Hello, my name is Joette Calabrese. Many of you already know me, having read my weekly blog or the inaugural column, The Homeopathy Journal, in past issues of the Weston A. Price Journal – Wise Traditions.

You may also know I raised my kids without ever resorting to conventional medical drugs, relying solely on homeopathy and common sense (with a little bit of spunk, guts and moxie mixed in!)

What most of you don’t know is how I started my journey over 40 years ago.

Like many of you may find yourselves now, I was a very sick young woman. I had chronic fatigue, headaches, asthma, arthritis and anxiety attacks.

As if that wasn’t enough, my body was sensitive to every chemical, toxin and unnatural substance imaginable (and some not so imaginable)!

Protecting myself from these toxins was nearly a full-time job. No problem there. I was so sick; I eventually couldn’t work anyway! I was forced to leave my successful position as an account executive for NBC. I could no longer work on the many community boards for which I was the director. I became chronically ill nearly overnight, and it turned my life upside-down. Most folks who get sick go to doctors. In those days, I did, too.

But to be honest, not only were the doctors baffled, but the drugs they tendered only made me worse.

Antibiotics, steroids, hormones, analgesics and inhalers. I was going downhill faster with the drugs than without them.

I reasoned that if I was sick with the drugs, and I was sick without them, why buy more problems in the name of crushing side effects? So, I quit all meds. This was the proverbial tipping point for me.

The rest of the story is what I did to regain my health.

First stop: A health food store.

There, I learned about herbs, vitamins and such. I bought books — lots of them —  and studied. I learned about vegetarianism. Health food stores are keen on this modality. But later, I learned this was adding to my problems. 

Nonetheless, a little here, a little there and my health began to improve ever so slightly. This was done by abstaining from meds, eating homemade foods and staying away from offending toxins as best I could.

Then there was a special day that changed my life and, subsequently, the life of those closest to me.

I attended a lecture offered by a homeopathic physician. He discussed the curative ability of homeopathy, particularly in regard to toxins. What!!? Someone might know how to cure my illness?

However, the good doctor was retired and wouldn’t take my case.

Lucky for me, I ended up finding a homeopath in my area who had studied in Europe.

Within months, she cured me.

Because I was so smitten by my transformation, I organized a group of friends and we studied homeopathy. First in my living room and then in others’ homes, we met every Thursday night for four years. We studied. We learned. Our knowledge deepened.

Today, decades later, my boys are healthy, grown adults, and I have a thriving homeopathic practice with 17 full- or part-time employees.

And I can trace it all back to that one lecture, my first homeopath and that initial small group of friends.

I want to recreate it.

Those gatherings with my friends had such a profound effect, had that I tasked my staff with helping me create a study group curriculum to recreate those wonderfully informative, influential times in my life.

It has been a constructive process. In the fall of 2015, we produced our first of two pilot study groups. We tested, tweaked the curriculum, modified and tested again, then recorded the members’ thoughts and comments.