Ep. 46 – Exploring Homeopathic Remedies and Holistic Wellness for Massage Therapists with Stephanie Kononovich

[00:00:00] ​

 [00:00:37] Introduction

[00:00:37] Julie Alexander: Thanks for joining me today on the podcast, the Handcrafted Therapy Podcast, our homeopathic practitioner Stephanie Stephanie Kononovich. Right, of course, of course. I’m so glad I got past the hardest part of the interview, which is getting your name correct.

[00:00:56] Stephanie Kononovich: Okay. That’s fair. That’s fair.

[00:00:58] Julie Alexander: Stephanie has been [00:01:00] helping handcrafted therapy for, I don’t know, a few months, maybe a year now. She’s been helping develop a product line that people can come in and purchase homeopathic remedies for including teas and salves. You know, all kinds of stuff.

[00:01:22] Understanding Homeopathy

[00:01:22] Julie Alexander: So I am so happy to have her on the podcast today to help us understand what the heck are homeopathics

[00:01:32] and herbs and all this stuff, and why do we need to drink it and eat it, and whatever we need to do to it, you know, how does it help us as human beings?

[00:01:42] And yeah. I’m really excited you’re here, Stephanie.

[00:01:46] Stephanie Kononovich: Thank you so much. I’m really excited too because I think when people see the little blue tubes of hemo pathic remedies. It’s kind of intimidating because even just opening them is hard because there’s a specific way to open the cap. So I think honestly, [00:02:00] when it comes to even just like attempting to understand what it is, I don’t really wanna open it, let alone really get to know it.

[00:02:06] So I’m happy to be here and help.

[00:02:08] Julie Alexander: Yeah. I’m so glad you mentioned that because you know, a lot of us massage therapists were familiar with Arnica Montana. I mean, we know that really well. We use

[00:02:17] it topically. Sometimes we use it in a gel form or we put it in the products that we make in our store. But you know, when you go and get that little glue thing and take it, I mean, you’re right, there’s a specific way to open the thing and you get so many of these little things and you put ’em under your tongue and

[00:02:38] you have to let it dissolve.

[00:02:40] And there’s whole, this whole thing about it. So.

[00:02:43] Stephanie Kononovich: It’s almost like making a cup of tea. There’s a routine.

[00:02:46] Julie Alexander: Yeah, there really is. So can you kind of describe in layman’s terms, what is homeopathy?

[00:02:54] Stephanie Kononovich: So homeopathy is basically a form of natural remedy where [00:03:00] we take a substance and instead of, you know, drinking, for example, Kim Il Tea in its full form, homeopathic pharmacies will take that substance and diluted to the point that you’re like, is there even anything in there? And the answer is yes, because water. Along with like, you know, alcohol to help preserves, retains a memory of what that substance once was. So that highly diluted amount contains a nano dosage, like an energetic signature, a blueprint that then will be sprayed on the pellets or rolled in it. They roll the pellets in it, and then you take it.

[00:03:35] So when you’re taking remedy, you’re actually kind of just wanting to suck off that first layer because that first layer contains the potent ize. That’s what we call it, potent ize. The diluted form of say, chamomile or whatever it is you’re taking. And that’s what is kind of the basics of homeopathy. And what they found is that instead of taking the full substance where chamomile would help with like maybe cramps, [00:04:00] stomach, upset, pain, that kind of thing, when it’s in a dilute form, it actually works. Better and deeper because our body doesn’t have to work so hard. It’s an energy signature as opposed to a Lego model I have to break down and then think about which part I need. So instead we just get down to that basic form of the energetic blueprint instead of the highly complicated form, and our bodies are like, whew.

[00:04:25] Thank you so much for an easy assignment. So that’s kind of what homeopathy is.

[00:04:30] Julie Alexander: Thank you for explaining that. I have a question.

[00:04:33] Homeopathy vs. Microdosing

[00:04:33] Julie Alexander: Um, so is that like microdosing.

[00:04:37] Stephanie Kononovich: Oh, that’s actually a really good question. Microdosing is very, it’s very similar in principle, but with homeopathy, what we do is we will often dilute it even more. So what we get, the comment that we get back often is like, this is pseudoscience. There’s actually nothing left. Well, if you go into the research of Iris Bell, who has done a lot of research on homeopathy. And she [00:05:00] talks about that nano dosage, that actually they have found nanoparticles in homeopathic remedies, which explains why they act. Um, but microdosing at least my understanding of microdosing is that it’s actually not a nano formm so much as it is a very small amount of the actual substance in homeopathy.

[00:05:18] We’re going even further, we’re going below that threshold of substance where all that’s left is like this little blueprint pattern. Instead of a bigger ggo model of what it would be.

[00:05:30] Julie Alexander: Very good.

[00:05:31] Homeopathic Treatments and Patient Care

[00:05:31] Julie Alexander: now you see patients correct.

[00:05:33] Stephanie Kononovich: Yes.

[00:05:34] Julie Alexander: What kind of treatments do you provide to your patients?

[00:05:38] Stephanie Kononovich: So, homeopathic remedy treatment. So it’s not the same as like, I can’t prescribe medication or anything. I’m not a medical doctor, nothing like that. But a lot of times a patient will come in and they’ll be like. You know what? My tummy is so sick so often I just feel bloated all day. And then my next question is, wow, when did that start?

