Chat with Ann Jerome Croce, PhD, CCH, RSHom(NA)

Tuesday, the 9th of May 2006

Moderator: Welcome, Professor Ann Jerome Croce, PhD, CCH, RSHom(NA). Ann is Director and faculty member of the Florida Academy of Classical Homeopathy, a Board Member of the NCH, and NCH Dean of Education. She has lived in Florida for more than 20 years, and has survived numerous hurricanes and other "events". The new On The Road program has been created to share with others basic and acute care with homeopathy for emergencies: First Response Homeopathy.

Julie: I'm SO excited about this seminar! One practical question, for starts: What materials are suggested? (repertory, materia medica?)

Ann Croce: Hi Julie - great question to start us off. It depends on your level of comfort with those reference books. If they're easy for you to use, great - if not, there will be lots of information that you can glean without them.

Julie: Great, thanks. Another question, about the format - is it interactive? Groups? Lecture?

Ann Croce: The format is mostly lecture - lots of info to convey -- with some hands-on exercises here and there. The exercises can be done individually or in groups, as you prefer.

John: In the brochure we received from NCH, it suggests we get basic first-aid training through the Red Cross. Do you suggest we do this BEFORE we come?

Ann Croce: No, you don't need the Red Cross training before you come. The main point of the Red Cross training is to help you discern when to call the doctor or 911, when to go to the Emergency Room, etc. as well as to provide you with some tools that you can use along with homeopathy. In the situations we'll be discussing, homeopathy can be very effective, but it's also important to know when to use allopathic methods too.
One thing I'd like everyone to know about this seminar is that it's open to people who are brand new to homeopathy. There will be lots of information that will be useful to people who have used homeopathy for a few years as well, but if you're in this category, you can also feel comfortable bringing a beginner friend!

Irene: Will this seminar cover emergencies such as physical traumas, heart attacks, etc. that can happen to people DURING or BECAUSE OF the stress of disasters?

Ann Croce: Yes, we will cover some situations like that.

Elaine Lewis: Hi Ann! Will there be videos? Will it be deeper than *Arnica for blunt trauma and Calendula for wounds*? How deep do you plan to get? Thanks, I'm all signed up for the seminar, see you there!

Ann Croce: Hi Elaine - looking forward to seeing you there, too! We don't plan to have videos. We will be covering Arnica, but we will talk about more than just "Arnica for blunt trauma." We'll talk about a wide range of action for each remedy that we cover.

Terrie & Marsha: Combined question: How much time will be spent on disaster situations vs. terrorism vs. bird flu or other pandemics?

Ann Croce: Hi Terrie and Marsha! I'm not sure yet about the time distribution. All of those are topics that we could touch on. We will use certain situations as examples, and try to equip people to respond in those and other situations as well.

Irene: I'm trying to get a handle on whether this is appropriate for advanced beginners of homeopathy who know a fair amount about treating emergencies. Will you be covering things that are not normally found in the books that cover emergency remedies?

Ann Croce: My philosophy here is to teach people how to fish, rather than giving them a fish -- in other words, teach how to respond homeopathically, using some examples, but make it clear how to respond homeopathically in other situations as well. We may cover some things that are not in the books. The seminar is designed to bridge from beginners to advanced beginners, so there is likely to be some information that is a real challenge for the former and some that's redundant for the latter. I am a big stickler for philosophy, however, so EVERYTHING we do will be grounded in homeopathic philosophy, something that is beyond the scope of most books. Knowing your philosophy is the key to knowing how to fish!

Terrie: Any chance that the conference will be video or audio taped? Or that it could be teleconferenced? I know several others who want to attend but the dates are bad, and they don't want to wait until Florida in November.

Ann Croce: Terrie, very good question. MANY people have asked this, for which we're grateful! We don't have an answer yet - still trying to find the best way to reach the largest number of people while maintaining consistent high quality for the program.

Terrie: I'm glad you're looking for answers to those questions of alternate ways to attend. How will we know if something comes available for June?

Ann Croce: Terrie, if I understand your question correctly: we won't be teleconferencing the seminar in June -- too expensive, for sure.

Kristy: Should we be reading (or re-reading) the Organon before attending???

Ann Croce: Have you finished your annual re-reading of the Organon yet? Seriously, we will definitely refer to the Organon, but it's not necessary to have read it before attending.

Mona: Could you recommend other books or articles we might read instead of the Organon to get a quick idea of the concepts?

Ann Croce: Hi Mona, and welcome! Yes, your best bet would be an "introduction to homeopathy" book such as Timothy Dooley's Homeopathy: Beyond Flat Earth Medicine, or George Vithoulkas' Homeopathy: Medicine for the New Millennium. Many emergency and home prescribing books also provide an overall introduction to homeopathy.

Elaine Lewis: Ann, there's a case in this month's Homeopathy Today which I think illustrates how much we have to learn: the accident case that WASN'T Arnica--it was Helleborus; and even when it later looked like Hyoscyamus, it was still Helleborus! Will you be featuring unusual cases like these?

Ann Croce: Great question, Elaine! Yes, we will talk about differentiating remedies, and how they may resemble each other. Also we'll talk about the principles behind the thinking that says "Arnica for blunt object trauma" -- when and how this may and may not be an appropriate line of thinking.
The article that Elaine mentions brings up an interesting aspect of first-aid homeopathy: in most cases, it's easy; except when it's not.

