Kate Howard - homeopath

InDownton sat down with local homeopath, Kate Howard, to find out more about homeopathy, the increasingly popular (even King Charles is a fan) alternative medicine, homeopathy.  Kate’s services and the services on offer for residents of Downton including regular appointments and prescriptions, a new out-of-hours service, engaging workshops, and an informative new podcast.

Hi Kate, first of all, what is homeopathy?

Homeopathy is an alternative medicine based on the principle that ‘like treats like’. A substance which can cause symptoms of disease, when taken in a healthy person, can be used in small amounts to treat them against diseases.This concept can be seen in conventional medicine as well; people with allergies are given small doses to desensitise them.

Homeopathic medicines are derived from plants, minerals, and animals. This is similar to a lot of conventional medicines; however, the difference with homeopathy is that the toxicity is taken out so that there are no toxic side effects. This means it can lead to a rise in health and vitality, and bring the body back into homeostasis.

How does homeopathy work?

With homeopathic medicines we don’t treat single symptoms, instead, we look at the whole physical, mental, and emotional picture. I will sit with someone and look at their whole life, going right back to their own mum's pregnancy, their birth, and their family history - until we reach the present day - taking into consideration all the illnesses suffered from any other symptoms. Everything from how they're feeling emotionally, what they struggle with, how they're sleeping, their appetite, and how thirsty they are. It is an in-depth prescription based on one person's whole experience, rather than just treating the issue, because there's always going to be a root cause for this issue.

If someone comes to me with high blood pressure, I don't prescribe a homeopathic medicine based on one symptom - my job is to find out the cause of the high blood pressure and treat that. The majority of the time, every physical symptom will have an emotional cause to think about. For instance, cardiac symptoms are closely related to emotional stress, and there's a direct link between the hormones released when we're under stress, and the constriction of coronary arteries. The homeopathic approach is treating what that person is struggling with emotionally. That's the beauty of homeopathic medicine, it treats everything. Physical, emotional, and mental - it's all about bringing the body back into homeostasis. Furthermore, it can be used alongside conventional medicines and treatment prescribed by the NHS. For example, I had a patient who needed to have major surgery to reconstruct a fractured shoulder; however, post-surgery, she was managed on homeopathic medicines for her healing and her pain. So, she reduced the amount of conventional medication she was using, but it was also complemented by the NHS care she was receiving as well.

What are the main benefits of homeopathy?

There are a number of benefits to homeopathy. IFor instance, it’s sustainable and cheap, and the remedies are only made from organic products, thus making it less toxic. There are no side effects and it can strengthen the immune system, with the ability to improve your overall emotional, physical, and mental health. While it canFurthermore, whilst able to be used in conjunction with conventionally prescribed medicines, it can also enable people to come off medication that they have been on for a very long time - even decades! This also has the added benefit of decreasing the current pressure on the NHS.

What was your journey with homeopathy; how did you become a homeopath?

I used to be a nurse, and I loved my job. But after having children, I discovered homeopathy for myself. I was experiencing anxiety and did not want to go on medication so I went to see a homeopath, who gave me a remedy. Within a few days of taking this remedy, I felt completely different. From that point on, I felt like I had to learn about this because it was too much of a change to not think that something big had happened.

I have a homeopathic kit at home, which is a basic home medication kit, with about 40 remedies in it. My homeopath then started teaching me how to treat my kids. So when they were unwell with temperatures, coughs, and different acute symptoms at home, I would use these remedies, and I'd see such a rapid response. This made me even more interested over time - to the point that I was asking her for books - and then she offered to take me on as an apprentice. Usually an apprenticeship takes four4 years but having already completed a three 3-year nursing degree and+ having work experience as a nurse, it took me two2 years as I already had the scientific grounding and clinical experience.

Could you tell our readers a bit about the homeopathic services you offer?

I offer a couple of different services.

Firstly a consultation service, which begins withere, to begin with, there would be a longer initial consultation session, where I will meet with someone for 1.5 to 2 hours. These first consultations are quite in-depth as they go through the patients’ full history - looking at everything, going right back to their childhood and milestones of development, and family history. So we're looking at genetics and diseases that are in the family. These sessions would be shorter for children. After this, I will follow up with shorter sessions, and then, depending on the severity of the symptoms,  quite regularly, on average monthly, until we see the symptoms stabilise, and then it becomes less frequent.

These regular consultations are for more chronic illnesses, so symptoms that have been going on for a long time, that you're living with indefinitely, whether that's emotional, mental, or physical symptoms.

Now, I also offer an out-of-hours service for more acute illnesses. These are symptoms that have been going on for two weeks or less. Everything from urine infection, to chest infections, to tonsillitis, and chickenpox. This service can cover people in the period after 16:00 on weekdays, as well as weekends, and is mainly to provide people with the ability to treat common illnesses at home - effectively and efficiently. Not only that, it’s also a way of taking some pressure off the NHS. It does require that each household has home homeopathy kits so that when I make my prescription, they can go to that kit and take the remedy. For the out-of-hours service, over text or phone, it costs £15. However, if the symptoms appear more complex, it needs an acute consultation which is £35 pounds, with it being the same price for adults and childrenkids.

Where can people go to find out more about homeopathy?

To find out more about homeopathy, people can tune into a new podcast I will be starting soon called  “Homeopathic Health & Medicine”. I am co-hosting this podcast with my mentor, Annie Batchelor, who’s been a homeopath for 35 years. It is intended to be an educational podcast on homeopathy, how it works, and why it works, so that people can learn more about it as an alternative system of medicine. Also considering the wider aspects, such as how it improves health and strengthens the immune system. You'll get to learn about cases that we've treated, how we treat them, and why we approach them a certain way. We are also  going to  have guest speakers on, i.e, patients, other kinds of alternative health professionals, and conventional health professionals, so that we can discuss how homeopathy works on its own, but also alongside traditional medicine. The first episode is going to be called “What is Homeopathic Medicine?”, so it is definitely going to be a source of information for those who want to find out more.

I am also in the process of organising some workshops - both in-person and online - to teach people about the at-home homeopathy medication case so they can start learning what remedies to use in which situations. I'm going to start running these workshops so that with the right knowledge and education, people can learn how to treat things at home quite simply and confidently.

To find out the schedule for the aforementioned workshops, be sure to check InDownton’s online events calendar. For more information about Kate’s services, and to get in touch with her, visit her website at www.katehowardhomeopathy.com.