember, I keep emphasizing about the mother and how nervous she is. The more nervous she is, the more likely she’s not been studying. She’s not been reading. Mothers need to do their homework if they’re going to take this on. If they’re not going to take this on, or they don’t want to do their homework, or they feel it’s just too much for them at this point in their lives, then they must count on the advice of a doctor and go to the pediatrician. But if you want to take this on yourself — and I urge you to do that — but if you want to do this yourself, then you must educate yourself.

I’m going to harken back to a book that I’ve mentioned so many times people are probably tired of me mentioning it, but I’m going to repeat it again. It’s a fabulous book written by Dr. Robert Mendelsohn called, “How to Raise A Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor.”  It’s an old book. You could probably find it on Amazon. I’ve seen it there for a dollar. I would run — not walk — to your Amazon account and purchase that book. In fact, buy a few of them! Make them part of gifts that you give to friends that are about to have babies because it is a very, very important book. It explains how important it is to understand what it is you’re seeing and not freak.

Kate:  So, getting back to that cold example, Joette. Let’s just talk this through a little bit further. Say the croup has stopped. There’s no longer that barky cough. Now, it’s turned to a deep coughing up the phlegm. Now maybe their throat is sore as well. They’re miserable more with the congestion and that sort of thing. So, we would stop the Spongia, correct?

Joette:  That’s right.

Kate:  We would now look for a different remedy that fits the picture now.

Joette:  That’s right. But I’ll be honest with you. What I see time and time again is if it’s croup, and you use Aconitum/Bryonia [Aconitum 200 with Bryonia 30]— or you’ve used just Aconitum all by itself for that matter in a 200 potency — it usually will abort the croup. If it doesn’t, then the next choice can be either Hepar sulph (depending on the time of night that it shows up), or Spongia. (Now, Spongia has a very distinct sound. Croup has a distinct sound as it is. But Spongia has a sound like a saw sawing through wood. It’s a very strange sound of a cough.)

So, now let’s say you’ve used the Spongia. It’s highly unlikely that that child is not going to recover from that.

In other words, we don’t usually see croup go into lingering fever, and another kind of cough and lethargy. Generally speaking, those remedies that I’ve just mentioned — any one of them if they are correct (and they will be if you choose properly) — will correct the entire condition.

But I know what you’re getting at. I just wanted to make that distinction, however, that what I often see is that when a child has croup, and you’ve used the correct medicine, it’s done. When it’s done, it’s done!

Now, it doesn’t mean that the croup can’t come back three days later. What do you do? You go right back to the medicine that you found acted last time. If it was Spongia, then you repeat it again. If it was Aconitum and Bryonia then you use that again and go from there.

But I understand your point. What you’re saying is what if something else comes up? Now, let’s say the child does go into relentless vomiting or something, then indeed that’s no longer a call for Aconitum with Bryonia, or Spongia or Hepar sulph. Now, we’re talking about a remedy such as Veratrum album, Arsenicum, Nux vomica, that kind of thing. So yes, now you move on to the next medicine for the next condition.

So, what we would do in that case is we go right back to the remedies that helped. Spongia, if it helped then you continue with it. Aconitum/Bryonia, you continue with it. Again, Spongia is for a cough that is a pretty specific kind of a sound. If Spongia doesn’t act properly, then we might go back to Aconitum/Bryonia because that’s for an overall cough.

Kate:  Right. If you have a cough that you’re not sure, you’ve tried several remedies, then maybe Hepar sulph is an overall cough. I think that’s what we talked about here in the Gateway II is Hepar sulph for a cough that you can’t figure out.

Joette:  Yes, you can use Hepar sulph for that. I always start out with Aconitum/Bryonia at the onset. But if it’s confounding you, and it’s not acting thoroughly enough or not acting at all, then yes — Hepar sulph is a great medicine for when we don’t know what else to use for a cough.

Kate:  Okay. I think maybe in general, people go overboard with their remedies. Do you see that as far as the number of remedies? That they try one right after the other instead of sticking with something for a longer period of time?

Joette:  Yeah. Again, that harkens back to a mom who’s too anxious. First of all, a mother needs to know what is truly serious. She has to be able to determine what is serious. What should I be freaking over and getting to a doctor for? What is not serious and is a common childhood illness that she can handle on her own. She needs to settle into that and understand it.

It’s not a belief system. It’s an intellectual pursuit. So, she has to read. She has to study. She has to go to the blog, read books on homeopathy, study, take courses, join the study group, meet with others.

Then I’ll tell you what I love about these study groups is that it is made up of — as you said earlier — like-minded women, more often mothers and grandmothers who are going through exactly the same thing. So, I find that the best way to learn or to at least remember something is through stories. So, if I give you a story of what happened to me with my child, and then I tell you what remedy I used, I guarantee you’ll remember that. Pretty much you’re going to remember that for years to come! What better way to do that is with a group of women who are all telling their stories?

“I had a child Saturday night who had a croup. I gave Aconitum all by itself, and it aborted it right then and there. Then three days later, it came back again. I gave Aconitum again. And it acted for a while, but then the croup continued to develop. So, I decided to go to Spongia. I used Spongia 200. I used it three times over a period of about 10 or 12 hours, and it’s done.”

Now, you can imagine: “It was in the middle of the night; my husband was traveling; there I was all alone with my child, and my other kids were in their beds.” Now, you’ve got a whole picture. You will remember that. That in itself is worth its weight in gold: listening to other people’s stories and what they used. And, you’re all studying from the same manuscript. It’s invaluable.

Kate:  Yes. And they’re bringing all of their experiences and learning to the table. So, I feel like you learn exponentially because you’re drawing from all of their knowledge and experience. So, it just makes learning so much faster. You can learn so much more with these groups.

Joette:  It doesn’t have to be my group. I just happened to have them. But what I’m telling you is that any time you’re learning something as a group…

You know, my son years ago, was taking piano lessons from a piano teacher who taught one-on-one. Then we moved, and we found another piano teacher who insisted on teaching three kids at a time in the studio, all of them doing their practicing and their repertory with two other kids there.

Now, she could explain, “You see how he did that. That’s the proper way to do it. You see how she did that? That’s how I want you to do it next time. Or you see how all three of you kids did it? That was wrong.”

You learn from each other. That’s why we’re on this earth together. We don’t want to be an island. We want to share our experiences and learn from others. I just have one little statement I was going to say. “Suffer the pain of discipline or suffer the pain of regret.”

Kate:  That’s true!

Joette:  It’s all about disciplining yourself to learn this stuff. That was written by Jim Rohn, R-O-H-N. I found it online. I think it’s so poignant that if we don’t learn and don’t discipline ourselves to learn what’s important to us — regardless of what it might be, learning how to cook, learning how to take care of a family, learning how to keep a house, learning how to run the finances of the household — then in the end we will suffer the pain of regret.

There’s nothing bigger and better and more satisfying than raising children. If you can raise them and actually treat their health conditions yourself, that adds the frosting on the cake. So, with that, I urge everyone to learn as much as they can.

Kate:  You just listened to a podcast from PracticalHomeopathy.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shares her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com.

IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:

01:51    Kevin and the materia medica

09:35    Tyler and his daughter’s concussion

14:36    Daniel and the inventory of remedies

17:53    Neil, the study group, Trent’s condition

27:05    Building a homeopathic community

40:56    Calling the doctor

43:17    Some tips on starting a men’s study group

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

Gateway to Homeopathy study group curriculum

Gateway to Homeopathy II:  Only available for purchase through your resource page, after having taken the prerequisite Gateway to Homeopathy I (referenced above)

Kate:  This is the Practical Homeopathy Podcast Episode Number 62.

Joette:  Each day from my office, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe, and I want to share them with you. Some of my students have really caught my eye. Some of you have done all you can to learn how to cure those around you using homeopathic medicines, and your successes inspire me. They’re glorious and powerful, and I can’t keep these successes a secret any longer. So, with help from my roving reporters, we bring you a mini-podcast series that I call “Moms with Moxie.” Sometimes we even interview “Dads with Audacity.” See how regular mothers and others, average people who want to cure those around them, have gone from freaking to fabulous with homeopathy.

Kate:  Hi, I’m Kate, and we are in for a treat today! We’re going to hear from four men who are studying homeopathy together using Joette’s Gateway to Homeopathy curriculum. I’m super-excited for you all to get to meet them, hear about how this guys’ study group came to be and find out how they are using homeopathy. So, welcome guys!

Neil:  Hey, thanks for having us.

Tyler:  Thank you, super-excited to be here.

Kate:  Yeah! I’m excited, too. I want to welcome to the podcast Kevin, Tyler, Daniel and Neil. So, Kevin, you and I have been talking over the phone, organizing this podcast. You’ve been telling me about this group of men studying homeopathy together. So, give us a little bit of information about yourself, and how that came to be.

Kevin:  Great! Well, first thanks for having us, Kate. I’ve been listening to the podcast for a while now. Actually, this podcast was my first introduction to homeopathy maybe only four or five months ago.

Other guys in this group … our wives have all done the Gateway I class. Some of them are doing the Gateway II class right now. The group kind of originally got together seeing our wives doing what they’re doing, saving our kids’ lives on a daily basis. We eventually started to get behind it more and more. Seeing their passion for homeopathy encouraged us, gave us something to support and something to connect with them on another level.

Kate:  Kevin, when we were talking last time, you were telling me how you and your wife are opposites in a lot of ways. So, tell me how homeopathy has brought you together.

Kevin:  Sure. I approach things from a very intellectual mindset. When I first heard about homeopathy, I, of course, was skeptical and was asking a lot of questions that my wife didn’t know how to answer or sometimes would brush off altogether.

So, I remember one time, I was laying on the couch feeling sick, called into work, and my wife, on the way to taking the kids to the bath, popped some little sugar pills into my mouth. I don’t even know what they were to this day. But, you the story — you’ve heard it before — within minutes, I was feeling better, called back into work to tell them I was going to make it, and ended up feeling just fine within maybe half an hour.

So, I started asking her questions about what was going on, what happened, “How did you do this?” She pointed me to her Gateway I book. I started reading and ended up in front of my computer with Wikipedia researching Samuel Hahnemann and these laws of cures — and had no clue what I was doing or what I was reading. My questions just weren’t getting answered because I didn’t really know where to look.

Kate:  Well, first of all, I think Wikipedia … was it a positive spin on homeopathy? I’ve heard that Wikipedia can be pretty hard on homeopathy because everything that’s positive is taken off of there right away. That’s not true? Did you find good information?

Kevin:  I would say I found both. That’s sort of the problem I have with approaching an intellectual topic like this is that I get confused because I am very willing to read both sides of an argument. Homeopathy is so vast I wasn’t really sure how to approach it. It was too complex for me. My wife’s approach was very practical, which is obviously what Joette is an expert in … is breaking it down to make it easy to understand for families. So, she is great at that. She gets the emotional aspect. She gets this mothering, nurturing way of approaching homeopathy that I don’t necessarily get. But, that has brought us to a point where if we have a problem that we come across, and maybe she doesn’t remember a remedy and something that might antidote it, or something that might be similar, or she doesn’t necessarily take into account all the symptoms, that’s where I excel in that textbook sort of recall, and we are able to assist each other really well in that way.

