In Emotional Healing with Homeopathy, already a classic in England, Peter Chappell argues that emotional trauma is at the root of many health conditions and can reveal a hidden key to healing. Chappell demonstrates the effectiveness of homeopathy working with mild and profound trauma inflicted at birth or childhood as well as from war and violence, accidents, addictions, and human disasters such as AIDS and famine.
This book adds form and substance to homeopathic healing, aligning older theories in the Organon with modern psychological theory about how disease takes hold in the body.
This book is wonderfully practical in helping us find the correct homeopathic medicine to treat emotional traumas. Chappell's definition of traumatic experience extends from the horrible to the emotional challenges of the average human life, all of which generate health-altering psycho-physiological effects. This book reminds us that effective homeopathic treatment can help provide effective health care to many people. -Edward Chapman, M.D., Clinical Instructor, Tufts University School of Medicine, and former President, American Institute of Homeopathy
Emotional Healing with Homeopathy covers a range of conditions that stem from psychological and physical traumas.
By its whole-person approach, homeopathy is at home in dealing with these complex problems. Chappell conveys specific information about many remedies for individuals with varied health problems related to trauma. -Iris R. Bell, M.D. PhD, Director, Program in Integrative Medicine, and Professor of Psychiatry, University of Arizona College of Medicine.
Peter Chappell co-founded The Society of Homeopaths in U.K. At the forefront of homeopathic training in the U.K. and Eastern Europe, he is currently spearheading a homeopathic drive on AIDS in Africa.
Reprinted with the permission of The Society of Homeopaths, from 'The Homeopath' magazine, No.56, 1995 edition:
Reviewed by Sohani Gonzalez:
Peter Chappell has written this book, ostensibly for the lay reader, but as a practising homoeopath I found it thoroughly stimulating and illuminating. I believe it will be very helpful in opening doors to territory that even experienced homoeopathic practitioners may not be aware of or are afraid to approach. Most cases require a certain amount of psychological inquiry to gain more than superficial insight into the patients underlying condition and Peter ChappelPs clearly written practical guide is an excellent aid. In fact I would go so far as to say that an enthusiastic lay reader could as well equipped to prescribe as many qualified practitioners.
It is Peter Chappell's belief that a patient's susceptibility to disease can be triggered by severe emotional shock and trauma in early childhood or even transmitted in utero to the child from a powerful event via the mother. These hidden traumas often lie buried within the patient's psyche and although difficult to detect, this book guides the reader through the foothills of the unconscious mind in the crucial search for these key emotional factors.
Peter Chappell intends the book: "to provide information about emotional traumas and how they can effect our lives and create our diseases, how they restrict our freedom of expression through suppression and denial of our feelings of fear, anger, grief and loss. These form the basis of what is called disease and by resolving these feelings we can heal our disease".
This book is written as a result of his personal experience through many years of practice and observation.
The book is structured intotwo basic sections:
The first deals with "Trauma and Suffering" - how to identify the various causes and effects of trauma and their relationship to disease. Case studies clearly illustrate this relationship.
The second section entitled "Homoeopathy for Healing" starts with a basic introduction to homoeopathy, followed by a very clearly written "guidelines for treatment". Professional homoeopaths will find the index of remedies taken from the Complete Repertory of Roger van Zandvoort and presented as key emotional states, very useful. There is also a detailed list of remedies with keyword annotations.
The final section deals with prescribing, treatment and self-help guidelines.
Personally, I found this to be one of the most absorbing and lucid books written on homoeopathy. Peter Chappell shows a sensitivity and deep understanding of the human condition revealed for the homoeopathic disciple.
My one reservation with such a 'self-styled lay manual' has to be a cautionary note - it is no simple task to strike the balance between listening empathetically and observing the presenting symptoms and then make a correct prescription. It is a difficult enough task for the most competent and experienced homoeopath!
Second review; Reprinted with the permission of The ARH (from 'Homeopathy in Practice' magazine, Autumn 2005 edition):
Reviewed by Mtriam Shivadikar MARH;
Peter has an easy to read, practical style of writing, directed at lay-people yet even the most seasoned homeopath will find this book a delight to read and gain a fresh insight into how to recognise and treat trauma patients - I certainly did. I was expecting a book filled with horror stories and situations and was surprised to find common experiences which can become traumatic; particularly interesting is a large segment devoted to childhood, from conception, birth, infancy to older children, which certainly helps to understand situations from a child's perspective.such as former Yugoslavia, places like Sarajevo, Zagreb, Split, also Romania, where orphans were treated; Beirut, Czechoslovakia, Honduras, Hungary, Egypt, Malta, Bulgaria, Ethiopia; the list goes on!
