In July 2007, we met for the first time. Roz began her session by telling me about her dream to live on a horse ranch in Arizona and practice a specialized psychology known as Equine Therapy. She began riding horses shortly after her brother died when she was just a teenager. It gave her a sense of being in control, having a certain freedom and power. As a psychologist, she attended an Equine Therapy workshop a few years ago and discovered a connection with her love for horses and her passion for psychology.
"This workshop made so much sense how horses can be agents to help people learn about themselves. Horses being prey animals are very in touch with themselves. They need that ability to survive in the wilderness. Being brought up in a family where feelings didn't flow, I began to understand that horses see feelings as information - not good or bad, right or wrong - just information to help us in the world.
For example if you're angry, it means that someone is impinging on your boundaries and you need to set boundaries. I also saw how horses are so adept at experiencing congruence... so if you're in a round pin with a horse and you're angry but you have a smile on your face, the horse will understand that there is something incongruent. This was something I experienced in my life... my senses didn't jive with what was going on."
Roz went on to describe the day her brother died. It was Thanksgiving but not like other years. This year the family went to dinner at a restaurant when they got the call that her brother was in the hospital - dead. When everyone returned home, she and her siblings were sent to bed and then "everything broke loose".
I asked her to describe what she meant by broke loose. "More like confusion. Things going on in every which way and you can't make sense of it. It's out of control. I feel like I'm expressing an inner sense of out of control."
So I then asked her to describe something that's out of control. "Right now physically, my bowels, my reactions, my eyes tearing, allergies, not having my house sold on my conditions, and not finding a property in Arizona."
I asked her to describe something in nature that's out of control. "Well I live 2 blocks from the ocean and sometimes I get the fear of a tsunami and the ocean engulfing me."
"What's the sensation," I asked. "Not being able to breath and being underwater and helpless; not being able to do anything about it and being suffocated; being in a state of fear until I die, not peaceful - it wouldn't be a peaceful death. There is something that's gotten uncomfortable about being near water and I want to be near nature - Arizona and the desert. We moved to Long Beach to be near the ocean but now it doesn't feel right and I need to get back to the land and the animals. Maybe because I feel more in control of the land and nature. "
"Tell me about the desert." I interjected. "Dry, peaceful, feels like it holds in it that which is sacred, very sacred and very spiritual. History. It has dangers and you have to be aware. I often take silent walks. Once, I got too close to a cactus with pricklies that jumped out at me. There are things that you have to really be aware of. Take nothing for granted. Those are real dangers and not like crossing the street
and getting hit by a car. The desert is the epitome of earthiness, where as the city is the epitome of unrealness.
"What do you mean by earthiness?" She replied "in this area, it's earthy. A water loop river and land, open and green and dry areas. People are earthy. They care about you and each other; they are friendly and are about what's real. This area where we want to live is close enough to town for my husband who's a city boy, close enough to (the city of) Austin and yet it's like in a little oasis. Three
thousand acres of cattle ranch that's been subdivided and there is water runny through it and wild deer, antelopes and wild turkeys and cattle walking around. People are concerned about growth and plant life and nature. I love to take care of my plants - I have a lot of plants; I want to be able to find out about birds that are flying and flowers and plants."
It was clear to me that Roz needed a remedy from the plant kingdom. She was totally affected by her environment and was driven to live somewhere more conducive to her inner, spiritual desire of being in the desert. Now I had to determine which desert plant was most similar to Roz's character and had proven to cure allergies, watery eyes, constipation, and had mental and emotional symptoms similar to
what she described.
At this point it was important for me to understand her physical symptoms to ensure that the remedy I select had been proven to cover her chief complaints. She described her breathing difficulties as having a "tightness in her chest, as if something is blocking it so that enough air can't get into the lungs." She said, "I feel it in my throat and my chest, like a narrowing of everything..." and I observed her make a motion with her hands which she described as "squeezing... making things smaller... if you have a big space you can hold more air, and if you have little space you can hold just so much air. My throat and lungs squeeze to allow for less air to come in."
Roz was allergic to many fruits; in fact, she "could not be near an orange without her throat closing", or strawberries or apples as her lips would swell up; however, melons like cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon or bananas or grapefruits were okay. As a child, Roz had an allergic reaction to penicillin - her feet "blew up". She prefers hot climates and had a dreaded dislike for cold weather.
I also asked Roz to select whatever card or cards from a deck of picture cards and match the cards to words that would describe the pictures she selected. The purpose of this exercise is to assist the client in revealing his or her inner essence by paying close attention to the descriptions of each card. Roz selected nearly 30 cards and used the following words to describe the pictures she selected... pure,
sacred, peaceful, danger, water, dryness, tightness, heavy, spiritual, desert, cactus, horses and fruit.
Coincidentally, though I hardly believe it was coincidence, I had just purchased the book entitled "The Desert World, A Homeopathic Exploration" by Todd Rowe, M.D. Dr. Rowe explains that desert remedies have an affinity to the following:
- Water: the desert either has too little or too much water and Roz was struggling with issues of water throughout the case taking. Tearing or watery eyes (non-absorption of water) was one of her chief complaints, and she also had the feeling of being unsafe living near the ocean.
- Expansion and contraction: Roz essentially described something that expands and contracts when she explained her hand motions as squeezing (see above)
- Plants in the desert struggle for survival: the issue of survival was present but her mannerism and descriptions were not consistent with typical animal remedies, so this confirmed for me that the remedy was a desert plant.
- Spirituality: the desert is a place of mystery and spirituality and Roz was certainly connect to this experience.
What made this case very unique was Roz's connection to horses. A search of the materia medica for desert plants with an affection for horses lead me to select Anhalonium as the remedy in this case. Anhalonium is prepared from a cactus found in Texas and Northern Mexico. Now isn't that funny... that's about where Roz wanted to live.
Roz took one dose of Anhalonium 200C. Three weeks later, she phone me to let me know that she was doing much better. Her allergies, asthma and constipation had all improved and she was noticeably less stressful. I instructed her to do nothing and follow up with me in a few more weeks. Later that night, our mutual friend called to tell me that Roz was admitted to the hospital for a high fever. The doctors
conducted several tests on her and only found that she had a mild bladder infection which cleared up in a day or so and without any normal discomfort associated with bladder infections. In fact, at our one and only follow up session, Roz commented that if she hadn't been to the hospital, she would have never known that she had the bladder infection which I then discovered was a reoccurring old symptom. The fever and the reoccurring bladder infection were excellent signs that the homeopathic treatment was very effective.
At the time of this writing it was nearly a year since I last met with Roz and she was doing great. All her physical symptoms are gone, she sold her house by the ocean, moved to Texas (not Arizona) and rented a horse ranch where she practices Equine Therapy. It's very unusual to have such amazing and quick results but hey I'm not complaining and neither is Roz.
The names and non-pertinent details of this case study have been slightly modified to protect the privacy of the individual treated.
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