Holistic, compassionate, integrative response to recent wildfires

By Nancy Gahles

The psychological impact of the ever-increasing spate of natural disasters was heavily in play in Santa Rosa, California, one of the areas hit hardest by the October 2018 wildfires.

Catherine Herbin, LAc, disaster relief coordinator for the North Bay wildfires in Sonoma County, represents Acupuncturists Without Borders. She reported that “the most significant impact of the fires on patients’ health was on their breathing and on their emotional wellbeing…people were emotionally distraught having lost either their homes, loved ones, and cherished belongings, or experiencing the looming threat of this loss.”

A similar observation was noted in this same article by Isaac Eliaz, MD, medical director of the Amitabha Medical Clinic and Healing Center in Santa Rosa.

“The psychological impact was the most severe,” he said, “but the toxic air quality was a close second and compounded the first.

The long-lasting, if not everlasting, effects of natural disasters are clearly demonstrated in the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which often plagues the victims of loss. Historically, PTSD had been relegated to a diagnosis from suffering the trauma of war or sexual abuse. This state or condition is now a recognized sequelae of natural disasters.

The degree to which one suffers any trauma, injury, loss, grief, is, indeed, individual. This is one reason why holistic, whole-person systems of medicine, like homeopathy, are effective in reducing and alleviating the effects of trauma, recent and remote. The physical effects are evaluated and often treated with pain medications, such as opioids and the concomitant mental and emotional symptoms, predominantly anxiety and depression, are medicated as well with antidepressants and anxiolytics. Clinical outcomes are demonstrating the lack of effectiveness of this protocol. Thus, the progressive movement toward non-pharmacological solutions to pain care.

More recently, we have become aware of the role that grief, loss, and trauma play in the etiology of autoimmune disorders. Progressive cardiomyopathies and sudden cardiac events have been linked to chronic stress, lowered vitality, and dysregulation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system in those suffering losses of home and family in natural disasters. In my hometown, after Hurricane Sandy, a survey by Doctors of America showed that our zip code had the highest rates of anxiety and depression some four years after the storm. Thus, the incorporation of a whole-systems medicine, such as homeopathic medicine, makes eminent sense.

Addressing the totality of symptoms, body, mind, and spirit, is a fundamental law of homeopathy. Considering the acute state of shock, as well as the physical symptoms at the outset of the trauma and treating it immediately with the appropriate homeopathic remedy, predicts a more successful outcome in resolution of trauma and adds to a healthier bottom line of resilience and recovery. This has been my experience in treating victims of both 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy in my community.

Given the observations of those practitioners on the ground, it is gratifying to know that integrative practitioners are now in the first responder category. It is these practitioners whose healing methods, medicines and heart-focused traditions will add immense value to resolution at the onset of the trauma. Acupuncturists, massage therapists, naturopaths, and homeopaths were healers represented.

Jenny Harrow, MA, a certified integrative health coach and co-founder of the Integrative Healers Action Network (IHAN), said she was moved by the results of integrative team care in a clinic adjacent to the Red Cross shelter in Santa Rosa. IHAN emerged from the California fires in 2017.  

“Our mission and vision is to partner with organizations in emergency response work, bridging everyone who volunteers in emergency response,” she said. “We want to make it as easy as possible for practitioners to participate.”

I asked her how it came to be that homeopaths were accepted as volunteers for the Red Cross, given that my experience has been that only licensed practitioners, medical doctors, doctors of osteopathic medicine, and registered nurses were allowed to volunteer. Harrow said they simply walked in to the local Red Cross center and asked to set up a clinic. The national Red Cross office had not arrived yet, so they went ahead and set up shop.

“Running the clinics and shelters in Sonoma last year, we were in disaster mode,” she said. “The huge need was there so we started the shelter. The Red Cross came back and said they never would have allowed it.”

Listening to her story, I was reminded of the old “break a leg” advice given to an understudy in theatre. The intention is set that if you show up for the performance the lead star performer may break a leg and not be able to perform and it will give you your big “break.” That is how IHAN managed to set the stage for integrative practitioners to be allowed on the scene of natural disasters. Right place, right time. There also exists, in California, a culture of recognition and a receptivity to alternative healthcare. It certainly helped that the regional Red Cross director was a health coach herself.

