My Homeopathic Life- Then and Now - What Has Changed in my Practice and Why
by Allison Maslan, RShom(NA), CCH
As homeopaths we view life as energy. Energy is in motion. Our goals are to keep the energy flowing and evolving. We know that when the energy becomes stuck or stagnant, our life force is suffering. In this case, we know that a good remedy will be the catalyst to clear to way for a return to health and freedom. Looking back over my twelve years as a homeopath, I realize that change is a very good thing. It means that my life force is moving, growing, expanding and evolving. My career as a homeopath has been a direct reflection of the evolution of my whole life.
There have been so many changes and influences since first opening my practice in 1995.
A deeper perception of my patients as I have developed a deeper perspective of myself.
A much clearer and broader understanding of remedies through their existence and participation in nature.
An insightful understanding of the remedies through thousands of hours of clinical observation and study.
Increased confidence in my work that results in the ability to be much more patient with the homeopathic process.
A calmness inside that has helped my clients feel relaxed and safe so that they can get to a deeper place than they have ever been before.
When I first began to practice, I was much more rigid in my homeopathic thinking and analysis. Take a good case. Understand the mental/emotional theme, find a strong particular symptom, a strange, rare and peculiar and a general or two. Find rubrics, repertorization, analyze my differential, and choose a remedy. Heal the patient of their main complaint and send them on their happy way. This system worked very well and continues to do so.
However, as the years have gone by, my view of life and the world has expanded. My mind has opened to the possibilities of “more” and “what ifs” and “why nots?” It was not enough for me to accept mediocrity in my personal and spiritual life. I have come to appreciate and strive for the profound aspects of life. That is why I could not settle in relationships until I found my soul mate. That is why I try to live each day with passion. That is why I continue to question my purpose and spiritual existence. (I give credit to a few great homeopaths and some good remedies for getting thus far!) Life is full of challenges and roadblocks. I have learned that making mistakes is quite all right. I have made many! It is what I do after the mistakes that keep my energy flowing in a forward motion.
My homeopathic practice has mirrored my personal growth in that I have broken the barriers of my thinking and intuitive process as I work with each patient. We have so many more remedy choices now than ever before. This forces us to think outside of the box of our typical remedy repertoire. The internet has given us botany and zoology at our fingertips. We continue to acquire new skills to tap into our patient’s unconscious energy patterns. In the past, delving beyond emotions and delusions was foreign territory. I feel blessed to be a homeopath at this time with such momentum in our field.
The key for me has been a to take each new level very slowly, step by step, like a child that must learn to walk before they run. Had I attempted to match energy patterns to remedies without the foundation of materia medica, homeopathic philosophy and insight and of the great homeopaths, such as Kent, Boeninghausen, Boericke, and Hering, I would be an inept prescriber. Had I had the naivety and irresponsibility to prescribe a remedy without the wisdom of the organon or the repertory, I would have failed miserably time and time again.
So the combination of my own personal growth and my steady climb up this homeopathic mountain of knowledge and practice, has given me the tools to see transformation every day in my office. What a gift! And the fun part is that a year from now, and ten years from now my view will change even more. How exciting is that? Energy flows wherever we put our intention so I intend to keep questioning the process and practicing the practice.
Here are some excerpts of cases from the past and now to illustrate the changes in my perception of the patient and homeopathic remedies.
1999 Apis Mellifica Case
I am a raging bitch always. I can’t live with myself. I yell at the girls all the time. I cannot stand my husband. He is driving me insane. He is like a child. He is so high energy; I cannot keep up with him. We have to be going, doing, and moving constantly. The stress of this move and this new house. I lost a beautiful property to this ugly house. I am glad to be away from the intensity of my old neighborhood, but I am missing my old home. My husband is so disorganized. A four-car garage packed with crap. I am feeling suffocated, I am angry all the time, I yelled at a cyclist. They were driving slowly. I am raging, like a vibration, or buzzing. Explosive if I don’t let it go. If I keep it in, if I control it I get angrier, letting it out is not appropriate.
I wake and feel a demon has left my body and I feel normal, happy, like I can look at the world positively, I hate Encinitas, the traffic, I feel pressured by my husband . He is always positive and it drives me insane. I don’t trust it, what are you hiding, be real. Everything is on the bright side. It drives me insane.
