The blog below has been taken from a podcast episode I released on Wednesday 19 October on the Homeopathy Hangout podcast. You can read the transcript below or listen to the episode here: https://tinyurl.com/3ze5ss8b

The Homeopathic case taking process is something very special and healing in itself. Today I want to share with you how you can make the most out of your time with me, as your Homeopathic Practitioner. I wanted to create this episode for any current and future clients of mine as an opportunity for them to really understand how they can help me, to help them

Homeopaths all around the world practice very differently. We all have different ways we like to take a case

–Some Homeopaths prefer questionnaires before the consult, some prefer you just come in without pre-completing any information.

-Some Homeopaths prefer to only see clients online, some only online and some a combination of both.

– Some Homeopaths will prescribe on the spot, others will ask you to come back in a few days to get your remedies.

– Some Homeopaths will provide you with remedies out of their own stock and others will send you to a Homeopathic Pharmacy to order the remedies yourself.

–  Some Homeopaths  will repertories your case while you’re in the consult – that means entering some of your symptoms into their computer repertory to see which symptoms match your case…or they may flick through some books if they don’t like using a computer repertory.

– Some Homeopaths know a lot of materia medica off by heart, others will want to flick through their materia medica during the consult to confirm something about the remedy they have in mind for you. Please note, this does not mean the homeopath is not confident, we have over 8000 homeopathic remedies and it’s impossible for us to know all these remedies off by heart, so most of us will consult our books or computer software during a consult.

– In addition to using the homeopathic repertory to find your remedy, some homeopaths my prefer to use a pendulum, kinesiology, intuition or a whole miriad of other ways to narrow down the exact remedy which they feel will suit you.

But wait! There’s more! 

-Some Homeopaths will give you only 1 remedy…others will give you several remedies to take on different days, or perhaps the same day. Sometimes you’ll receive a remedy in pillules, liquids or sprays

The main thing I want you to know is….All of this is totally fine. And if you show the prescription you were given by one homeopath, to another homeopath and the second homeopath doesn’t agree with the prescription, that is totally fine too. If you feel comfortable with your Homeopath and you’ve been getting good results, then stick with them – taking into account you should give them at least 3 follow-ups minimum before you start to judge the results of their prescription.

If you’ve listening to more than 3 episodes of my podcast, you’ll already be starting to realise that homeopaths practice wildly differently, depending on our levels of experience, our own beliefs and the remedies and prescribing methods that resonate with us individually as practitioners.

That is why, before anything else, you need to make sure you find a Homeopath that you’re comfortable with. Most Homeopaths offer 15 in free discovery calls, where you can give them a quick call to talk about your concerns.

You can use this as an opportunity to ask the following questions:

• What prescribing method do they use
• Do they use any protocols in their prescribing, if this is something you feel strongly for or against.
• How many remedies would they typically prescribe after a consultation and what costs are involved per remedy
• How long is the initial consult and the follow-ups and what costs are involved
• How often do you need to see them for a follow-up eg. every 2, 4, 6 weeks etc.
• How can you communicate with them in-between consults if you have any questions about your prescription or something arises which you’re unsure of.

 

So with that out of the way, I’d like to talk you through how my clients can get the most out of a consultation with me.

Please note – this applies to no other Homeopath and as I’ve mentioned, all Homeopaths work differently and that is totally fine.

Every client of mine, needs to watch my free 30 minute Homeopathy@Home online video, before they come to see me, so they know what homeopathy is and how it works. I only take on Australian clients as otherwise the time zones make things too tricky. If my clients are on Facebook, I recommend they join my closed Facebook group after viewing my 30 min video, as I give free acute advice in this group.

• My adult initial consultations are 1.5hours and my child initial consultations are 1 hour.
• The first follow-up is usually an hour and subsequent follow-ups are usually 30 minutes.
• I do have a very extensive questionnaire I like my clients to complete before seeing me.  Personally, I believe that the healing starts as soon as you begin completing the questionnaire, so taking the time to do this in the days leading up to your consult, means that your subconscious is already preparing for the healing process. Our online booking system will send you an online questionnaire to complete, when you receive your booking confirmation. This is pretty easy to complete on your phone or computer.

To really get the best out of your consult, I suggest really putting effort into completing as much information on this questionnaire as possible. Pay special attention to timelines eg. what was the year your hayfever first started. What was the year/month you had a particular vaccination or operations. These timelines help us to discover if there has been an incident of NWS – never well since. Eg. you may complain of eczema in your child which started at 12 months and it feels to you like there was nothing of interest that changed around that time to trigger the eczema. But upon completing the questionnaire and paying attention to the timeline, you realise that your child had the MMR vaccine just a few days before eczema started, so this will give us an indication that we may need to use a homeopathic detox to clear some of the effects of the MMR vaccine.