[00:05:58] And oftentimes we’ll [00:06:00] find that it starts at the same time as an emotional disturbance or something traumatic in the past. And so what really we’re looking for with homeopathy, we provide services to help with the entire body system and what it is responding to. ’cause if you’re stuck, and I mean in the massage therapy world, you understand this perfectly. Where there is an energetic disturbance. In our vital force and in our system, we cannot function at Optimum Health because there’s something in the way. So you might say, I’m past that trauma. I’m done with it. But why, why do we keep having this constant stomach pain? Or why am I, you know, why, why am I struggling with thyroid, you know, issues?

[00:06:38] Why, why? You know, is am I constipated? Well, you know, one thing I find is that if we’re holding onto a lot of motions, we’re not eliminating, we’re also not eliminating our bowels. So there’s a lot of connections there where homeopathy will target the physical symptom, but also the entire mental emotional state as well, so that the person can resonate.

[00:06:58] At a different frequency and actually, [00:07:00] you know, move past things that are holding back their entire system, whether or not they realize it.

[00:07:06] Julie Alexander: ? So at what point do you recommend a person decides to go seek, seek your services?

[00:07:17] When to Seek Homeopathic Services

[00:07:17] Stephanie Kononovich: Honestly, I would say as soon as possible, and here is why. It’s like, you know, the kid that avoids the hardest homework assignment to the very last little bit, and now all of a sudden it’s piled up to the last minute where we could have just like started with. Let me put it this way. When you have to write an essay and it’s due in a week, I’m gonna write my introduction.

[00:07:36] Today, I’m gonna write, you know, my body paragraph, maybe some examples tomorrow, and you, you portion it out and eventually you have this beautifully formed essay. But when we don’t pay attention to the important things and we wait until last minute, and now it’s become this big problem. All of a sudden it’s a stressful thing.

[00:07:53] And so same with our bodies and different layers of health. Let’s say you have a rash, right? And you’re like, oh, oh my gosh, [00:08:00] what happened? You know, maybe you ate something, whatever, and your body’s pushing it out through the skin. Honestly, in homeopathic terms, we would say, great. I’m glad that your body actually has a way to eliminate it instead of driving it further in. But if you push off that assignment and maybe you’re gonna put some cream on it or something, and the rash maybe goes away, but it didn’t actually resolve, it’ll maybe pop back up. You’re putting some more cream. Well, eventually it has to move further into the body. And so in homeopathy, we look at that as going through a deeper layer. Where the skin was trying to solve the problem, but maybe we put some cream on it that wasn’t actually, it was just suppressing the symptom. Instead of helping it resolve, well, then it has to move further inward because the problem didn’t actually go away. And so just like, you know, you have this massive assignment now to deal with.

[00:08:43] No, it’s no longer a simple like step by step thing, you know, of like, well, we’ll work on the skin now. We’re further in and we have a much bigger project ahead and different layers of this, you know, onion if you will. Different layers of this to work with. And so a lot of times what we [00:09:00] see in homeopathy is people have, we’re kind of the last resort, so we’re actually experts at working through layers.

[00:09:06] ’cause we work through so many and we love it. I love it when clients get through certain layers. And sometimes what can be frustrating is we breach through one layer and we’re working through it, but then we take a couple steps back. Totally normal. Our body’s working through different stages and steps. So I would say I work with.

[00:09:22] Homeopathy for Infants and Children

[00:09:25] Stephanie Kononovich: Infants. I work with infants all the way up through my clients who some of them are in their eighties, you know, and when they’re little and they respond faster, that’s a great time to start them in homeopathy. Any kids whatsoever. I have moms that bring in their infants.

[00:09:39] They’re struggling with thrush, they’re nursing, and so we’ll look at some remedies. You know, they’re visiting a lactation consultant. Sometimes it’s like, it’s not a, maybe a nursing physical thing. It might be a tummy thing, and homeopathy is just stellar. And so I have moms, they’re like, after a few doses, they’re like, wow, my baby’s eating and they’re excited, and it’s like, [00:10:00] wow, why not deal with it sooner than later? I hope that answers your question.

[00:10:04] Julie Alexander: Totally. I mean, I, I think what I was kind of thinking of is where, when do you go to you versus their regular general practitioner?

[00:10:16] and that’s

[00:10:17] a different question.

[00:10:18] Stephanie Kononovich: I was gonna say, that’s kind of a complicated

[00:10:20] question ’cause I can’t actually say not to go to your practitioner, but I would say homeopathy, we homeopaths work with. Any condition, no matter, like great or small, right? That’s kind of, you know, we deal from simple skin, which usually it’s not simple skin.

[00:10:36] I think every per person in the holistic world can say, yeah, it’s not a simple skin thing, but we work from skin all the way to like, you know, maybe more difficult diagnosis such as pans, pandas.

[00:10:54] You know, plain as everybody else. If, if you will kind of follow me on that. In other words, more [00:11:00] complicated to becoming more present, you know, in the world around us to something as simple as, wow, I have this cut and it’s not healing. Or, you know what? I bumped and I bruised my head. We deal with it all.

[00:11:11] Concussion. Clients so many realms. So yeah, I would say never say not to go to your regular pediatrician or your regular doctor. But a lot of times people are like, ah, I don’t wanna take an antibiotic for that. Great. Come see me. We’ll

[00:11:27] look at some alternatives. I’ll never tell you not to take the antibiotic, but there might be something simpler and cheaper to do.

[00:11:35] Julie Alexander: Well, and you say, you say simpler and cheaper, but also there might be less, a lot less contraindications that come with the treatments from homeopathy

[00:11:46] than from medications and what

[00:11:50] doctors. May prescribe or may suggest right?

