Last July I ran I homeopathic proving of a new remedy made from the ashes of White Leaved Oak. It was an extraordinary process which you can read about here. The remedy has been trialled by various homeopaths during the last year and I am beginning to spread the word. Last week I spoke about it at Hellens Garden Festival and just after Solstice, I will be sharing information at Soul Medine Festival. If you want any more information, please do get in touch.

All homeopathic students are required to observe homeopaths in practice but it is often hard to do so. I have been teaching for many years and it occurred to me that I could give to my own community as well as the community of students at the same time. I am setting up a low cost clinic on a Wednesday which will be observed by students over Zoom. Clients will benefit from reduced consultation fees and students will be able to learn and expand their experience. The usual rules of confidentiality will be followed and the person receiving treatment will see only me (unless they wish to view the students). If you know of anyone who might benefit, please do ask them to contact me.

One of my most exciting achievements of 2023 was leading what is known as a homeopathic ‘proving’ or development of a new remedy, made from the ash of the Whiteleaved Oak.

Whiteleaved Oak

The southern end of the Malvern Hills was home to a very special tree for hundreds of years. Sadly it burnt down in 2020, marking the end of a long era of being a sacred spot for many people who came to make offerings, give thanks, pray, meditate, ask questions and find comfort. It was also a beautiful place so always attracted picnickers and those who just wished to spend time, play or socialise around it. When it burnt down, I went to the site expecting to feel a huge sense of grief. This was, after all where I had come with my childrens’ father when we first met, where I spent my first Mothering Sunday as a mother, where I had come to think and find stillness, where my children and I had played and climbed. What I found when I arrived was a smouldering dragon, the air full of ash and the ground hot from the fire that still burnt underneath the soil and the rocks.

I also felt a great sense of peace, completion and a feeling that, although it was the end of an era, it was the right time for that ending. My children and I stayed for three hours (which felt like one) and during that time, many people came and went. Some I knew and some I did not but there was a great sense of community, of sharing and connection. It was a humbling and very nurturing day. The energy of the place spoke so deeply to me that I took some of the ash with the intention of making a remedy from it. For many reasons, it was not ‘proved’ until the last weekend of the homeopathy college I was teaching at in July but when the use of the remedy became apparent, it all felt incredibly synchronous. During a proving, no-one knows what is being tested but all homeopathic remedies reflect the material they are sourced from. It was fascinating to see how the substance translated into symptoms. There are too many to list but some that stood out were:

• Heaviness, weariness, needing to rest or put the head down, exhaustion.
• Marked difference between left and right – strong urge to lean head to one side, tension on the right side of the head, neck and body, joint pain. The right side felt tense and painful, the left side expansive and more relaxed.
• Coughing and needing to clear the throat. Dry throat and thirst.
• Eyes sore, tense, itchy and watery.
• Heat followed by cooling and chills.
• A feeling of being present and observing with less thoughts than usual.
• Strong need to connect and find community to heal and go forward.
• An awareness of burdens that needed to be shed in order to go forward.
• Themes of transition, clearing out, going forward, new ways of being.

I recently came across this NICE report which is actually from 2021 but had escaped my attention. It refers to chronic pain and states that:

“People with chronic primary pain should not be started on commonly used drugs including paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, benzodiazepines or opioids. This is because there is little or no evidence that they make any difference to people’s quality of life, pain or psychological distress, but they can cause harm, including possible addiction”.

“Pain that lasts for more than 3 months is known as chronic or persistent pain. In the UK the prevalence of chronic pain is uncertain, but appears common, affecting perhaps one-third to one-half of the population. The prevalence of chronic primary pain is unknown but is estimated to be between 1 and 6% in England. Chronic pain that is caused by an underlying condition (for example, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, endometriosis) is known as chronic secondary pain. Where the cause of the pain is unclear it is called chronic primary pain.”

The guideline recommends treatments which have shown to be effective including exercise, CBT and acupuncture. Homeopathy is not mentioned but, according to other studies, this could be seen as an oversight. This article says that deserves to be a first-line treatment due to its safety, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness. Interestingly this article points to reasons that homeopathy is not more widely researched. It refers to the individualisation of treatment which, admittedly, does make it harder to compare to standardised conventional treatment. However, this it is its key strength – that the precise pain symptoms and characteristics of the individual are analysed in detail to ensure that the remedy that best suits the client is given. That is not to say that there is not robust research because there is plenty. I will not provide lists here but, just as an example, this research shows that homeopathy is effective in lower back pain.

It may not be chronic pain but researchers from the Medical University of Vienna say that homeopathy dramatically improves the mental and physical well-being of cancer patients who are being treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Half the 410 cancer patients, who were prescribed individual remedies, reported “significant improvements” in their levels of fatigue and pain, and had better appetites, than those who weren’t given the remedies. Improvements ranged from seven to 14 times in those taking homeopathy.

From my point of view, the remedies themselves are effective in receiving pain but, more importantly, work to address the underlying cause of pain so that the symptoms become less troubling. This may involve looking at inherited predispositions, injury, physical factors, old trauma, emotional root causes, tension, nutrition, toxicity, drug side-effects and concurrent symptoms. It may also involve dealing with the emotional response to the pain which in itself can be debilitating. By working on many different levels, clients benefit from long-term relief from pain and other issues.

Ultimately. we all want to live as painlessly as possible so that everyday feels easier and more enjoyable.

Here’s to more life and less pain.

A huge thank you to all of my clients wrote down their homeopathic journeys to be included in this beautiful image. If you look closely, you can see that each ‘seed’ in the sunflower head is a photograph of someone holding a poster with their stories on. And what a range there were – homeopathy has helped people with conditions literally from A to B.

There’s a lovely (very short) video here about how one person came to homeopathy.

This was part of Homeopathy Awareness Week which also drew attention to the fact that homeopathy is an environmentally sustainable approach to health. You can find out more here.