Homeopathy At Home with Melissa
I am a Registered Homeopath and Lactation Consultant who loves Jesus and believes in the power of prayer in healing and restoration. God designed our bodies to heal themselves. We interfere with the body’s abilities by introducing medications which stop the action our bodies were made to do - heal! Homeopathy comes in and stimulates the immune system to help the body remember how to heal itself. ALL people are welcomed here, no matter your beliefs! I discuss mostly homeopathy here, but also I bring an encouraging word from the Lord and touch on the topics of parenting, homeschooling, marriage, and nutrition. Welcome to my world! It’s a beautiful, healthy life!
Homeopathy At Home with Melissa
Mastering Homeopathic Case Taking with CMELTS
Send a text to Melissa and she’ll answer it on the next episode.
Unlock the secrets of effective homeopathic treatment with our latest episode, where we break down the essential steps of case-taking in homeopathy. Ever wondered how to pinpoint the right remedy for both chronic and acute conditions? We introduce the powerful C-MELTS acronym—Chief Complaint, Modalities, Etiology, Location, Timing, and Sensation—to help you master this vital skill. By understanding these elements, you’ll gain the confidence to assess a patient's needs accurately and provide the most effective treatments. Join us as we share practical tips and real-life examples to enhance your homeopathic practice.
We also focus on acute case taking, where getting the details right can make all the difference. Learn why identifying the etiology, location, timing, and sensation of symptoms is crucial for accurate case taking. Discover how to use non-leading questions to get to the heart of a person's condition and how homeopathy stands up to other natural health practices with concrete tests like blood work and stool samples. From sore throats to congestion, we provide the insights you need to tackle acute symptoms effectively. This episode is packed with valuable knowledge to help you navigate the nuances of homeopathic treatment confidently.
Welcome back to Homeopathy at Home with Melissa. Hey, Melissa.
Speaker 2:Hey Brie, it's great to see you.
Speaker 1:It's great to be here always Tonight today, whatever time you're listening, but we're recording in the evening. This is an exciting one. I think you guys are going to love this. A question I know you get all the time, Melissa, in classes or as we talk to people, is how to take a case. Yeah, so we're going to discuss that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is a question I get a lot, like you know, especially in classes where most of the classes are focused on learning the remedies, learning the protocols, learning you know when to use which remedy. Well, you know when to use which remedy. Well, you know how to use each remedy, what potency, how often. You know what what remedy is good for this. But the whole process starts with the case taking. You have to take a good case to come to a good remedy.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and you have come up with some really good resources that you give out often. So you have those. The case taking form, the family case record there's a couple of different ones. You have to help people know where to start, because you were saying before we have these if you don't have a protocol, or if you have one or you don't have those remedies, maybe in acute cases that can happen often, where people are building their stash and don't have all the protocol remedies yet, right. And then you have these huge materia medica and a repertory and they're like I don't, what do I do? And I? That was so overwhelming to me for years starting homeopathy, so this is going to be great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember getting these books and being like what do I even do with this? And you know, yeah, so, so let's, let's do this is. This is really basic information, but it's information that a lot of people maybe don't know, unless you've been in my mentorship program and have actually practiced this with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So let's first start with are we talking chronic or acute first?
Speaker 2:Either you can use this process with either.
Speaker 1:Okay, and when you're doing this, are you okay? Let's say so in a chronic picture, I can imagine we're going to talk about much more in-depth question for a person, right, Like, maybe know more of their big picture, but acutes, do you need to know all that? Like their personality, their disposition?
Speaker 2:Well, it depends, so uh-oh. So my internet's being weird and you still hear me and see me. Yeah, your audio is good. Okay, but my picture is frozen just for a second.