[00:11:55] Stephanie Kononovich: Because a lot of times what we’ll see, and I, I have a lot of kids that come in after antibiotics and [00:12:00] mom’s like, well, they’ve got some tummy troubles, and so we’ll go back and we’ll use remedies that help the body to start to detox from that antibiotic or from the areas that it’s targeting. So just to kinda let their body, you know, when you’ve been in a toxic relationship with somebody and you’re no longer in the toxic relationship, you’ve moved away from it, but you still have this resonating memory. Fear of like, okay, I remember what that person was like. Well, you’re no longer in that space. You don’t need to be in that head space either. So same with our bodies where we might have something in our system that we might need. Right? Antibiotics have safe lives. Let’s, let’s give it, it’s due. It has done a big job. However, we also have side effects from severe. Like maybe some people might say overused, right? Like maybe they’re prescribed for every small thing when they don’t need to be. So now our system is like, I’ve been in this relationship and I just can’t seem to move past it even though I’m not actually in the relationship anymore.

[00:12:53] The round has been finished. What homeopathy can come in and do it start to help the body be like, yeah, I can just let it go. I don’t [00:13:00] have to freak out about it as much. I can calm down when things come through my system. It’s okay. So it helps the body to start. Releasing as opposed to maybe having like a side effect, right.

[00:13:10] With the like with an antibiotic. So homeopathy is much gentler on the system and there’s usually, you know, we find that it’s helpful for alleviating some of those contraindications and side effects with other like antibiotics and other drugs.

[00:13:26] Julie Alexander: A lot of times with massage, massage therapy, and in my practice, and I know with other people that may be listening there are ways to accomplish the goals of what you need without having the harsher treatments done. And sometimes. The problems that we have in our body are caused by what’s going on in our brains more

[00:13:51] than actual, right?

[00:13:54] Homeopathy and Emotional Health

[00:13:54] Julie Alexander: I mean, not that you’re crazy. I don’t wanna, I

[00:13:59] don’t [00:14:00] want

[00:14:00] Stephanie Kononovich: No, that’s not, that’s not what you’re saying at all. Actually, can I kind of expand on that?

[00:14:04] If you don’t

[00:14:05] Julie Alexander: please, yes, please.

[00:14:06] Stephanie Kononovich: you’re exactly right. Because when our, I mean, and let’s think about it, and let’s go back to the gut, right? This is a perfect example. They call the gut the second brain. And some people might claim it actually should be our first brain, right?

[00:14:17] Because even just something as simple. Serotonin. Where is most of your serotonin located? It’s actually located in your gut. So when people do neuro trans, they look at what neurotransmitters are in their body. If they’re not looking at their gut too, they actually aren’t even getting a full reading on it, right? So when your gut is not able to produce certain amounts of neurotransmitters and things like that, like serotonin, your headspace isn’t there and your head space. Not being there might be perpetuating your other issues as well. So there’s this connection with your mind and the rest of your body, right?

[00:14:49] You know, this is why, you know, if you focus on a problem for so long, it can become a problem. I dunno if that, I just,

[00:14:57] I wanted to run with what you said because that’s [00:15:00] exactly right. If we’re not. You know, and our, if our bodies are not able to calm down, right, our vagus nerve, that is your rest and digest. So if we’re in a fear fight or flight mode and we’re stuck in that, we’re honestly not even going to be really getting our nutrients

[00:15:14] Julie Alexander: Yeah.

[00:15:15] Stephanie Kononovich: be doing as well.

[00:15:17] Julie Alexander: And it’s true. And, and why not start someplace like homeopathy? Then, you know, if it’s not getting better or you don’t see any, you know, progression in

[00:15:30] your case, then you can, you know, go up the ladder as far as working with other medical professionals. But

[00:15:38] to me it sounds like homeopathy is working with your system

[00:15:44] Stephanie Kononovich: yeah,

[00:15:45] Julie Alexander: to, to find not only the best and easiest solution for you.

[00:15:52] But it might be the most natural way to do it, right, and the, and the

[00:15:57] Stephanie Kononovich: yeah.

[00:15:58] Julie Alexander: and the

[00:15:58] least amount [00:16:00] of chemicals and, and contraindications,

[00:16:04] Stephanie Kononovich: Yeah, well

[00:16:05] Julie Alexander: other treatments.

[00:16:07] Stephanie Kononovich: Well, and kind of like what I was saying earlier, because we use homeopathy on infants, I work with pregnant mamas and homeopathy. It is so safe and especially like when used by, obviously I got a practitioner. But it’s, it’s just, it’s so safe, you know, these littles respond so well.

[00:16:23] To it, and they respond quickly and instead of totally suppressing a symptom that they might be having, it just lets their body heal at its own rate. You know? And a lot of times it’s even interesting because we’ll find the emotional stuff will start to like get better as well. Like if you have a, a baby who won’t stop startling, you know, obviously startle reflex, it’ll go away at some point.

[00:16:44] But if they’re continuing to be terrified and frightened. Kinda like what we were saying, that gut connection as well. We find remedies that act on the gut are acting on the fear as well. And their system in general calms down. And so like you said, it’s this more holistic way to [00:17:00] like, let’s target the big picture instead of just separating maybe the mental state or like the gut or you know, oh, we have this arm pain, you know, or like, you know, high blood pressure.

[00:17:10] Like everybody knows we can’t separate high blood pressure from stress. You just can. You know, that’s usually what brings on the high blood pressure, right? Like, well, I started this new job. Ah, how do you feel about your boss? So like what you’re saying, it’s a way to target everything before just pushing a symptom into the background.

[00:17:28] Because every symptom is important. It’s telling us something about the deep interworkings of who we are and what isn’t functioning properly. And a lot of times, like you said, it starts with our. Mental state and maybe a trauma or something in the past and the body just doesn’t forget stuff that easily.

