COMING OUT! UNDERCOVER HOMEOPATH'S FIRST PATIENT

I am reminiscing, thinking about my first ever patient!  Do you remember yours? 

I don’t mean your child, your partner or the neighbour’s cat… although I’m sure those first healing experiences, perhaps while you were still at college, would bring you some fond memories too!

Most of us homeopaths, perhaps therapists in general, go through similar stages in the development of our healing careers:

First we try it on ourselves, then as we become a bit more confident we start to try it on our loved ones, then we spread out into the community and start to try to help those around us…

But then it comes the Day! 

Yes, I mean that day… when we are no longer supervised by a tutor at college, when we are on our own!  When someone we’ve never met before, comes through our door, steps in our life, looks at us as no one has ever looked before – and expects to be treated!  This is our real first patient: the one who can set the tone of our healing practice forever…

In my case, my first patient was a complete stranger, not a recommendation from a friend or a neighbour. 

Having completed my course in Homeopathy and Shamanic Healing, having sorted out my professional indemnity insurance, I felt no closer to become an established therapist!  I lacked the connections, I lacked the confidence, and I realised that I needed to gain more experience fast or I would become another casualty on the pile of discarded graduates who would never practice… it happens a lot! 

If some of you reading this are currently students: don’t despair, there is hope, but you must act fast! 

The longer you wait after you have completed your course to start practicing the less the chances you have of establishing yourself as a successful practitioner…

I decided to place an advert on Gumtree offering three free sessions of homeopathic treatment and the remedies! 

I explained that I was a homeopathy student, as although I had completed my course, I still saw myself as a student at this stage.   I had over fifty replies, and I agreed to see most of them.  All I asked was for a brief history of what they needed treated and the commitment to come to three consultations and to take the remedies. 

Most of the people who replied were of all ages, but female.  I had a few inquiries from males too, but most of them sounded either positively psycho types or they weren’t willing to travel for their appointments. 

So I was down to just one male patient who also happened to be the first one available for consultation on my list of new patients.  It was a case of dermographia, a skin condition similar to hives.

Having had a few strange inquiries from the other males, and realising that I was in a vulnerable position, being a female and having agreed to see a complete stranger at my home alone…

I was a little aphrensive! 

Asking a friend to be with me wasn’t an option, as I have strict guidelines about patient’s confidentiality.

So there I was : having gone through all my medical books and college notes on skin disorders, having checked my BNF for the side-effects of the antihistaminic drug he had been taking for seven years, having looked in the materia medica of all the possible remedies mentioned on the homeopathic repertory that could match his condition , having reviewed my case taking technique, and having made a list of all the questions I wanted to ask him…

I was feeling totally unprepared, vulnerable, and nervous about this first appointment!  

And I wondered if he would think me nosy for asking a long list of questions that to someone unfamiliar with homeopathy could seem completely irrelevant to the case…how do you help a complete stranger to be able to confide their most inner secrets to you? But without that, how are you ever going to be able to treat them?

Bang on time the bell rang! 

I answered the door, we shook hands.  I led this pleasantly smiling man in his mid-thirties into my consulting room, and as I signalled at a chair for him to sit, he said: “I’m gay.” I said: “Oh good… take a seat!” He looked positively astonished by the look of relief on my face...

…He apologised for not having told me before but he felt that he would rather come and tell me personally even if I decided not to treat him… I explained that I thought it was a good sign that he felt he could confide in me:

The trust of the patient and the unprejudiced attitude of the therapist are the basis for successful homeopathic treatment. 

I explained that I was absolutely fine and happy to treat him regardless of his sexual orientation. 

As we went through his case details, and through his life history, I realised why it was so important for him to tell me that he was gay – it had nothing to do with what needed to be treated, and yet it was such an important part of his life that it couldn’t and it shouldn’t have been omitted!  This man was an activist for Homosexual people’s rights!  His entire existence revolved around promoting equality and speaking out for people who felt discriminated against because of their sexual orientation…

He told me also about the family problems earlier in his life when as a teenager, he decided to come out: the fact that his dad refused to accept his sexuality had been very difficult for him at the time and had taken years to heal. 

He told me how he felt insecure and under threat in some countries he had visited.  He told how he felt for not being able to have a spontaneous gesture of affection towards the person he loved, like holding hands, in public…

You see, none of this had directly to do with dermographia… but have I not known this I would have missed out the core, the essence of this human being!

So here it is a big thank you to my lovely first patient! 

And here is also a thank you to all the patients who have subsequently come through my door, for teaching me about human kind and kindness…  

They have been brave enough to tell me their life stories, to show me their vulnerable side, and to be completely honest about themselves…not all of them have been as straightforward as my first patient, some of them don’t even know themselves that well until we start talking, but they all get there in their own time. 

Without you all I would have been a completely different person!   

By the Undercover Homeopath