Homeopaths Without Borders
With thanks to the Albert Lea Tribune Monday, December 24, 2007 2:49 PM CST
For homeopath Dr. Thomas Coffman, being deployed as a mass communications specialist to the Middle East meant not only capturing images and recording training exercises and missions for the military, but also some memorable images for himself.
Coffman is a professional homeopathic practitioner with his office, the Albert Lea Homeopathic Clinic, on the top floor of the Albert Lea Post Office.He recently returned from being deployed to Germany, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Coronado, Calif., South Carolina and the Kingdom of Bahrain over a 10-month period. He’s been away from his office in 2006 and 2007 for a total of 16 months. Coffman has more than 20 years of service in the Navy and Naval Reserves.
“It was a great experience, and I’d do it all over again,” Coffman said of his deployments.
Since transferring to the Naval Reserves, he has served with Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, Calif., the Joint Public Affairs Support Element in Virginia, the Joint Forces Command in Virginia (Operation Talisman Saber), United States European Command in Germany (Operation Flexible Leader), Fleet Imaging Command — Combat Camera Pacific and Naval Support Activity in Bahrain (Operation Noble Eagle/Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom). He returned with five new medals from the last deployment alone.
Coffman said he found Bahrain to be among one of the most interesting and beautiful places he’s visited.
“They call it the Las Vegas of the Middle East,” he said.
Oil companies are building the country into a tourist destination. “They know they will one day run out of oil, so they’re building it into a tourist spot with six- and seven-star resorts,” Coffman added.
As far as women’s rights, it’s one of the more liberal Muslim countries. In fact, Coffman said, the Muslim women who work on the military base wear blue jeans under their black dresses. “As they walked around, they would hold up their dresses and you could see the jeans underneath,” he said. “Liberal yet modest at the same time.”
He said the country is clean and organized with no crime. There are mosques on many street corners.
Bahrain is considered a safe haven from terrorism, but outside the country, Coffman said, combat cameramen are said to be No. 3 on al-Qaida’s hit list, behind corpsmen and chaplains, because cameramen are said to be the propaganda arm of the U.S. military.
“As a cameraman, you want to blend in,” he explained.
Earlier in the year, in June, he had the opportunity to attend the World Wide Public Affairs Conference and while also attending a private tour of the White House, including meeting Dana Perino, White House press secretary.
Coffman returned to San Diego around Halloween, in time to photograph the wildfires that ravaged the area. He also captured Veterans Day and a citizenship ceremony for those who had served the United States.
Now Coffman is back in his practice in Albert Lea and hopes to branch into radio and pod casting on 20-minute topics.
Coffman studied with The British Institute of Homeopathy in London — an open campus program — while still in the Navy and stationed in Nevada. He started his post-graduate work once he returned to submarine duty in California, where he also studied theocentric psychology.
Completing his active duty obligations, Coffman crossed over to the Naval Reserve in California, stationed with Naval Special Warfare. Over the next four years, he was able to complete his thesis research. The last year was spent with an internship in England where he worked closely with Dr. Balbir S. Nandra, learning about homeopathic psychology, which also included drilling with a local British Regiment of Royal Military Police in order to keep up his reserve obligations.
After he was finished with school, Coffman moved back to his native Iowa and began to practice in Albert Lea in January of 2003.
The most commonly treated illnesses at Coffman’s office are headaches, asthma, eczema and autism spectrum disorders, but there is no one cure for every disease. Because every person is physically, emotionally and mentally different there are treatments that will be more complementary to each individual’s condition. Homeopathy means “same pathology” and homeopathic medicine uses remedies catered to a person’s constitutional type, which is based on their inherited and acquired physical, emotional and intellectual makeup, Coffman said.
In homeopathy treatments, people will still take pills or use salves to fight their condition, but the ingredients differ from conventional treatments.
“I’m not the typical medical doctor,” Coffman said in a 2005 interview.
“The homeopath looks for what caused the disease,” he said. He or she then matches the symptoms and the patient’s constitutional type to some type of natural element. Integrative medicine also has a large part to play in the healing of the patient, including diet modification, nutrition and detoxing, which also involves repairing the body’s organs with botanicals. Coffman is also the medical director of the British Clinic Health System, a group practice of 14 practitioners in four states. His practice is now in its sixth year.
Sue :: Dec.25.2007 :: homeopathy abroad :: No Comments »