[00:17:46] Julie Alexander: And you know, right now with, I mean the world is a stressful place.

[00:17:51] Stephanie Kononovich: Yeah,

[00:17:52] Julie Alexander: I mean, it is, everybody seems to be mad about everything all the time. And so that creates [00:18:00] anxiety and stress within your own body

[00:18:04] that sometimes we feel a little out of control trying to deal with that. And you know, not everybody is.

[00:18:13] Willing and able to meditate and try to sit with that anxiety and know that it’s part of us and we can live with it and it’ll be okay. And, and how to self-soothe. I mean, I’m hugging myself right now, like knowing that that’s what I do when I get stressed, but. A child or somebody in a really high stress situation where you might be taking care of children and parents and have a job running a business, and you have patients of your own and clients of your own to take care of, and this anxiety builds up.

[00:18:52] I mean, I think working with somebody like a homeopathic practitioner, it seems like a, [00:19:00] a logical first step.

[00:19:02] Stephanie Kononovich: Yeah. Well, because you know, you could, and a lot of times people find that they’re just offered medication instead of even simple techniques like. Box breathing. You know, it’s like they’re, they’re offered all of these other options that really just kind of suppress the symptom and it goes deeper into the body, which sadly, some of the side effects of the medication is more anxiety. And so it just kind of seems like this endless cycle spinning on a hamster wheel. And instead, why not get to the root of it? And I kind of wanna talk. Top back into what you said earlier, some people are uncomfortable sitting with it and sometimes for very good reasons, there might be some deep stored stuff. One thing we do in homeopathy is like, if I’m sitting with a client unless it’s a kid and it’s like we’re, we’re just, you know, it’s a much smaller space of time because most kids don’t have the attention span. To sit for, you know, two hours. But for a child intake, I’ll work with a parent and the kid and we’ll [00:20:00] talk about kind of everything we see.

[00:20:01] And, you know, it’s really, it’s much shorter, but for an adult or even somebody who’s older, I want to sit for an hour and a half to two hours, and I want them to tell me. Everything, like what have you experienced, what have you been through? What has that been like for you? Do you have any physical sensation when you think about that trigger or whatever it is? Because what that does as a homeopath, it tells me here are the links that we’re seeing, what remedies match those links that are gonna match like the blueprint to help your body start to move past this. One of, one thing that, you know, we often see, like I was saying, kind of that. Brain get connection.

[00:20:38] A lot of times digestion starts to improve when we get started, especially if there’s any fear like associated with, you know, like maybe I have diarrhea or something every time I go out. You know, things like that. But we, it really depends. Every person is different. That’s just something that I’ll often see is kind of a connection.

[00:20:56] But it could be like, I have this old rash that flared up after I started my remedy and then it went [00:21:00] away. Great. That’s your body. Cleaning up a house that was in there somewhere. We started a remedy that was helping to target that mental emotional state. Maybe that anxiety, and then this old rash flared up and went away. That’s actually your body cleaning out stuff that has been there and we want it to clean house. We wanted to say, I don’t need to hold onto this. You don’t have to become minimalist, but we don’t want your body to be hoarding these negative emotions that are turning pathological, you know?

[00:21:27] Julie Alexander: Now our massage therapists that are listening to this may interpret this as like somatics. So we as therapists practice somatic emotional release and we know that the body stores information about our stress and about our lives, right? And there could be triggers physically and mentally that cause, you know, reactions in the body that need help and.

[00:21:57] You know, sometimes we’re not comfortable [00:22:00] going to our general practitioner and saying, I got, I just got a nervous stomach,

[00:22:05] because, you know, are they really gonna get to the root of the issue

[00:22:09] Stephanie Kononovich: or even listen.

[00:22:11] Julie Alexander: Or even listen, I mean, because that’s a deep emotional rooted problem that you might not even know where it came from until you start.

[00:22:21] A therapy counseling session to unravel all the issues. Right.

[00:22:25] And why not start at something that’s a lot less, you know, problematic on your whole system

[00:22:33] like homeopathy than rather than a drug

[00:22:38] that should cause other problems. Right.

[00:22:41] Homeopathy and Cancer

[00:22:41] Julie Alexander: Um, another thing I wanna talk about with you is cancer.

[00:22:46] Stephanie Kononovich: Okay.

[00:22:47] Julie Alexander: Cancer is a big problem.

[00:22:49] We all know somebody that has cancer or had cancer or beat cancer or if we don’t ourselves. And can you talk a little bit [00:23:00] about homeopathy as it relates to cancer?

[00:23:04] Stephanie Kononovich: Yeah, definitely. a lot of times with cancer clients and we do have remedies that also work on a cancerous system. I have to be careful kind of how I word it, like with the system that’s kind of going outside of its boundaries there, right? We can’t like claim cure treatment, but we do often work alongside with what. They’re doing with like their oncologist or someone. And so another thing I always want to know is kinda like, let’s look at our environment and our diet and kind of what’s going on there as well. But with homeopathy, we have a lot of highly regarded remedies. Are good for cancers conditions, like to help. And a lot of them deal with some deep trauma as well. So they deal with multiple levels, like, you know, is it breast cancer? Which side is it on? These kind of things. And so, I will never tell a client not to go to their doctor, but it is a nice. Option to do alongside.