Speaker 1:It's good now.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, so, um, so I it depends actually on the acute. So you and I know that's a hard answer to swallow because you're like well, you know this isn't helpful. How am I going to know when You'll, over time, you'll get better and better at this and you'll learn when. Let me just give an example. So personality I think I would want to know regular personality, especially in children. So if the child has an earache and they're really angry and irritable and they're crying and screaming, I want to know, is that normal for them? Of course they're not crying and screaming all day, every day, but are they normally pretty irritable and angry, and you know, or are they? Is this just totally different, a different presentation of their personality? I need to know that that makes a difference.
Speaker 1:And maybe let's say somebody comes and is saying you know, I want help with strep throat. This is their sixth time having it this year, so maybe you would treat that acutely but also encourage chronic care.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, if you're having recurring illnesses, very often that's actually a chronic condition, but we can address the acute occurrence with homeopathy too.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I remember. I'm thinking back to when I first started this and I remember asking I think I did ask you this Do you have like a form of questions? You just bullet point ask where, how? If I were totally new when I was, I remember what you told me, but what do we typically tell people? Here's your baseline. Here are some bullet points, starting points.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so first of all I'll start with when I was in college I learned an acronym to help to do what we're getting ready to do. But I changed the acronym because I went to a London college and they spell etiology with an A, we spell etiology with an E. So I just changed it around and made it and it took me a minute, like I didn't just pop it out of my head, I had to sit there and look at the letters and try to spell something that actually you could remember. So I came up with C, melts, c-m-e-l-t-s. So if you write that down on the left side of a piece of paper, the acronym, and then C is for chief complaint, m is for modalities, e is for etiology, l is for location, t is for timing and S is for sensation. That's the information you need to get.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, and that order doesn't necessarily matter specifically, you just need to get those points covered.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Okay, so do we want to like practice? What would that? What does that mean? Like what is a chief complaint? Could it be more than one? How do you prioritize the approach to that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, good question. So your chief complaint, you know, is maybe sore throat and but. But there can be concomitants, which is not in that you know, you don't have to worry too much about that. You can list all of the symptoms and you know up with the chief. It can be chief complaints, you know more than one. Or there can be a chief complaint of sore throat and then the concomitants are fever, weakness, dizziness, whatever other symptoms are coming along with this sore throat. Either way is fine, we're getting the same information. So, to keep it simple, say chief complaints, so you're listing the. That's where you just list your symptoms, what are they, or if you have a diagnosis, if you have the diagnosis of strep throat or a whooping cough, then you can, that can be your chief complaint and you know. Then we'll get the rest of the information.
Speaker 1:Okay, you're going to say something.
Speaker 2:That's okay, go ahead.
Speaker 1:How then, let's say, those are their chief complaints? Maybe we should get to this question later. But how would you track improvement? Like, let's say, they have a sore throat. Well, what if they're like the next day when my throat's still sore?
Speaker 2:Yeah, good question. So you have the. Have the person rate their symptoms on a scale of one to 10. Each of those, those chief complaints. So what do you rate your sore throat on a scale of one to 10, where 10 is the worst. You write it down. Then, what do you rate your dizziness? What do you rate your? You know your weakness, your fatigue, your, your coughing, whatever.
Speaker 1:Have them rate each thing um, okay, so then their scale. And it doesn't really matter what that 10 is for them, right, like maybe somebody's nine is somebody else's six that's right, that's right some people have gotten really hung up on that before well, I'm not dying, you know and really overthinking that scale.
Speaker 2:Yeah don't yeah, definitely don't get into analysis, paralysis when you're rating yourself right, but you know. And then there's another. There's a chart at a can can never remember what it's called for kids, where they can. You can find it online, yeah, where it's got the faces, the smiley face to the really sad or mad face, so they can point to which one they feel about each thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so smart. I don't know why I've never used that for my kids. I know that that's a thing, but you know it is really funny. Side note to this one to 10 thing, my kids now will automatically. My throat hurts like a two or like it was a five and now it's a one. They do, I don't even have to ask them, and so we in our family, almost daily you'll hear something is on a one to 10 scale. Even if it's like this food is an eight out of 10.
Speaker 2:That's hilarious, I love it.