Kate:  Yeah. It’s interesting. So, for those of you listening, you’ll get a kick out of this. So, Kevin, what do you love to do in your spare time?

Kevin:  Oh! I know what you’re asking. Very quickly, I found that there was this thing called the materia medica and I had to get one. But I didn’t have one; my wife didn’t have one, had no desire to have one. So, I downloaded a few different apps on my phone. I just sit in my spare time — whenever that is at work or at home — I just read through the materia medica: learning about plants, the animals, the minerals, whatever, things that I like knowing about anyway, things I can teach my kids later in life when they’re older. But finding that poetry and that symmetry between how these things act in the material world, and how they act in homeopathy. It absolutely satisfies my longing to research and learn. And I love reading the materia medica.

Kate:  That is so great! I hear that now, you and your wife have something in common that you can share on a deeper level where you’re just not talking about how your day was, but you’re actually sharing this thing that you both are passionate about, right?

Kevin:  Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I am the sort of textbook-research kind of person. I like having intellectual conversations. Not to say that I’m smart or super academic or anything like that, but it’s just the way my brain processes information. My wife and I definitely connect in a lot of ways. We met through playing sports like volleyball and Frisbee and things like that. We love raising kids and getting into Weston A. Price kind of stuff. There’s not a lot of intellectual content there. So, having this connection with homeopathy has been great.

However, at first, there was a lot of resistance on my wife’s end because she found this new thing where she has this intellectual knowledge above what I knew. And she was very, I guess, protective of that. We eventually had a conversation when we talked about getting a guys’ group together and learning homeopathy and she was uncomfortable with it. She didn’t want me to know the things she knew, and maybe she felt that I would challenge her or steal it from her — which was totally justified for her to feel that way, absolutely.

But, when we finally broke down that barrier to understanding what my motivation was to learn about homeopathy, she absolutely accepted me into her level of intellect and understood that my approach was to not only connect with her intellectually (and I think that that has and will continue to grow our marriage), but I just wanted to be able to support her knowing that she wouldn’t do a lot of this kind of research. She was always “boots on the ground, first aid, save the kids’ lives on a daily basis” kind of mindset. She doesn’t have the time to, I guess, research like I do.

Kate:  I can imagine right now a lot of women listening to this podcast wishing that their husbands would have that desire — to really dig deep into homeopathy and to support them in what they’re doing. So, I think this is an amazing thing that you guys are doing together and learning and growing together. So, yeah, kudos to you Kevin for supporting your wife, and all of you guys who are here because I know that’s why you guys got together. You wanted to learn more and to be able to share in this and support your wives as they utilize homeopathy daily.

Kevin, thanks for sharing a little bit about your story. I want to move on right now to Tyler. Tyler, tell us a little bit about from your perspective, how you’re using homeopathy, or what you’re getting out of this study group and a little bit about yourself.

Tyler:  Sure, yeah. So, my wife and I have two little girls. It seems to us that around homeopathy, there’s this ethos of everyone sharing their stories. That’s where people are connecting. So, I had a story for you if you’re interested in hearing one of our experiences.

Kate:  Yes! Of course!

Tyler:  One night, we’re at church, and it’s the middle of the service. Instead of our numbers coming up on the screen for our kids, which never really happens with ours, the children’s pastor just starts calling me. So, I know that this is serious. I told my wife, “Hey, if I need you, I’ll text you. Keep your phone visible.” I ran out there, and it turns out that the kids were playing this game where they’re running at full speed and not necessarily looking ahead of them. And her and another kid crashed onto each other, and the other kid ends up sinking some of his teeth into her head.

Kate:  Oh!

Tyler:  So, she gets a concussion. And the little boy’s parents were dentists, so they went on their merry way to take care of that. Naomi, my daughter, she’s groggy and not able to focus her eyes. Meanwhile, there’s a small group forming around her. She’s got a bloody nose. I’ve been friends with Kevin now going on about 20 years. If you glance at Kevin’s nose, it’ll start bleeding. So, he has shown me ways to try and stop a bleeding nose. So, she’s pinching the bridge of her nose, and we’re tilting her head back — which actually tilting the head was a bad idea because she’s now swallowing blood.

Kate:  Oh, Kevin led you astray?!

Tyler:  Well, this was pre-homeopathy. So, in front of everyone, she throws up blood. And we’ve got people trained in Western medicine. There’s a nurse, and there’s a pharmacist. They’re all running around like one of those old, black and white movies with no sound. They’re trying to be respectful of us in our decisions, but you can tell that they’re bothered that we’re not making a beeline for the emergency room.

So, my wife comes over. (I’ve texted her at this point.) She starts asking about the symptoms. She heads out to the car, and she comes back, and she pulls out these little white beads that look like topping to some candy. She turns to me, and she goes, “Watch this.”

She goes, “Hey, Naomi.” I know she’s not supposed to have it in her hand, but she holds the medicine out in her hand and says, “Naomi, take two of these from my hand and put these under your tongue (to see if she can follow the direction).” She very groggily does it. Within about five or ten minutes, her eyes focus; her voice clears. She says, “I think I remember what happened.” Everyone’s kind of confused, and she starts to explain how she ran into the little boy, and how she had gained her injury.

So, through the course of the next week and a half, she’s got a huge bruise on her face, and it turned into a black eye. But we were able to help her body heal — with homeopathy and bone broth and all this good stuff — within a week and a half. I’ve never seen those kinds of injuries heal that fast. I’ve had black eyes before, and I didn’t get rid of it that quickly.

So, that was really meaningful to us to see it play out in that way. It seemed in short order. It’s also curious to see when they looked back, and they described the situation, they don’t say that she had a concussion. They’ll use words like “semi-concussion,” or they’ll try and downplay it as much as they can to explain it away in their mind. That it wasn’t really what they saw with their own eyes.

But then, the fact that she had a black eye a few days earlier, and then it’s gone — there’s no really denying that.

Kate:  Yeah, thank you, Tyler, for sharing. That was great. What a great homeopathy story!

Tyler:  My pleasure.

Kate:  I want to move now to Daniel. Can you share with us a little bit about how you got involved with this group, and about your family, and how you’re feeling these days about homeopathy?

Daniel:  Oh sure. Let’s see. Well, I mean my wife and I have known Neil and his family for about four years now. So, that was how I first got connected with the group. As far as homeopathy, my mother-in-law has been studying and taken most of Joette’s classes (if not all of them), for a few years now. My wife started studying about two years ago.

From the first class that she took, she saw the value in it and asked about hosting a class at our home, which I was fine with. I didn’t really know much about it at the time. I was skeptical because of course … you know. I remember a 20/20 episode from about 20 years ago where John Stossel was making fun of the whole thing actually.

Kate:  Oh, wow!

Daniel:  I didn’t know it was homeopathy. But I mean, I remember him talking about the stuff that’s just diluted in water. And the more that it’s diluted supposedly, the more helpful it is; and the lower the dosage, the stronger the result. That just didn’t make any sense at the time.

But, seeing the results articulately … well, there was one lady in I think it was the second class that we hosted who had a number of health issues that has been greatly helped by it. And then, of course, Neil’s son has been tremendously helped by it. So, just having those experiences … I would say within our family, we’ve had smaller issues like Tyler had. We haven’t had any major issues in our family. But seeing it being helpful with day-to-day stuff, and then also just wildly successful with similar folks that had more serious health issues, we’re very excited about it.

Aside from being a mother and a wife, this is kind of my wife’s passion. She is really excited about helping people to having natural alternatives to the traditional Western medicine. So, she’s looking for ways to help: so, hosting classes, and also, we’ve built kind of an inventory of homeopathic remedies at our home — some of which are not necessarily available at the local store. So, that’s been, I think, just very good for everybody that we know who’s involved.

Kate:  Yeah. I heard that you guys are sort of the local go-to house when someone’s looking for a remedy, and they can’t find one. They know that they can count on you guys, usually right? You usually have it?

Daniel:  Oftentimes, yeah. Or we can put it on the next order because we have monthly orders now that we’re getting from OHM.

Kate:  That’s so fascinating what you guys are doing in your community. You’re building a resource — from what I heard, from what you described — where people know that they can count on you guys to get them what they need which is really, I think, commendable. It’s super helpful because even health food stores don’t usually carry a wide variety of homeopathic remedies, or if they do, it’s the top 20, 30. And then if you want a 6C in something or a 200C remedy, it’s hard to find those usually locally. Maybe not where you guys live, I don’t know. Where I live? Yeah, forget it!

All right, Daniel, thank you so much. So, Neil, let’s get a little bit of background from you, and how you’re feeling about this study group, and what you might be learning.

Neil:  Yeah. Thank you, Kate. Really appreciate the opportunity to share on the podcast. My wife, Danielle, she has kind of really led the way here, I think, for many of us involved here in the class and also our spouses.

Kate:  Neil, why don’t you tell us, where is your group located in the states.

Neil:  That’s a very good question. We are located in Southern Oregon. So, that’s just slightly above the California border.

Kate:  The state of Oregon is better in general as far as natural medicine goes, from what I understand.

Neil:  Yeah, absolutely. I think we kind of have that reputation, and I think we’ve earned it.

Kate:  Yeah, you’re fortunate to live there in that respect. That’s for sure.

So, Neil, tell me, how do you feel about this study group of the guys? Do you guys look forward to it? I’m wondering — okay, this might sound crazy — but I know what a women’s study group looks like. We get together, and we might have some snacks. We talk. But I’m trying to imagine, you know, I’m hanging out with the guys. What does your study group look like? Do you get right to business? Are you all pretty serious, or what does it look like?

Neil:  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We definitely have snacks. We do no business until we have snacks. And then it’s straight to business after that. But that is definitely a requirement. The group, I think we all kind of came together — I might be speaking mostly for myself here — but my wife, Danielle, she’s really passionate about this. I really want to complement her as much as possible as her husband and father of our children. So, I kind of felt like I was maybe getting in the way a little bit of like an “effective” process here with the remedies.

So, with the men’s group, I really learned a lot just about the process, and kind of like, how to take a case, how to be observant in identifying symptoms, and then how to kind of work together with my wife to provide the appropriate remedies for the symptoms. So, I really learned a lot about just the process and kind of the “rhythm,” I guess, for homeopathy — and how to provide it to the family and also myself.

Kate:  I think, I’m sure actually that your wives must be super appreciative of you guys doing this. I remember hearing you guys talk about this group. There was something that you guys did when you … it’s like a club. You said, “No women are allowed!”

Neil:  Yes, yeah. Because we definitely wanted to keep, I guess, the essence of “man” here and not maybe have, like, a cross gene, I guess. But I think it was really nice to just have a guy’s group where we could get together and talk about the challenges that we might be having at our household and kind of how to maybe get some ideas from the other guys in how we could better support the family.

On a sidebar, I’m going to kind of go down this road. Just this last Sunday, my son, Trent who was born premature, and he’s had struggles with acid reflux. He has a very easy gag reflux. And he’s had some other dietary issues and some challenges. But again, I really commend my wife for leading and being a great mother and getting him a lot of good services and also bringing homeopathy to him.

But anyway, we woke up Sunday morning and noticed that Trent was not feeling well. He had some water, and then he threw up. He started to dry heave. Luckily, we were able to calm him down and kind of stop doing that. Then we took a quick inventory of kind of his symptoms and noticed that he was very cranky. He was very clingy. He was easy to gag.

