Each day, I celebrate being a healing nurse. As a women's health care nurse practitioner I liked my work, but as an alternative healer, practicing homeopathy and therapeutic touch, I have found my calling. Even as I occasionally find myself occupied for several hours - or even days - studying a particular client's homeopathic case, I am sustained knowing that finding the right remedy often leads to significant improvement in health.

My journey into alternative health began fifteen years ago while I was still conducting biomedical AIDS research trials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Having studied therapeutic touch, I could respond to the request of a patient for this form of energetic healing. He was very aware of his own energy movement and asked me to remove his sneakers because he could feel sparks coming from his feet as I worked. Some weeks later I learned that he died very peacefully, needing much less pain medication than expected.

Through the American Holistic Nurses Association, I heard about homeopathy. A homeopathic nurse talked of its usefulness for both acute problems and chronic illness. I sought her assistance in dealing with recurring yeast infections and received a remedy I later learned is often indicated for persons who have suppressed grief. At the time I was recovering from a painful divorce and after taking the remedy I felt lighter, as if a heavy weight I had not even known was there had been lifted from me.

It took other steps to finally resolve the yeast infection, but meanwhile I had stumbled into a new paradigm. Finding homeopathy transformed my views of health and healing, and I chose to pursue homeopathy as a career. I found the best teacher I could, and for three years traveled regularly to Canada to study and become accredited. I kept on even though I had to quit my regular job in order to keep up with the homework. I felt I had finally come home.

Many share my love of homeopathy. There are a number of reasons; here are some I have found most common:

Holistic: A homeopathic practitioner treats individuals on all levels: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. In this way, homeopathy has the capacity to reach the root cause of illness and to touch people deeply. Good homeopathic practitioners use all of themselves in their work. They consider it a privilege to truly listen to their patients' stories. In our times few healers have an opportunity to do this.

Philosophy: As a theory and a means of treatment, homeopathy was taught in Hindu writings over three thousand years ago. As a modern empirical science spanning two hundred years, homeopathy has clear laws and principles on which it is founded. Its underlying principle is based on the observation that substances, which cause symptoms, can also be used to cure them. Its goal is to avoid suppressing symptoms but rather to understand them as a language of nature that suggests which remedies will restore health. Another fundamental principle is individualization: homeopathy views patients not as part of homogeneous groups of people with the same condition but aims to find the particular medicine that fits each unique individual in the current moment. In practicing classical homeopathy, I use just one remedy at a time.

Homeopathy works: Whether treating first-aid problems such as injuries, acute conditions such as cystitis, or constitutional challenges such as hay fever, homeopathy is highly effective. Homeopathy has demonstrated great usefulness in working with animals, infants, children and pregnant women. Many come to homeopathy because they or their family were successfully treated. This experience can turn a skeptic into a believer.

Possibility of cure: Much of conventional medicine is concerned with managing rather than curing disease. Homeopathy offers the possibility of cure for many modern diseases and chronic conditions including heart disease, hypertension, addiction, neurological disorders and tumors that are difficult to treat or not treatable by allopathic methods.

Lack of side effects: Unlike conventional treatments, homeopathic medicines do not induce toxic side effects. When prescribed correctly by a skilled practitioner, the remedies are generally quite safe and well tolerated.

Intrinsic beauty: Homeopathy is a beautiful field of study - a complete healing system within itself. As Dr. Judith Reichenberg-Ullman has written, "That a form of healing that is so simple and elegant and makes so much common sense to patients can transform lives so powerfully, with doses of a natural medicine administered months or even years apart, still boggles my mind almost as much as it does the minds of my patients." (Whole Woman Homeopathy, Prima Publishing, 2000)

Science balanced with art: Homeopathy is both an art and a science. There is a considerable and growing body of empirical medical evidence supporting its efficacy. It also requires considerable artistic skill in actual practice.

Cost: The main expense of homeopathic treatment is consultation with the practitioner. There are no expensive diagnostic procedures or lab work. In treating acute illness, answers to just a few specific questions often suffice. However, chronic conditions may require detailed investigations similar to those conducted by Sherlock Holmes. I sometimes spend two or three hours listening in order to learn how a person is special. And, as in detective work, it may take several attempts to find the right medicine. Yet each prescribed remedy costs less than $10! If consultation is with a licensed health practitioner, it is generally reimbursable by insurers.

As a homeopath I have found the possibility and reality of powerful healing potential. Practicing it enables me to use my gifts as a careful listener, a lover of detail, and an information organizer. I am enriched as I assist others. I've been able to successfully treat women with menstrual difficulties, children with behavior problems, and adults with both acute and chronic mental and physical conditions.

If as a reader you have questions about homeopathy as related to your health, you may call me at 301/445-0611. As with any true professional relationship, confidentiality is assured. Whatever the circumstances may be of your health, your life, and your healing and learning journey, I wish you happiness and well-being.

I would like to credit T. Rowe, MD, for expressing in words some of the ideas within as found in "The Simple Joys of Homeopathy," Homeopathy Today, Sept. 2001 issue.