Elaine Lewis & Mona: Ann, would be get more out of the workshop if we bring our favorite repertory and Materia Medica with us?

Ann Croce: Yes, if you're used to using them - we will have handouts to support the information we present, so if using reference books is distracting for you, then you don't need them. If you are comfortable with them, though, they would probably enrich your experience.

John: Will you be offering this course in other cities/ other parts of the country down the road?

Ann Croce: We certainly hope so, John. The challenge is finding a location where we can make ends meet. We hope to expand the On the Road program gradually to six locations per year. "First Response Homeopathy" is only the first topic in the On the Road seminar program - we hope to introduce a new topic every year or two, so that eventually we have a variety of topics to offer in different parts of the country.

Kristy: Would students at your Florida Academy and other homeopathic schools benefit from attending?

Ann Croce: Funny you should ask, Kristy -- some of them are coming, and I bet they're smiling right now! Yes, especially for homeopathic students in their first couple of years in school. At our school, we do cover acutes, but we spend a lot of time on constitutional prescribing too, so a whole weekend on this kind of topic is a nice complement to what students are learning in school. Also, the grounding in philosophy will be very valuable for those who already have a nuanced understanding of it, as they will experience this more deeply, while newcomers will grasp the concepts more generally.

Elaine Lewis: Ann, in a lot of First Response situations, you can't get a case from the patient, as with the case described in Homeopathy Today. Are you going to talk a lot about reading non-verbal cues, choosing what other information to use?

Ann Croce: Yes, we will talk about reading non-verbal cues. BTW, this is a great reason to use homeopathy for your pets - it hones your powers of observation.

Mary: Will this workshop also cover emergency response for animals during hurricanes, earthquakes and the like?

Ann Croce: Hi Mary - probably not specifically, but everything that we will discuss about humans could also apply to animals. Using the "teaching people to fish" method, my hope is that participants will be able to apply the seminar's information in a much wider set of situations than just the ones we have time to cover in the weekend.

Elaine Lewis: If time permits tonight, could you favor us with an interesting emergency case we might learn from?

Ann Croce: (laughter) A sneak preview? Well, I don't know if this one will come up in the seminar or not, but it's really about potency. This one was about a boy who had broken his jaw in a bicycle accident. He was given Arnica 30C five times a day for two days, with no relief of the pain. Was it a matter of the wrong remedy? Could have been, but before we went to a different remedy, we first went up in potency. A single dose of Arnica 1M resolved his pain for good.

Terrie: How thoroughly will you cover emergency response to Bird Flu (or other pandemics)?

Ann Croce: Terrie, we will cover that pretty thoroughly. We'll talk about how to find the genus epidemicus (and what that is, too!), and we'll talk about the precedent of the 1918 flu, which is also thought to have been avian in origin.

Aaron: At the seminar, will you also talk about legal issues of being a Good Samaritan to your neighbors during hurricanes?

Ann Croce: Hi Aaron - No, that's not on our agenda, though it's certainly an excellent question. The laws governing homeopathy vary so much from state to state that we can't provide a complete summary. But thanks for the idea: I will try to find some resources so that people can discover these laws for themselves.

Elaine Lewis: Re your case of the boy with the broken jaw: In serious injuries, I don't waste my time with 30C's; I carry Arnica 10M in my car.

Ann Croce: Wow, Elaine, you are brave! I carry a 1M in my car. Certainly Arnica is a remedy that I like to have in high potency - the only thing is, to know when to use it. I hope we can begin to teach that kind of discernment in this seminar, too.

Elaine Lewis: It's not that I'm *brave*; I've found out the hard way that the potency has to match the severity of the pain and if it does, you really can work a miracle.

Ann Croce: That's great, Elaine - yes, we can work miracles with the right choice. I meant "brave" with a twinkle in the eye (hard to convey electronically!). Absolutely, there are times when only a high potency will do.

Ann Croce: One of the themes for this seminar is empowerment, and we hope that between the information, the handouts, and the kits, people will go home feeling confident. On the theme of empowerment: there is so much fear-mongering around these days, and we hope to help participants transcend that by knowing what they really CAN accomplish in an emergency.

Kristy: Fear-mongering... like tonight's movie, Fatal Contact, on ABC...

Ann Croce: Oh my goodness! Is that the one where the emergency homeopathic paramedics sweep in and save the day? Seriously, we do need to get the word out that there are alternatives to feeling fearful and powerless. Like Elaine with the Arnica in her car: how empowering, to know that you have such a wonderful healer right there with you, if ever you should need it.

Kristy: Will you also inform participants where they can obtain emergency kits, or will you be selling them at the seminar?

Ann Croce: We will have a kit available for purchase at a reduced price; it will be tailored to the seminar, containing remedies that we cover during the weekend. We will also be sending participants home with a substantial book of handouts, including the weekend's handouts, materia medica information, and resources for further study.

Aaron: So how do we sign up to come to these seminars?

Ann Croce: Great question, Aaron! Best way is from the website: www.homeopathic.org. You can register online, and the website has all the information about location, lodging, etc.
Please remember, too, that if you can't come to Philadelphia in June, there's also Cocoa Beach, Florida in November -- right on the beach!

Moderator: Thank you for answering our questions about the new NCH On The Road Program. We hope to see many of you at First Response Homeopathy and future courses in the series.