[00:23:56] And we also have remedies for clients who are [00:24:00] experiencing illness from the drugs that they’re using. So we have remedies for clients who are going through radiation therapy and they are just sick as a dog. And so we have remedies that help to alleviate that. And sometimes it’s the only relief they get. And so it’s, you know, one of those things where it’s like, we’re not gonna tell you not to do the other ’cause, you know. But we do have stuff to support alongside and to help the system, uh, just kind of, you know, as a side along. But it really, it does really help. And that includes any other kind of like drug therapy that people might be on that they’re responding negatively to. And again, always talk with your doctor about that. But like, let’s say, you know, you’ve taken a certain amount of medication for a certain amount of years, cancerous, you know, cancer medication, or, other, and I can’t think at the moment what they call those therapies. It just just went straight outta my head. But we have remedies that just help with some of those side effects where it’s like, yeah, I’ve just, I get a headache, or man, my stomach is just upset. And they really [00:25:00] do help take the edge off.

[00:25:02] Julie Alexander: I think there are a lot there’s a lot of people, a large portion of our population that have survived cancer

[00:25:10] and now they’re really observant about what they intake and what they put on their bodies now because they know that there are things out there that can trigger the growth of cancer cells and.

[00:25:26] Things like that. So I think there’s a big population of people that are looking for some sort of solution that isn’t chemical based, right? Or drug based that isn’t more natural, you know, way to go. So the cancer that they had will not come back.

[00:25:46] Stephanie Kononovich: Right. Yeah. And kind of along with that too, homeopathy, because it does get to the root, it really is so helpful for people. And we have remedies that are specifically for cancer conditions and things like that. But I [00:26:00] also think kind of just tap into what you’re saying, like, you know, you work in the massage therapy world. When somebody does have such a complicated condition like cancer, you know, it takes a village. It’s not just homeopathy, it’s gonna be, you know, massage, drainage, all of these critical, like going to a functional nutritionist or functional medicine doctor who can help you with like, you know, nutrition. Because there are a lot of good options out there.

[00:26:24] And also like taking a look at the environment and then, you know, are we in a toxic environment? Is there something that needs to change? But yeah, it’s. I think that homeopathy can definitely offer some options to people who are, who have battled cancer in the past, or maybe they’re looking at kind of staring down that barrel and being like, okay, I, I know I’m gonna have to walk through this, but I want something to help my system alongside. I think it offers something for everybody on that path. It’s not an easy path.

[00:26:56] Julie Alexander: Yeah, it’s not, I mean, I think there, [00:27:00] we as massage therapists I’m not an oncology massage therapist, but I know a lot of them and I’m so thankful for, for them because. It just makes me feel so much more confident to send my clients in their time for need to somebody that I trust. You know, and then God willing, they come back to me cancer free and we’re back to doing our regular what I do therapeutic massage.

[00:27:30] But what’s interesting to me is when they come back and then they start asking questions. What kind of lotion are you using? Right? What are you putting on my body? Because I’m not doing, I’m not doing the bad stuff anymore, right? I’m now more aware of everything that goes in my mouth, on my body, in my environment.

[00:27:55] You know? I think your perspective changes about life. I [00:28:00] mean, that’s an understatement when it gets to cancer, right? But.

[00:28:04] Stephanie Kononovich: Yeah.

[00:28:05] Changing Perspectives and Support Options

[00:28:05] Julie Alexander: Your perspective on things change, and that’s not a bad thing,

[00:28:09] Stephanie Kononovich: I’d rather know what I need to do now. I can’t go back and change it, but I’d rather know what needs to happen now and then do it, you know, because that’s how I look at it. Right. Um, but yeah, and it is, it’s a. Gosh, I don’t, I can’t, I can’t even begin to imagine. But like you said, we, we know people that have walked that road and we’ve been there alongside of them.

[00:28:31] And you know, maybe for some of us it was a distant relative, but yeah. It’s not easy, but we do have some options to support, which is nice. It really, it really is nice and it helps to shift just the body’s understanding and perception of itself too.

[00:28:46] Addressing Homeopathy Skepticism

[00:28:46] Julie Alexander: Is there anything else that you think would be helpful to share with our audience about homeopathy?

[00:28:53] Stephanie Kononovich: I think a lot of times people, what said online about Heti is that it’s a [00:29:00] pseudoscience. It doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t do anything but. I’ve, I’ve worked with littles all the way on up and, you know, just a newborn doesn’t just randomly respond. You know, it doesn’t just all of a sudden decide it’s gonna respond to a placebo. But I will say that people do feel the difference, and it might not be something they notice immediately, but as we’re working through. Homeopathy, were working through their case together and you know, their life is continuing. They begin to notice those subtle shifts and it really makes a lasting difference for so many people. And I think you know,

[00:29:36] Homeopathy as a Science

[00:29:36] Stephanie Kononovich: I remember in one of our lectures we had a student who was like, I really believe in homeopathy. And I was like, yeah, okay. People say, yeah, I believe in this. Right. But my, I remember my teacher stopped the entire class and like it was on Zoom, so it was. Kind of funny, but you could see her like looking at that little screen of that student and she goes, homeopathy is a science, not a belief system.

[00:29:59] And [00:30:00] I about fell outta my chair laughing because you know what she’s saying is so accurate. People look at it as a belief as opposed to like, no, there’s actually real. Physical and chemical things that are happening right now. It’s at a level that we don’t necessarily see with our naked eye unless it’s, you know, I remember giving a remedy to my son.