I always prefer seeing my clients in person, however I do have clients all over Australia, so about 50% of my consultations are done online.

Whether it’s in person or online, always make sure you’re 5 minutes early for your appointment, to give yourself time to take a breath and relax beforehand, instead of being in a rush. If clients are late for appointments, this is taken out of their own consulting time as I do not believe in making my clients after them wait, just because somebody else earlier in the day was late. So if you’re 15 min late for a 30 minute consult, that will only give us 15 minutes to go over your case, which really leaves me not much time to truly help you.

If you’re coming to see me in person with your child, please bring them some snacks. The consult can feel like an eternity for the little ones and often a drink and a snack can really help make their time in the consult much easier. My consulting room has a lovely outdoor area, a play kitchen, dolls house, easel with chalk, we have colouring in books, lego for the older kids, a very popular marble run and plenty of other toys. When we have them in stock, I let my kiddie clients choose a little crystal to take home with them. I really believe in making the children feel very welcome and want to make their time with me as enjoyable as possible.

My biggest plea with parents is to not try and stifle their child’s behaviour in the clinic. If the child is throwing a toy, let them (as long as it’s not in the direction of my head or my laptop). If your child is stomping around the room being loud, just let them. If your child refuses to speak to me, I promise to not take offense. Once they’re in my clinic, just let them be who they wish to be and express themselves – or not – however they wish. All of this natural behaviour better helps me to prescribe the correct remedy for them.

I realise that it can be very uncomfortable for the children to have us speak about them, in front of them. So I usually start off my consult by asking the child a few questions and once we get into the more nitty gritty of the consult, I invite the children to play outside in our cubby house, to give the parents an opportunity to express anything they wish about the child, but would prefer the child does not hear. Some of my clients will bring a support person with them, so I can observe the child for the first 15 minutes of the consult and then the support person will take the child away. We happen to have an amazing playground down the road and some lovely café’s, so that does help. Then the parent and I can continue the rest of the consult without the child. I don’t mind whichever you prefer – as long as I get to observe the child for at least 15 minutes of the consult.

If your consult is online, please have the child present for at least the first 10-15 minutes of the consult. What really helps me a lot, is if you’re able to have your phone camera on the child with the reverse camera, so I can observe the child as they’re playing at your home, while you and I are having a chat. It’s very important that I observe how the child moves, what their energy is like, how they speak etc. This is obviously more important for children once they start walking and talking. For little bubbas, I only need to observe them for a few minutes.

I always ask permission of the parent and child to take a photo of the child, which I keep on their file, on my password and fingerprint protected laptop. I have over 1000 clients and I’m really good at remembering all my client’s names – in almost all cases I’ll even remember the maiden name and married name of each of my clients. Sometimes I can have a bit of trouble recalling 1000 different faces though. For this reason, I ask that you always have your children present at every single consultation for at least the first 15 minutes. I find that once I’ve had 3 consults with a client at regular intervals, their face is imprinted in my mind, but even then, children change and grow so quickly, so please do always have them present at all consults to get the very best results.

During the consult, I’ll ask a series of questions and the most important thing to remember is that I want you to feel comfortable. If I ever ask about an area of your life you don’t feel comfortable speaking about, all you need to do is say so and we’ll move on to something else. To be fair, I don’t think I’ve ever had a client say this to me as I am always very careful with reading the energy in the room and not pushing my clients past where I can sense they feel comfortable.

So a fun fact about me – I was at school in the 1990’s, when we were still taught typing at school…and yes, it was on a typewriter.  After school, I worked on an internet helpdesk, so I can touch type at about 60 words per minute. This means that during our consult, I will be typing pretty much verbatim what you’re saying. This makes it very easy for me to quickly detect if there is a particular word that is being used over and over again and then we can go back to that word and what that particular word means to you. I also use a computer repertory, so during our consult, I’ll be throwing a few symptoms into the computer repertory to see what comes up. I’ll also be using some books during the consult if I need to double check whether a particular remedy will be helpful in your case. If you don’t hear me say much during the consult, please don’t worry…I tend to get into a place of zen…where I’m not only listening to what you’re saying, but how you’re saying it, what your body is doing while you’re saying it and so much more. I love to just sit and let the client share whatever they would like to get off their chest and once they feel they’ve released all they need to, then I’ll ask some clarifying questions to make sure I’ve understood what’s been said.

I often end my case doing a quick “body scan” to make sure we haven’t missed anything. So we’ll start with your head and work our way down, to see if you recall anything of significance which may not have been picked up in the questionnaire or mentioned during the consult.

