Episode #48: Interview with Kathryn Berg

Ready to find calm after life's rollercoaster? Join our chat today with the delightful Kathryn Z. Berg, the soul behind Lotus Homeopathy, Inc., and a Certified Classical Homeopath. Get cozy as she spills the beans on personal strategies for overcoming trauma and PTSD, inviting you to join a journey filled with warmth and healing.

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Show Notes:

• Kathryn Z. Berg, owner of Lotus Homeopathy Incorporated, specializes in working with PTSD.

• Trauma is not always PTSD; PTSD requires trauma, but it depends on how one responds to the event.

• Symptoms of PTSD include fear, hypervigilance, dreams, grief, and a negative attitude toward life.

• Homeopathy, founded by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, aims to treat suffering with similar substances to trigger healing.

• Kathryn shares success stories, highlighting the effectiveness of homeopathic remedies in treating PTSD.

• Veterans and civilians, especially those from dysfunctional backgrounds, can benefit from homeopathy.

Key Takeaways:

• Personalized Approach to Healing: Kathryn emphasizes the importance of understanding the individualized response to trauma. It's not just about the event itself but how one processes and responds to it emotionally and physically.

• Dispelling Myths: The misconception that PTSD is incurable is challenged by Kathryn, providing hope for those struggling with the condition. She explores the multifaceted nature of trauma and how it doesn't always lead to PTSD.

• Homeopathy as a Viable Solution: The podcast introduces homeopathy as an alternative therapy for PTSD, highlighting its essence of treating like with like. Kathryn shares personal success stories, including a military individual and an EMT, demonstrating the effectiveness of homeopathic remedies.

• Potentizing in Homeopathy: Kathryn explains the process of potentizing, where substances are made safe and effective in homeopathic doses. This unique approach to healing provides a different perspective on addressing trauma.

• Real-life Success Stories: The heart of the episode lies in real-life examples, such as a military individual overcoming PTSD dreams and an EMT shedding negative emotions and alcohol dependence through homeopathy. These stories serve as beacons of hope for those seeking alternatives to conventional treatments.

Transcripts:

Welcome back to Better Than A Pill today. I'm so excited to have Kathryn Z. Berg is on as a

guest and Kathryn is the owner of Lotus Homeopathy Incorporated, and she is a certified

classical homeopath and she specializes in working with PTSD. And today we're going to be

talking about solutions for trauma and PTSD.

So welcome Kathryn.

Thank you for having me, Cari.

I'm happy to have you here. I'm so excited to get started. And I thought I would start off by

asking you why you chose to specialize in PTSD.

Well, it was actually, um, based on something that someone told me many years ago, and it

was. What kind of thing would you find unbearable if there was no solution for?

And I thought about all of the military people who, you know, have given up their, well, I don't

want to say their freedom, but they've given up their time. Um, they've lived away from their

families, they've gone abroad, they've sacrificed a lot, and then they come back and they can't

live a life. Um, and to me that was unacceptable.

And then, of course, there are You know, obviously lots of civilians, um, and first responders

who also suffer, um, from chronic trauma. Yeah. No, that's, that's, I mean, there's a huge need

for that. And, you know, I think even taking it a step back, I mean, how is it defined? Like what is

trauma? Is it the same as PTSD?

What is the definition? Okay. Well, trauma isn't the same as PTSD because trauma does not

always turn into PTSD. But you need trauma to have PTSD, you know, I mean, a traumatic

event can be a car accident. Right? Um, but if, you know, let's say you run off the road, um, and

your, your children are in the car with you.

Um, but it makes you feel strong to go and rescue them. You're probably not going to develop

PTSD, but if your, um, sensation and emotions that come from that accident are, Oh my God, I

could have died. Um, that's more likely to turn into PTSD. Because a lot of it is how we respond

to the event, as opposed to what actually happened.

Oh, interesting. Yeah, that's so good to clarify, especially for everybody listening today, because

I think those terms are often used. And not really understood. So that makes sense, what you

just said. And so somebody can have a trauma, but they can recover from the trauma. Are there

side effects to trauma, just like PTSD or how does that work?

Um, side effects. Well, there are certainly, um, I don't know if I call them side effects, but

certainly there is a cause and effect relationship, um, between. Those kinds of things. Um, so

one of the easiest traumatic events to help people get over is one of these near accident things.

