Working with Children with Autism training webinar series

Six part webinar series

New course starting March 2024

 

It is now nine years since my book was published. I have seen 100’s more children since then and want to share with you all that I have learnt in the intervening years.
Homeopathy and Autism Spectrum Disorder. A Guide for Practitioners and Families.
Author: Mike Andrews Singing Dragon 2014

 

 Testimonials from previous courses last year

I have been following the work of the most prominent homeopaths in the field ever since I started to work with children with ASD. I knew about Mike’s knowledge and experience, but I wasn’t aware of his teaching skills and wonderful personality.
His training was beyond my expectations! Before each class he sent info about the topics that were going to be discussed and sent materials and presentations after the class.
Homework and assignments were discussed after we turned them in. That helped our learning tremendously!
Mike covered case taking, different methods of prescribing, Materia medica, rubrics and presented cases. There was plenty of time for Q&A.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to learn from Mike and I highly recommend his training.
Marija Pop-Petrovska Gjeorgievska, holistic consultant, Macedonia

Mike is an amazing, homeopath and teacher with a lot of wisdom and knowledge. I truly enjoyed each lecture with Mike, he put tremendous effort in his excellent teaching series and provided amazing information ( PPT, MM, List of Rubrics related to Autism, different cases, book suggestions, articles) before and after each teaching session. In his lectures, he made sure that each and every question have been answered. He accommodates all the students, provided cases which we could work on at home and then discuss in the coming lecture. I learned so much and highly recommend his series. Thank you, so much dear Mike.
Jasmin Khan Homeopath

The interactive style of the course & how you allowed the participants to feel a part of the pace & content throughout. It felt like a rich group study session, rather than a dry ‘webinar’ – This was the most useful thing because all the content became individualised along the way & that makes whatever you’re learning much easier.
Alex Kay Homeopath
I really enjoyed Mike’s short course. It was a lovely small group that felt intimate and everyone was able to share their thoughts. Hearing Mike talk about his extensive experience in this field was interesting and thought provoking. Thanks Mike.

Alex Taylor Lic.I.S.Hom Licensed Classical Homeopath

As a homeopath in my 60-s, in practice for 32 years, I want to pass on my experience of treating children with Autism and Global Developmental Delay and a few other diagnoses.
My practice is now almost exclusively children on the Spectrum and I am unable to see all of the children that would like to see me. This year I have set up a Team of homeopaths to refer new cases to as I am fully booked up.
If you want to have a busier practice and are committed to work intensely with these children and their parents, and it is intense work; many of my clients have been with me for 2-3 years.


I would like to invite you to a series of training webinars starting in September 2023.
We will work with case examples and I will then cover a broad range of topics as they come up in relation to the cases that we work on.
There will be the opportunity to do homework, between sessions. I can send you cases in advance and we then discuss them together.
I use a toolbox of methodologies according to the needs of each case. Over the years I have followed developments in classical homeopathy from my training with Misha Norland (1987-1991) and been influenced by Vithoulkas, Scholten, Sankaran and many others. I have trained with Kim Kalina, Isaac Golden, Ton Jansen and Luc de Schepper specifically in relationship to autism.
There are many books that you can read and seminars that you can attend, but I want to take you through the ups and downs of case work to give you the confidence to handle these cases.

If you are interested in attending this series of training webinars, please email me mike@mikeandrewshomeopathy.co.uk

I will then send you an application form as this course will only be open to those young homeopaths (in experience if not in years) who really want to build a practice helping these children and their families. The course will be flexibly designed according to participants’ learning needs. Towards the end of the course, there will be the opportunity to work on your own cases.

Podcast transcript introducing my work

 