Speaker 1:I didn't really think about it, it's just so common. But it is funny now because I always ask them, even as a little kid, they don't. I mean I have some of them say like it's a two in one seven.
Speaker 2:Like they don't know what that means.
Speaker 1:My three-year-old but he does have that in his mind to like put it, I love it, yeah, so that's where you're going to rate it.
Speaker 2:So when you go to follow up, you ask them again to rate their symptoms. And yeah, then they'll, they'll rate it again, then that's how you can tell if you're making progress.
Speaker 1:So then the E or a, depending on where you're from. Oh, did we do it. Oh M is. Yeah, Melt M comes first.
Speaker 2:So modalities, yeah, so the modalities are what makes it better and what makes it worse. And so most people if you, if they're sick, and you ask them what makes it better not most, but some people are like nothing. If there's anything that made it better, I wouldn't even be talking to you right now. That's not the point. The point is if you have a sore throat, does it feel better to drink a warm drink or an ice cold drink? That's really important information, not that it makes it go away. So you might have to educate them a little bit on what that means. And then, what makes it worse?
Speaker 2:So it might, you know it could be the warm drink, the cold drink, going outside, talking, coughing, breathing in cold air. So the HEPR-SOLF sore throat or cough is just breathing in the cold air as makes it worse. So they will cover their mouth with a scarf or something while they talk, or a hand or something while they talk, or to go outside. They don't want to breathe in the cold air. So movement it could be. Every time I move it gets worse or whatever. So what makes it better, what makes it worse? Your modalities write those down.
Speaker 1:I have found too. People will say those when you didn't even ask specifically. That's true. Or they'll say I really want this certain thing. Or they'll say I really want this certain thing Is that different.
Speaker 2:Saying I want hot drinks versus hot drinks makes it feel better. It may be so if they just, you know, if they just say, because that might mean that hot drinks actually make it feel better. If they say I want hot drinks, that might just be a different way of saying yes when I drink a hot drink, right?
Speaker 2:So you just kind of clarify yeah, you're right, while they're telling you their symptoms, they might, you might pick up on modalities in that and you write those down yeah, okay, um, so have that form already written out, so if you need to jot around, you can do it. Yeah, go you don't have to go in order, that's right right, okay, so modalities makes it better or worse.
Speaker 1:And E now to the E. Okay, yeah, e for etiology.
Speaker 2:Yep, etiology means the cause and we don't always know the cause. So it could be, you know, a virus. It could be that they might say, you know, they caught it from their friend at school or they caught it from whatever, you know, a sibling. But it could be emotional. So this is where I want to know you know, maybe they had a shocking event happen and then they got sick right after that. I see that. So your emotions can make you sick, physically sick, when we, you know, we get a shock to the, to the mental, emotional system and, um, or you know, it could be a UTI after you were intimate. Then you got a UTI. That's the etiology, was the intimacy right? So we may or may not know the etiology, and if we don't know, we don't have you know any idea, it's okay, we don't have, we don't have to know it.
Speaker 1:So we can just go. Symptom based is kind of what you're saying, whatever's presenting. So even stuff like traveling sometimes that can be helpful to know Doesn't always change. Let's say you have diarrhea, you can still take care of that without knowing if you have a parasite or if you have food poisoning. So, I try. Sometimes that's hard because I can get hung up on well what. I think that's a thing in general in the natural community, trying to find the root cause. You hear that a lot.
Speaker 1:Everybody wants to know where everything came from, and it's not that that's not important, but we don't always need that.
Speaker 2:So I'm glad you brought that up. So I just had this conversation today with somebody who is brand new to homeopathy and she had a really good question to me. She wanted to know well then, how do you find the root cause? I don't, your body does, and so it's not even homeopathy that's healing your body. Homeopathy is stimulating your body to heal itself. So your body knows what it needs and your body knows. Well, a lot of people these days are really hung up on wanting to know the name of it. They want to put it. When they put a name to it, it makes them feel better, and I'm sorry about that, I really am. I. If I could, if I could encourage you to change your thinking on that, you really could be a lot more free.
