Provocative Therapy and Homeopathy
On the website of Frank Farrelly, the founder of Provocative Therapy, is a quotation by a homeopathic doctor attending one of Frank’s courses in Germany. The doctor (unnamed) sees similarity between the processes of Provocative Therapy and Homeopathy in that they are both contrarian in methodology, paradoxical in effect and stimulate a natural healing response in the patient. As a medical doctor trained in both disciplines I concur, but want to say something about how my training in homeopathy helped me enormously in becoming an effective Provocative Therapist.
My training in Classical Homeopathy taught me to converse with patients not only about the symptoms of any particular illness, but to engage in a conversation about their whole life story leading up to the point they got unwell. Shocks, accidents, traumatic events, stories about their present relationships or how their hearts were broken in a relationship are all considered vital in understanding the background to a ‘disease’ in a human and are the very stuff (together with tremendous detail about the illness itself) that the homeopathic doctor needs to make a prescription. Of course a diligent homeopathic doctor would also ask all the questions an orthodox doctor would ask as well as do a clinical examination and order tests if necessary. However it was having listened to many thousands of life stories for over 25 years that was a tremendous asset to have when I started to study Provocative Therapy with Frank Farrelly in the mid 90s. Life stories are life stories whoever they are told to and my experience in listening to such stories was invaluable in Provocative Therapy where it was required of me to find ways of gently provoking people to come up with their own solutions to their problems, articulate them and enact them in their lives. As homeopathic doctors see patients about once a month, I must have heard many more stories than the average psychotherapist in the same time period and certainly more than the average doctor who doesn’t need to listen to life stories in order to practise the current form of orthodox medicine. Thus I finally saw that my training in Classical Homeopathy was invaluable in my journey to become a Provocative Therapist. But strangely enough, Provocative Therapy also helped my homeopathy!
I found that talking with and therapeutically provoking patients in sessions of Provocative Therapy was revealing more and more therapeutically reliable homeopathic information. I began to realise that when asked questions in homeopathic conversations people spoke about their personalities, character and life stories but in sessions of Provocative Therapy, people revealed who they were and how the functioned in life. This information was clearly more direct and authentic and I was not surprised when homeopathic remedies whose choice had been influenced by this, seemed to work really well.
As I realised that the two approaches were synergistic in my experience, I started to offer selected patients (those where a psychological or emotional issue was the problem or an important part of the problem) about the possibility of using both approaches to treat the same issue. The idea was to have three sessions of Provocative Therapy and only then take a full homeopathic history. My experience doing this has been extremely encouraging and I have found the clinical results experienced by people undergoing those four sessions to be really gratifying.
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Dr.Kaplan-Sir,-The Provocative Therapy introduced by Dr.Frank Farelly in which you were trained and being practised by you is,in my opinion, a great asset to the Philosophy as well as therappeutics. I was very much impressed by the book Homeopathic Psychology describing Personality Profiles of the Major Constitutional Remedies by Dr.Philip.M.Bailey,MD. Equipped with the knowledge gained by a study of it can be of great service in true undestanding of human personalities exposed by sessions of Provocative Therapy. Thus the selection of a constitutional medicine can be quickly arrived at while treating chronic ailments which may be prolonged under homeopathic reviews. The word ‘provocative’may be suggested to imply ‘catching attention’ of ‘Manomaya Kosha’or Mind Sheath of personality in which all results of actions of a present life are recorded as if in a black box. This occupies a central position extending out to the next ‘Pranamaya’or Vital Force and outer most’Annamaya’or physical apparition of material body form. Going next inside is ‘Vigyanamaya’or Sheath of Knowledge and the innermost ‘Anandamaya’or the Sheath of Bliss which every personality seeks to experience as glimpses of happiness in a worldly ‘eternal drama of pain’as realized by the “Mayor of Casterbridge” towards the end of his life in Thomas Hardy’s novel. The novel idea of provocative therapy catching attention of mind with a dose of humour directly triggers the inner two sheaths extracting happiness in exposing the knowledge of inner personality expressed by patient himself in an uninhibited manner and leaving the rest to the experience and wisdom of attending physician. In expectation of your kind comments about my one possible explanation-sincerely,your’s-Sastry.M