So, Danielle jumped right into her homeopathic role there and started to administer some remedies. That was, like, at 7 o’clock. And then around 9 o’clock, he was very tired and lethargic still, very cranky. In fact, I was preparing some rice with beef broth on the stove. Right next to me was Trent, kind of leaned up against the refrigerator looking very unhappy, and then he started to kind of just lie on the kitchen floor.

It’s just amazing that someone that miserable at the time, within the next hour, his whole mood and personality changed to where he was smiling and happy. He had two servings of the prepared rice, and then he took a nice two-hour nap. So, kind of that image of him being miserable on my kitchen floor kind of sticks with me and just highlights the power of homeopathy. So, Danielle and I are very thankful for that.

Kate:  And how quickly he turned around and things changed, yeah.

Neil:  My wife and I talked after that, and we were both, like, “Well, that was awesome.” Because we had great communication, we were both on the same page as to why she was asking questions, and what the information was for, and how it was going to be used. We were able to kind of bring it all together to help Trent. Instead of calling the doctor and freaking out and all that, we were, like, “Hey, we have this,” with just a lot of confidence. So, definitely was excited to have an opportunity to maybe share that. I think Kevin echoed in and Tyler and Daniel also on just how we can come together and have a stronger relationship with our wives and the family.

Kate:  I think that’s key. You guys can work together then, and you’re not going in opposite directions where one is saying, “Oh, we need to get to the doctor.” Not that you don’t want to go to a doctor, obviously, if there’s a situation that requires that. But you both kept calm, and you worked together in coming up with a solution and felt confident in what you were doing. You supported each other in that. So, that is really great!

Neil:  Yeah. I mean I love it very much. There are a lot of little elements about homeopathy that I find very valuable to me. Like, it’s non-addictive. I really would hate for my son or daughter to grow up with this Tylenol or whatever. Then they kind of get that feeling that, “Oh, you know, I don’t feel good. I’ll just mask the symptoms.” Then that’s just kind of like, what they go through in life. Then we always think about, like, those pharmaceutical commercials. It’s like, “Oh! I have eczema on my skin. I get a rash. So, I’ll take this pharmaceutical.” But then I end up with side effects that I have to take more medications for and you’re just compounding the problem. So, I really appreciate that it’s not addictive, and it’s not manufactured by some large pharmaceutical company that they’re going to just kind of continue to feed us pills.

Then I also really love that it is organic, and it’s from the earth. It’s not some sort of engineered product. I always think of, like, Tylenol. I go to that because I’ll be out working, and my back will get hurt or sore. And then you take a Tylenol. The pain doesn’t go away. It’s just masked. It’s still there, and you could still get injured. At least with homeopathy, you’re actually fixing that. You’re able to live a healthier, better life because of it.

Kate:  Yeah. You have a pretty dramatic homeopathy story with your son, too, right? So, tell us a little bit about that.

Neil:  Yeah. Our son Trent, he was born premature — a month. I’m not an expert at this in any way, but he has what I think is called hypotonia. So, he has really low muscle tone. I always think kind of, like, Gumby, you know. You can just move his legs around or arms. He’s just, like, double-jointed almost and super-cute. I think that last few weeks in the womb also delayed the little valve in his throat that keeps things down and some of his other stomach muscles that might help him with potty. So, I think there’s been some delays in his development from that. So, we struggled a lot when he was young with vomiting and colic and speech and a lot of other things.

My wife shared some stories with me just to make sure I was on the same page. My wife gave Trent the homeopathic for speech. Within a day or so of administering that remedy, Trent’s speech really started to come along. The remedies have also helped kind of cure his dietary allergy to milk and dairy. It’s helped him keep his food down. One of the remedies we gave him on Sunday was for GERD. I have the paper right in front of me, and it shows all the different remedies and times that we administered it to him. It’s kind of neat to look back at that. But, I think homeopathy has really helped Trent come along and given him a better quality of life.

Kate:  Right, without medications like you said. So, that is really good. It’s not going to cause other side effects.

Neil:  Yeah, it’s great. We’re very thankful for it.

Kate:  So, does anyone else have a homeopathic story that they wanted to share?

Tyler:  Yeah, I got one. This is Tyler again. I shared this story about my oldest daughter, but there is another one with my youngest. She has really sensitive skin. One day, she started getting something like hives or … I’d have to check the paper because my wife takes those notes like Neil and his wife did. The coolest part of this story is I was at work and Neil’s wife, Danielle and my wife paired up and brought all the remedies they had to my work because they were out and about. They contacted Daniel’s wife, and we’ve got this group text going immediately with pictures and descriptions.

The coolest part of the story to me was the community aspect. It was not long until a strategy was developed, and we were in communication with our doctor. We had an appointment later that day to take her in, but we kept giving him updates saying, “Hey, it’s moving from head to toe. I don’t think that we actually need to come in.” We have a really supportive doctor. He goes, “That’s great! Keep doing what you’re doing.”

So, that community aspect, I think, is something that is crucial and it’s helpful and I would encourage everyone to try and plug into something like that. When Daniel was talking about the veritable lot of remedies that they have in their house, it is like, a hoard of medicine. It couldn’t be more helpful. So, yeah, having that as an anchor point to this community is very much appreciated.

Kate:  Yeah. It sounds like you guys have a really great group and the start of an amazing homeopathic community. I’m assuming you’re going to be studying together some more and reaching out to some other men. I think I heard you talk about some other men maybe wanting to join a group. Tell me a little bit about what your future plans are.

Tyler:  Yeah. I think Kevin has already taken the second class. Is that right? You already plugged into that one?

Kevin:  Yeah. Yeah, I actually … Gateway II, I think was released right when we were coming to the end of our Gateway I class. Being all gung-ho like I am, I enrolled for both. Before I finished Gateway I, I was I think two or three weeks into Gateway II. So yeah, that’s the kind of community we have here.

We had, I think, a couple of the ladies in our group ended up getting the special bonus material for being in the top 50 that signed up for Gateway II or something. So, that’s how on top of it they were, just ready to jump on that. In the country or however many people that are available to take this worldwide, they were right there at the outset and were already through four weeks of that.

So, I wanted to emphasize one thing that Neil said, which I hope would be encouraging to some of the other mothers that are listening. It’s the way that his wife has corralled some of the other people into taking these classes. It was really through persistence. I don’t think she ever even spoke to me or my wife personally. I mean, we’ve known her for a long time. But about this specific thing, it was sort of, like … we’d hear from Ty’s wife that, “Hey, Danielle is doing this class with herbs or something. You guys might be interested. You’re into natural healing and stuff.” So, I was, like, “Oh! Yeah, we don’t have time.”

And then we’d hear a couple of months later from somebody else, “Oh! Danielle’s doing another class. Is that something you’d be interested in?” Like, “Ah, we don’t have time. We’re about to have twins. We got four kids now. We can’t spend the time to do a class. That’s just crazy.”

Well, finally, another few months goes by, and somehow, I see Neil around town or something or Tyler, and they’re, like, “Hey, Neil’s wife told me to tell you to tell your wife that you have to take this homeopathy class!”

It was, like, “Oh! Well, I guess we’ll talk about it since we have to.”

So, my wife, I guess had done a little bit of research. This is maybe not even a year ago now. She did a little bit of research and said, “Okay, I really want to do this.” I think my wife called Danielle, and they talked. She was convinced, and I said, “Okay, well, here’s the deal. It’s either essential oils or homeopathy. We can’t afford both this month.” There’s an initial upfront cost to starting homeopathy. She wanted a kit and the book and a few other things. She convinced me that in the long run, it would be cheaper, so we went with homeopathy.

I guess that’s a testament to maybe the organic process. It’s going to be different for other people. But the way that Danielle went about it to get into my heart eventually to say, “Hey, your wife’s serious about this.” She finally took the time out of her day to research this even though our house was just a mess of children. It finally worked. There was never any pushiness. There was never any convincing, never sending emails or Facebook posts of, “Hey, you have to research this. Read about this. Go look in a book.” It was never any of that. It was just, “Hey, trust me. You’re going to like this.”

So, I think that was just really helpful and maybe encouraging to some other mothers. Maybe find the dad in the group that does support his wife and get him to talk to his friends or him to tell the other guy to tell his wife. That’s kind of how this came about. We just sort of started talking about it. It was, like, “Hey, there’s a bunch of husbands now that support their wives in this. None of us really feel effective in supporting our wives. Maybe we should take a class. Oh! We don’t have to pay because our wives already did? Awesome. Let’s do this!”

That probably wasn’t really a roadblock for us, but it was nice. It was just another little thing, the way Joette sets it up to say, “Hey, if one spouse pays for it, the other can join in.” That is really wise on her part to set it up that way.

So, there are some little ways, maybe some wives can nudge other people and just be persistent. It is totally worth it. I’m so grateful that Danielle took the time to just drop a line every couple of months. That’s all it took. Eventually, we had no excuse. So, we looked into it. That was it. There was never a debate at all. We still knew nothing about it, but we trusted Danielle and all these other people.

Kate:  Thank you. That is super encouraging. I think that’s a great tip for those women who are listening who are trying to figure out how to do this together in a partnership with their husbands. So yeah, thank you for sharing that. I hope that’s helpful to some of you listening today.

Kevin:  There are so many other reasons to do homeopathy obviously. But for the guy that’s maybe listening to this or maybe the wife that wants to approach her husband, it doesn’t take an argument. It’s totally not worth it. It just takes a little bit of love and patience — like with most things. You can’t change people.

Kate:  Right.

Kevin:  Yeah, I would like to share a story that maybe will characterize how my relationship with my wife has grown through homeopathy.

Kate:  Sure.

Kevin:  So, this was just a few weeks ago. I was at church helping move some furniture, and I had a long sleeve shirt on. I was busy moving. All of a sudden, my left arm started itching. Felt just like poison oak which I am very susceptible to. So, I knew that mental aggravation that went along with that. I couldn’t think about anything else. So, I went over to my wife, and I said, “Hey, note this time down. My left arm just started itching like crazy.”

She said, “Oh, okay, well, there’s nothing we can do about it right now. We’ll talk about it after church.”

It’s about 45 minutes later, we’re driving out to somebody else’s house. I have my sleeve rolled up, and we’re looking at it and trying to decide what the best remedy is. I’m thinking, “Well, this feels like poison oak.” My wife is saying, “Well, it doesn’t feel right to me because you didn’t touch any poison oak. It must have been some kind of bug,” whether insect or arachnid that was somehow in my shirt and got spooked when I was moving around and bit me. So, there’s about maybe 20 different welts going up my left arm from my elbow to my wrist.

She is looking up stuff in her phone as we’re driving. I’m just holding the steering wheel with my left hand — can’t really think about anything else but how badly this itches. She says, “I think it’s Apis because of this and this. I think it’s a bug bite. I think the redness, you know, and this.” I said, “Well, I think it’s Rhus tox. Let’s really explore this.”

So, she’s reading the materia medica on both — just to sort of appease me. She says, “Okay, after reading that …” I’m more convinced that it’s Rhus tox, and she’s more convinced that it’s Apis.”