Speaker 1:Because I change your thinking on that you really could be a lot more free, because that's a really unique thing to homeopathy, though, because even in the natural world, um, any other practice usually does want to know.
Speaker 1:They want blood work or a stool sample or a GI map or allergy testing, and they address it that way. Um, the only exception I can think of is sometimes when people do muscle testing. If that's something you do, that I think sometimes they test that way, which is a I mean, less concrete. I guess it's not like you have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it can be. Yeah, yeah, I think it can. It's not the same as a blood test. But also, then, I don't believe that all of these tests, whether it be muscle testing or blood or hair analysis, I don't believe that they're all absolutely correct, always Right. So I don't like to leave.
Speaker 1:Okay, to back that up. I agree with you because I think when you then you start seeing patterns like when I talked to enough people who have seen the same type of practitioners or something, and they all have the same problems yeah, you know, I mean I'm not saying it's not credible, I'm just saying it is interesting to hear yeah, you start seeing these patterns, yeah, that you start seeing these patterns. Yeah, like everybody can have all the same.
Speaker 2:Everybody, yeah, everybody has Candida, or everybody has yeah.
Speaker 1:Perfect, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. So we did etiology location.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's, you know, super self-explanatory. You know sore throat is going to be the throat and you know, so that's. It might not even be a question that you ask the person, but you make a mental note because what could make a difference is left or right. So if it's, you know, a left-sided sore throat, those are different remedies maybe than a right-sided sore throat or the left ear, the right ear or um. But also you might think of of something other. Example to breathe. But if somebody says, um, I have congestion, that could mean sinuses, nose, throat, chest. Don't just take congestion, we have to know where don't just take congestion.
Speaker 1:We have to know where? Um headaches, um, that can make a big difference. To determine where what's the. It doesn't matter necessarily what the cause is, but different remedies can help headaches. It can be tricky anyway. So the more yeah I can get for headaches is great. Um, another one recently I only thought of this because I just recently talked to someone is the cough sometime like? The cough can feel like it's a tickle in the back of your throat, it can feel like it's in your esophagus or I feel like it's deep in your chest. And for coughs, I have found that those used to be so hard when you have little kids. I don't know. I mean I had little kids who every cough I'm like know, I mean I had little kids who every cough I'm like I don't. How in the world do I decide? And I was thinking through where it sounds like it's coming from has helped me in choosing remedies a lot, but I can't think of other acute situations where location is right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, so location, lt, timing, timing so you need to know when did this start? Um, and let me tell you why. So you want to know when did this start? And um, was it a fast or slow onset? Those are the two aspects of timing. Um, you want, okay.
Speaker 2:So somebody comes up to you at church and says, what have you got for a cough? Um, you know, and you, you're like, okay, I can help. And you, you start, you start asking questions and and, um, we, we address acute conditions differently than we address chronic conditions. So we want to know how long have you had this cough? It could even be a headache, it could be, it could even be a sore throat. I mean, these days, all these normally very acute things could become chronic.
Speaker 2:So if he's had this cough for four or five, six weeks and you're trying to address it acutely, then you're not. You're going to get nowhere. You're going to use 85 different remedies and nothing's going to happen, because once it becomes chronic, you have to give the remedy more time to act. You don't change the remedy too often and and I go through all of those really you know those details in the mentorship program and the coaching calls. But those are the two aspects. You want to know when did it start? And well, even if it was just three weeks ago so three weeks ago is still acute, but it might take a little bit longer because it's been around longer and then the you know, was it a fast or slow onset? So we've got slow onset remedies like Gelsimium and we've got fast onset remedies like Belladonna and Aconite, you know. And so, um, those are the two aspects of timing, that's it.
Speaker 1:Okay. So what about things like the time of day, let's say with a cough or something? Um, does that fall under timing or modality or does that matter as much for an acute?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if it's worse at, you know, from four to 8 PM, then that's going to be a modality. So if the yeah, I think it would be under modalities yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, so for timing, that's timing sensation. Okay, okay, so for timing, that's timing sensation.