The aim of this book is to inform the reader how to reach deep inside to those almost untouchable places, to hurts and traumas that seemed buried forever, or will never forgive, or we can't get to, however much we try. It informs how to help others, family, friends, patients, and how to help intractable children as well as impossible adults. It tells about the forming forces of life and about the traumas that occurred in every one of us as we grew up, as well as those who suffered terrible abuses, and how to deal with these effectively. It looks at many different life traumas that have occurred in many situations - in prison, in marriage, in war, and in accidents - and it demonstrates how homeopathy can be used to facilitate resolution. 'Emotional Healing' was born out of Perter's experiences in the 1990s when he was setting up and directing training programmes to introduce homeopathy into fifteen or more countries, later becoming affiliated to The London College of Classical Homeopathy. These countries were often selected on the basis that homeopathy was not practised, together with the fact that they were in a trauma situation, for example war torn countries
From Peter's experiences, this book provides information about emotional traumas, how they affect lives and create diseases. Often we restrict ourselves by suppressing and denying our feelings of fear, anger, grief and loss. Peter discusses the suppression of these feelings and how disease is created. He states that there are four levels to disease - physical at the lowest level, emotional next, then mental, and spiritual at the highest level. Disease on each level can precipitate disease on a lower level. The spiritual symptoms can precipitate mental disease, for example, which can precipitate emotional disease which can precipitate physical diseases. There are several sections to the book:
Chapter 1: Introduction to Homeopathy
This is a concise introduction and summary for beginners.
Chapter 2: Introduces ideas and examples of emotional traumas and the diseases that follow from them
Here, Peter discusses the patterns behind suffering the emotional trauma. He differentiates between post-traumatic stress disorder, gross trauma and subtle trauma. These are beautifully illustrated with situational examples which bring the situation more alive and create awareness in us. This is very useful information to a homeopath, particularly the last trauma, as in case taking we can be unaware of traumas unless the patient mentions a particular event. Other topics covered include the inner feelings of trauma, the dynamic stages of trauma, natural trauma release, inherited tendencies, effects of trauma in living, complications in trauma. This chapter helps the reader to grasp the essential ideas of traumas and the 'stuck energy' nature of the resulting illness.
Chapter 3: Case examples in practice
In this chapter we read cases illustrating real life stories which alert the reader to the possibilities for trauma that can occur and give us greater insight into the process. The sequence of stories starts with grief and loss, and then goes from conception to the womb, birth, growing up, and adult traumas which comes across as very real and powerful at the core. The cases are concise and well explained as to what feelings are involved and what remedies may be indicated. The title of each case describes the situation, and many of the cases are aimed at childbirth and childhood, for example: 'Death at childbirth', 'The idea of the perfect child'. Peter explains each stage from conception through infancy to older children, the situations that can arise and how to recognise and understand them.
Chapter 4: Ideas in action are examined at a deeper level
Here Peter examines the nature of being human, and discusses issues such as maintaining causes, the role of thoughts in trauma, belief systems, consciousness and modern psychology. He also examines physical disorders in terms of emotional blocks; for example, joint problems are caused by tension in the muscles from anger stored in them, causing tightness and strain on the joints leading to excess pressure,inflammation and distortion.
Chapters 5-9: Practice based section - How to deal with traumas via homeopathy and professional advice
Homeopathic concepts and principles are re-examined on a deeper level, with guidelines for treatment including case-taking, and a word index of emotions together with the remedies. This section is particularly interesting for practioners as the author gives the reader many different tools and techniques in order to find the trauma picture; for example by providing a trauma index which works in a similar way to a repertory except that each remedy is summarised in the context of the trauma. A materia medica of remedies with emotional symptoms and keyntes is included. This discusses the stresses, personality and keynote symptoms, with 'trauma as a disease' which states what type of trauma the remedy constitution is susceptible to, giving valuable insigts into a remedy.
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