I said, “Okay, you know what? Let’s do the Apis first. And then when it doesn’t work, I’ll take Rhus tox.”

So, she just slides it over under my tongue while I’m driving, and I start counting in my head, one, two. I get to seven, and I feel this rush of cool lymph or some kind of energy into my arm, and I feel it go up each little prickle on my left arm and just suck out the agitation and the itching. And it’s just gone! Seven seconds is when it started, and by ten seconds, I wouldn’t have even known without looking at my arm that there was anything wrong. I was shocked!

So, I started counting again. I didn’t even flinch. I didn’t say anything to my wife because, you know, maybe I didn’t want to be wrong. She was just patiently sitting there onto her next thing, probably knitting or something. I started counting again. “Okay, I’ll let her know when it starts itching again. Then maybe it will come back even stronger, who knows? I’m not sure what’s going on right now. That was weird.”

So, we finally get home, and the redness has gone. The bites are barely visible. It never came back at all. Obviously, at some point I stopped counting. So, I explained to her what happened — how quickly it happened. From that point, I was the homeopathy evangelist. I was telling people that had never heard of homeopathy how this remedy made from a honeybee took away this itching in my arm in seven seconds, and it’s awesome! You should look into it.

To be honest, it changed my language when I talked about homeopathy from calling it “witchcraft placebos” to calling it “magic pills.” (That was a compliment coming from me.)

So, yeah, I felt growth in myself, deferring to my wife. Maybe in the past, I would have said, “No, we’re going to take Rhus tox first. I want to try the wrong thing first, just make sure it’s the wrong thing.” My wife didn’t gloat over this. She was just happy my arm stopped itching. But it was such a wonderful thing to know that she has that power; she has that capability.

To put it in a slightly different perspective, I hope some of your listeners can relate to this. A couple of guys in this group, including myself, were familiar with the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University. I’m sure that some of your listeners know that feeling of going through these classes and no longer having this fear that they’re going to go bankrupt, or something’s going to pull out the rug from under them, and they’ll be left destitute. (It’s a great thing and if people haven’t heard of it, it’s worth looking into.)

But this feeling I now have with homeopathy is like medical peace — where I can have a conversation with people, and I don’t say the word fever with the same meaning that I used to. It doesn’t scare me — or broken bones, or even meningitis, things like that. It’s like those things used to really terrify me, like, “Oh! Watch out for the Listeria and watch out for the Giardia.” And it’s, like, “You know what, you got a stomach ache, you can just take this. Or if the food is spoiled, we’ll just throw some Arsenicum at you later when you’re on the couch.” I’ve had that happen which is why I can say it. I’ve had that experience where I was vomiting; I was so sick. And then all of a sudden, I was better. And reading the stories, reading the anecdotes that are on this podcast and, of course, all over the internet really helps to promote this feeling of freedom that you cannot find with the fear-based Western conventional medicine system.

Kate:  It just gives you a confidence and a sense of peace that whatever comes your way, you have tools to address the situation, and you don’t need to fear. That’s so powerful!

Kate:  So, what else might you like to share with those dads or husbands that might be listening to this podcast?

Neil:  I just think if you kind of, maybe, stumbled upon this, and you’re just kind of, like, “Oh, yeah. I’ll just call my doctor. He’s on speed dial. Just fill my prescription.” Maybe just question that a little bit and consider homeopathy as a valid alternative. It’s a much better life.

Kate:  Yes. So, at one point, were you like that where your instinct was to call the doctor, go in and get the prescription? And now you’ve changed that thought process?

Neil:  Well, in my life, in my experience, when Trent was first born, we would call the pediatrics’ office. And a blessing for us, I believe, is they were very understanding. They were almost, like, “Whoa, guys! Take a breath. Calm down! If this persists for a while, maybe come in, but you guys don’t have to come in right now. It’s normal.” They were, like, “Maybe give him some chamomile tea or something like that.” So, I was very thankful for that experience in our life. That may not be everyone’s experience, but at least that was ours.

But now, we’re kind of more confident in our own ability to handle a lot of things that come up. I know I was raised with my mother, you know, whenever something was going on, she would always say, “Oh, you got to go get a…” (What is that called? What is that called that they always say to get?)

Tyler:  Like a flu shot or something?

Neil:  Not a flu shot.

Kevin:  CAT scan?

Neil:  Not a CAT scan.

Daniel:  X-ray?

Kevin:  Where do you go?

Neil:  She’s always, like, “You got to go get an antibiotic.”

Kevin:  Oh!

Neil:  She was always, like, “You need antibiotics!” Yeah. So, I was always raised by my mother to always call a doctor and get an antibiotic.

Daniel:  Brush your teeth with antibiotics!

Neil:  Yeah. Now, she says it. And she’ll say that and, like, “You should always eat a lot of protein.” I’m kind of, like, “Mother!”

But anyway, thankfully my wife Danielle, she’s a terrific woman. I love her to death because she will just consume information and knowledge. And then when she believes in something, she becomes very passionate about it. Because of her, I’ve learned about homeopathy and the benefits of that. So now, I’m not that person who just calls up the doctor.

Kevin:  There were a couple of things I wanted to say to sort of summarize, I guess. One is in encouraging maybe some other guys out there. From what we understand, we’re sort of the first “guys’ group” that has done one of Joette’s study groups together.

Kate:  Yeah, you’re pioneers!

Kevin:  Yeah, which is awesome on one hand, but on the other hand, it’s sort of confusing to us. Because the guys that made up the core of this group felt like this was just a natural process. This was going to happen because we love our wives. We support our wives. It may be that there are other guys that think this is a great idea, too. They might attend one of their wives’ classes and see how its run and maybe feel like, “Eh, I don’t know if I want to do this.”

So, let’s go back to the question sort of near the beginning where we talked about how our guys’ group is. Snacks were important, but we joked a lot. From what I had heard about the women’s groups that went on, they got down to business. They talked a lot. They shared a lot of anecdotes, and they all have kids. They were talking about a lot of their own issues.

Well, we had the luxury of already being treated by homeopathy from our wives. We weren’t really the “boots on the ground” kind of stuff with our kids on a daily basis. So, when we were sitting down going through this material, we would just shoot the breeze a lot. We would joke about it. We would try to learn about it how we wanted to learn about it. We would come out with all kinds of funny stories and examples of ways you could use homeopathy, and it really helped us to remember it.

Here is a perfect example. We were having a hard time wrapping our minds around succussion and potentization. Somebody in the group started joking, “Well, if you don’t get rid of that original amount, and you keep going up more and more and more and just adding to it, eventually, you’d have, like, a pool of Arnica. Right? It’d just feel like this healing pool.”

And then the next guy is, like, “Oh, yeah! You just jump off the diving board. ‘Hey, I’m going to do a cannonball. We’re going up one potency. Everybody get ready!’”

So, we did that kind of stuff every week. It was this really lighthearted approach because maybe we didn’t have the pressure of having to figure out our families’ deepest ills in that session because we knew our wives were already on it. So, it really was nice. I would encourage if guys are going to do this again, don’t be afraid of a different format than maybe you’ve seen the other women do — because we sort of have that luxury.

Another thing I wanted to say — and this is for the men and the women that might be listening — is know your resources on homeopathy. Our local library keeps two different homeopathy books on hand. My wife and I have checked them both out more than once.

Also, phone apps. If it’s inconvenient, there’s a ton of phone apps that have repertories, and Samuel Hahnemann’s “Organon,” and all kinds of materia medicas. They just sort of simplify things in a different way. People may find something that works better for them. It’s in a better format. Maybe they use their phone a lot like I do. My wife hates using her phone. If she doesn’t have a hard-back book, she’s not going to look through it at all. She’s not going to get on a website, usually.

The other thing is the Facebook group — that kind of stuff. Our group started out with … they would text each other and have this text circle with the wives and stuff. And then they eventually started a Facebook group locally. There were times where one person would get on, and they would just get an answer from a random person who happened to be awake or available within minutes. Knowing that is available just adds to, I guess, that peace and that freedom that homeopathy can bring.

Kate:  Yeah. Good tips and information. I loved how you talked about your group being different and how you guys learned. I hadn’t thought about that before, but that is one of the reasons why you would have a “guys only” group.

Neil:  I kind of want to dovetail what Kevin was just saying because absolutely our illustration of the Arnica pool is highly effective. It does clarify, kind of, the process. I’m going to assume that if Danielle was here, and she heard that — and we were joking and kind of making light of it — that might come across as us not taking it seriously. That might result in me getting, like, “a look” or something or being questioned about, like, “This was serious, and you weren’t taking it seriously.” But it’s just kind of, I think, our way of learning and how that might be a little bit different. It did definitely make a complicated subject a lot more enjoyable.

Kate:  You guys should come up with your own homeopathic curriculum and your own illustrations, “The Guys’ Homeopathy Study Guide.” Oh, that’s funny.

Neil:  I think Joette’s welcome to use it if it helps illustrate a point.

Kate:  So, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom of the Arnica pool and so many other things with us. I know I’ve gotten a lot of tips from you guys about just how to relate this to the husbands or men out there, just a way to present this to them. So, thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your stories and sharing about your group. I would love to hear about other men-only homeopathic study groups out there. So, thank you so much.

Neil:  Our pleasure.

Daniel:  Absolutely.

Tyler:  Yeah, our pleasure.

Kevin:  Thank you.

Kate:  You just listened to a podcast from PracticalHomeopathy.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shares her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com

These Moms with Moxie and Dads with Audacity podcasts are designed to be inspirational, not specifically educational. No Remedy Card is provided.

IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:

01:02    Treatment delay, allopathy and homeopathics

05:12    Joette’s health

06:48    How long before homeopathy acts

11:24    Provings are horrible

16:40    What Joette has to say about myths

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

Aconitum 200 with Bryonia 30: Banerji Protocol for sudden onset colds

Oscillococcinum® for flu

Camphora 200 to antidote

Learn more about homeopathy with my Quick Start Guide

Help determine which course is right for you with my Course Selector

Americans for Homeopathy Choice’s Citizen Petition (please read my P.S. at the end of this podcast)

Kate:  This is the Practical Homeopathy Podcast Episode Number 61 with Joette Calabrese.

Joette:  This is Joette Calabrese, and I’d like to welcome you to the Practical Homeopathy Podcast. Women and men worldwide are taking back control of their families’ health and learning how to heal their bodies naturally, safely and effectively. So, if you’re hungry to learn more, you’ve come to the right place. Stay tuned as we give you the tools — and the inspiration you need — as I share my decades of experience and knowledge using this powerful medicine we call homeopathy.

Kate:  I’m excited to be with Joette again today. We are going to be talking about those myths again. We’re going to bust open some more homeopathic myths. So Joette, let’s get to it.

Joette:  Sure, let’s go.

Kate:  The first one is that homeopathy may delay people from getting the medical treatment that they need. So Joette, let’s talk about that for a bit. Is that really true, do you think?

Joette:  No. I don’t believe it’s true. In fact, I encourage folks to get a diagnosis. So, I want them to work with their doctor or naturopath, I think it’s important — chiropractor — because it’s important that they have a team. How do we know what’s going on if we don’t have a diagnosis?

So, I never tell people, “Get off of your drugs.” I never tell people, “Don’t go to a doctor.” That’s not in my vocabulary.

