Paul K. Branch, M.D. - Holistic Medicine and Classical Homeopathy

Last month in the New York Times there was an article “What’s Wrong with a Child?  Psychiatrists Often Disagree.”   The article made clear how inadequate terms such as “oppositional defiant disorder” or “bipolar” or “obsessive compulsive disorder” can be:

…And parents of disruptive children in particular—those who might have been called delinquents, or simply “problem children”—say they hear an alphabet soup of labels that seem to change as often as the child’s shoe size.  [New York Times, Nov 11, 2006,  front page]

The article notes, “there are no blood tests or brain scans to diagnose mental disorders.”   That is to say, the issue cannot be found at the physical level (1st level, see my Levels of Healing on right).  Stepping down to the 2nd level, the therapeutic intention can be to numb the child’s emotional pain through psychiatric medications, or helping the child deal with emotions through talk therapy.   

Although taking a numbing approach through medications can be effective, it often disappoints.  Moreover, children, like the elderly, are more sensitive to medications and can react unpredictably.  We have all seen the articles suggesting that anti-depressants in some children can cause agitation, making suicide more likely.   Even when effective, medications only numb.  They produce no fundamental change. 

Although I advocate talk therapy with children, they frequently do not have enough of a cognitive structure to make it strongly effective.  More than adults, children simply feel, and no amount of talking is likely to change that. 

Descending down to level 3, where therapeutic intentions address the energetic matrix of the body, I have seen many parents use cranial sacral therapy and to some degree acupuncture in children.  Acupuncture I have not seen have a noticeable effect.  Particularly in situations where a child suffers from intense emotions, cranial sacral therapy can be beneficial, yet usually only mildly.  I recommend it, but not enthusiastically.   

To truly be satisfied, parents will have to look to level 4.  Classical homeopathy has the ability to produce fundamental and lasting change.  It takes a homeopath with the ability to clearly mark the 4th level, and it frequently requires diligent work.

An example from my practice was a teen whose diagnosis was “oppositional defiant disorder.”  Defiance in this boy was everywhere.  He slammed doors in my office, stonewalled me for entire sessions, glaring at me with hatred.  The situation at home was just as bad.  In his early teens, he was beginning to encounter problems with the law.  It all climaxed with an admission to a psychiatric hospital, which was a horrific story of how psychiatric admissions can go terribly wrong.  Just conjure up images of men in white coats circling you to pin you down and inject you with tranquilizers, and you get the picture. 

It was right after that psych admission that I broke his case.  I gave him a remedy from the insect family, and it utterly changed him. I saw him not too long ago in my office, and his life had turned around.  He was enjoying school, getting good grades; no longer having run-ins with the law; his relationship with his mother was peaceful.  His future was looking brighter and brighter. 

As a patient, he was a headache, but the change was more than gratifying.  Teens can present special problems, but it is an age group I love.  Homeopathy can release a person’s full potential, and what better time than in your teens?  I think of how much easier my life would have been if a homeopath had done it for me. 

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