[00:30:19] He wasn’t going into respiratory distress, and I was like, okay, I’m gonna pack up. We’re gonna have to head to the hospital. It is what it is. And so, but I’m like, I’m gonna dose him with a remedy as I’m packing things up and. Breathing. Julie, it’s stabilized in about 30 seconds to a minute, and I’m not exaggerating because I remember being shocked by the timing when we’re working with things at an energetic level. Things like, I mean, we, we all, we don’t all study, but like we know thermodynamics, we know the idea of like, you know, electrons holding energy, like this stuff exists, so why can it also not be applicable to our bodies at this level? And that’s what homeopathy has been doing for the last almost 300 years. And [00:31:00] it’s like, yeah, this stuff does actually work. Like when you have energy interacting with energy, stuff happens. And it sometimes happens faster than we can imagine. Or sometimes it’ll take its sweet time because there’s a lot of layers in between. But that’s just it. It’s like y’all will sit there and believe that, you know, thermodynamics works and gets the airplane off the ground and things like that.

[00:31:21] But then, you know, and I don’t know if that’s like an appropriate analogy, but basically we’ll sit there and go, yes, look at how all of these energies work together and there’s push and things happen. Look at that. It happens. But then when somebody takes a remedy, it’s like, oh, but that can’t possibly work.

[00:31:38] Why? It does it’s science. It’s physics. It’s energy.

[00:31:42] Julie Alexander: I mean, a lot of what you’re saying can apply to massage too, you know?

[00:31:45] Stephanie Kononovich: Yes. Yes.

[00:31:46] Julie Alexander: And we see the results. I

[00:31:49] mean it under our hands. We see it happen and it’s pretty incredible when you know you experience that. And it’s also really [00:32:00] frustrating

[00:32:00] Stephanie Kononovich: Yeah.

[00:32:02] Julie Alexander: because like the person on that you’re working on, or your patient has experienced it well as well, and they might think of it as magic.

[00:32:15] Stephanie Kononovich: Mm-hmm.

[00:32:15] Julie Alexander: have magic hands, for instance. It’s not magic, it

[00:32:20] is science.

[00:32:21] Stephanie Kononovich: it’s physics. Absolutely. Well, and I had some, I’ve had, I have to be kind when people will say that because there’s some people like, wow. It’s just, it’s just, I, it’s like magic. And they said that too. And in my head, I mean like we know the science behind it, but also that’s, I. I, I realized after, I was like, why are they calling it magic?

[00:32:41] Like these are intelligent people. And then I realized, I’m like, this is just an outpouring of their great deep gratitude that something has shifted in their life that they never thought would. And so, you know, but it is, it’s a science. There is a science behind it. But when we look at something miraculous and wonderful, we go, wow, it’s something outside of our [00:33:00] perception.

[00:33:00] This is something almost otherworldly. You know, it just does. So many more things than we possibly imagine. Like you said, like magic hands. It’s like it’s physics, but they’re just, that’s their expression of gratitude. But I agree. It is like, it’s like, yeah, but it’s also just science.

[00:33:16] Julie Alexander: I mean, it’s, to me, whenever I hear it’s like magic, I think. Well, you. Just don’t understand why it works,

[00:33:24] and that’s okay. And I appreciate the compliment,

[00:33:27] Stephanie Kononovich: Yeah.

[00:33:28] Julie Alexander: but like,

[00:33:29] I’m not a magician. I’m not pretending to fix you.

[00:33:35] I’m not giving you a a solution that’s gonna be duct tape. I’m actually working with your body to make it work just like homeopathy.

[00:33:45] Stephanie Kononovich: Absolutely. And I really like that you said that because it’s like we’re not, we’re not magicians, and it’s also just.

[00:33:51] Homeopathy in Practice

[00:33:58] Stephanie Kononovich: It’s so fun to learn and we have a lot of, there are a lot of good courses out there for people just to learn about homeopathy. And I’m not like, associated [00:34:00] with any of them. But

[00:34:00] like if you’re a mom and you’re just like, I just don’t wanna give my kids an antibiotic right now, you know, we’ll use it when we need it or whatever, or, I just don’t want that for my son.

[00:34:09] I don’t want them to like, you know, have to put on Neosporin or take Ibuprofen, ibuprofen or Advil or whatever. Sue Meyer does a fabulous podcast called Homeopathy for Mommies, and she just dives into what it’s like to be a mom and what kids need and respond to and like, just gives you options. And I remember I had, I listened to that for years before I finally just was like, all right, bite the bullet.

[00:34:33] Go to home homeopathy school here. I just need to do the things. But let me tell you, it was so helpful as a mom to have those tools in my toolbox and I. It’s one of those things where you think, oh, homeopathy and, I don’t know, massage therapy, I’m sure it’s, it’s different, but like with homeopathy, it’s like, oh, it’s so high and above me.

[00:34:49] I don’t understand it. No, you can, you can learn this stuff. I went to a specialized college for it so that I could do deeper work with people, but. It is a [00:35:00] tool for everyday people and when they learn how to use it, right? Like Sue Meyer teaches homeopathy for mommies or Gillette Calabrese, she does you know, protocols with her homeopathy and there are a lot of moms and people, everyday people that listen to their stuff. And they’re like, wow, it actually does work. Like you don’t have to be some specialized, you know, individual. Like you can use it for those things. And then when you really, you know, need some help with something, go to homey pack. ’cause we studied really end up the science and how to work on those deeper layers.

[00:35:31] And we love it. We’re kind of nerds forever and we don’t mind.

[00:35:35] Julie Alexander: That’s right. That’s right. I mean, whenever anybody talks about like the magic part of massage. My, my always my response is, you need to understand why

[00:35:48] it’s happening or what you’re doing to cause the magic to happen. Because magic is, you know, it’s mysterious and

[00:35:58] Stephanie Kononovich: right?

[00:35:59] Julie Alexander: right? It’s like a, [00:36:00] a miracle

[00:36:01] happened.

