Greetings!

I was once asked by an interviewer, "When and how did you first experience the magic of homeopathy?"

I do not consider homeopathy working in the realm of magic. After practicing for over 25 years I think that the gains we make with patients, though sometimes great, the day to day effort requires patience, humility and hard work. I am not especially interested in the patients that have miraculous sorts of results, we welcome those and can draw on those experiences for some solace and inspiration. But it is not the norm and should not be the expectation for either doctor or patient.

Like going to any doctor, my patients generally show up at my door when they are not feeling well physically, when the spirits are low or when their chips are down. Day in, day out I am seeing patients who are in need. The only magic I feel in my practice is the magic of authentic and open relationships with a wide range of patients and parents of patients. I see magic in the way parents of special needs kids parent, in the way partners of dying patients keep on loving, in the way students of mine persist in their studies when feeling overwhelmed. Magic creeps in when a patient feels more in control of their life, when meaningful work is found, when sweetness returns to a flailing marriage.  When an arthritic patient goes dancing or a asthmatic patients completes their first triathlon, these are points of magic.

The help remedies can give in shifting pathology, in lifting spirits, in offering resolve to make lifestyle shifts that enhance health, these are all points of magic, there was no moment of that for me, rather it is seeds of magic planted painstakingly over time, and allowed to take root, fueled by patients' own healing capacity that inspire and  encourage my own work.

May your own days this fall be filled with a touch of magic!

Amy Rothenberg ND