Homoeopathy is one of the scientific systems of medicine based on the principle, ‘SimiliaSimilibusCurantur’, meaning’ likes cure likes’. Homoeopathy is an effective system of healing which assists the natural tendency of the body to heal itself. Homoeopathy takes a different approach from conventional medicine in diagnosing, classifying and treating medical problems.

For Hahnemann the whole of the body and spirit was the focus of therapy, not just the localised disease. Hahnemann spent extended periods of time with his patients, asking them questions that dealt not only with their particular symptoms or illness, but also with the details of their daily lives. Gentle approach of homoeopathy was a reaction to the violent forms of ‘heroic medicine’ common at the time which included techniques such as bleeding as a form of treatment.

it is best to consult an experienced homoeopathic practitioner, for a ‘constitutional’ remedy that fits the characteristic symptoms of the case, and considers the person’s physical condition and individual nature in a more comprehensive way. In a typical first visit, a homoeopath interviews a patient in detail – to take a careful history and elicit information about many aspects of the person’s state of health – before choosing a remedy.The homoeopathic diagnostic method centres around what is called a case-taking of the patient’s background, family conditions, hereditary body conditions, work situation, social situation, plus all the symptoms perceived by the patients and, preferably, also by persons close to the patient. By ‘symptom’ homoeopathic practice refers to anything perceived as not usual.

“Homoeopathic potentiation is a mathematico-mechanical process for the reduction, according to scale, of crude, inert or poisonous medical substances to a state of physical solubility, physiological assimilability and therapeutic activity and harmlessness, for use as homoeopathic healing remedies” (Stuart Close, The Genius of Homoeopathy).Another cornerstone of homoeopathy is the potentiation of medicines. Potentiation is a process that involves a series of precise dilutions and succussions (a vigorous shaking action). A substance has to undergo this process to be useful as a homoeopathic remedy.