[00:36:02] Now, I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna take away anybody’s belief in a higher power,

[00:36:08] I believe in that kind of a mystical magic is beautiful, but when it comes to science and biology and like we were talking about physics, I mean, if you’re a practitioner, dive into the the nerd stuff here Absolutely. You need to know why you’re doing what you’re doing and why it works. Oh

[00:36:31] Stephanie Kononovich: my gosh. Like you

[00:36:33] should, if you don’t, and if you have somebody who like doesn’t, I don’t know. I. All the homie paths I know seem like they know why it works. They’re just like, we just think it’s so cool. You just can’t stop. So, you know, yeah, you need to know why you do what you do. And also just, I love getting to explain that to people. Sometimes I have people that are like, please don’t tell me I just want it to work. I’m like, great. Okay. I won’t tell you. But other people, they’re like, what’s going on? I’m like, let me tell you.[00:37:00]

[00:37:00] Right. Sit around the campfire. Tell

[00:37:02] Julie Alexander: Yeah, I mean, your patients don’t, don’t necessarily need to know exactly why it works or how it works, but I think practitioners really should be able to explain it clearly and simply what we do

[00:37:16] and why it works. But, you know, I mean, as massage therapist, I think it’s important for us to work with people like you because it gives.

[00:37:28] Opportunities for our, our clients to, to see something in a more holistic way. Their whole body is one unit. I mean, we talk about massage therapy is affecting soft tissue manipulation, but we also affect the nervous system.

[00:37:44] We also affect the cardiovascular system. We affect your stress levels. We affect your you know, circulation.

[00:37:53] I

[00:37:53] mean, we can’t separate those things into one human being.

[00:37:58] Stephanie Kononovich: Right. And I like what [00:38:00] you said because it really does take a village. ’cause another you know, on the other end of homeopathy, right. We are working with like the whole system on an like a remedy, dosing and energetic level too. But homeopaths don’t do physical manipulation. So if there is something that you know, is like a physical blockage something and homeopathy can prompt the body to start getting rid of it like a splinter using, you know, some remedies can help to remove a splinter front the body. But it’s also, this is why it’s so nice to work with practitioners like, you know, massage therapists or chiropractors because y’all can move stuff. We don’t, we don’t move anything, right? We’re giving remedies and prompts for the body to do its job, but you guys can also help on a much deeper level there as well, where I can’t physically move the lymph, but I can help your body start to get the idea and moving it right, and oftentimes people will respond, but if you need something physical to manipulate and start to push it so the body’s like, okay, yeah, I can get rid of this as well.

[00:38:56] Homeopathy does a lot. But when there’s a [00:39:00] physical thing as well, like you need to physically move stuff through where you have, you know, a chiropractor, like if you have a misalignment, you need somebody to move out. Homeopathy is not gonna realign your spine. It can prompt the body to do its job. And especially like, you know, you look at things like scoliosis, right? You know, there are a lot like kids that kind of have this very soft core. They’re just not, they’re not strong people, right? And so. They go to chiropractors, they get aligned. You know, using certain remedies for those kids can also help their bodies to maintain what the chiropractor and the massage therapist are doing so we don’t fall back into old patterns. But it’s, it all works together.

[00:39:39] Julie Alexander: I agree. Stephanie, are you taking new patients now?

[00:39:44] Stephanie Kononovich: Yes,

[00:39:45] Julie Alexander: What is your business called

[00:39:49] Stephanie Kononovich: it’s foundation, homeopathy.

[00:39:51] Julie Alexander: and where can people find you?

[00:39:54] Stephanie Kononovich: So we’re in the Richardson Murphy line. If people are out of state or you know, [00:40:00] they just can’t come in person. I also offer online, and so we can do, we do a lot of video consults, but for. Just new patients. I love to see them in person first, and if it’s online, that’s totally fine. I just really like to see who I’m working with.

[00:40:14] And a lot of times it’ll be like a mom will want to bring in a couple of kids, you know, and so then the family will come, they’ll sit down, they’ll play and we’ll talk. And so, we do have a physical location and then also online is an option.

[00:40:28] Julie Alexander: So we’ll post the link in the, in the information about this podcast.

[00:40:34] Finding and Evaluating Homeopaths

[00:40:41] Julie Alexander: So how would you recommend therapists that don’t live in this area connect with other homeopathy professionals?

[00:40:44] Stephanie Kononovich: So, there is, gosh, you know, you can research and see who is a homeopath in your area. Um, you can reach out to, it’s, it’s called like a kena, homeopathy,

[00:40:54] Julie Alexander: Yeah, we can, we can find it and then post that link in in the comments as well.

[00:40:59] Stephanie Kononovich: And so [00:41:00] they’ll have some references as well. Not all homeopaths have, like, there’s no, you don’t have to be licensed to practice as a homeopath, and so you might not be able to actually find all of them there, but you can research homeopaths in the area and you can look at. Maybe who’s gone there, reviews if they work with any other practitioners. So like I work with a chiropractor and so, a lot of times we can be like latched on or we can, some are their own entities, but you can definitely research homeopathic practitioner near me and it should come up with who will do homeopathy in your area.

[00:41:33] Julie Alexander: Is there something we need to look out for specifically as far as certification or knowledge or anything like that?