We always have to have some activity. I cannot sit still. Then I feel like I am the one that has to make kids do home work, go to bed, be responsible. I feel frustrated and overwhelmed. I cannot relax.
Follow-up:
I wake every morning feeling that other person has left my body. I feel normal and happy. I can face the world positively. Thank God!
2006 Apis Mellifica Case
I am ramped up, amped up. Forced to slow down and breathe.
Present, centered, disconnected, aware, rushing, revving, impatient.
Can’t type fast enough to keep up with my thoughts, read to next part, gogogogo. Jittery hands, life is circulating in and through me. Frenetic, electric shock. Jolting, zapping. numb, unconscious.
Dead, all this energy. Dead is hollow. Skittish energy on the outside. Hollow is empty void, vacant.
Like a cactus. Prickly, inside it can hold lots of water. It has a vascular system that can hold water, if it is dry it is empty. Outside it is plumped with prickly- zapping, jolting, and shocking. The cactus thorns, electricity, energy from this thorn to that torn.
I love to be productive. At the end when I finish, I may feel like hell, I am so tired and achy, but I got a lot done. Better to feel productive than feel good. Like an insect flitting around and purposeful and focused, zoning into a flower, going into the pollen. I see a flower and I focus and zone into the cone of the flower to get the cone out. I am incredibly focused. It is a cool feeling. I am landing. All my energy is focused forward. A bright pink flower and here I go in for the kill to get the pollen, focused, direct and I am on a mission. It’s powerful. Getting it done, all resources are going to that task. There is a s strange feeling of feeling vitally alive, but I feel hollow. I am doing it, that feels powerful, but my body says I am tired.
Tired- the energy is driving me instead of me being in control of it.
Draggy, spent, empty, hollow. Disconnected from the powerful, rushing external part of me and the empty hollow inside. I can’t reach inside of me, not breathing, numb. Fear to focus on the internal. Collapsing in on myself.
Tension in the rubber of the balloon - If I was the balloon and I stopped to breathe, it would just deflate. I am going and moving and chooooo and I deflate. The end spent, gone, no more energy or power.
The energy takes over and I can’t stop it anymore. Don’t get ahead of yourself. There is a tipping point. First I am in control. I am driving the energy and then I get revved up and energy gets away from me and I am moving my hands, outside still going. buzzyness in my extremities.
My thoughts are direct and focused. I need to move, totally impatient. No one get in my way. Rapid fire, productive.
Both are good illustrations of the energy of Apis. The first one goes deeper into the patient’s story. The recent one goes deeper into the patient’s state. Notice that I guided the 2nd patient into the state of the source and they took off from there. From this process, I am now able to understand the patient’s sufferings from a magnified perspective, giving me a much clearer vision. I am also learning so much more about the plant, animal or mineral remedy itself in this way.
I understood the buzzing, electrical, productive energy of the bee, but I did not comprehend the empty, hollow aspect until I read this in the British Homeopathic Journal.
“When a swarming colony is faced with the dark, empty cavity of an unfamiliar hive, those workers in the wax-producing stage of their lives will immediately start to create a new home.”
The patient said she felt disconnected from the external rushing and the internal hollowed emptiness. A beautiful illustration of the buzzing bee inside the hollow hive.
Both patients had very good results from the remedy. One view is not necessarily better than the other. However, with this deeper understanding of the patient and remedy, has led me to more and more accurate prescriptions.
Here is another comparison of a patient’s case from 2000, and the same patient in December of 2006.
2000- Susan R., Female age 27
Depression. Anxiety. Obsessing and worrying. PMS. Everything is exaggerated 2 weeks before my period. It comes and goes. Good and bad days. I am very high functioning. I am a runner and very athletic. I do everything right and I still feel awful. I do it all. Depression runs in my family. When I get in that place, I only see what is wrong and worry incessantly about it. I can’t let go of it. I obsess on working out.
Depression- I feel inside myself and withdrawn. Like a black cloud over me. This negativity. I am not able to see what is positive in my life. I am anxious and uncomfortable in my own skin. An underlying low- level angst.
Negative, heavy, weighted down, not feeling comfortable inside of myself. When I am in a good place I am hyper. I go at 100mph. Two weeks before my period, there is no excitement about me. It is like doing what I do but pulling weights behind me, No enjoyment. A lot of second guessing myself. Do people like me? Otherwise, I can be very comfortable. I am a leader, people are drawn to me. I am ultra responsible. There is no time to just be.
