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English Training in Anthroposophic Medicine 2025



Welcome to the
English Training in Anthroposophic Medicine

Based in the UK, open to doctors worldwide.

Nine one-week modules over three years, experiential face-to-face & distance learning.

A new cohort of the English Training in Anthroposophic Medicine will start in Autumn 2025.  The first module is 4 to 12 October 2025. 

Please note that the following is content is being updated to reflect the 2025 course and may be subject to change.

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.

Free Zoom Taster Sessions

Join the course leaders, tutors and past students for a FREE zoom taster session to find out more about this course.  Register here:

If you would prefer a one-to-one discussion with a tutor prior to applying for the course, please contact the registrar.

OPEN FOR APPLICATIONS

TO APPLY:

Please click on the ‘APPLY NOW’ button, fill out the online application form and upload the required supporting documents.

You can view the entry requirements, supporting documents and application information at the bottom of this page or by clicking here.

If you have any pre-application questions please email Chiara Carones registrar@emerson.org.uk. Please note accommodation and meals are priced separately – details of how to book these will be available shortly.

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 professionals with a training comparable to doctors’ trainings such as osteopaths, chiropractors and pharmacists.

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.

Click on the image to download our Course Handbook

(please note this relates to an earlier version of the course, the 2025 version will be available shortly)

Module 1: 2pm on Saturday 4th October until lunch time on Sunday 12th October 2025

Venue: Emerson College 

  • The Four Elements, Four Kingdoms of Nature, Four Organs, Qualitative Anatomy
  • Fundamental Aims of Anthroposophic Medicine & Research
  • Patient History Taking and examination with the aid of the Four Elements
  • Spiritual Biography & Conditions for Spiritual Development

Module 2: 2pm on Saturday 7th February to lunch time on Saturday 14th February 2026

Venue: Emerson College 

  • Living Morphology and Projective Geometry
  • Tria Principia, Phenomenologic Stidy of Polarity in Human Skeleton
  • Child Development – Karin Michael and other Presentors
  • Keys to Resilience or Vulnerability; Biographical Studies – Marah Evans
  • Inner Path Work on the Trials & Six Soul Exercises

Module 3: 2pm on Friday 1st May to lunch time on Friday 8th May 2026

Venue: Emerson College

  • 8 Metals & Plants
  • Medical Meditation from “Course to Young Doctors’
  • Medicinal Plant Study

Module 4:  2pm on Friday 3rd July to lunchtime on Friday 10th July 2026

Venue: Emerson College 

  • Common Psychiatric Conditions Anxiety, Depression OCD Bipolar Schizophrenia
  • Clay Modelling Therapy, Anthroposophic remedies and their
  • Art Therapy, Eurythmy Therapy, Anthroposophic Text Study
  • Inner Path Work Subsiduary Exercises & Three Stage Karma Exercise

Module 5: 2pm on Friday 2nd October to lunch time on Friday 9th October 2026

Venue: Emerson College 

  • Mistletoe Plant Study Fever
  • Cancer & Viscum treatment
  • Inner Path Work – Destiny Learning

Module 6: 2pm on Friday 5th February to lunch time on 12th February 2027

Venue: Emerson College

  • Plant Study
  • Anthroposophic Peadiatrics -with Dr Karen Michael
  • Obstetrics and Gynaecology Anthroposophic perspectives
  • Anthroposphic Nursing
  • Inner Path Work – Eightfold Path

Module 7:  Saturday 8th May to Saturday 15th May 2027

Venue: Havelhöhe Hospital – Berlin

  • Cardiology: Heart failure, Coronary heart disease, Hypertension, Nephrology, Rheumatology (Dr. Matthias Girke)
  • Respiratory Medicine (Chritian Grah)
  • Hepatology & Covid (Harald Mattes)
  • Obstetrics & Midwifery (Angela Maaser & Midwife)

Module 8: Friday 9th July to 16th July 2027

Venue: Trigonos Snowdonia UK 

  • Medicinal Plant Study
  • Endocrinology with Prof David Martin
  • Celtic Spirituality and Future Spirituality and Medicine,
  • Ita Wegman & Rudolf Steiner in the British Isles
  • Visit Penmaenmawr Druid Circle
  • Introduction to Biodynamic Agriculture
  • Practical Anthroposophic Pharmacy

Module 9: Friday 1st October to Friday 8th October 2027

Venue: Klinik Arlesheim and Goetheanum Dornach, Switzerland 

  • The School for Spiritual Science and the Medical Section, – Michael and Raphael Schools – Marion Debus & Karin Michael
  • Visit Ita Wegman Institute
  • Neurology (Freidwart Elsas)
  • Visit to the Group Statue
  • Meeting Patients from Arlesheim Clinic with (Philipp Busche)

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.

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:  £8000*

Course fees can be paid upfront or via a payment plan as follows:

Option 1: £8000 (£700 deposit plus £7,300) if paid upfront at time of acceptance.

Option 2: £8200, with a payment plan of £700 deposit and three equal payments of £2,500.

– 1st Payment by 1st August 2025 or at time of acceptance if later than 4th August 2025.

– 2nd Payment by 15 June 2026

– 3rd Payment by 15th March 2027

*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.

Dr Geoffrey Douch Scholarship Fund

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

 

 

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