Joanne is currently self-employed, following many years of working within the NHS helping adults with learning severe disabilities. She was successfully treated with homeopathy as a child, and has decided to train as a homeopath herself.
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Well this month has flown by since our first day back, and yet it felt like so much had happened. It was the school holidays and we managed to spend time away which was lovely, I was aware at times that my mind was preoccupied thinking of study, college and cases, and I felt a bit guilty of not giving my family my full attention. Coupled with this was the strangest feeling that I was doing some clinic practice as I kept meeting people whom after exchanging pleasantries about the nice weather would then tell me their ailments, childhood and life struggles to the point of crying, and then apologising for it, reflecting back I thought “Oh no I am making people miserable”.
I ventured to tell them of the wonders of homeopathy when they explained their medical issues were not getting any better. I said that recently I had had an infected thumb, and that it was spreading up my arm. I admitted that I went to the Drs having not been for 5 years, as I needed to check if it was indeed infected. The locum GP said I was to have antibiotics, of which I said ‘no thanks’, as I had worked so hard not to have anymore of them over the years. She looked on slightly perturbed, and said I could end up having surgery! I did feel the fear creep up in me, and then realised she had to protect herself, so I asked if I could have 12 hours first to try my homeopathy. My homeopath suggested a remedy that I took, and lo and behold, after four days it had all cleared up. I have to say this was a turning point for me as it’s all very well talking the talk, but I had never had an acute like this for me personally. I had to put my money where my mouth was and trust that it would work, much to the bemusement of my homeopath, as to her it was a no brainer.
It was amazing to see the healing with no side effects! This took me to another level of understanding the beauty of homeopathy. So my first day back at college I was tired and feeling a bit rushed, so much so that after two minutes into my journey I knocked the wing mirror off my partners van. He was very understanding luckily, and after a diversion around the countryside I was very keen to do our meditation before our lessons, which is always a treat. Our first day consisted of looking at chakras, one of my favourite subjects, we discussed the remedies for the base chakra, oak, clay, yellow, black obsidian and copper beech.The latter was so interesting in the way it stood alone, and related to people who were busy, no focus with no concept of time. I thought this is so me I must try some; this tends to happen a lot when looking at remedies I find. We covered some other remedies, and different types of seizures in epilepsy and remedies to support them. I certainly felt I had covered a lot and was looking forward to the following day.Sunday was spent mainly focused on how to set up practice and promote ourselves, through branding and using social media. This I admit I found difficult to see myself doing, as my skills of technology are very antiquated due in part to my resistance; typing this diary and on-line shopping are about as much as I can do. I have to say though, it certainly made me think about how I was going to start out, and I was very grateful for the tools that were shown as to how to expand ourselves, and make homeopathy more in line with the ever changing pace of modern society. It was a great weekend, I loved spending time with my classmates, and feeling all the positivity around really inspired me to keep moving forward.
I was so excited about going back to college after our summer break. I never imagined I would ever feel this way, as my tendency is to over-think, whilst meandering along the country roads up to the peaceful surroundings of the college! My internal dialogue of the self doubts and “what if” moments all parade around as if to test me. Taking stock of myself I congratulate myself for the fact that I have finally entered the third year without ‘legging it’, as it has been a challenge for me personally. I realise, yes it will be harder, and yes I need to put in the study, but I know deep down that I will trust the process and universe, so with this in mind I will just go with it and go for it! I will remember that I am imperfectly perfect and that this is a journey like no other and this is why I feel so passionately about homeopathy.
As a child I had always had a keen interest in playing Dr, and loved bandaging my two unsuspecting younger twins and administering some sort of made up medicine whilst delving into a biology book with great gusto. I think this stemmed from witnessing nurses, Drs etc visiting my mothers nursing home that she had. My first recollection of homeopathy was as a child, my mother would always take us to a homeopath and yet I never really followed suit other than taking Arnica later in life. Looking back I think I was rebelling against her holistic outlook as she was always very passionate about the correlation between diet and health, she loved plants and herbs, I however was a grumpy teenager and was having none of it!
After many years of varying different unfulfilling careers and bringing up three children (my eldest now 27 yrs, and a 12 and 10 yr old), I was striving to regain my health via the holistic approach interwoven with allopathic treatment. I came to a real typical crossroads of feeling lost and wanted to summon the strength to move on in a way that felt right for me. The turning point came when my GP of twenty years said of the holistic treatment I was having; “when it doesn’t work come back to me”. This very casual remark had such an impact and I realised I was in charge of my own health and so this sparked my desire to venture further into other systems of medicine.
I recognised that the “one size fits all” did not feel right and that there were other ways to treat and ultimately heal. I recognised my healing was also my journey to a new potential career. So I searched around and found the perfect place for me to study in relation to travel, study days and clinic training. I did however tip toe in via a taster day of which I was grateful as it still gave me the option to leave! I enjoyed it, so joined up for the first aid day which was so invaluable as I felt it underpinned the foundation of the first year and is a wonderful way of being introduced to the beauty of the remedies. The visuals of that day are still etched well and truly and I still reference them now when I’m stuck on a remedies key note. So here I am in my lessons reviewing the miasms, of which I am grateful to be doing again as although I understand the predisposition to disease from our ancestors and I hope I will be able to use it a lot in my cases, I find it very frustrating at times! Over the two days we covered various remedies with well delivered lectures incorporating visual aids and music which is a much easier way for me to learn, and even if I have a few key notes it all helps in understanding the remedy. We also cover the passion in ourselves that makes us understand we are all going to have our individual way of treating, our evolving practices and how we manage our cases. All in all, it has been a fab weekend, and here’s to year three!