Remedy Selection

How to decide

Remedy selection and choosing the best fitting remedy can be a tricky business.  Often you will look at a remedy and Bingo!,  it has all the symptoms you are looking for and so prescribing is easy.   However, sometimes two or three remedies share the same symptoms and look equally relevant to the person we are trying to help. 

This is a very common issue when using Homeopathy.  We spend time gathering the details of the symptoms for the condition and the person we are trying to help, we check our resources in search of the best fitting remedy and find that there are two or more remedies showing the symptom picture,  you try to narrow it down as best you can but can find that you’re still left with two or more that fit the bill.  So how do you decide which one is the best remedy selection for now?

 

Make sure you have the right Information to help with Remedy Selection

• Sometimes we can have too much or too little information and that makes if difficult to narrow down remedies.
• When gathering the information you should look for symptoms that are different from the person’s normal state. You should discount symptoms which are normal for that person, e.g. if they are thirsty but they are normally a thirsty person then remove this symptom.
• Is there a striking or unusual symptom? For example, a Dry mouth but with no thirst.

 

CLAMS is a very useful acronym to help you remember what information to collect.

• Concomitants – this is a secondary symptom that occurs alongside the main symptom, but may not seem related, e.g. Main symptom headache with back pain.
• Location – where is the ailment being felt – where is the main complaint? e.g. A sore throat – which side is it?  Does the pain extend to another location like the ear?
• Aetiology – Is there an identifiable cause for the complaint.  Was there an accident that caused a physical injury,  was there exposure to elements like cold winds or excessive sunshine, was there an emotional trigger, perhaps a shock such as receiving bad news or having an argument with a friend/relative. 
• Modalities – what makes the symptoms better or worse? e.g.  stomach pain that is better for having heat on it or headache that is worse for lying on left side. 
• Sensation – what sensations can be felt?  Is there pain, if so is it stabbing, sharp, stinging, burning?  Is there throbbing? Is there tingling?  Does it feel hot? Does it feel cold? 

 

Once you have collected the information based on CLAMS

• Prioritise the symptoms – what are the most important ones, for example the main symptom and/or the strongest symptoms. Is there an unusual symptom, something striking?  Put these high on your list.  Your chosen remedy should cover these symptoms and often these symptoms will lead you to one remedy only
• Go through the rest of the symptoms in priority order and compare remedies and see which one fist the most important ones.
• To compare remedies you can look through a book about remedies (known as a Materia Medica) such as Boericke, or you can use an app to help you choose for example Homeopathy at Home
• At the end, if it is still difficult to narrow down to one remedy, trust you intuition. You will have a gut feeling about which remedy is the right one to use for now so go with this remedy.

 

Please remember, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to choose the “right” remedy.  If you have followed the information above and two remedies are well indicated, they will be very similar in their actions and therefore it’s likely that they will both be useful in treating the condition, so really there is no wrong choice here.  You may find that the first remedy that you choose doesn’t quite work, in which case try the second one.   

Good luck with your Remedy Selection!!

 

Homeopathy is truly a wonderful gift and I’m so excited that you are interested in knowing more. 

Visit www.cg-homeopathy.com for more information

or to book a FREE 15 min Discovery call.

Read Blog – What Do People Say After Their 1st Consultation?