Joelle Smaniotto-Gorton - Registered Classical Homeopath, Naturopath and Medical Herbalist

BNatMed, BA Chin, MA L.E.A, Dip Hom, RCHom

Born and raised in France, where homeopathy flourishes, Joelle has received this much respected and proven healing from childhood.  However, it was not until she started practising herself that she discovered how powerful and life changing this practice could be.

Joelle gained a Master’s degree in Languages and International Business Studies and went on to work in Asia for 17 years. While there, she was introduced to Chinese Medicine and ‘energy’ work by Doctor Kong and Madame Ye Ti Lin respectively. In 2004, Joelle enrolled in a 4 year homeopathic course in Auckland, graduating with high academic distinction. She is a registered homeopath with the New Zealand Council of Homeopaths. Joelle also has a degree in Natural Medicine adding Naturopathy and Medical Herbalism to her therapies.

Joelle works with all conditions with special interests in menopause, infertility, anxiety, grief, panic attacks, depression and with special needs and brain injured children. Joelle combines all her modalities (homeopathy, naturopathy, herbal medicine and ‘energy’ work) within her approach. 

Joelle looks forward to meeting you.


To all parents blessed with special needs children

In 2005, life was beautiful, I was pregnant, studying homeopathy and convinced that every single problem could be fixed with homeopathy. Everything was fine until my baby girl decided it was time to test my faith in homeopathy and embarked on her journey seven weeks earlier than scheduled. 

Right away, we  knew there was something wrong as Flora could not breath, eat, or swallow her saliva, and  parts of her body were too floppy, others too tight . She was beautiful though, and here to teach us a great lesson.  Flora was fed through a nasal tube, was on oxygen and had to be suctioned every 10 minutes to get rid of the saliva that was pooling in her mouth. She could not eat or swallow anything, not even her own saliva! Flora was diagnosed with severe bulbar palsy and cerebral palsy.  I don’t think any other news could have been more devastating. We were told that Flora would not live very long and have a very poor quality of life.  Things were very grim and I remember listening with anger to mothers complaining about having to wake up twice a night to feed their babies! I would have given anything to be able to do that! 

Flora stayed in NICU for 3 months. A week after arriving home, she developed a pneumonia so we were back in hospital. Because of her lack of saliva control, she was getting aspiration pneumonia constantly. In addition she was getting constant reflux which also would cause pneumonia. At seven months, in order to save her lungs, Flora was hospitalised, had a Nissen fudoplication and a gastric tube was placed in her duodenum.  The reflux stopped briefly but a month later she was again aspirating milk! Her feeding tube was then placed further down into her jejunum which meant she could not receive big bolus. She had to be attached to her feeding machine all day, was suctioned constantly and on oxygen.  My husband and I watched her 24 hours. We took turns! 

Our bedroom looked like an intensive care unit. It was beeping from every corner. The pulse oximeter alarm, the feeding machine and dreadful suctioning machine created a symphony of noise which was tempered by the reassuring melody of the oxygen machine. Needless to say, we were completely sleep deprived but deep down we knew Flora was going to be OK. She had to, the alternative was too grim!  I knew I had to surround myself with genuinely positive people to avoid fear infiltrating into our life. I chose not to go on line and read about cerebral palsy because I knew it would have had an impact on my expectations of Flora’s condition. I was told I was in denial and the hospital kindly arranged to send me a priest whose welcome lasted the length of the sinner prayer.  Instead I decided to focus on every tiny improvement Flora was making and concentrated on my trust in homeopathy. 

Because the symbiosis between a mother and a baby is so strong, the mother’s thoughts and feelings are extremely important for the outcome of the child. If the mother does not believe in her child, who will? I kept on telling her “You will do everything!”. Through the years, it became “You can do anything!”. 

During her first year, Flora had numerous pneumonia and for the first three years was on oxygen. With our unconditional love, the help of numerous homeopathic remedies, Conductive Education and osteopathic treatments, her swallowing improved and the aspiration pneumonia lessened. At 6 years old, her feeding tube was removed and her stoma was stitched back. 

Today Flora is a happy, funny little 15 year old who brings a smile to our face every single day. She can walk perfectly. She still has difficulties chewing steaks and very hard food but manages to devour everything! She has not mastered the art of proper eating yet but we have kindly given her an extension on this assignment! Her speech keeps on improving and she has the best sense of humour! 

Flora has had many other therapies but the following have had the most impact of her life:

  • Flora had Chiropractic treatment for the first 3 months of her life.

  • Flora has had Cranio Sacro therapy for 8 years. It works very well with homeopathy. It often allows the remedy to work faster and deeper.

  • Conductive Education. refer to http://www.conductiveedwa.com.au/what-is-conductive-ed/

  • Horse riding therapy. Horse riding therapy is very good for children with gait problems and poor core muscle tone. It is also fantastic for children with autism and behaviour problems (which isn’t the case with Flora).  

The purpose of this letter is to give you hope during your difficult time. Try to focus on what your child can do instead of cannot do… yet and don’t allow fear to ruin your life!  

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

 Keep hoping, keep smiling
Joelle Smaniotto-Gorton Classical Homeopath

Tel: 021-854921
Equilibrium homeopathy