English Training in Anthroposophic Medicine

ABOUT THE COURSE

The English Training In Anthroposophic Medicine is a part-time post-graduate training for physicians.

The Medical Section of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum, Switzerland is working with the English Training in Anthroposophic Medicine, to offer the fundamental UK and internationally based training in anthroposophic medicine in English for doctors and medical students worldwide. 

Faculty: Dr Michael Evans (course leader), Dr Matthias Grike, Anna Hubbard, Prof. David Martin, and Dr James Dyson.

Ideal for physicians looking to:

• Learn new ways of observing and researching nature, medicinal plants, human anatomy and physiology,
• Develop a comprehensive perception of patients and illness that encompasses body, soul and spirit,
• Form a new relationship to medicines and their source materials through plant and mineral studies,
• Experience how art supplements science and widens understanding,
• Explore exercises and meditations that support the ethical and spiritual development of health care professionals on their personal development journey.

COURSE OVERVIEW

It explores new ways of understanding a patient’s condition that go beyond current purely physically based medicine, emphasising the patient’s spiritual, psychological and bodily capacities for resilience.

The training offers a deeper understanding of common medical conditions, offering participants experience-based learning processes that lead to an extended understanding of the human being, both in health and illness, and in their relationship to nature.

The treatments introduced include anthroposophic medicines and their pharmaceutical production. The course also provides a foundation for prescribing natural medicines and a range of non-medicinal therapies that have been shown in general practice to radically reduce the prescribing of antibiotics and other groups of conventional medicines, while improving patient satisfaction.

In addition, participants are also introduced to art therapy, eurythmy therapy, body therapies and nursing procedures through direct experience. These non-medicial treatments can intensify therapeutic responses to illness. Biographical aspects and insights from psychotherapy and counselling are also considered in developing an understanding of disease processes.

Equally important is the ethical and spiritual development of the physician. Fundamental spiritual exercises and meditative practices that can aid such development, are introduced throughout the training.

MODULES INFO

The Training is designed as nine, one-week modules with additional written projects. There are mentored self-study and distant learning opportunities between the modules, with additional distance mentoring for participants’ own medical work. The written work includes several essays based on themes of the training. In addition, three written case histories are required, in order to gain International Certification as an Anthroposophic Physician. 

Modules at Emerson College, fifteen miles from the Gatwick Airport, are The Four Elements, The Four Kingdoms of Nature, The Four Organs –Spiritual Biography, Living Morphology and Projective Geometry; Medicinal Plant Study, Six Soul Exercises, Child and Personality Development, Biography Work; Alchemical Studies and The Metals; Common Psychiatric Conditions; Cancer & Fever Viscum; and Peadiatrics and Gynaecology . For certain modules, face-to-face participation is almost essential and for others it is highly desirable, dependent upon the experiential nature of content. For long-distance international participants who may not be able to travel for all nine modules, online participation for some of the modules is possible.

In addition, two modules on Cardiology & Gastroenterology and Rheumatology take place in specialist departments within anthroposophical hospitals in Germany and Switzerland and at the Goetheanum. These include Havelhohe Hospital in Berlin and Clinic Arlesheim in Switzerland founded by Dr Ita Wegman. The German anthroposophic hospital has all the specialities associated most general hospitals and many of the specialist clinicians will be involved in teaching these modules.

The final module of Autoimmune diseases, Past & Future Spirituality & Medicine takes place at Trigonos, Snowdonia, North Wales. This is close to Penmeanmawr, a druid stone circle where Dr Ita Wegman had conversations with Rudolf Steiner, which were seminal to the development of Anthroposophic Medine and the General Anthroposophical Society. 

Examples of Handbook