Homoeopathy is a very safe, effective, natural therapy that works by gently stimulating your body's great powers of self-healing.

Winter, and again coughs, colds and sore throats bother us. We have our favourite symptom relieving cures, hot toddies, echinachea drops, vitamin C, and non-prescription drugs. In an effort not to get sick, we are seeing people making more life style changes; moves towards natural good foods, exercise, not smoking etc.

Homoeopathy can treat disease, both acute and chronic when it occurs, but it also offers the chance of protecting a person's health. It is also excellent in first aid situations, and before and after surgery to maximise rapid healing.

What is less widely known about homoeopathy is that, if used properly, it can support a person's constitution, enhancing the immune system, the person becoming less susceptible to opportunistic micro-organisms.

Along with the general improvement to one's health, homoeopathy can also work to cure emotional and mental ailments; e.g. pre-menstrual syndrome, hyperactivity and antisocial behaviour, anxiety and panic attacks, and it can also relieve depression.

As with acupuncture, homoeopathic medicine works by stimulating the person's life force to enable the free circulation of life energy in the body and mind. It works with natural forces through the Law of Similars (like cures like), whereby a medicine that would cause symptoms in a healthy person, cures those symptoms in a person who is actually sick.

This natural law was mentioned in the writings of Hippocrates 2500 years ago. In 1790 the remarkable German physician, chemist, multi-linguist and classical scholar, Samuel Hahnemann re-discovered this phenomenon and spent the remaining 53 years of his life putting it on a reliable scientific footing. It is not just a theory but is based on over 200 years of actual experience. The old great homeopaths cured serious epidemic diseases like cholera, typhoid, scarlet fever, whooping cough and influenza. With the current fear of micro-organisms' increasing resistance to drugs, this is surely a comforting thought.

Because classical homoeopathy employs the use of the law of similars we have a form of medicine which is safe for all ages and is devoid of "side effects". The unique pharmaceutical preparation of the remedies, in which a minute amount of the medicine is used (in fact it is the energy latent in the medicine which treats the person's life force), results in gentle and effective cures.

Homoeopathic medicine does not suppress symptoms and does not disturb or make sick normal physiology the way large doses of drugs do. An added benefit is a gentle but powerful rise in a person's energy and sense of well being which accompanies the use of the correctly prescribed remedy.

Not only are people the grateful recipients of homoeopathic remedies, it is used on birds and animals, in particular dairy cows and race horses by homoeopathic vets.

What can you expect from a visit to your homoeopath? The initial consultation takes 60 - 90 minutes . Follow up sessions take 30 - 45 minutes. You will be asked many questions which enable the homoeopath to build up a symptom picture upon which your individual remedy will be prescribed.