Category Archives: About Homeopathy

Contact Details

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How to contact Alison to find out more about Homeopathy

To contact Alison call 01234 315022
email: contact@classicalhomeopath.org

Alison is happy to discuss her approach to the consultation with you before you decide to book an appointment.

Appointments are available Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

Alison Jones is based in Bedford, she sees homeopathy clients from Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire and surrounding areas.

If travelling is difficult for you, Alison offers homeopathy consultations with her clients via telephone or Skype worldwide.

Address
15 Glebe Road, Bedford, MK40 2PL United Kingdom

A patient’s experience of homeopathy and thoughts on Richard Dawkins

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I can feel a rant coming on so you can either leave now or hold on tight and stay for the ride.

This one is for Richard Dawkins and his warped logic which states that because he is an atheist, Homeopathy is merely a health fad and is a waste of time and money.
Well Dawkins put this in your pipe and smoke it.
I have been using homeopathic first aid since my kids were little and they were very happy with the results for bumps, bruises, teething and serious hay fever.
I also used it in that way for myself from my 20’s, relieving sinus and catarrh, sciatica and other irritations.
What I could never get to grips with on my own was treating my ‘constitutional’ ill health which has been with me in one form or another since childhood.
Entering too much information territory here, but I recall having a sluggish bowel since I was 19. I also have low thyroid, and the two are probably not unrelated. But allopathic medicine as practiced by the NHS in its ‘one size fits all’ way had no answers. In fact the doctors told me it was probably all in my head and sent me off into oblivion with a prescription for anti-depressants. Doctors were not allowed to treat my low thyroid because it was not low enough.
They could suggest fibre products but these only addressed the symptoms not the cause and contained lots of other nasty ingredients. They mentioned diet, but I already had that one sorted.
Since I have been consulting my wonderful homeopath Alison Jones Homeopath I no longer have this problem.
I wish I could tell you all to rush out and buy a particular remedy, but what she prescribes according to the rules of homeopathy is particular to the individual. In my case we started with Sulphur and have now moved on to Sycamore Seed and Moxa.
She has also prescribed many other remedies along the way to help me through major life events causing stress, fatigue and extreme grief. All this in addition to dealing with dental abscess, extraction, fillings, hay fever, colds and flu etc. You know the ordinary things that life is made of.
I’m not saying I haven’t made my own contributions to my health and well-being with meditation, therapeutic walking, a very good diet and supplements, but those have never been enough to lift me above the parapet before. Now with homeopathy I can see a future for me that is not all doom and gloom and a slow, downward trajectory into old age.
Hell, I may never work again, but then again who would want to, but at only 57 years I will enjoy the rest of my life to the best of my ability.
Long live homeopathy.

(This is given voluntarily and is my own opinion and experience.  I authorise Alison to use them for the purpose of illustrating how I believe homeopathic treatment has helped me.)

Difficulties adjusting to changing school

Aside

Last September [in 2011] my then 11 year old son moved up to secondary school with all the usual anxieties that go with the transition.  He is a sociable, open and confident child in many ways and was excited and ready for the changes ahead.

However, a few weeks in to the new term he started to talk about feeling sick at mealtimes, stomach aches and headaches often and feeling generally unwell.  He started to “confess” to us about things he had said and done that he realised were not his usual behaviour, mainly concerning foul language.  We put this down to “trying to fit in” and spoke to his teachers and the pastoral care team at school about this on an off the record basis as he was getting more and more distressed.

He complained of thoughts in his head calling us names and insults that were hurtful and out of character.  It was brought to a head when he started to be physically sick with worry about what he was thinking.

I had once before used homeopathy myself at a time of crisis and it had worked for me so with the thought that it had to be worth a try and with my son’s desperation to make everything better we approached Alison.

From the first appointment Alison listened and spoke to my son with full attention and understanding.  He totally engaged with her and opened up to the questions asked.  As it seems the remedies treat the whole of the person some of the questions seemed random but he sought to find answers to a whole variety of issues.  At the end of that first meeting my son felt extremely unburdened and a remedy was given to him.

The thoughts and worries did not disappear overnight, indeed he was a little worse before he started to improve.

We had regular appointments for a few months and there was a definite change in my son as his confidence grew.

He has learned to deal with the emotions he felt at that time and put them behind him.  He has won several awards during the first year and has been pinpointed by many of his teachers as being a wonderful child.

When the new year began in September I was a little nervous as I knew there would be more and more changes and indeed more work to be done.  My son confirmed that he did not feel that he needed Alison’s help again at the moment but he knows that if he starts to feel anxious again we would not hesitate to go back for a further consultation.

Thank you Alison for your help in making us all understand ways to assist my son get through this difficult time.  He will always be a “worrier” no doubt but he now has the tools to cope.

I can confirm that this testimonial is given voluntarily and is my own opinion and experience.  I authorise Alison to us this for the purpose of illustrating how I believe homeopathic treatment has helped my son.

