Trainings for anthroposophic medicine are offered in many different countries around the world. They work to expand and extend the art of healing through an understanding of the human being on the levels of body, soul and spirit.

The trainings share a common core curriculum [link to training benchmarks document], though the specific structures, schedule and teaching formats for anthroposophic medical training can be quite diverse. That diversity reflects the ways in which anthroposophic medicine grows and adapts to meet the needs of different countries, cultures, and continents. Some long-standing trainings developed out of their national medical associations and have a more unique format and offering; others are connected to larger institutions (such as an anthroposophic hospital or university); many grew out of the IPMT programs (see below). You will find some programs which meet once a year for week-long, intensive training conferences; others that offer multiple long-weekend gatherings and complete the entire training in 2-3 years.

A significant step towards offering trainings worldwide came through the International Postgraduate Medical Training (IPMT) program, which was initiated in 2001 by the Medical Section at the Goetheanum. It offers a series of international annual conference weeks, which for licensed doctors can lead to certification as a Doctor of Anthroposophic Medicine. In addition to attending five IPMT sessions, certification also requires proof of two years’ practical work with the advice of a mentor, three documented case histories and the preparation of an individual project. You can find the full criteria for certification as an anthroposophic physician, here [link to overview of 1000 hours].

These international training seminars also developed into valuable interdisciplinary training opportunities for people from other healing professions, including therapists, nurses and pharmacists. Certification is also possible in those fields [link to training benchmarks].

While many IPMT programs are now shifting into training programs organized on a national level, core elements continue, including:

Practice, observation and discussion (eurythmy, goetheanistic nature exercises, small group work on core anthroposophic literature) workshops devoted to core clinical topics, and discussions about medical ethics and self-development. 


What you might experience as part of a medical training:

Eurythmy: the new art of movement. This was developed before World War I by Rudolf Steiner, in conjunction with the movement and speech formation artist, Marie Steiner. All processes in nature and the human being can be made artistically visible with the help of movement. Therefore, eurythmic movements do not have a symbolic character but rather correspond to inner formative movements and shaping gestures, just as these too, correspond to the formative language of the realms of nature and human speech - the archetypal alphabet of vowels and consonants which may be found in all languages. When we perform and practise these movements (Eurythmy as „visible speech”) we may develop a more subtle appreciation of formative and shaping processes in nature and in the human being and hence for the processes of illness and healing. In the course of the first training block, the basic vowels and consonants are taught, their movements practised and Rudolf Steiner’s sketches for these given forms studied. In the further training weeks, the gestures corresponding to the tones and intervals in music will be added, as well as the cosmic gestures within the planetary movements and the zodiac gestures. 

Phenomenological methods for observation and understanding the world around us. These sessions build on the work of J.W.v. Goethe (1749-1832). Goethe gave us the aphorism: “Were not the eye born of the sun, It could never see the sun. If God’s own power lay not in us, How could the Divine enrapture us?” Goethe described this fact throughout his life’s work. We can reduce it to a short saying: "Like recognises like." Just as the eye forms itself thought experiences of light, in order to perceive light, the bones of the foot can only develop fully through walking and every organ develops its skilled activity through its own doing. So too, the human being can only perceive and understand that which they themselves have experienced, felt and thought in some form or other. In addition, Goethe also formulated his ethical-religious way of life: "One only learns to understand that which one loves". Developing love as force of cognition and thus creating a spiritual empathy stands as a central goal of our work. As Goethe said: Make the kind of observing dependent upon the kind of object to be observed.  

Another aspect is the schooling of thinking—how can we enliven our thinking, making it both stronger and more flexible? This is much more than memorization—this works to build new insights and capacities. Chapters from the book Fundamentals of Therapy written jointly by Steiner and Wegman, or Steiner’s “Course for Young Doctors” are regularly used for this purpose. A particular method of text study, developed in the IPMT, offers a chance for rigorous and inspiring practice. It uses a method that unfolds in four steps: 
 

