Next course: 1st Feb. 2007 (for three weeks)

Report on the

Clinical Course with Dr. Rajesh Shah

by

Ian Harris, UK

(Published in the news letter of the Society of Homoeopaths, England)

• Some feedback on Dr. Rajesh Shah's teaching worldwide (Click here)

 Participants from Sweden, Ireland, England, Canada, South Africa, Russia and Croatia attended Rajesh Shah’s 21 day clinical course in Bombay, India. Rajesh has lectured extensively on the international circuit, and has active websites at classicalhomoeopathy.com and lichenplenus.com. He is well-known for his forthright comments on the current direction of classical homoeopathy.

So what experiences greeted us unsuspecting Westerners? I shall biase my comments to the homoeopathic facets of our trip, but any article not paying homage to the dodging of the ubiquitious rickshaws, the bustle of the polluted metropolis, would not be holistic. We all had first-hand personal experience of prescribing for ‘Bombay belly’, and involuntary susceptibility to the ails of Bombay's upper respiratory tract infections. At times the clinic rocked to the coughing cacophony of the participants. It was all part of the experience.

The day was divided into two sessions. The morning session started at 9h30 and proceeded till 12h30 or beyond, wait for it, WITHOUT A TEA-BREAK- this is apparently a Western instution. Mornings were mostly devoted to the theoretical aspects of ‘homoeopathy in practice’, whilst the afternoon session from 16h30 till 21h30 plus was for case sitting in and discussion.

Rajesh started off showing us his structured method of case-taking. Once acquainted, we all unanimously extolled the virtues of this system, as it makes case-taking that much more balanced and disciplined, and case management clearly focused. The language barrier was circumvented by Rajesh translating the patients responses, where the patient  didn’t speak English. This served to hone our observation skills, and necessitated acute hearing skills, to decipher the Indian accent and colloquialisms.

We were also given the opportunity to ask the patient questions, where appropriate. Rajesh introduced us to his concepts of facets and the phenomenological approach, wherein (1) one does not have to be constrained by the severely limiting notion that one can only prescribe say Lycopodium if the patient is a coward, or Phosphorous where diffusion is evident (2) we are understanding symptoms by their expression, not their ‘theoretical’ cause. (3)two emotions or responses of expressions appearing simultaneously in the patient, can unlock a key entry point in the case, where  the same simultaneous symptom has been reflected by the same prover in the drug proving.

 Rajesh stressed the need to prescribe on a balanced totality, including the mentals, generalities and peripherals. Mentals taken must be clearcut and non-controversial. This will result in a hard fact-based totality, and the resulting remedy selected would cover more or less the entire totality chosen.

The issue of posology and especially frequency  of repetition  aroused many incredulous eye-brows. Rajesh believes in frequent repetition of the remedy, where the patients vitality and the power of the disease process determine. All his prescriptions are based on whether the disease is functional, structural, reversible (or partly) or irreversible, and each  has a logical foundational argument. Needless to say that every single patient which we saw reported back in an improved state of health - testimony to his hardcore prescribing !!

The follow ups in India occur after 7-14 days, which is generally a lot sooner than we in the UK are accustomed to. Many patients use homoeopathy as their primary source of healthcare, so we saw many acute cases of coughs and colds,fever, initial presentation of measles and chicken pox. Asthmatic bronchitis was by far the most frequent condition presented, but we were blessed with seeing a wide variety of cases  including : Irritable bowel syndrome with chronic rectum prolapsus; mental neurasthenia, acute abdominal pain, epilepsy, acute renal colic, childrens behavioural problems, rheumatoid arthritis, oral lichen plenus, acute uti ,hair falling, ischaemic heart disease,cervical spondylosis, diabetes mellitus,  molluscum contagiosa, menopausal, hyperthyroidism, suicidal tendencies etc. As you can see, a comprehensive cross section of cases.

Rajesh stressed  the need for familiarity  with the passage of the disease process, in order to justify our posology, and prognosis. He rounded off the philosophy with his perception of the miasms and an explanation of how he utilises this in practice. This served as a foundation for a discussion on the depths of actions of remedies, and we were fortunate enough to have the remainder of case discussions  occupied predominantly with this theme.

Interesting remedy selections which arose were a case of Upas and a case of Anantherum. Upas was prescribed for an aggressive 3 1/2 year old child who had been forced to stop nail biting, and was getting very irritable before going to sleep. She was then waking up twice during the night. After consultation with the drug proving, Rajesh prescribed Upas . The girl in question did  extremely well, enjoying  uninterrupted sleep, with a concomitant improvement in appetite and general health. The interesting aspect of Anan. is that Rajesh claims that it is a polychrest which he encounters regularly in his practice. It is not very well reflected in the repertory, but Rajesh gleans his information from the drug proving.

The group construction allowed me to learn a great deal from a Russian participant, who apart from having an encyclopaedic materia medica knowledge, also had dramatic experiences at the sharp end of homoeopathy in the emergency room.

This was an incredible learning experience for me and I echo the sentiments expressed by one of the Swedish participants who felt that she had learned more in three weeks than she would have done in three years.

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