Instead, I encourage them to get a good diagnosis. I even tell people what kind of doctor to look for because I think it’s important that people choose someone who has lots and lots of clinical experience. I believe that people should choose a doctor who’s older. And I think that’s very important — to have someone who has lots of experience.

So, it would not delay treatment because we’re always looking for a diagnosis, particularly with the method that I teach which is Practical Homeopathy®. We want to know what the conventional diagnosis is — not the reason for the condition — but rather what the conventional diagnosis is.

Additionally, I guess another aspect of this is that homeopathy works beautifully alongside conventional medicine. What I mean by that is we’re always looking to correct the problem so that the drugs are no longer necessary. But, I would be really remiss if I thought I would live in a world where people would come to me who are not taking drugs or would be willing to stop their drugs. That could be dangerous, number one. Number two: most people are not willing to do that or not interested in doing that.

I do not encourage anyone ever getting off of their drugs without the supervision of their doctor or pharmacist.

Kate:  Okay, yes. So, that brings us to myth number two that allopathic medicines cannot be taken with homeopathy.

Joette:  The idea that allopathic medicines cannot be taken in combination with homeopathy is erroneous. In fact, I urge people to stay on their medications and to work with their doctors as they improve. That’s the goal.

They go back to the doctor and say, “Look Doc, I think I’m improving. Can we back off?”

If the doctor feels, “No, no, no. We’re still not there yet.” You just stay on that medication.

The goal here is to uproot the condition. Now, not all conditions can be uprooted. Not all people who have specific conditions can see 100% improvement.

In fact, let me say parenthetically that we’re not looking for perfect health. So, if that’s what folks are looking for, forget it! There is no such thing. We have to know that there’s “relatively” good health. I’ve never met anyone who has perfect health. I’ve looked! I’ve sought them out, but I’ve never seen that. Everyone has a cross to bear.

So, what we’re looking for is that that condition, whatever it might be, is reduced enough so that perhaps the person can go back to their doctor and say, “I’m feeling well enough that maybe I don’t need as much, or I don’t need it as frequently, or perhaps I don’t need it at all.” But that’s up to the doctor and the patient!

Kate:  You know, Joette, that’s really helped me a lot to hear you say that in the past that no one has perfect health because I think — whether we care to admit that to ourselves or not — each of us is thinking that at some point, we’re going to arrive — like, “Ta-da! Now, we have perfect health.” And it just has helped me to have realistic expectations. That yes, we might get rid of one thing and then, you know, just life and our body is aging … something else is going to creep up. But thankfully we have homeopathy to deal with those things.

Joette:  Well, that’s right. So, it will help with the acute problems and the chronic problems. But don’t think for a second you’re not going to have them. That is what life is filled with.

Kate:  Maybe we should discuss another myth, and that is that Joette Calabrese has perfect health. Is that true, Joette?

Joette:  Oh, my gosh! No. Absolutely not. No …I mean, I’ve come around. I was very, very sick for long periods of time. That has ended. I no longer have fatigue or asthma or severe allergies, and food intolerances, et cetera.

But I don’t know if you noticed, my voice is a little hoarse tonight. I do get that every once in a while. It’s not plaguing. It’s not painful. It’s not uncomfortable. But it does happen to me from time to time. I might ask, “Well, why is that happening?” I don’t really know necessarily why it’s happening. I don’t have more mucous or anything else going on. I’m not around any pollens that are shifting around that I’m aware, but maybe there are. I don’t really know. I don’t worry about it. So, it is what it is. When it goes away, it goes away, and I don’t give it a thought.

Kate:  And you’re not automatically searching for that right homeopathic remedy because it’s not severe enough, right?

Joette:  Right. I don’t want to take pills for every little thing. I’d rather just wait and see how things bear out. So, I’m in Florida right now. And just by going in the water, it’s really great. I feel so energized by being in the water. So, I might spend a little more time in the water. I might swish some water — the ocean water — in my mouth for a while, gargle with it a little bit. But I’m not going to put an awful lot of effort into the fact that my voice is a little off.

And you know, I struggle with issues from time to time. I still get colds every once in a while. I mean, we all have stuff. It’s all part of being human. That’s why we don’t live in the Garden of Eden anymore.

Kate:  That’s true. So, let’s talk about another myth, and that is that it is going to take forever for a homeopathic medicine to take effect and to make us well.

Joette:  Yeah. That is a common … let me put it this way, it’s based on some truth. It does take a while for homeopathy to act when it comes to a chronic condition. Not always, we often see with eczema we can see someone turn around in sometimes a couple of days. For other people, it can take eight months. It doesn’t mean, however, that there isn’t improvement along the way. That’s what gives us not only hope, but it gives us information as to whether or not the medicines that we’re using are correct and should be repeated.

But our medicine, homeopathy, has a loftier goal than just using drugs. Whereas with drugs, if you have a thyroid condition — let’s say hypothyroidism — and you’re taking a synthetic thyroid, you’re told that you’ll be taking that the rest of your life. You might find that your energy has returned by taking it, and that your hair is not falling out quite so dramatically, but the thyroid is not corrected. With homeopathy, we’re using medicines that may take a while — months, many months perhaps — to correct the problem with the hypothyroidism. But, when we’re done after eight months, ten months, a year, et cetera, the medications can sometimes be eliminated and even the homeopathics can often be eliminated as well. Now, the correction has been made and the thyroid is back to where it ought to be.

Now, if someone has a thyroid condition, that might be their weakest link. It might be an area where they have a propensity for that problem. So, two, three years down the road, after having a third child or a fifth child, the thyroid might come to its knees again. (If it has knees. I don’t think it has. I think it has lobes, instead.) It’d be brought to its lobes, and it may need another boost again of the homeopathic.

So, we never get to as we said a few minutes ago, to perfection, but what we’re looking for is to correct as best we can within that organism. I think that’s pretty darn lofty and quite hopeful because it means that we can fix the condition often. Not always. It’s not for everyone. But we usually can fix the condition instead of supplementing it with a synthetic drug.

Kate:  Right. So, we have to have patience. That’s something that also comes to mind working with you over the years, Joette, is that it may take us a while — whether I’m taking a course and learning on my own or brainstorming with you — sometimes it takes a while. But if we have patience, I always say, “There is a remedy for that!” It’s finding that remedy sometimes that can be tricky. But again, with the protocols, it makes it so much easier. That was one of the things that frustrated me in the beginning is it would take forever to even figure out what to give for a cold, right? But now, it’s so much more simple.

Joette:  It’s super easy. I mean, I tell people all the time. I love the product ColdCalm®. I love the Banerji Protocol: Aconitum 200 with Bryonia 30. I love those remedies because they cover a large percentage of the population who have colds.

Kate:  Just even yesterday, my daughter started coming down with something, a sore throat … ummm, what else did she have … she just said she wasn’t feeling quite right, a little bit dizzy. And I thought, “Uh-oh! She might be coming down with a cold.” I used that Aconite/Bryonia combination — Aconite 200 with Bryonia 200 mixed together.

Literally by the afternoon, she was up, and she said, “Mom, I’m feeling good. I’m going to go to Youth Group tonight.” It was just amazing how she recovered so quickly.

Joette:  Yeah, it’s not that complicated. It really isn’t if you own some of these medicines. Have them on hand.

Oscillococcinum® is another good one for a forthcoming cold or flu. There are a lot of good remedies. Aconitum by itself. Nux vomica is a great remedy for colds or flus. So, when you own a good number of remedies, you’ll then realize that there are only a certain number of them that are specifically for colds. As long as you own them, you can always give it a try and go on with … if one doesn’t work, you can go to another one. If that one doesn’t act, then you can go to the next.

But I think what happens is that people are afraid, and I think this is probably another myth. Let’s talk about the myth that provings are horrible and that we want to avoid them at any cost. That’s the myth.

Provings can be uncomfortable. And a proving means that you have used a medicine — homeopathic medicine — too long, or it was incorrect in the first place, and it starts causing symptoms.

But, that does not mean that you’re stuck with it. Because we do know that we can sniff mint — essential oil of mint really heartily up into the nostrils, pretty deeply with a good sniff.

You hold the bottle to the nostril and sniff. And then you take another sniff, or you put a couple of drops of essential oil of mint on a cotton ball, and that brings down the action of the medicine that has been ill-chosen. Or we can use Camphor: Camphora 200, one dose, one day. That often brings down the ill effects of a remedy that’s poorly chosen, or that has been used for too long and has gone in the opposite direction.

Kate:  That reminds me. We were talking a little bit earlier about your cute dog, Buster, and what happened with him. Tell us.

Joette:  Yeah, Buster is the Bad Office Dog. That’s his nickname. He has his own blog. Every once in a while, he writes for us. He tells the other dogs what to take — cats, too. He’s got an affinity towards cats as well.

But at any rate, my son called because he’s taking care of Buster for us while we’re away. He said Buster is not feeling very well. He’s shaking, and he screeched out. He’s messing in the house, and that’s not like Buster. He doesn’t generally do those kinds of things.

We had been giving Buster Arsenicum album. I had told my son, “Give him Arsenicum album,” about five days ago. “Give it to him twice or three times a day,” because there were some other conditions that were showing up. He had some diarrhea and some nausea, et cetera. So, I told him to give him Arsenicum.

I believe that what my son is reporting tonight is a proving. Buster is not well. He’s very anxious. Arsenicum album should help with the anxiety. But given that it’s perhaps the wrong medicine — and I think that’s what’s going on here — is that Buster is now very anxious and panting and his heart is racing.

So, I said, “Okay, now give him some Camphor 200 and just put it in his mouth. He should calm down quite a bit.” (Now, it would be hard to give Buster some essential oil of mint, and so we just decided to give him Camphor 200.)

While I was on the phone with my son (while he was holding Buster), he said, “Yeah, I think he’s getting a little bit better. He’s not as shaky. Okay now, he’s not panting so much.” I would say that over a period of about 20 minutes while we were on the phone, Buster started to calm down and calm down and calm down.

So, it didn’t take very long. Now, it depends on the circumstance and what remedies are being used, et cetera. Sometimes we see a proving calm down within 20 minutes, just like what happened with Buster tonight. But sometimes it takes longer than that. It might take a day or so.

So, then Buster got feeling much better; he fell asleep on my son’s lap. And then we just got another call — Kate, you and I were interrupted — because it’s coming back again. So, it’s not as severe as it was, reports my son (the anxiety, et cetera). But I said give him another dose of Camphor 200.

So, he’ll probably just get those two doses, and that should probably take care of it tonight for Buster. And then tomorrow, over the next couple of days, we’ll see how he fares. Will he still have that nausea and the diarrhea that he had about six, seven days ago when we started the Arsenicum? Or has that been resolved now that he’s been given Arsenicum for a few days and Camphor shortly after?

Kate:  Poor Buster. Yeah, that’s a misconception for sure. People are concerned that they might give the wrong remedy. Or how soon can they give another remedy if they don’t feel like one is acting? So, they’re worried about giving too many remedies. But, I barely ever see that happen with people. How about you, Joette? Do you feel like people give too many, one right after the other, or do they err on the other side?

Joette:  Well, I think it goes both ways. Some people are very cautious — and so cautious that they don’t give enough doses — and others who throw caution to the wind and are too zealous about it and give it too frequently.

