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- bookings@emerson.org.uk
Welcome to the
This Course Is Full
A new cohort of the English Training in Anthroposophic Medicine will start in Autumn 2025.
Dates for the first module are below. Applications will open early 2024.
- Module 1: 4 to 12 October 2025
If you are interested in attending the course and would like to join our pre-application list, please fill in the attached expression of interest with the below form and email it to Chiara Carones registrar@emerson.
If you have already applied and received confirmation of acceptance, and would like to book your meals and accommodation at Emerson College for one or more modules, please click the ‘Book Stay’.
The training leads to International Certification as an Anthroposophic Physician (for doctors) and a Diploma in Anthroposophic Medicine.
Internationally accredited by the Medical Section at the Goetheanum.
Please see the programme below for the dates of each module.
Apply for the Dr Geoffrey Douch Scholarship Fund
We know it’s not easy funding your studies, and we work hard to provide as many opportunities as possible for you to apply for additional support when you’re accepted to study for a course at Emerson College.
The fund is open to any doctor from all over the world in financial need who has been offered a place to study in the English Training in Anthroposophic Medicine at Emerson College.
The Dr Geoffrey Douch Scholarship Fund grants one award to the successful applicant towards tuition fees and accomodation (if needed) for the duration of their programme of study.
About Anthroposophic Medicine
Is there a place for the whole person in contemporary Medicine?
Can we move beyond reductionist science to embrace the soul and spirit as well as the physical body?
Many patients as well as physicians are in search of an integrative approach to medicine that embraces the whole person, in their mental and spiritual being as well as in bodily aspects. To this end, anthroposophic medicine was founded in 1920 by Dr. Rudolf Steiner and Dr. med. Ita Wegman.
Today this School of Medicine is alive in practices, therapeutic centres and anthroposophic hospitals throughout the world. It is taught in international training courses and is researched* in university departments with associated professorial chairs.
Course Overview
The English Training In Anthroposophic Medicine is a part-time post-graduate training for physicians.
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.
Who is it for?
The course is designed for registered medical practioners but a few places will be open to other health care professsionals.
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.
Module Details & Topics Covered:
Below you will find details of all nine modules: the dates, locations and the themes.
Face-to-Face participation is encouraged throughout the course.
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.
For certain modules, face-to-face participation is almost essential and for others it is highly desirable, dependent upon the experiential nature of content. These are highlighted below along with the less experiential modules where face-to-face participation is ‘desirable but optional’.
• Face To Face – Essential – Module 1, 3, 7, 8 and 9
• Face To Face – Desirable but Optional – 2, 4, 5, 6
International participants are encouraged to speak to the course leader in advance to identify how best to participate to ensure a rich learning experience.
Click on the image to download our Course Handbook
Module 1: Jan 28 – Feb 5 2023
(Accommodation 4-6pm Fri Jan 27 for a 9am start on Sat Jan 28)
Venue: Emerson College (Face-to-Face essential)
The Four Elements, Four Kingdoms of Nature, Fundamental Aims of Anthroposophic Medicine & Research. Patient History Taking and examination with the aid of the Four Elements Qualitative Anatomy – Four Organs – Living Morphology and Projective Geometry Spiritual Biography & Conditions for Spiritual Development.
Module 2: April 29 – May 6 2023
Venue: Emerson College (Face-to-Face desirable but optional for International Students)
Registration at 5pm on Saturday 29 April, supper at 6.15pm and first session begins at 7.15pm
- Metamorphosis Observational Studies of Leaves and Human Skeleton as Introduction to Three Foldness in the Human Being
- Medicinal Plant Studies
- Child Development, Keys to Resilience or Vulnerability
- Waldorf Educational Curriculum as Mirror of Phases in Child Development
- Small Group Inner Path Work on “The Trials” and “Biographical Sharing from Phases in Childhood”
Module 3: July 1 – July 8 2023
Venue: Emerson College (Face-to-Face essential)
Registration at 5pm on Saturday 1 July, supper at 6.15pm and first session begins at 7.15pm
- Medicinal Plant Studies
- Tria-Principia & 8 Metals with Albert Schmidli
- Medical Meditation from “Course to Young Doctors”
Module 4: Oct 7 – Oct 14 2023
Venue: Emerson College (Face-to-Face desirable but optional for International Students)
Registration at 5pm on Saturday 7 October, supper at 6.15pm and first session begins at 7.15pm
- Mistletoe Plant Study
- Fever, Cancer & Viscum treatment – Dr Marion Debus & Dr Simon van Lieshout
- Pain management & Palliative Care – Dr Matthias Girke
Module 5: Jan 27 – Feb 3 2024
Venue: Emerson College (Face-to-Face desirable but optional for International Students)
Registration at 5pm on Saturday 27 January, supper at 6.15pm and first session begins at 7.15pm
- Common Psychiatric Conditions Anxiety, Depression OCD Bipolar Schizophrenia
- Clay Modelling Therapy
- Anthroposophic remedies and their indications. Art Therapy, Eurythmy Therapy.