Hello.
It is great pleasure to be invited by Dr Pallani to speak on her webinar series about my work with children in the Autism spectrum.
The autism epidemic continues to escalate year on year, but all around the world homeopathy is helping kids with a diagnosis of autism, global developmental delay or similar life limiting diagnosis to achieve more of their potential. There are many possible environmental causes and undoubtedly increased medical intervention in pregnancy, birth and early childhood all play their part. My job as a homeopath is to understand the child as best as possible, to take in to account any potential causative factors and to find a treatment that will help them. This is complex and demanding work that involves much commitment from both practitioner and parent.
There have been many small data collection projects, clearly showing improvements in measurable terms after homeopathic treatment. One scale often used is the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist. Just this week I asked a mother to complete the test again for her child and she was able to report that his initially high score of 103 in October 2018 has now fallen to 35. This has fallen from 59 to 35 in the last 16 months. A great result.
However patient testimony is what I want to share with you today. The parents’ words are powerful and deeply moving.
Homeopathy is not a quick fix, it is a long journey often of several years, but changes can often start from early on – in self-harming behaviours, understanding and comprehension, sleep, toileting and much more. The vocabulary of a verbal child often grows quickly, changes for the non-verbal child can take much longer. Of course, like any other therapist I have a small percentage of cases which I am not able to help.
Each child is treated individually after an in-depth initial appointment, lasting up to 90 minutes. Not only will I read reports submitted by the parents, collect a full family and medical history, but also observe and interact with the child as much as is possible.
I use a very wide range of homeopathic remedies in my practice carefully selected according to the nature of the child and their problems.
But now, I want to share with you some patient reports from my clinic this month.
Last week a 15-year-old boy with a long-standing diagnosis of autism, took food from the fridge, put it on a plate and warmed it in the microwave for the first time in his life. This occurred two weeks after his latest homeopathic prescription. His mother was delighted as this is a small step towards independent living skills for him.
Within the first month of treatment a 4-year-old boy’s anxiety has reduced dramatically, he settled to sleep much more easily, his allergies improved and he was able to use playground equipment much more confidently.
And another case of an 8-year-old girl with a diagnosis of global developmental delay. In recent months since starting homeopathic treatment, she has grown in height and gained weight. She has started responding to her name, started to play with dolls and showed better understanding. She has become much calmer and is sleeping through the night without any distress and head banging. All of this has been achieved without any other interventions or medication to the mother’s joy, who can now sleep through the night herself.
A six-year-old boy’s mother reported to me that his speech and vocabulary had improved in just a month, as well as his restlessness and stimming. And most surprisingly he is now interacting with his twin brother for the first time. Conversing and initiating play with him.
As a parent of a child with an autism diagnosis you may feel hopeless and desperate. I hope that by sharing some successful gains with homeopathy from my practice, it will give you hope for your child. The courage at least to have an open-minded approach to homeopathy and to try it for your child.
A five-year-old girl has made gradual and sustained progress over the last two years. From a girl who was in her own world, rocking backwards and forwards, lining up toys and staring at her fingers; she now engages affectionally with her parents and enjoys dance videos and simple games. She is still non-verbal but has recently started babbling. She had a twitch of her mouth and eyelids which has largely resolved now and her constipation is completely gone. She no longer walks on her tip toes either. She sleeps perfectly, no longer having meltdowns in the middle of the night. As her mother says ‘she is settled in every way’.
As with many other cases that have been ups and downs along the way, but progress and quality of life for the girl and her family have improved dramatically.
Homeopathic treatment is always individual. These is no standard remedy for any one symptom. For example, there is no one remedy for head banging, but a choice to be made depending on other factors in the case. Likewise for children that walk on their tip toes, there is a whole range of remedies that have cured this condition in children that I have treated. And all without the need for behaviour or manual therapies.
I will often ask for a Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis to be carried out, to look for any potential Aluminium, Arsenic or other heavy metals toxicity. The Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis also provides information on mineral levels within the body. All of which can affect the bodies chemical pathways, digestive system and indeed the child’s behaviour.
Many parents have already tried many nutritional supplements or have made changes to their child’s diet before consulting me. Many children do benefit from changing to a gluten free and/or casein free diet as they often suffer with digestive problems such as leaky gut, constipation or loose stools. Homeopathy works well alongside these interventions and often further quick gains are noticed by the parents as soon as they start homeopathy. But the dietary approach is not easy for everyone to follow. Some parents find making dietary changes just too difficult, especially when the child’s diet is already limited, yet despite an often-poor diet they experience many gains with homeopathic treatment. In these kinds of cases I make suggestion for small changes that can be made to diet and only suggest more dramatic changes in diet if the child’s progress stalls. Although of course we should all eat as healthily as possible for our long-term health.
So back to the clinic: a five-year-old boy, again who I have been treating for several years, continues to make progress: most dramatically he has progressed from only being able to pronouns only one syllable of a word six months ago, to pronouncing the whole word six weeks ago and now at his most recent appointment being able to put two words together. His Language and Speech Therapist was most surprised at his speech development. She visited him in March and again in August; in March he was only using the initial syllable of a word, whereas now a he was using multiple syllables. And as I said he is now putting two words together. Like many parents when their child was diagnosed with Autism, they thought What will we do, we are helpless; there is no cure for autism’.
However, within the first month of homeopathic treatment his eye contact improved by 40%, his response to his name by 30%, his interest in playing with toys by 10%, walking on tip toes decreased by 50%, running about and jumping by 50%, sleep improved by 60%, head banging by 90%, affection to parents increased by 25% and putting things in his mouth decreased as well.
So, in this case as in many others improvements has been gradual but progressive and I am sure that further gains will continue for him.
And finally, another 8-year-old boy has gone from only babbling and scrapping the paint off the walls in my clinic consulting room – to eat, at age five to full speech and interaction. He is now able to ask and answer questions and even jokes with me on zoom consultations. He has been discharged from Speech and Language services. His Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist score has fallen from 137 to 33.
I hope that these brief snippets from my clinic this month show the possibilities of what can be achieved with homeopathic treatment. Often my heart is filled with joy at the reports I receive back from the patents of children that I treat. I have been a homeopath for over thirty years, but it is the profound changes that can happen for these children with ASD that brings me the reward of changing a child and a family’s life.
Thank so much for listening and I wish you all the best for your child’s future health and development.