Influenza vaccine

Aside

If you’re thinking about having the influenza vaccine, the independent Cochrane Collaboration produced a meta analysis of the efficacy of various vaccines in 2010 which can be found at this link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD001269.pub4/full

In a nutshell they conclude that: “Inactivated influenza vaccines decrease the risk of symptoms of influenza and time off work, but their effects are minimal, especially if the vaccines and the circulating viruses are mismatched. There is no evidence that they affect complications or transmission.” I think you can make up your own mind about whether to have the flu vaccine or not. I am not even going to comment on how much this has costed the NHS.

Food intolerance

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I was delighted by my visit to Donna Milligan of The Cottage Therapy Studio last Friday for a follow up SCIO test. Friends and patients know that I am very careful about advising them to cut multiple foods/ food groups out of their diet as a restrictive diet may cause further health problems. Sometimes the cause of “intolerance/ allergy” is obvious, other times there may be a number of possible agents causing the problem. In the latter case it is really useful to experiment with “sensitivity” testing to try to narrow down the possible problems.

One way, which Donna uses, is the SCIO, a radionics machine. The idea being that everything and everybody has its own frequency, so the machine tests that frequency against your own frequency and will suggest that your body may be having a problem with a certain food/ food group/ toxin or, for example, a mineral deficiency amongst many other things. Areas that may be causing a problem are tested and retested to try and narrow them down.
Donna says that the SCIO offers suggestions of problem areas rather than a diagnosis but I have been amazed over the years at how accurate the testing is for me. After 10/12 weeks you have a retest to see how you compare with the earlier test. Why was I delighted? Apart from it being lovely to see Donna as always, in the tests I showed considerable improvement in a number of areas and a biological age of 40. Who needs 10 years younger!

Empty nest blues!

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Seven years ago my youngest daughter flew the nest and went to University.  I have always professed that going to University is probably the easiest way for most young people to leave home and gain independence as there are lots of them and they are in the same boat.  Much easier than moving to a new city to start a job with no social life and potential friends provided.  And that is what we want, parenthood is about nurturing, supporting and watching our children develop into independent (relatively!) human beings and starting their own lives.  Well that’s the theory, and all of it is true.

We want our children to be happy.  However, that is not allowing for our feelings, those of the parent who has enjoyed the previous 18 or more years and has now got to adjust to not being needed in quite the same way.   I know that as we dropped, first our oldest daughter and then youngest daughter at University, and then my husband went away on a business trip for several days, I was left reeling.  It was like the tug of the umbilical cord again: love, passion, emotion, wondering how they were but not wanting to bother them if they were having a good time, and wondering what to do with myself.  I had just qualified as a homeopath and although I had patients they were not enough to fill the time.  How much time can one adolescent take up in your life?   I had tried to prepare for it.  I had made plans to occupy myself and gave myself lots of treats (how self indulgent!) but it didn’t fill my chasm.  However as time went on I adapted, my practice became more busy and then strangely, I became used to it, delighted to see the girls when they arrived home but occasionally relieved when they went back (what an admission!).

I have recently met with a number of friends whose children are off to University in the next few weeks and, although they are glad for them, it is raising questions over their own lives.  “What is my purpose in life?”, “Is my life right for me now I no longer have the children to run around after?”, “Is my relationship what I want?”  This is especially the case if we feel we have never found our purpose and/ or are in relationships that are perhaps not what we had imagined.  How many of us wonder if we have found our purpose?  Sometimes we don’t or can’t talk to our partners about how we and they are feeling.  A lot of people find talking about feelings really hard.   It is most likely that even if they don’t talk about it they are feeling the “change” or the “loss” whichever description you prefer.  Children flying the nest can bring you closer together and/or help you develop your purpose, but it can also drive you apart.

Whatever else you do don’t rush to change things.  Let your life settle down and see where it takes you.  If you’re still unhappy in six months it is probably time to re-evaluate things and talk to whoever you think will help, someone independent or your partner.  Homeopathically Ignatia helped me cope with the grief and my guilt at feeling the grief.  It might help you.  If you don’t feel any benefit within a few days see your homeopath as there are so many different remedies.   What comforted me may be different to what you need.

Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

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Measurements for the ingredients are a guide. Depending on your taste, increase or decrease the spices. I use organic wherever possible. Cooking is a joy. Feel free to experiment.

2 onions
Oil to cover the bottom of the pan
2 butternut squashes
1 inch piece of root ginger (peeled)
3 cloves of garlic
2 sticks of lemongrass
1 litre of vegetable stock (Saved water from cooking vegetables is good)
100 grams of creamed coconut
Chopped fresh coriander
Salt to taste

1. Chop the onions and sauté gently in oil (I use rice bran oil as it has a high smoking point) until they are soft. Add the root ginger, crush or chop the garlic and add. Crush the lemongrass with the back of a knife to release the oils and add whole. Stir.

2. Wash the squashes and cut into cubes discarding the seeds. If they are not organic peel them, otherwise the skin will soften and blend into the soup. Add to the pan with the vegetable stock. Bring the soup to a boil and add the creamed coconut, stir the soup until it is dissolved.

3. Simmer until the vegetables are soft. Add the fresh coriander and salt to taste. The blend or liquidise until you like the consistency. You may wish to add more stock if it is too thick for your liking!