I mean, we've all either been in them or seen them where someone almost hits you and you

panic and you pull over and you breathe and okay.

Okay. You know, and then you're, you know, forever feeling like you can't drive. You know, so

that's trauma. Um, maybe you end up with heart palpitations or something like that every time

you get in and drive. Um, so that's all part of the trauma. I wouldn't call it a side effect, but it's all

part of the trauma.

Okay. Yeah. So it's like if somebody were, it was, it was in a car accident and they were hit on

the side. I'm even thinking about myself when I get into the car now. I'm always on guard, like

that somebody is going to hit me, but that's just like what happens after the trauma. That's not

PTSD. Right. Um, well, you know, I'm not allowed to diagnose people, so I am not a licensed

physician.

But I'm just trying to get a general sense and just for our audience to get a general sense. It

sounds like there's a distinguishing factor, um, between, between the two, right? Well, I think it's,

how does it affect your life on a day to day basis? Okay. So let's get into that a little more to

help everybody understand.

Um, what are the symptoms? Let's go with that. What are the symptoms of PTSD? Um, well,

there are a lot of them. It's, you know, are you, um, you know, the fear, obviously, um, that

something else could happen. Um, it can be dreams. You know, um, obviously with the military

PTSD, you know, we hear a lot about dreams that they're still in combat and, you know, reliving

whatever it was that happened, um, just hyper vigilance.

Um, I actually have a PTSD questionnaire that if people really wanted to know what the

symptoms were, and if they had it, they can go online and. Um, they can, um, take that and

they'll get feedback on whether they have it or not, because it's based on, um, something, um,

that was created by the Anxiety and Depression Association and the DSM 5.

So, it, it's, um, and then I tweaked it a little bit more, um, for my own use. And so if people really

want to know if they have it, they could take that quiz. Certainly, they could, and we will

definitely include your website in the link of the episode. Um, you know, for people that may be

interested if they do have it, but just getting back to like some of the symptoms, it sounds like

the symptoms that you're sharing are fear, um, dreams.

What else? Um, grief can be a symptom. Okay. Um, and as I said, hypervigilance, you walk into

a room and you're looking around. Um, you're looking for an exit. You know, this is very

common in military folks, even if they don't have PTSD, because honestly, they're trained to do

that. Um, you know, to make sure that they're looking around so that they don't get, um,

ambushed.

Um, but, you know, it becomes PTSD when you feel like everywhere you go, you might get

ambushed. Okay. And so, so somebody from that's had that experience, um, being in the

military or, or, or war, something's going to feel like that. And then somebody else that is

experiencing PTSD that hasn't been in war, it can also be a feeling that, is that what I'm

hearing?

Absolutely. Especially if your trauma included, you know, some sort of physical abuse. Okay.

Okay. Interesting. Yes. Definitely. Okay. So, um, so the symptoms, uh, with fear and

hypervigilance, explain that a little bit more what you mean. Cause fears, we all have fear,

right? Right. Um, fear for your safety, um, you know, so let's say you're getting up and giving a

speech.

You might be fearful, but you're probably not afraid that something will happen to you

physically. Yeah. Um, so I, I think that in homeopathy, we have, you know, if I were to look up

the word fear, there's, uh, probably 10, 000 symptoms. And so, um, you know, the fear can run a

very wide range, but I think it's, you know, fear for your safety, um, that something could happen

to you physically.

Yeah. Okay. So that's the kind of fear. And if somebody has PTSD and they have that fear for

safety, fear, does the normal fear that they have get exacerbated? Like, you know, Or, or is it, how

does that work? Well, I think that, um, it just depends on how closely their other fears are

related to the PTSD trauma fear.

I see. Interesting. And then I've never heard the term hype, like hypervigilance. Is that what

you're, what does that mean? You're looking around. That's the looking around part. Yeah. Yeah.

You're checking around to make sure that. Um, you aren't, that something's not going to happen

to you. So you could be taking your dog out for a walk and you're hypervigilant, um, because,

you know, something had happened to you when you were out one time.

