Biochemic Therapy or Homeopathy?

Friends and fellow students have asked me why I initially suggest Biochemic Therapy rather than Homeopathy. There are several reasons for this decision.

One reason is that I choose to keep my service fees low so that anyone who wishes to try holistic care can feel comfortable ‘dipping their toes’ into this approach. While the results from using cell salts (and/or flower essences) can be quite profound (although rarely as dramatic as Homeopathy sometimes is), the process of selection of the remedy is not as complex and time-consuming as Homeopathy can be.

In many ways cell salts are easier for us to work with. Many people just beginning to learn about holistic care and the concept of potentized remedies may do better starting with cell salts. The cell salts are taken in a slightly mechanistic manner that is reminiscent of the allopathic medicines (but without the suppression!) that the average person is used to which can provide a ‘comfort zone’ to the individual. One simple example is, say someone needs an antacid - instead of taking an antacid drug that is suppressive, why not take a few tablets of Nat phos which works within the system naturally to regulate acid balance.

Defining Holistic Care

I would like to present some considerations for your review when thinking about how to approach your own health care and that of those you love.

To begin, what are the basic differences between the meaning of natural or holistic health care? 

First, let’s look at “natural”:

~ To me, ‘natural’ means not synthetic or artificial or ‘against nature’. 

~ The Merriam-Webster On-Line Dictionary says that the word “natural” comes from the Latin naturalis which means ‘of nature’ and the second definition is: “being in accordance with or determined by nature” and “having or constituting a classification based on features existing in nature”. 

Next, what is “holistic”?

Basics of Cell Salts

Biochemic Therapy involves using natural constituents of the body (mineral salts) to provide the body with the support it needs to become healthy again – not by providing the minerals in gross material amounts but rather homeopathically prepared via trituration so that the body’s system is gently, energetically stimulated to properly assimilate and utilize the minerals it needs to regain balance. I have studied Homeopathy, however, cell salts are neither nutritional supplements nor Homeopathic remedies, per se, but rather they are sort of in between (part material and part information) when viewed from a biochemic perspective.

Self-Care

photo courtesy Kerry N. Barlow, all rights reserved

Because I've spent decades seeking ways to support myself mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically via natural and holistic means, a recent post on the Feminism and Religion blog captured my attention: how do we provide ourselves with self-care when society demands that we stay too busy to do so? There is no easy answer because it comes down to personal choice about where each of us is willing to draw the line and create wellness boundaries.

For me, self-care has always required extensive amounts of solitary time. I also choose to live as often as possible in a nourishing landscape (which is different for each of us). Added to that has been the choice to become responsible for my own healing remedy selection through intensive study: energy work (Reiki), homeopathy, flower essences, and Ayurveda. These are all self-care options, though there are many more available, that resonate with my desire for spiritual as well as mind-body support. Through these, I created what I call the Five Petal Path to healing.

I will write more later about the Five Petal Path, but for now I wish to send compassion and healing to everyone who is still struggling to find their own unique self-care path.

Blessings!

An Open Letter to Dr. Weil

The following open letter was written as a "public argument" assignment during a course at the University of Arizona. A copy of the letter was sent to Dr. Weil at the Center and to The Daily Wildcat (the UA's student paper).

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A True Integration of CAM and Homeopathy:

Educational Outreach Programs for College Students

An Open Letter to Dr. Weil, Founder and Director 

of the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrative Medicine

Dear Dr. Weil,
          I admire your success at incorporating complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) into the University of Arizona (UA) College of Medicine’s curriculum twenty years ago. It has been an excellent resource for UA medical students to explore all aspects of healing. But why stop there? You have a unique opportunity through the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine (“the Center”) to develop an on-campus educational outreach program for rest of the UA students’ benefit. I salute your commitment to uniting CAM and conventional medicine through the Center. However, to move toward true integration—which means going beyond the limitations of educating only health care professionals—requires reaching out as well to non-medical students who may be unaware of CAM’s many benefits. Most of them would greatly benefit from knowing about CAM’s uses in acute care and first aid; homeopathy, in particular, is an incredible system for addressing both prevention and healing.

The Substance of Homeopathy: Fact or Fiction?

I am pro-homeopathy. The following paper was written as a controversy analysis for a course at the University of Arizona; in this particular context, it provided me with the opportunity to take a look at both sides of a long-standing controversy within homeopathy: placebo or not. As far as I'm concerned, homeopathic remedies are effective and are not placebo. 

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Did you know that Arizona is home to a college dedicated to the study of homeopathy, a controversial medical system? To elucidate briefly, homeopathy is a two-hundred-year-old medical system, using highly diluted natural substances as its medicines. In the United States, homeopathy falls into the category of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) as designated and regulated by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), which is under the governmental direction of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Homeopathy is, however, taught and used in other parts of the world; Great Britain, Denmark, Germany (the home country of its founder), France, Cuba, and India all currently teach and use homeopathy in various forms to a much larger extent than done here in the United States. The three prime reasons for its continued use around the world are that homeopathy is nontoxic, effective, and ranges from costing little to being relatively inexpensive depending upon how it is used and by whom.

The Healing Script

Writing is a powerful form of healing, whether one chooses to explore through the imagination, self-reflection, stream of consciousness, or a myriad of other paths...

Journey Into Soul and Soar With Spirit

Contemplative writing is known in various spiritual communities as a way to tap directly into a connection with Soul, Spirit or Source. One definition of contemplation is “A concentration on spiritual things as a form of private devotion – A state of mystical awareness of God’s being.” 

The process I share with others is one I discovered during my own Journey of Soul Inquiry, and later explored further through Reflections of a Journey. I wanted to feel a different catalyst, a different stimulant, to my morning pages of writing; to see an image and write what I envision and feel and imagine. I was seeking a beautiful way to dive into my root energy, beat in rhythm to my heart energy, and soar to the transcendent--to find a method for opening more deeply into my Self and that which is Sacred.

When I lost my sense of purpose, I went on a pilgrimage to Crete and that journey is shared through my memoir Minoan Messages on the Gaia Path. My book expresses perspectives on eclectic earth-based spirituality as well as how earth divinity supports the universal relatedness of women’s journeys and our subsequent healing through those experiences. Another memoir has been Desert Fire on the Gaia Path: Befriending the Monster in My Mind, which details my struggle to understand the effect of desert landscape upon mind-body-soul. My paths as spiritual seeker and practitioner of earth-energy healing modalities have merged; this union enhances my ability to not only explore inner and outer landscapes, but to share my perceptions of them in a variety of unique ways that includes metaphor and tales of the ancient past.

Writing is another way into the flowering of body, mind and soul that is the core essence of Pushpavati Ayurveda. My article Word Soup, published at All Things Healing, describes one form of healing writing. 

Let’s travel together. I'm available for private sessions or to facilitate group writing. (The guidance I provide is from personal experience and study, rather than any certification as a "journal therapist.")

I trust that the messages and impressions created through my writing and shared in my books will touch you as they have me, bringing inspiration and insight, joy, and healing reflection. May they open you to explore new ways of being and doing in the world, whether through your own process, or through the messages that were revealed to me.

My books are available in print and digital at