Probably in this situation, I should have been observing the dog. But my son is gone during the day and wasn’t watching the dog as closely as it would have been useful to have done — so that we could say, “Oh wow! He’s not getting better. In fact, he’s getting worse. Perhaps this remedy is not right for him. Let’s halt the use of the remedy.” But by this time with this kind of behavior and how he’s acting tonight, it’s pretty clear that the remedy is incorrect.

Kate:  Right. So, if you are observant and take note of how the person is feeling, then anything that would be dangerous can be avoided.

Joette:  That’s right. We’ve got a stop gap measure, which is great. We don’t want to be too cavalier about using these medicines — because indeed they are medicines. I always encourage folks to follow the protocols that I teach on the blog and in my courses and in my books, CDs, et cetera. Stay true to the protocols and how frequently they’re used, as well as the potencies. And that’s how you’re going to get your best results.

Kate:  So Joette, these last two podcasts that we’ve done about myths have been super-fun for me. I think that there are even more myths that we could cover. So, maybe we’ll do some more of these in the future?

Joette:  Yeah, I look forward to it.

Kate:  Joette, leave us with some words of wisdom.

Joette:  Oh boy, there’s the pressure. I guess what I wanted to say that when it comes to myths about homeopathy — or any kind of myth — it is sometimes hard to parse out what’s myth and what’s truth. We must be the busters. (Oh my! I don’t mean Buster, the poodle! I mean the “Myth Busters.”)

I mean you must do your research. You must never stop. That’s what life is all about is constant learning. It’s self-educating. We must pursue a lifelong interest in how to take care of ourselves and our families and become lifelong students. We must be skeptical of others’ motives and do our homework, and it’s up to you to do that. So, go for it, folks and be your own Myth Buster.

Kate:  You just listened to a podcast from PracticalHomeopathy.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shares her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit PracticalHomeopathy.com.

Warmly,

P.S. To do your homework, as I discussed — to keep pursuing your interest in taking care of your family — I encourage you to spend some time reading my Quick Start Guide. I’ve tried to present you with as much information as possible to get started — much of which is free. If you’re ready for more, my Course Selector can help point you to the course that might be the best fit for your current needs.

P.P.S. Here’s one more myth that we all are guilty of believing: homeopathy will be around forever. Unfortunately, we can no longer make that assumption. The Powers That Be are looking to strangle homeopathy’s foothold in American households. Only our voices can stop them.

Please take a moment to support Americans for Homeopathy Choice by leaving a comment on their Citizen Petition to the FDA. If each of us whose families have been positively impacted by homeopathy were to comment on this petition, imagine our sheer numbers! It would be an overwhelming testimony for these efficacious, safe and practical medicines.

Homeopathy has been there for us when we’ve needed it. Now, let’s be there for homeopathy! Every signature counts. Read and comment on the Citizen’s Petition here.

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IN THIS PODCAST, WE COVER:

03:44    Brain surgery

13:02    Some animal stories

22:20    Some human stories

25:33    Skin conditions

30:42    Some useful information

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS PODCAST:

Pre-surgery protocol

Post-surgery protocol

Weston A. Price Foundation

            A Mother’s Journey

Cell Salts: The Easy Homeopathy

Baby Grande™

Remedy Kits

How to Raise a Drug-Free Family

Facebook post: Quail eyes: before and after photos*

               *The Facebook group referred to in this podcast is a closed group specifically formed as an added benefit for those who have taken my courses. Those who have not yet taken courses are encouraged to follow my Facebook page “Joette Calabrese.”

Good Gut, Bad Gut

Skin, the Ugly Truth

Gateway to Homeopathy: A Guided Study Group Curriculum

Kate:  This is the Practical Homeopathy Podcast Episode Number 60.

Joette:  Each day from my office, I get to see how homeopathy is transforming lives all over the globe, and I want to share them with you. Some of my students have really caught my eye. Some of you have done all you can to learn how to cure those around you using homeopathic medicines, and your successes inspire me. They’re glorious and powerful, and I can’t keep these successes a secret any longer. So, with help from my roving reporters, we bring you a mini-podcast series that I call “Moms with Moxie.” Sometimes we even interview “Dads with Audacity.” See how regular mothers and others, average people who want to cure those around them, have gone from freaking to fabulous with homeopathy.

Kate:  Hi! I’m Kate. I’m super excited to be here today with another Mom with Moxie, and her name is Lisa. Welcome, Lisa.

Lisa:  Thank you, Kate. I’m so happy to be here.

Kate:  We’re glad to have you and excited for what you have to share with us. So, Lisa, tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.

Lisa:  Well, I am a mom. I am a hobby farmer. I am a student of homeopathy. I am currently attending a homeopathic college in Ontario because this is what I want to be. You know what? I have Joette to thank for that actually. So, I have two children. I have cats, dogs, horses, ducks, and quails — and a husband

Kate:  Oh quails! And a husband, I like how you say that last, “And a husband.” That’s funny.

So, I think many of the people listening to this podcast might be super-interested, and their ears might have perked up when they heard that you were actually attending college for homeopathy. So, tell us a little bit about that. Are you loving it?

Lisa:  Oh, definitely. Absolutely, I am. I am picking away at it slowly at night because I have my days quite preoccupied and full with all these children and animals. You know, it’s just such a lovely thing to do at the end of the day. It’s like kind of my reward. I get to study.

But, during the day, I can listen to Joette’s webinars, and it helps so much with my school. I’m able to go so much faster through it because I have got all of this foundation, first, from Joette. So, it makes it such a pleasure. You know, you’ve found something that you love, and you’re doing it. I’m able to apply all of this knowledge to everything on the farm and my kids.

I use nothing conventional — and not that I have anything against conventional medicine. My son had to go through a couple of brain surgeries, and I’m very thankful for modern medicine. But for 99% of what we have to deal with in our lives, I can do it myself which is so empowering and so wonderful. So, thanks, Joette … love ya!

Kate:  Wow! Your son had to have surgery? That is really difficult and hard. Tell us the situation if you don’t mind sharing.

Lisa:  No, of course! He had hydrocephalus. Which is when … I mean if you look on the internet, the pictures are quite freaky, especially for a mother. So thankfully, we were able to get a brilliant surgeon. Who — and I won’t go into all the details — but who managed to correct it. It had to happen twice.

So, the first time, we did the pre-surgery protocol. It was great. He came out of it amazing, like flying colors, no infections, nothing. But, the one thing that I will never forget … because Ignatia was so amazing for me at that time. When you’re preparing for your son to go into brain surgery, and you’re told by the physician that he could die or there could be something that you touch in the brain where you wish your child had died — because they’re a vegetable now. So, you hear those things and, you know, it’s a little traumatic.

Kate:  Of course! Yeah. I can’t imagine.

Lisa:  No, and nobody should have to. But, we did a lot of prayer, and I remember being in the hotel room (because we had to go to a different city to get the operation). I remember thinking, “Just take some Ignatia.” And so, I took … like, one dose is all I really needed. And I was able to … immediately just a peace came over me. It was amazing! And we were able to go forward.

And then for the second surgery, the same thing. So, we did the pre-surgery protocol which Joette gives free on her blog, I believe, and then the after-surgery protocol.

And then hydrocephalus, it’s very bold. It’s a clear one for the usage of Calc carb, and he was a very Calc carb baby. Anyways, so Joette had given me some advice that maybe give him Calc carb for a month afterwards. He’s been fantastic ever since. We’re so grateful. We’re so grateful. So, that’s that surgery. Leaving out some details, but — you know — we only have a certain amount of time, right.

Kate:  Yeah. Now, did you say he had to have two surgeries?

Lisa:  Uh-huhm. So, with this certain surgery, they make … they would usually put a shunt in from his brain to his stomach, which is …

Kate:  Oh, wow!

Lisa:  Oh! It’s such a pain because they get blocked; they get infected. It’s terrible. But, this particular surgeon went and studied in Africa, where they don’t have access to shunts because they just can’t afford it. So, they have to do a different surgery where they make another hole in the brain for the cerebrospinal fluid to drain out. And, that’s what they did.

So, the first time he went in and did it — I mean, this is right by the brainstem, right? So, it’s a very, very serious thing. So, he didn’t want to go too close. So, he made the hole, but it wasn’t quite big enough. So, a month later, it completely closed up, and then we had to do it again. The second time, there’s a 25% chance that it will work. But I knew in my heart that it would; it just needed to be bigger.

So, once you get past like the six-month mark, that’s when the doctor says you throw a party — because it’s done!

So now, he’s over two. The second surgery happened when he was eight months. So, we’re all good. He still has to go once a year for an MRI, but yeah … he’s really good. So yes, yay, indeed. Yep.

Kate:  Wow!

Lisa:  But, you know what? I really don’t mind because, I mean, no one escapes, right? No one escapes. Everybody has gone through stuff. Right? It’s all in how you handle it. And these surgeries have given me such empathy for other people. I’m working with a woman whose son has a brain tumor. And I was able to reach out and help her, and she listened to me because I had gone through something similar with my own son. Not a tumor — but something very scary, right? So, we use … God gives us these situations, so we can use it. I don’t say, “He gives it.” He gets us through it. He uses it to make it something beautiful in somebody else’s life and to give them encouragement that you went through it, and you can do it, too. So, I really don’t mind these situations.

Kate:  And it gives us so much empathy for other people in those situations as well. It’s just amazing how God does take that and uses it to bless other people.

Lisa:  It makes it good.

Kate:  Yes. So, let’s talk a little bit about your history because I think it’s fascinating. When we were having a conversation before this call, you were talking about your family and their study of medicine. So, tell us a little bit about your family.

Lisa:  Yes. So, my father’s a physician. He’s a neurologist. I’m going to talk about it a little bit later on in our conversation, but it’s very helpful to have a physician in the family for diagnostics — because it is quite important. If the remedies I’m using aren’t working, I can say, “Dad, what am I missing? What’s going on with him?” And he’ll say, “Oh! Well, that’s because of this.” “Oh!” Well then, now I know how to treat it, right?

Kate:  This is such an important thing. I have that same thing happen when our dog was having some issues. I took our dog to the groomer — and not that the groomer is a vet —but she’s like, “Oh, I think your dog has ‘this.’”

I was giving homeopathy, and it wasn’t working. When she gave me that little bit of information … “Oh my goodness! That makes total sense!” And now, I knew what homeopathy to use. I used that homeopathy, and within a day … those circumstances … that dog was feeling better.

So, it is so important. I feel like if the homeopathy isn’t working, there’s something that we’re missing. If we know what it is, it’s just so much easier to really nail that remedy down, that right remedy.

Lisa:  Right, right, exactly.

Kate:  So, do you feel like you inherited some of this passion for healing from your dad who’s a neurologist?

Lisa:  Definitely! Definitely. Yeah, my father … he’s been in practice for over 40 years. He will do it until he’s not here anymore. That’s exactly what I would do. I don’t believe in retirement. I want to do this until I can’t do it anymore. Right? Because that’s what we’re here for.

Kate:  Yeah.

Lisa:  We’re here to help others in one way, shape or form. That’s kind of what our role is on this earth, I think. So, I was always into herbs and essential oils and natural stuff.