Wow. Like that. Yeah. You know, some other symptoms include, um, just having a very negative

attitude about life, but nothing will get better. That's also a pretty common symptom. Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. So we've got grief, negative negativity, hypervigilance, this, uh, really heavy fear,

fear of safety is what you're saying.

Yeah. Okay. Makes sense. And, um, through your experience, you know, experience in working

with people with PTSD over the years, um, what have you noticed, I guess, are the biggest

struggles that they may be experiencing? The biggest struggles that they're experiencing, um,

living life. Um, some people, you know, they, they drink to self-medicate.

Some people eat to self-medicate. Some people just stay home, um, to make their life safer.

Um, some people are angry all the time. Um, you know, and they actually, they want people, but

they end up pushing them away, you know, because of their behaviors that they can't help. So

the anger is then often another side effect of PTSD.

Okay. Yes, it's a symptom of PTSD for sure. And a lot, some of the most common remedies for

PTSD are remedy that has suppressed anger as part of their remedy picture. And um, we

use them for people who don't have PTSD also. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, what about the, some of

the myths that That you've, you know, that go, go along with PTSD.

Well, the biggest one is that you can't be cured. Okay. Yes. Yeah. That's good. The biggest one

is that you're going to be like that for the rest of your life. Or I have to manage my symptoms my

whole life so that they'll never go away. It's another way to look like, look at it because some

people think management is.

is a cure. Another myth is that you have to go through, you know, like, um, some, um,

treatment plant treatment modalities have you relive the event over and over again. And it can

be very traumatic for people to go through that. And with homeopathy, we don't ask them to do

that. I'm more interested in not what happened, but how they responded to it.

That's how I find a remedy is how to be interesting. Okay. Um, I did in fact, um, a little poll and

you know how you can do a full poll on social media. Yeah. They, um, they aren't scientific by

any stretch of the imagination. Um, but I put some polls out in PTSD groups that I'm a member

of on Facebook. And it was about every single place was about 5050 that people thought that

they could or could not get cured from their PTSD or heal from it or recover from it.

Yeah, it was about 5050 on every one of them. And so you are living proof, though, in your

experience, that there is a cure, that there is a solution. And that's why we're here. And you've

been doing this for some time. So you have some experiences to share. Yeah, yes, I do. I do.

So you want me to share a few stories?

Yeah, let's hear a few. Um, so I did a study back in 2019 and I treated my clients, um, at no

charge. They had to pay for the remedies, but otherwise, there was no charge. And, um, I

worked with about 15 people. So I got a lot of information. Um, I gathered and learned a lot of

information from those folks.

And, um, so one of my military folks was in a situation where, you know, for three days they

kept getting, um, attacked, um, over in Afghanistan, you know, and that's enough to turn

anybody, you know, into a person with PTSD. Um, and he was having, um, dreams, you know.

Um, probably three nights a week. And so I gave him, um, a remedy that matched his fear of

death.

And he, um, went from that to not having any dreams, PTSD dreams. Yes. Within a month he

went to that. The dreams were gone. So yeah. And when you, and we're talking about your

solution, which it sounds like is homeopathy. Yes. A homeopathic remedy that matched his

symptoms. Yeah. So what? Wow. And for people that are new to that term, what does that

mean?

Yeah. Yeah. Um, all right. So homeopathy, um, it means similar suffering. Homeo means

similar, and pathy means suffering. So it means similar suffering. So it was developed by Dr.

Samuel Hahnemann in the late 17 and early 1800s in Germany, and he stumbled upon this

concept when he was translating medical textbooks.

So, he was, um, disgusted by the medical practices of the time, and so rather than treating

patients, he translated medical textbooks, and he knew, you know, six, seven, eight languages,

and so he was the perfect person to do it. And one of the things that he found in a medical

textbook was that the reason that quinine was so effective in treating malaria was that it was so

bitter, and that's the way they used to look at things back then.

And being a scientist and also a chemist, he knew more substances other than quinine that

were more bitter than quinine and they didn't touch malaria. So he said that can't be what's

causing them to heal from the quinine. So Curiosity getting the better of him, he took a dose of

quinine just to see what would happen, and what happened was he developed the symptoms of

malaria.

