HOMEOPATHIC INSIGHT INTO PLANT AND TREE REMEDIES
A patient’s case can seem like a forest of symptoms. There can be so much information, and we need to process it. We need to find ‘the way through the woods’! This book aims to do just that.
Ton Jansen has worked tirelessly for over 30 years to achieve quick, gentle and lasting cures for his patients, and has the results that are evidence of the success of his method. He finds he needs to draw on a wide variety of remedies to get consistent results, and in this book he presents many of them in a clear and succinct way.
He shows us how to use the homeopathic detox therapy (HDT) with our patients in the many cases where it’s necessary to remove what Hahnemann called ‘the obstacles to cure’, and also to find the truly indicated remedy to improve their condition at a deep level.
This book, and his previous book Fighting Fire with Fire, can help us to understand and then apply these teachings in our clinical practice!
Why buy this book?
- Discover more about plant kingdoms and less familiar remedies by learning their keynotes, illustrated with successful cases
- Learn the differences between similar remedies (differential diagnosis) to achieve a more accurate remedy choice, with remedy pictures that go beyond what is currently in the repertory
- See how to select detox treatment courses to prevent unnecessary aggravations and achieve quicker results by removing ‘obstacles to cure’
- Find how to apply the miasmatic remedy as well as the constitutional remedy with the detox therapy to get deep and lasting cures.
- Author: Ton Jansen
- ISBN: 9789076189888
- 448 pages
- Hardback
- Published in 2019
- Printed in Netherlands
Reprinted with the permission of The Society of Homeopaths, (from 'The New Homeopath' Journal, Winter 2020 edition). Reviewed by Philippa Fibert RSHom.
Ton's book is an A4 sized, large typed, glossy materia medica collection which includes many rarely described plant remedies. Each remedy entry follows the same format: picture, description of plant, plant theme, differentiating remedies, and a case. There is also a 'works on' section providing a useful way to differentiate between members of the same plant family. You can move from family theme to specific plant remedy by identifying the organ(s) of concern. For example, all the Laminaceae have the theme of 'need for recognition', but Glechoma hederacea (ground ivy) acts on the bladder; Lamium album (white deadnettle) on the kidneys, uterus and urinary tract; Nepeta (catmint) on lungs, liver and bowels.
Hundreds of plant remedies are grouped in their families. This structure can help with differentiation between lesser known members of the same species leading to more precise prescriptions. For example, 21 members of the Ranunculaceae family are described (family theme 'attention and support'). This might better enable differentiation between Pulsatilla pratensis - an 'even milder Pulsatilla'; or Pulsatilla nuttaliana, which has the characteristic symptom 'nostalgia for an old room'. Characteristic differentiating symptoms are observed by the author and backed up by brief accompanying cases.
I got the feeling that there is even more wisdom to the prescriptions than is transmitted in the book. The cases are not always clearly apparent examples of the remedy they are meant to illustrate. But this is not a book from which to obtain full remedy pictures, but to gain from the author's experience. Ton was a colleague of Tinus Smits and better known for his interpretation of Tinus' work which he calls Homeopathic Detox Therapy. Detox prescriptions, miasmatic prescriptions, even pharmaceutical prescriptions accompany or precede his plant prescriptions. This can leave one wondering what caused what, but are interesting descriptions of the complex prescriptions often required to help today's patients. Often, we are guided through detoxing and miasmatic prescribing to the curative characteristic plant remedy.
This book is a translation from Dutch, and occasional language lapses may grate if you are that way inclined, but also add charm.
Dr Philippa Fibert qualified from Purton House in 2007, before going on to obtain a BSc in Homeopathy at Thames Valley University, and a research MSc at Goldsmiths, University of London (Research Methodology in Psychology), carrying out research into homeopathy and children with ADHD. She then undertook a PhD within the School of Health and Related research at Sheffield University. As well as her private practice, Dr Fibert provides research consultancy for homeopathic bodies such as the Society of Homeopaths, Homeopathy for Health in Africa, and the Central Council for Research in Homeopathy, India.