Module 6: 4th – 11th May 2024
Venue: Emerson College(Face-to-Face desirable but optional for International Students)
- Plant Study
- Obstetrics and Gynaecology Anthroposophic perspectives – Dr Carmen Eppel
- Anthroposophic Peadiatrics – Dr Karen Michael
- Eurythmy Therapy Nursing Applications – Fiona Sim (TBC)
Module 7: Oct 5 – 12 2024
Venue: Havelhöhe Hospital – Berlin (Face-to-Face essential)
- Cancer II and Palliative care (Dr. Matthias Girke), Viscum and Fever Cardiology: Heart failure, Coronary heart disease, Hypertension (Dr.Matthias Girke) From the general practitioner’s practice
- Pneumology: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma Gastroenterology External Treatments,
- Meeting Patients
Module 8: 15th – 22nd March 2025
Venue: Klinik Arlesheim and Goetheanum Dornach, Switzerland (Face-to-Face essential)
- The School for Spiritual Science and the Medical Section, – Michael and Raphael Schools
- Visit to the Group Statue, Visit Ita Wegman Institute
- Rheumatology, Diabetology with Matthias Girke
- Meeting Patients at Arlesheim Clinic with Dr. Marion Debus, (Face to Face Priority)
Module 9: 21st- 28th June 2025
Venue: Trigonos Snowdonia UK (Face-to-Face essential)
- Medicinal Plant Study
- Endocrinology with Prof David Martin
- Celtic Spirituality and Future Spirituality and Medicine
- Visit Penmaenmawr Druid Circle and Cromlechs on Anglesey
- Ita Wegman & Rudolf Steiner in the British Isles
Accommodation Information
We are recommend that participants arrive late afternoon on the day before to the start and leave the morning after the end of the each module.
i.e./ For the first module: arrive between 4-6pm on Friday 27th Jan with the option of staying on Sunday night and leaving on Monday 6th Feb in the morning. For subsequent modules, we are recommending participants arrive on a Saturday late afternoon, the module will finish the following Saturday evening at 9pm, with most participants saying over to Sunday morning.
Course Requirements
The course requires an intermediate level of digital literacy. The use of the following apps and programmes is required: WORD for essay writing, ZOOM for online lessons, Web navigation for use of the Emerson Portal and Google Drive for sharing of assignments.
Induction on how to use the Emerson Portal and Google Drive will be offered. However, participants are responsible for checking that they have the minimum digital skills and knowledge required by the course.
- Programme
- Course fees
- Applications
- CPD & Certificates
Professional certification & diploma
The training leads to International Certification as an Anthroposophic Physician (for doctors) and a Diploma in Anthroposophic Medicine.
The Training is designed as nine, one-week modules with additional written projects.
The written work includes three essays based on themes of the training and three written case histories are required in order to gain International Certification as an Anthroposophic Physician.
Most modules take place at Emerson College, England, situated fifteen miles by road from London’s International Gatwick Airport. Located in an area of natural beauty, with immediate walking access to an organic medicinal herb garden and biodynamic horticulture and farm, this internationally renowned College and research centre also provides on-site residential accommodation for course participants.
In addition, two modules 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 is planned to take 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 Medicine and the General Anthroposophical Society.
Course fee: £6800*
Paid in three instalments or £6600 paid in advance.
*Includes materials but excludes accommodation, meals and travel costs.
Doctors from all over the world applying for this course who otherwise unable to afford the full course fees to attend the English Training in Anthroposophic Medicine at Emerson College, may be eligible for support from the
Dr Geoffrey Douch Scholarship Fund
Award of a scholarship will depend on both the course and the applicant meeting the criteria detailed below, on the number of applicants and the available funds. Prioritisation will also depend on eligibility for other available and relevant scholarship schemes.
Please click below for more information.
A small number of bursaries are also available. However they need to be agreed before enrolling into the course. Once invoiced for the course, we will not be able to offer bursaries or payment plans any longer.
For further information, please contact Chiara Carones at registrar@emerson.org.uk
How To Apply
To complete your application you will need to prepare the following documents:
- A copy or a scan of the information page of your passport (the one with your picture on it)
- A copy of your medical degree and/or registration as a doctor in your country (or for other health care professionals: your health professional qualification certificate and/or registration)
- A concise personal statement to include information on your background and motivation to take part in the programme
- A completed health statement available to download here: Health Statement
You will also need to provide contact details for someone you would chose to be your emergency contact, should you be accepted onto the course.
To apply, please click on the ‘APPLY’ button at the top of the page, fill out the online application form and upload the documents listed above in the ‘Supporting Documents’ section.
If you have any questions please contact Chiara Carones – registrar@emerson.org.uk