Speaker 2:Sensation. So, without asking leading questions, try your best. Sometimes I still have to do it. But you're going to ask what does it feel like? Describe your headache, and sometimes they have a really hard time and they just can't describe it. And so you give them a few ideas that are maybe different and see if they can. They can pick one, but you know, the sensation can be sharp or shooting, or throbbing or stabbing, or it feels like I'm swallowing glass. It feels like a stick is poking in my, it feels like a fish bone is in my throat. You know, whatever they can describe, fishbone is in my throat, whatever they can describe. And so you want to try to get them to describe it in their own words. And then don't change it, don't say oh, she probably means Because these weird words could be in the Materia Medica and we use them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I tell a lot of people that when they're like I think they feel silly about what they want to say, to explain it and I'll tell them we, those words are probably perfect. Yeah, whatever you're about to say, it is not going to sound weird to me. Yep, um, because they are. You'll read some weird stuff.
Speaker 2:That's, that's good, that's good.
Speaker 1:So that'samelt? Yeah, you can use that chronically too.
Speaker 2:You can, yep, and you should, yes, and so. So we in in my mentorship program, we do these coaching calls and I don't you know, I'm not going to say a day in time because that could change, you know later so but we do weekly coaching calls. Where we, you can, we can practice this. I actually teach once per month in these coaching calls. I teach very specifics on acute conditions and how to address those using C-MELTS, and we practice, we do a practice case and you can bring your own personal questions. And so those monthly calls right now, at the time of this recording covers, one is headaches, one is GI disturbances, sinusitis, headaches. One is gi disturbances, sinusitis, cold, cough, flu, sore throats, oh, and then one is just acute case taking in general. So we spend a whole hour and a half, two hours where I teach you acute.
Speaker 2:This right here was condensed, right and just a piece of that. But I really teach deeply on how to choose the remedy, how, how to know when to switch, I don't know when to keep going, and all that in those. So, um, in the show notes here you'll find the um, a link to go and check that out. The mentorship program you can join anytime. Um, I do have sales throughout the year, but, um, but you can just jump in anytime you want to, and um, and then you can. You know, like if you were to sign up today, you could come to this week's call so you could get started right away.
Speaker 1:So this was focused on taking the case, not um. Now here's the specifics of moving forward. All of those things I think are it's not a quick podcast answer and not because we're trying to like withhold, but it is a lot, it can be really involved and there's a lot of remedies. So that is what you practice in the mentorship program and even in gateway classes that you do and other courses you teach. You go over a lot of those ideas, get group discussion often in those, so lots of ways to learn, yeah, but I love those mentorship calls because you get to interact with other people and share your thoughts, your ideas.
Speaker 2:And there's no limit to the questions you ask. So in gateway I tell you I'm not taking personal cases here. We're not going to, you know, we're not going to talk about anything but homeopathy. And my coaching calls wide open, no limit. What do you want? What do you need? Yeah, and I keep those groups small. So, um, so, yes, come, come join us in the coaching calls. Come join us in the coaching calls. They're really fun Most of the time and it's six months of calls, six months, and so you, a lot of people will renew at the end of the six months because they've enjoyed it so much. And it's we become like a family where we we all, you know pray for each other and laugh together and cry together and all the things so sweet you know, pray for each other and laugh together and cry together and all the things so sweet, yeah, yeah, so yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:That's what I wanted to say is that case management, case taking is pretty easy, but then it's the case management where it gets tricky, and that's what I can't teach in a podcast.
Speaker 1:So and the support is important that I feel like that's that kind of evolves all the time, that changes based on the person. So having people to bounce things off of is really, really helpful. Thank you so much. Thank you Loved that. That was wonderful. I'm hoping that's really helpful to all of you guys listening.
Speaker 2:Yep, I hope you all have a great night and we'll see you next time.