Reprinted with the permission of The Alliance of Registered Homeopaths, from the 'Homeopathy in Practice' Journal, Winter 2021/2022 edition. Reviewed by Antonia Scott.
By way of background of how I cam to this, I had already read Ton's first book Fighting Fire with Fire and have subsequently got his new book Human Chemistry Integrated Therapy, and I had attended seminars with Ton in London. However, I am not well versed in prescribing using the sensation method / kingdoms, nor have I studied other specific plant homeopathy books.
This is a large, heavy A4-sized book with a striking bright green front cover and beautiful photographs throughout. The main title Finding Your Way Through the Forest of Symptoms is eye-catching but the subtitle - Homeopathic Insight into Plants and Trees: Plant Family Themes showcasing many unfamiliar remedies with keynotes, diseases and cases - is probably more helpful in describing the book. On the first page Ton says the book covers 'hundreds of plant remedies grouped in their families showing how they can complete a treatment in Homeopathic Detox Therapy' (now renamed Human Chemistry).
This is a large book of about 450 pages with each plant having a full page. Each has a beautiful photograph, the common and Latin names and a description of the plant. Ton gives a plant theme for each particular plant and its particular expression within the overall family theme - and I find those sections to be especially useful and interesting. Then there is a list of similar remedies to compare, and for each plant Ton includes a summarised case using that remedy. The book is well and colourfully laid out to cover all these sections for each plant.
The plants are arranged in families with a summary of the family themes, common botanical features of the family and which plants belong to the family. There are more than 65 plant families in the book, consisting of 107 trees and bushes and almost 250 flowering plants. In the introduction Ton says there are remedies which he uses frequently in his practice with good results. He says he looks for the family theme but then looks beyond that to the individual expression and keynotes of the various members of that family. For example, where he saw a desire for attention and support, which suggests Pulsatilla, he sometimes found that prescription was reasonably good but did not touch the core of the case, so he started to look at other members of the same plant family. He then found that gave better results. He says he does not believe there are any 'small' remedies and not all of the plants are in the repertory. Ton has a background as a plantsman so he used his knowledge of the plants and their families and combined this with materia medicas and his clinical experience.
The book is arranged alphabetically by plant family, and then alphabetically within that family. There are contents pages at the front showing the plant family and each plant included. At the back there is a fairly good index. It includes symptoms or conditions but not many plant names - to find those you mostly have to know which family a plant is in and then search for it in the front under the plant family. Some plant names are included in the index and I have not worked out on what basis they are included or excluded! Where they are included, I would prefer the most relevant page to be highlighted in bold. For some entries, for example Crataegus, there are several page numbers and I find myself trawling through the book to find the main Crataegus page. I have started underlining the key page number myself to make things easier next time I look it up. That might sound picky but searching for plants in the book is not entirely straightforward, either using the contents or the index.
Ton's other books are very different, as they cover the philosophy and practicalities of using his Human Chemistry method and they include materia medica specific to that method. This book can be used entirely separately from his method. It reflects the other part of the particular skill I have observed Ton to have. The weekly remedy in his prescriptions is individualised to the patient in the normal way we would expect in homeopathy and, when I have heard Ton speak, he has clearly made a deep study of remedies and often has a different 'take' on them, whether mineral or plant, than I have heard from other people. He strikes me as a deep thinker and explorer of ideas and those abilities, along with his long history as a plantsman, are also reflected in this book.
So there is much to like about this book and I now wonder why I have not used it more. It is beautiful but very big to handle - a minor complaint! - but for some reason I have been a little disappointed with it. There could be various reasons: perhaps because I do not tend to think in sensation terms about kingdoms and perhaps because my knowledge of plant families is not good enough - which of course means I have much to learn from this book. Now if I am thinking of a remedy for a prescription and I look at the plant family, I use the book to compare other members of the family to see if they provide a better fit for my patient.
This book certainly includes many remedies which are not the ones we would normally use, so that is an eye-opening advantage. There is a lot of information in here and it represents Ton's vast knowledge for plants and exploration of their use in cases. I think he does have a very intriguing, curious mind and a wealth of knowledge which is on display here, and I will keep using it to add to my own knowledge of plant remedies.
