When I first started working in a health shop in 1990, I was fortunate to land up in one of the Weleda flagship shops of the time. This was the Natural Remedies Centre (NRC) in Claremont, Cape Town. As well as being an excellent heath shop, NRC was one of the few shops to supply both complexes and single homeopathic remedies to the public. As I was learning the ropes in the shop I became aware of the complexities and depth of the alternative therapies available at the time, and gradually I realised that homeopathic remedies and treatment offered a thoroughness of approach that no other form of therapy equalled at that point. The more I learned, the less I seemed to know, and I then decided to deepen my studies into this modality of treatment.

In 1997 I was accepted to study towards a Masters Degree in Homeopathy at what was then called the Witwatersrand Technikon in Johannesburg. After completing this degree, I initially practised in Johannesburg for a short time, then in Cape Town and Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape for six and a half years. This included working at the well-known St Francis Health Centre in Port Alfred and running a private practice in Makhanda. Anneliese Cowley, the owner and director of St Francis, was a wonderful person to work under and during those first few years of practice she mentored me in many ways, teaching me a great deal about naturopathic and homeopathic treatments and how to best treat people with very different problems.

When I came to Cape Town in 2015 my intent was to start up in private practice immediately. This was delayed by the death of my 19-year old son in a motorbike accident. In the end, I only started up in practice in 2018. In the meantime I attended as many kinesiology courses as possible. I expanded my knowledge base in terms of learning the very broad application of various techniques and found that kinesiology as a therapy type has a much greater field of use than I had at first thought possible.

During that time I experienced a process of great healing and was able to personally resolve a lot of the issues that had troubled me for years. This experience, coupled with my experience as a homeopath, stands me in good stead when helping my patients to come to a better understanding of their illnesses and the issues linked to them.

My particular interests include the mind-body connection, the long-term effects of trauma and stress leading to issues of anxiety, depression, stress, ADD, ADHD, allergies, memory issues and chronic as well as catastrophic disease. My personal focus lies on the connections between the brain, energy treatments, the arts and wellness and research about any of the above. In my experience most illness can be cured if shifts in habits, attitude and energy states can be achieved. Sometimes a change in just one of those things can be so beneficial as to be life-altering. Through the use of the correct remedies and education of the patient, the health of the person or persons involved can noticeably shift towards greater well-being and comfort.

For exactly this reason I was interested in a more direct physical interface or connection between the dimensions of body-mind-spirit. I came across kinesiology for the first time whilst working at St Francis Health Centre in the Eastern Cape. Anneliese Cowley, then owner and leader of the St Francis team, explained and showed me some basic kinesiology techniques which then became a standard part of my consultations whenever appropriate. When I moved to Cape Town, I immediately started Kinesiology training with the International College of Professional Kinesiology Practice.

Studying kinesiology was like becoming reacquainted with a very old friend … the techniques immediately felt comfortable and were easy to combine with my homeopathic case-taking skills and knowledge. In my practice I use Kinesiology to shift energy blockages in a gentle and deep manner, transforming en-during negative patterns towards more positive states.

Homeopathic remedies are essentially energy medicines, and as our understanding of quantum and/or nano-worlds increases, our understanding of homeopathy and its action within the patient will become more detailed. My interest in research is based on the belief that we are going into a new phase of research, that of a fusion between quantitative and qualitative research types. I believe that the combination of both approaches will be a considerable improvement on the simpler, single type approach to research and that it will open up many new avenues of investigation. From current research I also know that using newer and more advanced technological approaches such as electron microscopy or light scattering techniques is the way forward for functional homeopathic research. Clinical research is an old and enduring part of homeop-athy and is still a big part of the profession.