When I tell people what I do, the first question they ask is 'what is homeopathy'.
The name homeopathy itself is a bit of a tongue twister until you break it down into components.
Homoeo means 'like' in Greek.
Pathos means disease.
So, by putting the two together, homeopathy actually means 'like disease', or 'curing disease with like'.
In essence, the philosophy behind homeopathy is that it heals by giving a sick person the same homeopathic medicine that will cause the exact same sickness when given to a healthy person.
Like cures like.
In comparison, western medicine is often called allopathy.
'Allos' means 'other' in Greek.
In other words, disease is treated with unrelated or other medicines.
Let's look at an example of homeopathy in action.
I'm sure you well know the effect that cutting an onion has on your eyes and nose.
They stream with profuse, watery discharge, and your nose may become itchy.
The homeopathic medicine Allium cepa is made from the Spanish onion.
It is one of the main medicines for hay fever where you have profuse, watery discharge from your eyes and/or nose.
Your nose may itch from the acrid discharge.
Allium cepa can completely resolve hay fever with these symptoms.
Lets look at another example.
It is commonly known that coffee may keep some people awake at night.
It is often used to do just that.
The homeopathic medicine Coffea, made from the raw coffee beans, is one of the main medicines to settle over excitement.
Think of a child who is so excited the day before their birthday or Christmas.
So excited, they can't sleep.
The medicine Coffea settles the excitement, allowing sleep.
The unasked question behind the question 'what is homeopathy' is 'how does it work'.
Your body is highly intelligent.
It is always striving to heal itself.
And it mostly can, but sometimes there are blockages to this healing.
Symptoms are expressions of blockages.
They will start on your emotional or mental level first.
If you ignore these, they start to appear as physical symptoms.
These are more difficult to ignore.
Lets give an example.
A child falls from her pony, breaking her arm.
She recovers physically, but remains scared of riding again.
She has become stuck at the injury.
A year later, she is diagnosed with appendicitis, which is not only indicated by severe abdominal pain, but also by a high white blood cell count.
She is treated homeopathically with the medicine Arnica.
Not only does her abdominal pain disappear, as does the high white blood cell count, but so does her fear of riding.
The blockage stopped her healing her abdominal pain.
Now her blockage is removed, she is healthy once again.
Homeopathic medicines don't cure you.
They remove the blockages that prevent your body curing itself.
In a nutshell, the answer to your question of 'what is homeopathy', it is the removal of blockages, so your body can cure itself.
It is a gentle, very deep system of medicine that can resolve genetic blockages that go back generations, as well as the more recent ones.
You can use some of the common medicines yourself at home, for mild disturbances.
But the real work comes with genetic resolution.
Because homeopathy works in the same direction your body is working, you don't experience any side effects.