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Every summer around mid June, Professor George Vithoulkas conducts an open teaching course in Classical homeopathy. The course is a five day session totaling 35hours attendance. It is conducted at the International Academy of Classical Homeopathy, Alonissos, Greece.
Professor Vithoulkas has been practicing and teaching classical homeopathy internationally for 40 years. In 1995, he established the International Academy of Homeopathy where he runs courses for students.
Prof.George Vithoulkas
After the success of the first homeopathy conference in Singapore some of us were tempted by the idea of taking a course with greatest classical homeopath of our times, Professor George Vithoulkas all the way in Alonissos, Greece. Tinged with the feeling of great excitement was considerable apprehension as we realized theother doctors and homeopaths who were attending this summer course would be seasoned practitioners with considerable years of experience with patients.
The five day course was conducted in the great hall of the institute. There were homeopaths from all around the globe. Countries like UK, France, Germany Romania, South Africa were well represented. There were homeopaths from Ireland, Austria, Poland, USA etc.. While the predominant gender was female most countries had their sprinkling of men.
The Singapore contingent represented by the seven doctors from Pioneer Homeopathy School was the only one entirely of ladies.
The sight of all the homeopaths in there with their laptops ready and Radar software set up made us a little nervous initially. However the anticipation of learning from the great professor himself charged us with enthusiasm . The first day was about introducing ourselves and getting to know each other. Everybody was curious that we all looked obviously Indian but came from Singapore. They were impressed with our work in free clinics. Every day the sessions lasted for four hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. There was a three hour break for lunch and siesta ( a greek tradition). That was ideal because the afternoons get really warm. The ethos of being in natural surrounding meant spectacular views of the mountains and sea which we fully enjoyed during our short break in sessions. However it also meant a non-airconditioned hall for classes and the natural breeze was not always there.
View From Milia Bay
The method of teaching was through taking live cases, some new and some which were follow-up patients from previous sessions or previous years. Though Professor Vithoulkas took the cases himself we students witnessed first hand his thorough method of case taking . It provided some new insights into what to ask the patient, how to recognize the patients sensitivities and reactions to certain areas of questioning. We learnt tips on how to make the patient comfortable initially before proceeding to the more probing questions and difficult areas.
Then we discussed the issues brought out in the case taking and the remedies that came up or were indicated. The entire journey was as exciting as it was informative. The learning took place while we analysed the symptoms and found rubrics for each of them. We discussed as to what rubrics could and should be used for repertorisation.
GV In Action!
Gradually and masterfully the Prof. helped to see the essence of the patient and the remedy indicated for him/her. He used the Radar SOFTWARE to repertorise and look at possible remedies however he repeatedly emphasized that the remedy with the highest marks is not always the indicated remedy. The software is good tool to guide one about the possible remedies both in polychrests and acute remedies. There are so many newer remedies and some little known and used ones which the software can guide the homeopath to. However the homeopath has to look at the symptoms complex or symptom syndrome and choose the right remedy.
It is thus imperative that the good homeopath read all those remedy pictures in detail in order to arrive at the simmilum. Professor George Vithoulkas is a classical homeopath and it is his firm belief that the patients symptoms are everything in guiding us to find the similimum. The essence of a person should be arrived at based solely on the information volunteered by him. The Homeopath has to check out any unclear or hazy answers by coming back to them at a later stage in the interview. If the homeopath is getting a pointer towards certain remedies he should go into checking the generals of the remedies. GV particularly favours tastes and aversions in food. His favourite phrase in this regards is to find out “what the organism needs”. One pitfall to avoid here is assuming what one thinks may be the extent of like or dislike. It is important to ask the patient himself to grade it on a scale of one to three. Interestingly one must be aware that the patient really wants some foods but is either avoiding them or rationing them due to health consciousness.
In the sessions the students and doctors were challenged to come up with remedies and give reasons to substantiate their choices. Then the professor’s skill at differentiating the remedies was obvious. The finer nuances of fear in say fear remedies, different kinds of anxieties in anxious people were all beautifully explained to the students. To the diligent reader of material medica and repertories probably this is not totally new knowledge, however the professor with his vast array of patient experiences was able to bring it out well. It cannot be compared to any book knowledge.
One of the questions asked was about the treatment of patients in :
It was heartening to note that homeopaths with ten years experience and more still had such doubts. Professor George is of the opinion in all such cases always to start with the presenting symptoms of the moment and not assume any Miasms or constitutional pictures at the outset. However ,he emphasizes that the homeopath should be reasonably certain of what to expect and proceed or how to understand what the remedy might bring out.
For this picture a clear understanding of his concepts in the following are necessary,
1) Theory of levels of human organism physical, mental and psychic;
2) The hierarchy of organs in the body and
3) The scales of measuring energy in the body.
George Vithoulkas has a video course which explains these concepts in detail. The master has also written books explaining his theories about cure in homeopathy. According to George Vithoulkas there are various ways of looking at a case:
These causation symptoms can be considered very strongly. They are the starting points to finding the remedy and a remedy must often be given that fits that causation even if it means ignoring other symptoms. The master is very particular about guiding the patients about their lifestyles and food habits so as to ensure they work towards getting better quickly and stay that way for a long time. In conclusion I would like to say that the course was a very enlightening and educative experience. Professor Vithoulkas is a brilliant teacher and yet he remains a very simple and approachable person.
Meeting up with students and teachers from other countries was an eye opener. We realized that we had a long way to go but at the same time we can confidently say that all our teachers at Pioneer Homeopathy have taught us well and our mentor Dr. Rangachari has been singularly instrumental in bringing out the best of our capabilities and making us very confident. How else could we even consider going to Greece attending this course!!
Professor Vithoulkas was quite impressed with the work Pioneer Homeopathy School is doing in the field of homeopathy and for the growth of homeopathy.
Pioneer Homeopathy School
Telephone: (65) 98523327 (65) 62994502
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