Autism and the Healing Process in Classical Homeopathy
Working with Love Helps Autistic Children
There have been ups and downs this last month for me with the autistic children I have been treating. Some parents make follow-up appointments for their children and don’t keep them. Some only schedule one follow-up and do not schedule beyond that, even though the children show very good progress at the first follow-up appointment, Very rarely the remedy selected after the initial consultation does not help, and the parents lose faith in the homeopath, refusing to try again and look for another homeopath. On the other hand, there are parents, who have a greater generosity of spirit, and are willing to give the homeopath a second chance.
What may be happening is that when difficult behaviors aggravate, which they are expected to do at some point, the parents get discouraged and look for a different homeopath, rather than coming back to me and opening up a dialogue and discussing what happened. Honestly, this hurts my feelings very deeply, because I put my heart and soul into the people I work with, and of course I grow to love them. This happened with three clients this month, and it is very discouraging. I have offered these parents complimentary follow-up appointments just to understand what happened.
On the other hand, I have had such heart warming success and progress with other families. The parents are willing to work with me. They understand how I use the chart of symptoms, and they are grateful for the gains they are seeing. This fills my heart with joy and is the reason why I am a homeopath.
From my experience, one of the greatest challenges in treating children with autism is helping parents understand the healing process and to develop the patience necessary to allow it to unfold. What I often see is that one of the parents is impatient, usually the father.. They see their son or daughter getting older and falling behind other children, and fear they will never catch up. Consequently they want everything to be done in a big hurry, and they are not willing to wait for the healing process to unfold in its natural time.
In this situation if we have 8, 10, 15 symptoms in the better category at the first follow-up appointment at seven weeks. They do not pay attention to this. Instead they look at what is aggravated, and they say nothing has happened. This may be because problematic behaviors overwhelm them or they are not seeing gains in cognition or language yet.
This is where I can make a mistake. I allow the impatience of the parents and their despair to sway me, even though I know that I need to stick to my principles, and follow the guidance in the chart of symptoms. In every case where I have permitted the impatience of the parents to influence me, it has not gone well, and these people no longer see me.
At this point, I have learned to be firm. I am the homeopath. The parents aren’t. I have to follow my experience and my judgment and not be swayed by the pressures of the parents. I listen to them with an open heart, but they have hired me to guide them and that is what I endeavor to do, From painful experience I have grown to be more mature and to hold my ground, especially as I am more aware of the negative results to the child when the parents put themselves in the driver’s seat and evict me.
When parents follow my guidance with regards to how to treat acute illnesses that appear during the course of treatment, and avoid antibiotics, that illness often turns into a blessing for the child. From my experience a big factor that jeopardizes the integrity of a homeopathic case in motion is antibiotics. It is very difficult to restore order following their use.
Today we had the first follow-up appointment at seven weeks for a child who had a fever the prior week. Since that fever two of the child’s chronic symptoms improved: hand stimming and teeth grinding.
Other symptoms that improved for the little boy in the initial seven week period were hyperactivity, constipation, looking from the corners of his eyes, uncontrolled laughing, stubbornness, and some gains in cognition.
The father, however, was concerned about the symptoms that were in the aggravated category. The meltdowns had increased, the sound sensitivity was aggravated, and sleep was disturbed.
Two old symptoms from the past came back. These were: storing food in his cheeks before swallowing, and the habit of opening and closing doors. Homeopaths like to see symptoms from the past showing up during the course of treatment, because the remedy or the vital force upon which the remedy acts, brings up what is in the cellular memory that has not been completely resolved in the past for treatment.
I explained to the father that the symptoms in the old and aggravated categories should improve by the second follow-up appointment at 14 weeks. The symptoms that are aggravated are in line to get better next. I also explained to him that the symptoms in the same category were the one’s that the vital force or life principle had not prioritized for yet. By the 14th week some of these symptoms should also improve, or they may move into the aggravated category, because symptoms often aggravate before they get better.
The father had a very good attitude. He could understand that homeopathy was not a magic bullet and he understood that the remedy sets in motion a healing process that unfolds over time, according to a wisdom that is greater than humans are endowed with. It is guided divinely. In the same way that a baby is made in the womb. We cannot fathom the millions of variables, and the grand coordination that brings this all together to create a beautiful baby.
It came to my attention that there is a question about the use of nosodes as a first prescription. I want to clarify that it is okay to start the case with a nosode. The traditional nosodes are Carcinosin, Medorrhinum, Medorrhinum americana, Tuberculinum bovinum, Bacillinum, and Syphilinum. They are to be treated in exactly the same way as any homeopathic constitutional remedy. They are prescribed based on their similarity with the child’s symptoms. I have several children on nosodes who are making wonderful progress with them. Nosodes are remedies that are made from disease substances, but are prepared in the traditional homeopathic manner through a process of serial dilution and succussion, to make them very safe healing agents.
Well, why did I write this article. it is to attest to the fact that there is indeed a relationship between the parents, the child and the homeopath. Ideally this relationship should be based on love and open communication and trust. You have found in me a very good homeopath. I am a modest person, but I feel that I have earned the right to say this. I have confidence in myself and in my work. My biggest challenge is to convince parents to have confidence in me.
This is important, because there are many homeopaths practicing without a solid foundation in homeopathic philosophy, homeopathic posology and methodology, and an understanding of materia medica, and very few have my years of experience. What I have learned from parents about the treatment they received from other homeopaths has truly shocked me. I despair as to the current state of homeopathy where people’s opinions about what a remedy does holds greater weight than what we learn about the remedies from the original provings.
I actually considered retiring last week, because of being so upset by the disrespect I received from some of the parents I worked with. Disrespect means being dismissed by parents without any explanation or discussion. I reconsidered the decision to retire, however, and am still at work, fueled by my joy in seeing children get better, and because I don’t work for myself. We all do what has been ordained to us to do by God, by talent and by inclination. I am not sure, really, how much freewill is at play here.
May God bless you and your beautiful children.
Wishing you health and happiness,
Deborah Olenev CCH RSHom (NA)