He didn't develop malaria, he developed the symptoms of malaria. You have to have the

protozoa have malaria, right? And so, um, he stumbled upon, um, things that

Hippocrates and Paracelsus and other great thinkers, um, that came before him had said that

like cures like, and so he figured out a way to take some of these substances, um, and make

them safe, um, and effective without causing the side effects that they have.

And, um, so quinine is still used to treat malaria, by the way. in Western medicine. And, um, but

we can also use it in a homeopathic dose, which means it goes through a process called

potentizing. Um, and that's what he spent his life figuring out. Um, and so then, um, what you

do to figure out what the remedies are going to cure is you give them to healthy people.

You know, in Western medicine, when they try out a, um, a medication, they give them to sick

people. But in homeopathy, we give it to healthy people, and it causes a certain set of

temporary symptoms in them. And then, um, we know if somebody walks in with you, to your

office with those symptoms, it will cure those.

And we get very specific about them, you know, I mean, it isn't just in my fear, I'm going to die.

What else is along with it? You know, so, yeah, so, so it's a natural remedy that can consist of

different things, different, um, herbs or whatever, minerals or animals. Yes. Okay. Okay. And so

in this example, you created this remedy and.

The man was healed. Well, I bought the remedy. I don't, I don't have a pharmacy where I agree.

Fair enough. I got it from a, um, uh, homeopathic pharmacy and he took the remedy every

couple of weeks. Um, and once it was, I also bumped him up a little bit to a little bit stronger dose as

well. And, um, he doesn't have any dreams anymore.

And I have checked in with him and, um, he still doesn't. And that was in 2019. That's

great. And so that's all he did. He didn't have any other form of treatment. Wow. That's

incredible. Share another one. Let's hear another one. All right. Um, well, I have had clients

who have grown up in cults, which as you can imagine is very traumatic.

And, um, and have, you know, changed their lives around to be able to not have this fear and

anxiety all the time. I had a client who was, um, an EMT. As she explained to me, when

you are a first responder, this is true with police officers EMTs, and ER docs. When you see

them, it's almost always the worst day of their life.

You know, nobody calls the ambulance because it's the best day of their life unless they're

having a baby, right? Right, right. That would be the only reason. So, um, you know, it's just

one of those chronic things that just builds up and builds up. And we hear about police officers

and, you know, other first responders taking their lives because they just can't.

Handle all of that. And um, so I gave her, she used to self-medicate by drinking a bottle of wine

a day. That's how she managed it. And her story, by the way, is on my website. So people can

go out and listen to it. Great. So, but she was, you know, everything just changed completely

for her. She wasn't angry anymore.

She was not. I don't even think about those things anymore. She also is not an EMT anymore.

By the way, she had quit before I even worked with her, but she still had all the symptoms. So

that was an interesting experiment, and she's living a very successful life now. Yeah. No, that's

amazing. And it's, it's amazing that this is a solution, which is why we're here today, because

obviously it's working for people and there may be somebody listening today that this could be a

solution that is struggling with PTSD, maybe tried other things, but knowing that homeopathy

can be, um, uh, a valid way to, to cure it.

I mean, that's, that's pretty incredible. Yes. You know, it is. Yeah. Yeah. And my, um, another

story is, um, there was a woman who was, um, about 60 years old at the time of the study. And

she had lived a life of a lot of trauma, you know, just kind of a, a, a bad upbringing. And, um,

People will call that PTSD, which is chronic post-traumatic stress syndrome, or it is, or

dysfunction, um, or it is, um, sometimes called, um, complicated, but PTSD, and I kind of look at

it as people who probably grew up in a dysfunctional family, didn't perhaps have the best

parents in the world, and so, um, You know, and parents do the best they can, so I

don't want to push everything on parents, but, um, it, it's a little tougher to treat those kinds of

cases because, um, they've gone on for so long, um, the more chronic PTSD where they've

had multiple traumas their entire life, so, uh, and they might be different ones as well, you know,

from each other, whereas, you Um, with a, um, first responder, you know, things are going to be

pretty similar right time.

It happens. So, um, so I gave her a remedy and, um, she was just in a much better mood, you

know, just much better. And then sometime in the middle of the four months, that's how long

people got, um, for their treatment. Um, when I did my studies sometime in the middle of there

an anniversary arose. And it was the anniversary of the death of one of her mentors, and

she was just.