[00:41:40] Stephanie Kononovich: You can, you can get a certification for homeopathy. , so like for me, I’m actually not certified ’cause you don’t have to be certified, but I’m also not licensed. But I can show you my schooling and I can show you, I have a diploma. Like this is like, I went to this university, I studied, you know, well this college, right? I went to this college, I studied. [00:42:00] You know, and so if I wanted to go ahead and take the exams and. Get all of that, I could. It’s a ridiculous amount of money. So I’m, I want to get there at some point, but it’s, you don’t have to have it in the United States. And so, but in certain states you do. So like, I would just say, oh, where did you study? Where did you go? And you know, I’m happy to tell people, like, I went to the Ontario College of Homeopathic Medicine. I loved it. And they were really intense. Like you had to study hard. So they do not churn out army a pass that dunno what they’re doing.

[00:42:34] Julie Alexander: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:42:34] Stephanie Kononovich: I would ask that because if somebody were to look up like, I don’t have a license number ’cause I don’t have to be licensed in Texas. And you know what, it’s kind of nice to not have to pay extra fees right now, but if somebody were to say, where did you go? I could be like, oh, I went here. I can show you my transcripts. So.

[00:42:53] Julie Alexander: is there any red flags as to who we shouldn’t incorporate our [00:43:00] businesses and send our clients to and call to? Have appointments with like, is there homeopathic practitioners out there that are using a certain scam to get people in their door and not really practicing homeopathy?

[00:43:16] Yeah.

[00:43:17] Stephanie Kononovich: So I have not run into anybody like that, but I’m not gonna say that there isn’t anybody like that. I would just want to know, like where did, like where did you do your schooling? You know, if they’re a naturopathic practitioner, naturopaths naturopathy. It’s slightly different than homeopathy. Naturopathy, I have to say they are trained in certain methods like homeopathy, but they’re not gonna be able to take a classical case and go as in depth as somebody who’s actually trained in homeopathy. So you might see that, oh, this naturopath is homeopathy. Well, do they, you know, do classical case taking or do they kind of have a broad spectrum?

[00:43:49] ’cause they’re trained usually in like a couple of classes of homeopathy, depending on where you go. It just depends. But for someone who’s trained in homeopathy, it’s. Self. We are [00:44:00] trained in certain detoxification methods. We’re trained in like we’re, we are like pretty much like blinders on. We’re looking at homeopathy also, you know, other things like nutrition and things like that.

[00:44:11] But we are like, pretty much like, as the kids say now, we’re like locked in. So you’ll have some people who might say, I practice homeopathy, but it might not, it might be helpful but it might not be traditional homeopathy where we’re kind of working. Holistically and they, again, that’s a funny line. The other thing is that I’ll find people that are going to somebody who, they’ll say they use homeopathic remedies and then they’ll want to make a lot of combinations of things and make a spray because, you know, muscle testing and some muscle testing works really well for some people. I’m not gonna negate muscle testing. I just don’t always find that it is the most reliable way. To tell a remedy personally. That’s why we get to know who our client is. We get to know deeper stuff going on, and then that way, as you know, a homeopath, I can look at it and go, oh, okay. [00:45:00] I can see where both of these remedies might fit really well, but this person would do better with this one overall for this layer.

[00:45:07] And we, we we, we do it in like strata, you know, so. Some people do homeopathy light, we’ll call it that. Okay? It’s homeopathy light, and it might be a naturopath, might be, you know, a kin, anesthesiologist, muscle tester, right? Somebody like that. And they might do really well with it, which is great. I just find that if you want pure homeopathy, usually they’re gonna target some more some, some deeper layers.

[00:45:33] And it’s gonna go, it’s gonna go further homeopathically speaking.

[00:45:38] And that’s not to enhance their practices at all.

[00:45:40] Julie Alexander: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

[00:45:41] Stephanie Kononovich: So fabulous. We love these people. We love all holistic people.

[00:45:45] Julie Alexander: And a lot of massage therapists do muscle testing and I think.

[00:45:49] We don’t wanna, we don’t wanna negate their practices at all. I

[00:45:53] think adding homeopathy to that would be

[00:45:57] great.

[00:45:58] Upcoming Homeopathy Class

[00:45:58] Stephanie Kononovich: yeah.

[00:45:59] Julie Alexander: wanna talk [00:46:00] about, before we wrap up,

[00:46:01] Stephanie’s teaching a class at Handcrafted therapy on Saturday, October 25th. From 10 to 12, the price is $50.

[00:46:12] She’ll cover. Homeopathy in general, how you can, how you can incorporate this into your massage practice.

[00:46:20] Right.

[00:46:21] Stephanie Kononovich: Yep, absolutely.

[00:46:23] Julie Alexander: how to treat stress. I’m just kind of reading what the description is. Anyway, come find out more about remedies. What remedies are available with homeopathy. Meet Stephanie in person.

[00:46:37] She’s delightful.

[00:46:39] Stephanie Kononovich: I get to meet y’all. That’s gonna be the fun part.

[00:46:41] Julie Alexander: Yeah, so we have, we’ll have that link in our information from this podcast as well. But if you don’t see that link, you can always find [email protected] and then go to classes October 25th. It’s a Saturday. So, yeah.

[00:46:59] Concluding Thoughts and Final Remarks

[00:47:01] Julie Alexander: Thank you Stephanie so much for participating in the podcast, and we’re always delightful to pick your brain on homeopathics and learning more from you.

[00:47:09] Thank you so much.

[00:47:11] Stephanie Kononovich: Thank you for having me. It’s been so fun.

[00:47:13] Thank you so much for joining me on the Handcrafted Therapy Podcast. I would love to hear from you. You can email us at [email protected], or you can come by the store. It’s at 33 0 3 North Central Expressway, suite number two 40 in Plano, Texas, 7 5 0 2 3. Or you could connect with me on social Instagram, Facebook hashtag can crafted therapy.

[00:47:39] I’m Julie Alexander and I wish you a very happy and healthy day.