It’s funny because I was raised on margarine and skimmed milk powder, right? Because as a neurologist, you do whatever the Health Canada says. “Oh! Skimmed milk powder is right? Then, darn it, let’s go get a big bag of it!” I remember that.

And then turning full circle away from that, you get a new, fresh perspective. Especially since everybody else is doing it? Do the opposite, and you’re probably on the right track.

So, when I was first a member of Weston A. Price Foundation, I was reading Joette’s article. (I had no idea who Joette Calabrese was.) She said it is your job, as a mother, to heal your family.s And that totally hit home! (And this was before I had kids — I had a couple of dogs, and that was it.) I said, “Yes! Of course, it is! That was it!” As soon as I read that article, the next day, I was Googling her. I was ordering the cell salts and the Baby Grande™ and I got myself one of those little, red Top 100 kits — and that was it. That was it. I was sold out for homeopathy.

Kate:  I know. Don’t you feel like once you find homeopathy, it just trumps everything else that you’ve done? Because, yeah … just the same story — a history of herbs and essential oils, and nutrition — and those are all great things. But homeopathy? You just want to shout, “This is it!”

Lisa:  This is it. This is it. This is it. And all those other things are nice additives, right? That’s it, definitely. There’s nothing else. There’s nothing.

I talk to people all the time — I’m sure you do, too — that have said … you know. One person I know is doing like breathing. Not to say anything bad about that modality, but breathing isn’t going to kill your allergies properly. It’s this technique thing that people do. I said, “Okay. Well, yeah, I’m here if you need me.”

Sure enough, okay, well, maybe we can try a little something else, too — because the breathing wasn’t really doing it for them all that great. So anyway, yeah — homeopathy.

Kate:  I’m curious. Going back to your dad for just a minute, is your father, as a neurologist, is he supportive of you learning homeopathy and using homeopathy?

Lisa:  My dad is great. He had always said since the beginning that, “Whatever you want to do, and you’re happy doing it — great.” We can have a discussion like you and I are having, and it’s completely fine. When I was teaching a class about homeopathy, and we were talking about fevers — and he’s of the old school that fevers are not that great because he says he sees people who might have … you know, they had febrile seizures, and now it’s affecting them later in life. I said, “There’s no correlation.” And we love to have these conversations. Then he’s saying, “Well, whatever works, works. It doesn’t matter. If that works for you, great. Good for you. Great, it worked.”

Kate:  Okay.

Lisa:  But he’s not willing to try. Like, he has so many things I could help him with but he’s like, “No thanks.”

Kate:  So, Lisa, tell us about some of the ways that you’ve used homeopathy to encourage those who are listening today.

Lisa:  Okay. Some of the ones that really stand out in my mind. And a simple one: when I was pregnant with my first, and I just finished the Drug-Free Family course, and I was petting our little puppy. She was itching a lot. I looked through her hair, and I saw some lice. I quickly Googled it — because I didn’t want to get lice. It was coming from my chicken coop. It was like chicken lice. So, it doesn’t affect humans.

So, I started to use essential oils, and I did all that first. I don’t know why I went there first, but I did. Then that wasn’t working; it wasn’t helping. So, I went into my Drug-Free Family course, and I looked under lice — because it doesn’t matter if it’s humans or dogs or sheep or cats or whatever.

I used the remedy for lice; a couple of days, it was gone. It’s interesting because it works so fast. One, I think because my dogs are pretty pure. They eat raw. They have farm life. They have a good life, right? So, I find that the remedies work faster with people and animals that are pure. So, within a couple of days, she was lice-free. It was gone! It was great.

Kate:  Yay!

Lisa:  Yeah. So, that was the first. I was like, “Wow! Holy smokes! This is great!” Because this is one of my first real triumphs. And then later on, I got a couple of horses. They would always use just conventional deworming methods. I thought, “Well, why wouldn’t I just use Cina for them?” So, I did!

I got us dropper bottles. I would just spray it into their mouth whenever I went to feed them. That was that. It’s gone. It seems to work so well; I haven’t even had to do it this year. So, it’s gone. I don’t know if it’s just inhospitable for a while now … or I don’t know. I guess I’ll do it again when I see signs of worms.

Kate:  So, how long did you use that for? And did you use it when you started seeing worms? How did you do that?

Lisa:  Hmmm, what did I do? Yeah, yeah, I would see one of the horses start to rub their bum. Because, unfortunately, I’m super-busy, so, sometimes it needs to hit me in the face before I remember that, “Oh, shucks, I need to deworm them.” And then I’ll do that to both of them and I’ll just … so, they’ll just start to rub. I should do it preventatively. That would probably be a good thing. But, I don’t think it’s a big deal if I’m doing it as it’s happening, too.

Kate:  So, we’ve got dogs. We have horses. And, you have other animal stories.

Lisa:  Oh, yes! It’s nice to see success stories on Joette’s Facebook page, too. Everybody has so many issues. It’s really encouraging to see pictures and success stories.

So, I saw one of my quails, and quails are kind of new to my farm. I’ve only had them for about a year and a half. I’ve noticed that they have some eye problem sometimes. I got these quails from probably a place that was not so clean. So, one of the eyes was completely covering over and infected, and it was happening to the other eye as well.

So, I’m like, “Well, let’s try if we can get a success story.” So, I took a picture and then immediately started treating her with a combo dilution of Euphrasia officinalis in mother tincture; I used Calendula in mother tincture; and I used Hepar sulph (and I dissolved four pellets into that). I gave her like a little concoction. I would spray that twice a day: once in her eyes — both eyes — and then I would give it to her in the mouth.

I don’t have the exact dates with me, but I know within the week, it was completely gone. She was totally fine, totally fine. It was amazing! So, I have the before-and-after pictures on the forum* (just Google my name and then “quails,” “quail eyes” or whatever).

Kate:  This leads us into your chicken story. You have one of those.

Lisa:  Oh, yes! One of my chickens had bumblefoot, which is an infection in the bottom of the foot. Their foot gets … it looks like there’s a nail in almost the bottom of their foot. It gets really swollen. You can tell immediately because they start walking funny. And then you just pick them up, you turn them over, and you can see it. So, normally the treatment is people do a little surgery at home, and then they give them antibiotics.

Kate:  Oh!

Lisa:  Yeah. You do a little surgery. You take out the nail-thing.

Kate:  It’s not a real nail. It’s just … what? I don’t understand.

Lisa:  The bumblefoot?

Kate:  Yeah.

Lisa:  So, it’s at the bottom of the foot. It looks like there’s like a nail in their foot.

Kate:  But there’s not? There’s not a nail?

Lisa:  No. No. It’s like a scab.

Kate:  Oh!

Lisa:  There is something … because we did … the first time, I thought it was a nail. So, my husband pulled it out with tweezers, and it was not. I’m like, “What the heck?” So, then I Googled it, and it was bumblefoot (because that was our first time that we experienced that).

Kate:  Oh, my goodness!

Lisa:  Yeah. So, I went into, like, I have a homeopathy book for animals. And I started looking at that and tried that … tried some different remedies there. I’m like, “This isn’t working.” It’s an infection, so I’m going to give her Hepar sulph. I did that, and — same thing — it started to heal up pretty quick. Within the first few days, I started to see a difference. Then at the end of the week, she was fine, and it was gone. It was gone.

Kate:  Oh, my gosh!

Lisa:  Yeah! And the only treatment is antibiotics.

Kate:  I’m sorry, but every time I say that word, “bumblefoot,” in my mind, I just have this funny image in my head of bumblefoot. That’s an interesting name.

Lisa:  Yeah, yeah.

Kate:  So, they say it won’t go away unless you treat it with antibiotics, right?

Lisa:  Yeah, you do a little surgery, and with the surgery, obviously, they give antibiotics. Right? You give an analgesic to the chicken. And then you do your little mild surgery, pull it out, and then clean it up and give them antibiotics. And then, you know … So, I said, “Well, I’m not going to do that.” I’ll just try with Hepar sulph.

My chickens are great guinea pigs. I don’t mean to be cruel, but chickens die. And if I lose a chicken, it’s not the end of the world. Right? So, I can try stuff on them.

Kate:  So, you would just put the Hepar sulph in the water?

Lisa:  I just… well, I grabbed my chicken at night and sprayed it into her mouth.

Kate:  Oh! Okay.

Lisa:  Squirt it into her mouth with a dropper. Yeah, I couldn’t put it in all the water because then all the chickens would get it, right?

Kate:  So, you used Hepar sulph 200 or 30?

Lisa:  I started with 30. I think I just used 30.

Kate:  Okay, yeah. Awesome! Okay, so, let’s get to some human stories. Oh no, wait! You have to tell the story that you talked to me about earlier.

Lisa:  Oh! The porcupine! So, you know, it’s 7:00 in the morning, and you open the door about to do your chores. You look out, and your dog — one of your two German Shepherds — greets you with a mouthful of porcupine quills. It’s … that’s the worst … and my husband’s gone. It’s just me and the boys.

So, I called up some reinforcements, and my friend who’s our CMP held each of my dogs down while I pulled them out one by one. It was awful. It was awful! At that time, I didn’t even think to give them anything either because they didn’t want to take anything in their mouth — nothing. They couldn’t drink. They couldn’t do anything. So, I was focused on getting these quills out and then dealing with it afterward. And dogs are super-hardy. And once you get them out, I mean, the quills are pretty sterile, too. Once you get them out, they’re fine.

So, my black German Shepherd, she got them all out fine. My sable German Shepherd — one broke off in the bottom of her lip. Now, the thing is with porcupine quills, they have the barbs at the end of them. And so, if it’s somewhere in, like, her chest or her head or something like that, you have to go and get the vet to take it out — because it will work its way into the body and cause a lot of trouble. Yeah, we have a vet as a friend (which is also very convenient), and he just explained this to us.

So, what I did is, I said, “Well, of course, Silica. Silica pushes everything out!” And it was in the lip. I wasn’t too concerned at all because it’s in the lip where it’s really not going to go really any place. So, I kept an eye out on it, and I put it [the Silica] into her water. I figured it’s Silica! The other dog can get it, too, for her hair, skin, and nails. It will be fine. So, I put it in the water.

Kate:  She’ll have beautiful nails!

Lisa:  Yeah, and teeth. So, I put it in the water, and I could see the pus starting to come out. Slowly but surely, it’s working its way out. Then I talked to you, Kate, the other day, and you said you just used a 30. I don’t know. I just used what I had — a 6 or a 9 or something like that. So then, I just started doing the 30, and I saw a little piece coming out at the top. So, I pulled that out, but I think there’s still more. But it’s very, very small; it’s very contained. It’s not going anywhere else. I just sort of push at it every day — my dog loves me for that, of course — but I just sort of push it out, and I see some pus. I see that the body’s doing its job by containing it and working its way out. So, that’s pretty awesome. You know, you’re not scared at all, right? There’s no fear. When you know what you’re doing, there’s no fear. “Oh, I’ll just use Silica. It’ll be fine.” And it is! It’s great.

Kate:  Right, yeah, all right. So, share with us …

Lisa:  Humans?

Kate:  Yeah, some of those human stories, like with your kids. I’m sure you’ve had things that have happened.