So I’ll start with the head – any history of headaches/migraines, hair loss, head injuries, itchy scalp etc.

Eyes – conjunctivitis, styes, itchy eyes, vision problems, sensitive to light, etc.

Nose – hayfever, frequent sneezing, sensitive to smell, sinus, blood noses etc.

Ears – history of ear infections, excessive ear wax, itchy ears, sensitive to sound, tinnitus

Mouth – Any issues with teeth, tongue, mouth ulcers, cold sores, grinding of teeth, what’s your appetite like, any allergies

Throat – history of glandular fever, tonsillitis., do you easily loose your voice, thyroid issues etc.

Chest – history of bronchitis, asthma, any breathing difficulties or heart issues

Breasts – any issues with breasts, painful nipples, swelling of breasts related to menstrual cycle

Abdomen – any bloating, any pains

Genital area – any unusual discharges, what is the period like etc

Stool – how often does the client have a stool and colour, consistency or any other issues like mucous or undigested food

Any issues with the leg, knees, feet balance

Any issues with the with the arms, elbows, wrists, fingers, nails

Skin – any history of eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, ringworm, impetigo

 

I always finish off my consultations by asking my clients “what is the main improvement you’d like to see in 8 weeks’ time at our next follow-up, so I can make sure I’m addressing the issues the client has come to see me for, not just what I think needs to be treated.

So a couple years ago, I was very lucky to have had the amazing Hilery Dorrian mentor me on a few cases. She has 40 years’ experience as a Homeopath and I value her advice above all else and I try to do all of her courses that I can as she’s an excellent educator. I used to see my clients every 3 weeks and the trap I was falling into is one that many Homeopaths fall into – we might not see much change in symptoms in 3 weeks for a condition that’s been going on for many years…so we change the remedy too quickly and tend to micro-manage the case.

Hilery suggested I change my follow-ups to every 8 weeks, thereby giving the remedy a proper chance to work and removing the temptation to change the prescripton too early. I have now been doing this for the past 2 years and I feel it works extremely well. Also, 2 months absolutely flies by and I’m always surprised when I see my clients after 2 months and it usually only feels like 3-4 weeks since I’ve seen them.

Something I really want to make very clear, is that it is of the utmost importance that my clients book in every 8 weeks, at least for the first 4 appointments. Even if you feel not much has changed, book that 8 week appointment and don’t let it go over that time frame. We can learn as much from a prescription that’s made a big improvement for a client, than we can from a prescription that the client feels has not changed their symptoms much at all. Sometimes, I’ll have a client come for their follow-up and their first words will be “not much has changed.” When I was a new practitioner, this would terrify me. Now, 10 years later, I just take a deep breath and say “ok, let’s go over your case and see what’s happened the past 8 weeks.” There has not been one single time where a client has not had at least 1 improvement in their symptoms. Sometimes it can be subtle, sometimes more profound.

Inbetween follow-ups, I encourage my clients to email me with updates on how they’re doing. I copy and paste these emails in their notes, so we can go over it all at the follow-up. At the follow-up, I’ll ask my clients to talk to me about what’s been happening the past 8 weeks and I encourage them to make a list of things they’d like to discuss at the follow-up, so they can get the most out of our time together. Once they’ve gone over their list and discussed any questions or concerns they may have, I’ll use the rest of the consult to go over what we spoke about the previous consult or consults. For the clients who say they’ve noticed no changes, I’ll read over their notes for example that they used to have trouble sleeping and as I read it back to them, they’ll often say “oh that’s right, I don’t have that anymore” and we’ll continue working our way through their case to work out what has changed and what hasn’t.

I encourage my clients to keep a dairy and write anything in there they feel may be helpful – however big or small – to help them along their healing journey.

I have several clients for whom we’ve managed to get absolutely incredible results which even I’m surprised by. These are the clients who stuck to their follow-up appointments religiously. They came every 8 weeks without fail. No excuses. One of my favourites was a little girl who was covered head to toe in eczema after a vaccine reactions a few years earlier. The Mum and Dad used to have to hold her at night while she was sleeping, otherwise she would scratch her skin until it covered the sheets in blood. She also had multiple food allergies. This incredible family brought their daughter every 8 weeks for a year – taking into account that’s actually only 6 appointments – and by the end of that year, their daughter had porcelain skin and could eat what she liked.

Another one of my favourites was a little boy with severe autism who was non-verbal and extremely selective with what he would eat. His Mum was an absolute trouper, sticking to my prescriptions rigidly and bringing him in every 8 weeks for a consultation. A year later, he’s speaking beautifully and trying different foods. The Mum didn’t think he’d ever be able to speak, so she is so grateful for what Homeopathy has done for their family.

