Adopted by thousands of patients every year, homeopathy is now a rapidly expanding medical discipline. Thus, many students and medical professionals choose to specialize in this field in order to be able to practice as a homeopath. At the end of several months of study where it is a question of acquiring a series of knowledge concerning the different types of pathologies, remedies and prescriptions, homeopathy students obtain, depending on the case, a diploma that entitles them to the prescription or a certificate of completion of studies.
Who is homeopathy training for?
Homeopathy training is mainly aimed at professionals in the medical or paramedical world, i.e. doctors of medicine, midwives, dental surgeons, pharmacists or veterinarians. At the end of their university cycle, students from these different disciplines can also move towards homeopathy training and join a state-approved institute. It should also be noted that only doctors, dentists, midwives or veterinarians have the right to prescribe homeopathic medicines at the end of their training. The other students obtain a certificate of completion of studies or a certificate in homeopathy which limits them exclusively to the field of consulting.
Where to take a homeopathy course?
In order to become a homeopathic doctor and obtain the right to practice, it is necessary to follow a training course that is provided by an accredited institute and member of the French School of Homeopathy. Some private institutes now offer correspondence courses that allow different students to acquire the fundamental notions of homeopathy and obtain a certificate. It should be noted, however, that this certificate does not give the right to practice as a homeopathic doctor, to consult or to prescribe medicines, because only doctors of medicine can aspire to the national diploma of homeopathic doctor.
What does homeopathy training consist of?
Depending on the institute, the teaching cycles usually vary between one and three years, although the courses leading to the national examination and the European diploma generally last three years. The training corresponds in fact to a basic cycle where it is first a question of familiarizing oneself with the homeopathic approach as a whole before concentrating in a second time on the in-depth study of the remedies that exist. During this training, students not only discover the fundamental differences that exist between the allopathic and homeopathic approach, but they also learn how to consult taking into account homeopathic temperaments and field treatments.
During their last year of training, students are also confronted with a whole series of clinical cases that allow them to combine practice and theory in order to better understand what homeopathic therapeutics is. After this first cycle, students can take the national exam which will validate their training and give them the right to practice if they already hold a medical degree. After graduation, homeopathic doctors can choose to further deepen the knowledge acquired during their basic training by opting for a refresher course. As for non-diploma courses, they are more related to the study of the main pathologies and the various remedies related to them in order to give a more global vision of homeopathy.
What are the different schools that exist in homeopathy?
Although the unicist tendency is the one favored during homeopathy training, it is important to know that there are three major schools of homeopathy. As a result, after their training, homeopathic doctors can opt for one of the three major trends in order to treat their patients. Indeed, we distinguish the Unicist, pluralistic and complexistent tendency, all three of which are distinguished by their different approaches to treatment and prescribed remedies.
While the unicist approach therefore advocates the use of a single drug to treat the pathology concerned, the pluralist approach advocates the combined use of several drugs whose action is complementary. On the other hand, the complexist approach aims to defeat the disease by essentially opting for a remedy made from several different substances. While the unicist approach remains the most traditional of homeopathic treatment methods today, it is worth noting that more and more doctors today favor the pluralistic approach during their consultations. In short, even if the practitioner has been directed towards a very specific approach during his training, it is up to him to choose the trend that seems most effective in order to apply it to his therapeutic technique and to his entire medical career.