I run marathons. I work out 6 days a week. I am a mom. I see 30-40 patients a week. Interns are drawn to me and want to work with me. I have lots of energy, thriving in a lot of areas. I am very competitive. It creates a lot of anxiety for me. If I get a good time in a race, that is what I have to do next time, or better. I am wanting to be out in front. It is an adrenalin rush. It is more about competing with myself. I am driven, type A. I always succeed but it is anxiety provoking. I can’t just go out and have fun. I am in control, regimented, neurotic. I am on a schedule to work out. How fast per mile? It is sick. It is extreme.
I also have distorted body image stuff. How do I look? How thin am I? I am feeling fat (when I am not fat) Fear that I won’t be loved or attractive if I gain one pound.
The pace of my life can be so destructive. When I am feeling on top of the world, I feel empowered. I feel like my old self. I can do anything. Then, overnight, I don’t believe in myself and fear everything.
My fear is that I will not be the best and that I cannot perform. My best is not good enough. That I will give up and not go after anything. There will be nothing left.
The patient did well on Carcinocin. A year later I gave her Vanadium.
That was repeated and dosage increased over the past 6 years. The depression left, but her driven compulsivity and obsession with her weight and body image only improved slightly. She came back in December of 2006.
…fear I will be torn apart. I have survival issues, I have to run, hurry, get out of here, no relaxing. Aggressive, intense, fast, hurried, a goal, needing to accomplish, get something, adrenalin.
Stimulating, pleasurable, a rush, I love it. A high, energized, on top of the world. Fast. Manic, intense, angst, unsettled, anxiety, uncomfortable, can’t shut it off, can’t relax, obsessive. Sedentary, overwhelmed. Obsessing, low, unmotivated, lethargic, bi-polar. Like a bunny, but not fluffy and cute. Or a skunk or porcupine. An unpleasant small animal. Scared. They have to protect themselves. Ugly ways to protect themselves. They need to run fast or they are stuck and can’t get away. I would feel overwhelmed, sad, dark.
I push myself, it is grueling. I could not go any faster. I feel cramped inside. Like e a tiger in the corner waiting to pounce. I have such a big ego. I need to make it really hard on myself . A million miles an hour, invincible. I don’t know what normal is.
Cramping down tight, constricted, not alive inside myself. Needing to get a certain time or I am a failure. In the end if you fail, why bother. The cat is alone, moving fast, taking over the jungle and going for what it wants. It feels very strong, sleek. It has to be the best or it will not survive.
Susan R. has been on Cheetah 200c (Sanguis.AC Jubatus) (Cheetah) for the past six months.
From Divya Chabra’s notes on Wildcats: (Divya Chabra practices in Bombay, India and is the wife of Rajan Sankaran).
Looking at the pictures of them they generate the feeling of Power, Control, Strength, Ego. They say I am the Best.
Look at their Majestic walk. They express their aggression & need to win in competitive sports like squash & tennis, a liking for action movies. They like to push their limits but hate being pushed. They fear failure, degeneration, incapacity where they are dependent, weak & their survival is at stake.
The lion is said to be majestic, the leopard ferocious and shrewd. But elegant and graceful best describes the cheetah. The cheetah is smaller than the other two cats, but by far the fastest at speeds of 70 miles per hour it can run faster than all other animals. The cheetah is built for speed. It has long, slim, muscular legs, a small, rounded head set on a long neck, a flexible spine, a deep chest, non-retractable claws, special pads on its feet for traction and a long, tail for balance. Although fast, the cheetah cannot run at full speed for long distances (100 yards is about the limit) because it may overheat.
Follow-up March, 2007
I have never felt better. The other remedies have helped me so much. But now I am living my life with so much ease. I have no desire to push so hard, yet, I am still feeling accomplished. I threw my scale into the garbage and I even ran my last race without a watch! Before I was running through my life, now I am living in my life.
Do I still use the Materia Medica and Repertory? Of course I do! I look at every case from many angles and perspectives to make sure I have found a good fit for my patient. Do I also broaden my vision and scope beyond these resources? You bet I do! Just as I have broadened my vision of life and the Universe’s many unforeseen possibilities.
Allison Maslan, RShom(NA), CCH has enjoyed her private practice in Cardiff, California (San Diego) for the past 12 years. She founded the Homeopathic Academy of Southern California, based in San Diego.
www.homeopathicwellness.com