Addressing the myths about homeopathy
It's natural to have questions. Here are honest answers to the things people ask me most.
“I'll be honest with you — I used to be one of those people who would have rolled their eyes at the idea of homeopathy. I was a committed cynic, a firm believer in Science with a capital S, and I would have told you quite confidently that it was nonsense. Then I tried it for my own chronic conditions — and it worked. The cynic became the practitioner. So when I say I understand the scepticism, I really do mean it — I lived it. Ask me anything.”
“Homeopathy is just placebo — it’s all in your head.”
This is the one I hear most often, and it's a fair challenge. But consider this: homeopathy works in babies and animals — neither of whom can know they're receiving treatment, let alone believe in it. A two-month-old with colic doesn't have opinions about complementary medicine.
Many of the most remarkable results I've seen have been in young children — like the 20-month-old girl who had 10 courses of antibiotics in 10 months before we worked together, and hasn't needed a single one since. She wasn't hoping it would work. She just got better.
“Placebo requires belief. But the children I treat don’t know what a remedy is — they just respond to it.”
Could some adult responses involve a placebo component? Perhaps, just as they might with any treatment. But the outcomes I see consistently — in infants, in animals, in people who came as sceptics — go well beyond what belief alone can explain.
“There’s no scientific evidence that it works.”
This one is more nuanced than it appears. It's true that homeopathy is difficult to study using conventional double-blind trial methods — largely because it's deeply individualised. Two people with the same diagnosis may receive completely different remedies based on their unique symptom picture. A trial that gives everyone the same remedy will naturally struggle to show results.
That said, the evidence is far from empty. The research picture is genuinely mixed — I won't pretend otherwise. But the Swiss Government Health Technology Assessment — commissioned to inform national insurance decisions — reviewed 22 systematic reviews of clinical trials and found 20 showed a positive direction of evidence in favour of homeopathy.
Find out more at the Homeopathy Research Institute website.
“The absence of a certain kind of proof is not the same as proof of absence.”
I also believe in the evidence of lived experience. The people who come back, who bring their children, who refer their friends — they're not doing that out of loyalty to a theory. They're doing it because something changed for them.
“It’s only useful for minor things — nothing serious.”
Homeopathy is often thought of as something for colds and minor ailments — and yes, it works beautifully for those. But some of the most meaningful work I do is with complex, long-standing conditions that conventional medicine has struggled to resolve.
I've worked with people dealing with chronic anxiety that had been present for years, both children and adults with recurring ear infections who had been through repeated courses of antibiotics, teenagers whose skin conditions were affecting their confidence and daily life, adults managing debilitating fears and phobias, and adults living with chronic, debilitating pain that had become life-limiting.
“Homeopathy doesn’t just treat the symptom — it looks at the whole person. That’s why it can reach places that other approaches sometimes can’t.”
I want to be clear: I always work alongside conventional medicine, not instead of it. For serious conditions, I'd never suggest stopping prescribed treatment. But for many people, homeopathy provides a layer of support that makes a profound difference to their quality of life — and sometimes, outcomes that genuinely surprise them.
Still have questions? I'd love to talk.
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