There is a lack of information, within the Red Cross and beyond, about how effective these practices are in these situations, Harrow said. The response of the victims to the integrative care team was a positive event that they had not seen before in any other shelter.

Harrow told me about woman who was staying in the medical unit. She had bad arthritis and was barely able to walk. She used a wheelchair and a walker. Two homeopathic doctors from the  Homeopathy Institute of the Pacific(HIP) came the first day and assisted, Harrow said.

“The woman was in so much pain, they had to help her up< Harrow said. “After a 30-minute consultation, they gave her the remedy. She came back the next day and pretty much danced over. Here was an individual who had been waiting to die in a lot of ways. She was crying that this was a miracle.”

While I do not know the remedy she was given, as a certified classical homeopath, I have my assumptions. Homeopathic remedies like Rhus Toxicodendron is well researched for its effectiveness in these conditions.

The miracle really is the essential component of human kindness and the kind of compassion that is not always delivered onsite at emergencies where the medical intervention in morbid injuries must take precedence.

 “To relieve the basic human suffering so immediately… not only was it the medicine, the remedy, but that type of compassionate listening, holding space for someone, listening to their story,” said Harrow. “It is such a powerful part of healing for people knowing that they matter.”

Kathleen Scheible, CCH, owner of Bernal Homeopathy in San Francisco, California, arrived a few days later. Scheible described her experience of volunteering at the Camp Fire, as the location is referred to.

“I was honored to have the opportunity to volunteer,” she said. “In homeopathy, we recommend one homeopathic medicine for a person, based on observable and self-reported mental, emotional, and physical symptoms and qualities. Most homeopaths in the U.S., including myself, work primarily with people consulting with us about their chronic health issues. This kind of work was very different. We needed to be able to quickly help people with their acute conditions induced or worsened by the trauma of the fire.”

Homeopathic Arnica in high potency was the most frequently prescribed remedy and was quite helpful with the emotional and/or physical trauma especially when there was some degree of denial of the trauma.

The integrative practitioners were second or third responders and all of the residents had access to conventional medical care first. Therapies represented included massage, acupuncturists, chiropractic, naturopathic, and homeopathic. Homeopathic practitioners represented the majority onsite.

“Trauma has different effects on different people,” said Scheible. “Working with people in and after trauma can be challenging, unpredictable, and emotionally exhausting.”

She advises that trauma-informed training should be undertaken by any practitioners working with victims of natural disasters. Training programs are offered by the Red Cross, Mesa United Way, the American Psychiatric Association, American Counseling Association, and others.

A summary of the holistic response of integrative practitioners looks like this from Harrow’s perspective.

“People felt taken care of,” she said. “There was a palpable, compassionate heart-centered approach to care. These practitioners were connecting with them on a deeper level. Not just food and shelter. There was true team centered healing going on.”

IHAN has visions of expanding nationally, but they want to establish with the Red Cross first, said Harrow.

“This could not have been happening if the community of integrative practitioners were not so amazing,” she said. “They are stepping up with their ability to give so generously from a compassionate heart centered place.”

This type of community shows the power of this medicine. Different practitioners working side-by-side, treating the whole person. That is where the magic is. The trending transformation in healthcare, call it compassionate healthcare, was foisted into a position of powerful presence. Fortunately, we had a team of licensed and nationally certified integrative practitioners to step in and show up. As I believe there are no accidents or coincidences, I will take that as a sign of synchronicity and a call for filling the void in conventional healthcare.

With the trends in natural disasters showing escalation, it is wise to take a note on fostering an attitude of compassion and heart-centered focus on our Earth and all her inhabitants. These wildfires have shown us that we are not operating in right relationship to the land.

Let this be a call to action for our integrative practitioners to get involved, to grow and develop sustainable networks, and to cultivate good trauma skills to be a prepared, deployable workforce before the next disaster strikes. There is a responsibility on the part of those who utilize volunteers in natural disasters to become informed, educated, and to allow the integrative practitioners who are licensed and nationally certified to add their disciplines, therapies, and heart-centered care to the teams in place.

I extend my deepest gratitude to all my integrative colleagues who gave of themselves and who continue to do so each and every day, in service to humankind.