Having a lot of grief and a lot of trauma over it, how could this person leave, you know, all of

these things and anniversary deaths are so interesting. I was just in the middle of writing a, um,

blog about that. And so she, um, we changed her remedy. to deal with that long time, long time

grief that she'd held on to for so long.

And, um, so she was taking that remedy for about a month, and then kind of her old symptoms

that I had first treated her for came back. So we switched her back to the other remedy and it

was, um, then, um, once again, an appropriate remedy for her. So, um, and she says I don't

have PTSD anymore. And one of the other observations she had made was, um, she had tried a

lot of different things, you know, mentally, emotionally, spiritual kinds of things.

Um, and she said that they worked better after the homeopathy. The homeopathy helped

clear some of that stuff out and enabled the other things she had tried to work better. Okay. So

that's, that's actually, that makes sense. So it can be both and it can be, you have a client,

obviously, she's getting, um, help in other ways, but the homeopathy just accelerated her

progress.

It sounds like she was able to. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. She would try the other things and they'd

work for a while and then they wouldn't. Right. Yes. Do you, do you see that a lot or do you see

people just doing the homeopathy, or do you see a mix like in this situation, what's common

for you? Okay. Well, I don't know if there's a common, but, um, for military folks, for example,

they might be on medications because that is how the VA treats them.

Okay. And they might also be doing the EMDR and some of the other, um, mental health

exercises that people use. Um, and so I can't tell somebody to stop taking medication, but they

can make that decision on their own and we can work together with their doctor. Um, and I've

had people definitely, um, get off of their medications when they don't need them anymore.

Some people just stop them on their own. You know, I can't help that. So yeah. And as you said

earlier, it's a little easier to work with, um, military or first responders or veterans than it is

somebody with, um, as you described more of a chronic PTSD or from dysfunctional families

and you're okay. Okay. Yes.

There are fewer remedies to choose from. And, um, so that makes it easier. Okay. There are

probably a thousand remedies to choose from if you've had a dysfunctional family. Sure.

Whereas like it's easier for you and you actually see, um,, the, the client benefiting more

rapidly, it sounds like with, okay.

Okay. Well, that makes sense. And is the majority of your work focused more on first responders

and in that veteran population, would you say? I would say it's more focused on veterans and

Um, civilians and less on first responders, mostly because I just haven't been able to, um,

reach out and, and get, you know, there's just so many more resources for the veterans and,

um, they're more willing to talk about it.

And, um, it's just more difficult to find other people. I think that's it. Yeah. And first responders.

Yes. It's harder to find the first responders. You're not getting as many of them, but you have,

but it sounds like they're if I'm hearing correctly, a crossover between the treatment for first

responder and veteran, and that's kind of an easier thing for you to treat with homeopathy.

Yes. The crossover is, yeah, there are definitely remedies for that crossover. And of course, a lot

of the military become first responders too. Okay. Yeah. They become police officers. That's

very common. Once they retire from the military. Now, did you have experience in the military or

any family member? Oh, I have a niece, a niece right now who is in the military.

Okay. But otherwise, no. Just, that's amazing though. Yeah. Yeah. It was just as I said earlier, it

was something I couldn't tolerate, not being able to be fixed. Great. Karen, that's so good.

I'm so glad you're doing your work and this has been really eye-opening to, to learn about

homeopathy as a possible solution and to understand it a little bit more because we hear a lot

about, um, natural medicine and this is another natural way.

To go about helping people. And I love your focus. This has been great. Um, thank you so much

for coming on today. Yes. Thank you for having me. Yes. And I just, for everybody listening, we'll

have Catherine's website in this episode. And as she mentioned, there is the, um, the, um,

PTSD. Checklist and questionnaire there, and I'm sure of a lot of other things.

So, um, feel free to click on that link and get in contact with her. People can reach you

directly on the website Kathryn. Yes, yes, there is a way to reach them directly on the website.

And if they fill out the PTSD questionnaire, it comes to me and I can reach back out to

them if they so desire.

If they don't want to, they can put that in there too. You know, I was just curious. Please don't

call me, you know, that kind of thing. So absolutely. Okay. Sometimes people just need to think

about it for a while. Great. Thank you for sharing that. That's great. And remember, we do new

episodes every week on Wednesday and I look forward to having you join me then.