What to do...

From the age of twelve, I've taken an interest in all kinds of medicine. In the following twelve years, I've studied medicine, gained a second degree in reiki, read all kinds of books on TCM, nutrition, phytotherapy, yoga, meditation, vibrational medicine, bodywork, NLP, psychology and read even more articles (mainly from the internet) about every other kind of healing you can imagine. My medical study is too narrow for me... I need more. But self-thought knowledge is not the same as an degree or even a course.

And there comes the problem challenge. In the Netherlands, we have several home study courses in alternative/complementary medicine. The thing is, they're mainly MBO level, some are at a very easy HBO level. I've got a masters degree in WO, so it's way to easy for me. (See this article for a very short explanation of the Dutch educational system.) And the books I've read are the study books used in the bachelor of western herbal medicine at the university of westminister. So my guess is, which is supported by the sample lessons, that I already gained most of the knowledge given in these home study courses. So why not try a course you have to attend you might think. I've considered this... there are a couple of such courses. Mainly, again, at a very easy HBO level, but more importantly they spent a considerable part (more than 50%) of the education to anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology. As I've just spent six years in college studying medicine, I think (and hope) to know the things they teach in two years part time. But they won't give me any exemption. Sorry, but this inflexibility has caused me to lose trust, interest and faith. So no study for me, or at least, not in this country.

Other options... I could go live in London and study three years, but I don't want to live in London for three years, I want to stay home. There are several home study courses around the world. Some of which were created my some famous men in the world of herbalism, being David Winston (sadly, in this online course you have to tune in at certain times, which is impossible to do due to the time difference), Paul Bergner and Michael Moore (by judging the preview movies, this is absolutely not my kind of thing). There are also many other distance programs (in the US) offered by Rosemary Gladstar (which is, sadly to say, at the same level as the Dutch courses), Susun Weed (her distance course is named 'green witch'...) and Michael Tierra (which has combined east and west, but doesn't seem to be very scientific). In the UK, we can also find various distance offers, like this one, or the more doubtfull school of natural health sciences, the university which offers 90% of it's course in distance learning (but still, 10% attending, total duration four years, fulltime) and many more. My problem is that you can't see what you're buying, and if you can most of these courses are no more than MBO level. Some of them contain many medical mistakes, which is simply unexceptable. Others aren't scientific. This isn't nessesarily a problem, but just making statements without any reference isn't my style. And most of the time, these courses do not offer more than a couple of good books can and are too expensive.

So I've anybody decides to start a home study course in phytotherapy or herbalism, for MD's with an interest in complementary medicine, please let me know. But it seems to me, I'm a minority and should look for knowledge elsewere. Maybe a certain herbalist wants to teach me privately...

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