Lisa:  Oh yeah. I mean there’s always the bump. There’s always a bruise. There’s always a scrape and scratch. I mean I couldn’t imagine my life without Arnica and Calendula — seriously — and Hypericum, of course.

But the one, again, that really stands out in my mind that I found some real victory was croup. I had learned about croup in the Drug-Free Family course. My kids are super-healthy because I started this before I had kids. So, I was prepared, and I’m kind of just waiting for stuff to happen, so I can use my newfound knowledge.

Last Christmas, my son does his usual — when I know he’s coming down with something. Mothers just know when their kids are … this is happening. So, he’s on the couch. I think I’m making some Christmas ornaments at the table, and I hear this cough. I’m like, “Is that croup? I think that’s croup!”

So, in my mind I’m going, “ASH: Aconite, Spongia tosta, Hepar sulph.” Those are three top remedies for croup, and I’m going, “Okay, Aconite, it usually comes on powerful. It comes on strong. That’s the first remedy we think of.” But usually it happens around midnight, right? And it wasn’t midnight. It’s well before midnight. I’m like this is more like Spongia tosta which is like a saw going through wood. And I will never forget that, right? When Joette talked about it in that Drug-Free Family course. I thought, “I’m going to try Spongia tosta.”

So, I started with Spongia tosta 30. I probably gave him four doses total. I stayed up with him. And he was very scared which is also indicative of Aconite, but I wanted to stick with Spongia. I just stayed up with him. We just read, and then he would fall asleep, and then wake up and then that hacking cough again. And then we were able to … after about four doses, it was done for the night. It was done. He went to sleep. He was fine. The next night, it started again, but it was much milder. I used Spongia tosta again — probably only two doses — and that was it. I remember talking to my stepmother who is my father’s wife. She said, “Croup, what did you do?” I said, “I used homeopathy.” “Oh!” Yeah, that’s it, like it was no big deal — because her daughter had to take her son to the emergency room three times when he had croup.

Kate:  Oh, wow!

Lisa:  So, I’m like, the emergency room is for a broken bone, not for croup! It’s crazy to me.

Kate:  So, that first night when you gave him the Spongia, how often did you give it?

Lisa:  At first, I gave it every 30 minutes because it wasn’t crazy. And I would take him into the shower and get that steam going. And that really helped him a lot, too. I gave him hot water with a little sea salt which he called “special water.” So, that really helped him, too. Because I just remember the bronchioles — you sort of relax the bronchioles with the salt and the warm water. Right? So, that’s all I did.

Kate:  That’s awesome.

Lisa:  I know a lot of mothers (and a lot of people, in general) have trouble with these skin conditions — the eczema. I was quite frustrated with it as well because I tried to help a couple of people without any really great success. This is when I just first started about the Good Gut, Bad Gut course and the Skin course. I probably didn’t listen to it enough times, or I needed more information. So, it’s cumulative! Now that I have all of these courses, and I listen to them all. And then I start from the beginning, and I listen again. And so, you start to really … I don’t want to say I’m an expert, but it’s coming together for me.

So, with the one little girl — and I don’t know all the circumstances — but I tried to help her, and it wasn’t helping that.

So, I was a little more cautious working with this little boy. He was probably eight months old. He’s blanketed in eczema — very bad. It’s to the point where people were staring at him and saying like, “What’s wrong with your child?”

His mother has psoriasis. So, it’s an inherited trait. She’s a nurse. He had a birth in which she called a very “normal” birth. All of the standard things were given, maybe except the epidural. “You know, we had this, we had this, and we had this. But, I mean that’s just normal.” I’m like, “Okay.” You know, you don’t say anything; this has nothing to do with it. What are you going to do? “What do you mean “normal?” So, I’m thinking in my brain, “Well, that’s what triggered it. All of these little things triggered the eczema in this little boy.”

So, I tried the first line for eczema, and it did not help. It made the eczema worse. It’s very interesting because that remedy may not have been correct, but it opened the door to the correct one. So, it peeled back that layer. We were able to see what the real remedy was. And, his mother realized that she had forgotten to tell me a very important thing where it’s burning, and it’s worse with hot water. It’s burning, right. So, I went, “Oh! Sulphur!” So, I said, “Quit that other stuff.”

She did the nosode to take care of that family inheritance and Sulphur. And it was done. She was thrilled! Thrilled. She went, “You know what? We’re done. I think I want to take a break from the remedies, and, you know, everything is great.” I said, “Great! You can talk to me again if you want to work on those food intolerances,” (because, of course, he has those, too).

Kate:  Yes.

Lisa:  “Yes, I will for sure.” She was just elated. You make believers of people like that, right?

Kate:  Yeah.

Lisa, you mentioned a couple of Joette’s courses that you listened to over and over again: Good Gut, Bad Gut and the Skin, The Ugly Truth course along with the others. For those of you wanting to know more about these courses, we will put a link to them in the resource section at the top of the transcript for this podcast. For those of you listening to this podcast not on Joette’s website, to find this transcript just go to Joette’s website, PracticalHomeopathy.com and look up Podcast 60. You can also just Google “Joette Calabrese Podcast 60” and you should find it that way as well.

And I love what you said about if we get that first remedy, and it doesn’t hit it, a lot of times people can get discouraged if it doesn’t take care of it completely. So, I’ve heard Joette say this many times that that remedy — though it may not have been 100% correct — it will often point us in the direction and make it more clear … the best remedy.

Lisa:  Yes, that was a huge little tidbit that after listening and listening — I heard it. You know when you hear something because you listen again, and again and again. And then you hear that one thing that you almost needed to know, and you use that. And it’s so wonderful.

So, that’s why when she’s talking, and Lara is talking in the courses and saying listen to it again and again. I’m thinking, “Of course, you have to listen to it. You’re listening to it once, are you nuts? You’re only going to get like 10% of what you need to know if you’re not hearing it again, and again and again.” Because things start to come out and be clear and make sense to you, you know?

Kate:  Yeah.

Lisa:  So, sometimes I’m like, “Oh! I don’t need to listen to the Skin course. I’ve heard it; I don’t need it right now. And I make myself, like studying, you make yourself do it. Oh man! I’m so glad I listened to it because I got that little tidbit, and it helped. That little tidbit that pointed you in the right direction was huge for me at this time. I use it a lot.

Kate:  As I lead study groups, the Gateway to Homeopathy study groups, every time I lead a group, I get something new out of that material in that book or something someone says.

Lisa:  Totally.

Kate:  And so, I just feel like you cannot study your materials — whatever it is that you’re studying — enough. Keep going over and over them like you said, because you’re going to find that little bit of information that you need. So, it will pop out this time to you, and it didn’t even faze you before. You didn’t even hear it before.

Lisa:  Totally, totally. And that’s with anything, absolutely with anything.

Kate:  With anything.

Lisa:  So, delve right in. Do it 100%.

Kate:  Yeah. Lisa, you shared with us so much. Do you have any closing remarks for those who are listening — anything that you want to share that you think would be important for them to know?

Lisa:  Yeah. So, for that person who is just starting out, this is kind of what would have helped me — had I heard it — is to not get overwhelmed because homeopathy is so big! It’s wonderful that it’s big because it’s a lifelong study, and you never get bored. You never get tired of it. It’s awesome! So, don’t get overwhelmed. Just get started. Just start. Learn it. Use it. Use your pets and your family and your friends as your guinea pigs to practice — who don’t mind if you get it wrong the first time, the second time. They’ll still keep with you, right? (Or they’re your family, and they have no choice.) Because that’s how we learn.

So, there are times when you will get frustrated, and you think that you can’t do it. But, you just keep trying. You keep learning, and you will get it — because that’s just how it works with anything. And then that feeling that you get when you’re able to help others is pretty addictive. Sometimes, it’s all you need to spur you on to keep reading and to keep learning.

For the more experienced person, I don’t know if I’m qualified to speak to those of you out there.

Kate:  I’m sure you are.

Lisa:  Here’s what I got. It took me a while to think about what I wanted to say. But, currently at this time, I want to say never underestimate the power of a good diagnosis. Because when I was first starting to learn homeopathy, classically, I thought that all I needed were the symptoms, and that was good enough. And sometimes it is; sometimes it isn’t. God gave us good doctors for a reason.

If I can just use one more example for myself — because I think it’s a good one — I got something on my finger. It was starting to get a little swollen. It started to get a little painful to the touch, and I didn’t know what it was. But, it had lasted for over a week. So, I knew that it wasn’t just a little cut or something. There was no cut. There was nothing. It was just a little swollen finger. I tried numerous remedies to no avail, and I was very frustrated. You start to second guess yourself and going, “Well, maybe this doesn’t work.” For some reason, you forget about all of the successes you’ve had in the past!

Kate:  It’s so true.

Lisa:  And then you second guess yourself. “Well, maybe I just suck at this homeopathy thing.” Right? You start to think those things!

Kate:  Yeah.

Lisa:  And then we’re sitting at the kitchen table, and my dad had come over. I said, “Dad, what is this?” He goes, “Looks like a little infection to me.” “Oh, okay!”

And, I had already started doing it that morning. Because I’d looked on the Facebook forum, and I’m looking through seeing if I can find any bit of tidbits, right, because I wasn’t getting anywhere by myself. And I thought, “You know what? Maybe it’s an infection. I can’t see anything. It is not super painful. But, I’m going to start.” So, I started the infection protocol, and then my dad confirms it. It started to work that night, and then it was gone within three days. Now, it’s like completely done. All I needed was a good diagnosis. And, apparently, homeopathy does work, and I don’t suck at it.

Kate:  Apparently, it still works!

Lisa:  Yes. So, that’s the thing. Even though you can be super-experienced — you’ve done it for a long time — you can still get those moments. But don’t be … what’s the word? Don’t be discouraged. Just keep doing it. You will find the answer. You will. So, don’t give up. You have to go back and remind yourself of all of those successes that you’ve had. Then, “Okay, I guess this will work.” So, the bottom line is don’t give up. Don’t give up!

Kate:  That’s when it’s great also to have like either someone to diagnose or a community of people to come alongside you and say, “Hey, what about this? What about this?” “Oh, I didn’t think about that.” And, I love that.

Lisa:  Yes, totally. I don’t have a lot of people, you know. I’m not from a really big place. So, not many people are into this. I’m the most knowledgeable in my area. So, I don’t really have anybody to help me. So, physicians — I think — are very helpful in that sense. And then I can go back and ask on the forum or go back to my books, you know? Stuff like that. Community is good. It’s really, really good, very important. No man is an island.

Kate:  Or woman, no woman.

Lisa:  Yes, yes.

Kate:  Well, thank you, Lisa. You’ve been an inspiration to me, and I loved our conversation. So, thank you for taking the time to share with us. I just appreciate you.

Lisa:  Thank you, Kate.

Kate:  You just listened to a podcast from PracticalHomeopathy.com where nationally certified homeopath, public speaker, and author, Joette Calabrese shares her passion for helping families stay strong through homeopathy. Joette’s podcasts are available on iTunes, Google Play, Blueberry, Stitcher, and TuneIn radio.

Thank you for listening to this podcast with Joette Calabrese. To learn more and find out if homeopathy is a good fit in your health strategy, visit practicalhomeopathy.com.

These Moms with Moxie podcasts are designed to be inspirational, not specifically educational. No Remedy Card is provided.