7 Questions To Ask

We see the route to 'becoming' a homeopath as a real journey of discovery, from both a personal and professional perspective. You will be encouraged to be reflective and aware of your developing skills as a healer, as well as building a base of homeopathic knowledge for your practice. We hope that the following questions may guide and help you in making your first choices. Please do call us if you would like to chat about your options.

1. What makes me want to be a homeopath?
Many people spend time creating a career and family and then come to a point where they feel they have unanswered questions about their life. Maybe they are at a 'crossroads' and they fancy a change of direction. Maybe they want to find more balance in life and want to work for themselves. Many people are drawn to studying homeopathy through positive personal experiences and just know that it seems to make sense. Whatever your reason for taking our course, our aim is to listen fully and to provide you with sound information. This will enable you to make a well-informed and good decision about your future.

2. Do I know what I'm getting into?
We highly recommend that you have received homeopathic treatment from a professional homeopath, so that you understand this system of medicine from personal experience. This will give you an insight into the role of a practitioner as well as gaining empathy from the patient's perspective. It might also be helpful to read a good introductory book to homeopathy, such as the one we suggest, George Vithoulkas', "Medicine of the New Millennium" as a starter book.

3. Do I have the required skills?
You don't need to have any specific prior experience or training to enrol with us. You do need to be willing to study and if you like researching and pulling ideas together this is right up your street! Being self-motivated and organised is also pretty vital. But most important of all are general 'life skills' as a level of maturity is needed. This is rarely an appropriate training for anyone who has just left school.

4. Have I got the time and commitment?
To become a fully qualified professional homeopath takes three to four years of training. Having said this, you can simply take it as far as you wish to. Some people just want to prescribe for family and friends, in which case you can go as far as Year One or Two. You will receive a lot of input from teachers and mentors, but you must also be prepared to devote time to studying and, in later stages of the course, seeing patients. Study time varies from individual to individual and from course to course but, as a guide, the requirement is roughly equivalent to that of an Open University course, at about 15 hours per week.

5. What will it cost?
Each course provider sets their own fees and we always ensure that our courses are competitively and fairly priced. Please see the 'Fees' sections of each course for all current fees. In the first stages you should allow for course fees and book lists and later on for the addition of clinical supervision and perhaps also remedies.

6. Have I got the support of friends and/or family?
As we mentioned earlier, the study of homeopathy can be quite far-reaching and it is a really good idea to find someone who can be called upon for support and maybe just a shoulder now and then. Ideally, your partner or family will be supportive and, in addition, you may have friends and your own homeopath. Once you are up and running, you may also enjoy the friendship and connections that can be made with other students and you may find local study groups a real boost to your study.

7. Do I want to be self-employed?
During the advanced stages of the course, you will be building your practice under the care of supervision. This means you will be entering the marketplace as a professional homeopath upon graduation. Many homeopaths are self-employed and, whilst this can be a big plus for many, it is important to take into account that this may also involve a more unpredictable income and a need to be adaptable. Other aspects that you will consider at some stage will be marketing and maintaining accounts etc. It also means you need to set realistic charges and make sure you get paid!