These are the families I absolutely love working with. I am extremely committed to my clients and when they show this same commitment back, we can create magic together.

I feel very sad when I see a client for a consultation …then don’t hear anything from them for 4-6 months…then they book in for a follow-up. When this happens, I’m pretty much starting from scratch. It’s a case of 1 step forward, 2 steps back. In saying that, I also accept that everything happens for a reason…and perhaps this person had some other things they had to do in their life before they came back to see me…but this slows down a client’s healing so much when they don’t stick to their regular follow-ups.

In general, I usually only need a client to commit to the initial appointment and then about 3 appointments after that at 8 week intervals. After this timeframe, we’ve almost always found a really good set of remedies that work for the client, we’ve often managed to fit in a detox or two and we’ve built a really good relationship at this stage for a solid foundation for future treatment, so if clients then decide to wait 4-6 months or even more between appointments, then it’s much easier to pick up the threads of where we left off.

I would just like to mention one other thing, prefaced with a caveat – I will always support you, whatever you decide. With that in mind, I just want to say that when we’re treating a client who’s seeing 4 or 5 other practitioners at the same time, it makes it incredibly hard to really get a good symptom picture of what’s truly going on. Is the client having an aggravation from a treatment one of the practitioner has done? Is this their own symptom or an aggravation of something else? I’ve had clients come to see me for a consult and then come back 8 weeks later, telling me they never took my remedies because they were seeing a bunch of other practitioners. I really don’t understand the reasoning behind this, so I won’t even begin to speculate why somebody would do this…and as a practitioner, I respect that my clients have freedom of choice of who they want to see. Seeing as this episode is about how to get the most out of your consult with me, I will say though, that it’s fine to see 1 or 2 other practitioners – perhaps a chiropractor or naturopath or counsellor. But once you start seeing other practitioners who are also prescribing homeopathic remedies on the side, it really becomes almost impossible to manage the case.

If your consult is online, I have a few other helpful suggestions to make sure you get the best result possible.

If you’re having an online consult for yourself, please eat before our consult if you’re feeling hungry. It’s obviously fine for kids to eat during the consult, so this only applies to adults. I’ve had clients connect for our online consult and then eat their entire lunch during our consult. At the end of the day, you’re paying for my time, so it’s your money and you can do what you like, but if you’re serious about your healing, please ensure you have eaten, made a trip to the bathroom and done everything else you need to do, to be fully present for your consultation. You deserve this time with me for YOU, nobody else. This is your time to focus on YOU. Make this time special, because you can be 100% guaranteed I’ll be bringing my A game to help you to the very best of my abilities, every single time.

Please ensure you’re in an area with good reception. Please don’t have your consult in a café or somewhere in public where others can hear you, as we may need to talk about sensitive topics. If you’re having your consult outside, please make sure it’s not too windy as that can make it hard to hear you, or at least wear headphones so we hear each other. Please never do your consult while you’re driving. If a client calls me for their consult while they’re driving, I will refuse to go ahead with the consult. If you’re the passenger, that’s obviously fine.

After we’ve completed your online consult, I will email you with your prescription. This is usually done in the evenings as my days consist of back to back consults, leaving me no time to email prescriptions until the end of the day. As soon as you’ve received your prescription, please order your remedies immediately and book your 8 week follow-up online straight away. Delaying the ordering of your remedies mean we’re losing precious time in your healing journey. If you do forget to book your 8 week follow-up and find that you can’t find a spot online, please email us, as we keep aside 5 emergency follow-ups per week for existing clients.

I closed my books about 2 years ago and sometimes I’ll re-open it for 1 day to let new clients in. This only happens about once or twice a year. For existing clients, I want you to know that you can always add any of your immediately family members to my books. So it doesn’t matter that my books are closed, if you’ve ever seen me for an initial consult and you’d like get your Mum, sister or children to have a consult with me too, all you need to do is email [email protected] and my receptionist will gladly book you in.

I also have a team of Homeopaths who care for any new clients that are not on my books. You can visit ww.eugeniekruger.com and click on bookings, to book a 15 minute free chat with any of them and see who you resonate with and then book an initial consult from there.

I hope this has been helpful. If there’s anything I want you to get out of this, it’s that I am here to help you and I’m 110% committed to helping you reach your health goals. It’s a two way street though and I am not your guru. I need you to also commit 110% to this journey. Stick to your prescription. If anything happens that you’re unsure of, email me straight away. If you have any questions, please reach out immediately. Your body has the ability to heal and I’m right here to help you.

All the best

Eugeie