• Reading of the text, numbering the paragraphs, working through what has been said. Connections that remain incomprehensible or give rise to questions are written down for further discussion if they cannot immediately be satisfactorily answered.
• The train of thought is then followed from the first paragraph through to the last: How does one thought join with the next? Where does the train of thought apparently break off, in order to be taken up again at another place? Where do new thoughts start and - perhaps with apparently no connection - stand next to the first and second thoughts? What is the thread running through? Are we in a position to be able to reproduce the train of thought, developed by Steiner and Wegman, ourselves? And what about the inner evidence of these thoughts?
• While the first and second steps have more to do with the way in which the content is brought as forms of thought, in the third step the emphasis is on comprehending the composition of the chapter as a whole: How are the beginning and end related to each other? In the course of the paragraphs, do various important points reveal themselves or does the whole move towards a climax, which is all important? Does one thought develop out of another in a more sculptural style of directing thought or is it a more inspirational style where one thought does not directly join onto the next, but rather is in a loose illuminating association i.e. a complementing form? In this third step, which has to do with a deeper, artistic grasping of the way in which the inner and outer structure of the chapter is built up, the possibility arises for unlocking the text in a much more intimate way as a work of art, a composition. Through this it may then be possible to come to a deeper understanding of the content in the text and its thought relationships.
• The highest stage of grasping in thought and understanding is then the attempt to penetrate to its essential nature, that means „the being” of what is written. Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual-scientific research rests upon supersensible experiences, which he was able to translate into clear concepts and thought connections. He put them into words, making them reproducible and comprehensible for present day people. We want to take the reverse path: Going from the written text, to the vitality of the thought being expressed; from there to artistic revelation and in the end, to the being of what is recognised as an essential process or archetype. 
   

Diagnostics, Therapy and Pharmaceutical Experiments:

First, we will work on the diagnosis of the members of the human being and the therapy arising from this, using either a characteristic case-study from the book Fundamentals of Therapy by Steiner/Wegman or an actual one from every day practice. Some of these will take place over two consecutive afternoons. First, the diagnostic method is in the foreground. Then the possibilities of the night are made use of in practice. If I have taken-in a picture of a case, a concrete patient situation with as many details as possible, the question arises what does it all say to me for possible therapy, for my therapeutic goal? I take this question into sleep and observe how and what other aspects reveal themselves, when we take our own ideas regarding the state of illness and health of a patient to a higher wisdom. "Morning is wiser than the evening" is an old folk saying. Looking at the night from a spiritual-scientific point of view shows that just as we look at everything during daytime from the aspect of the material-physical with the help of our senses, during the night we look at the same things and processes in a social-moral way, i.e. from a soul-spiritual aspect. Therefore, some of the case studies are placed in such a way that a night of sleep lies between the discussion of diagnosis and then therapy. We can thus learn to take note of how particular thoughts or points of view can transform themselves solely because we have taken them consciously into the night.

Afternoon workshops are devoted to key clinical topics, working to connect common clinical symptoms and illnesses with practical diagnostic and therapeutic steps. These are typically taught by experienced presenters who are experts in their field.
 

Professional Ethics, Meditation and Self Development:

In close connection with the review and preview of the day, as well as the specific questions of the participants, the basics elements of the Anthroposophic Path of inner meditative schooling and self-development are built up. It can be shown that ethical-moral development is a powerful salutogenetic (health-bringing) resource. Through these practices it can be experienced that – as Paracelsus said – in the end there is only one true healing power – it is love.

Die dreijährige Weiterbildung Teach The Teacher (TTT) richtet sich an alle professionell im medizinisch-anthroposophischen Bereich Tätigen, die lernen möchten, Anthroposophische Medizin, Pflege oder Therapie in Aus- und Weiterbildung zu vermitteln.

Neueinsteigerinnen und Neueinsteigern in die Lehrtätigkeit ebenso wie erfahrenen Trainerinnen und Trainern bietet diese Modulreihe die Gelegenheit, mit- und voneinander zu lernen.  

Im Mittelpunkt des Kurses Teach The Teacher, der jeweils als Präsenzveranstaltung in Dornach (Schweiz) abgehalten wird, stehen der kollegiale Austausch und das Learning –by Doing. Dazu gehören Übungen, Kleingruppenarbeit, Bewegung, künstlerische Arbeit, Dialogspaziergänge und kollegiale Unterrichtspraxis. Jede/-r Teilnehmer/-in wird sich aktiv einbringen und hat Zeit, eigene Lehrmethoden zu üben und zu reflektieren. 

Wir verfolgen in dieser Weiterbildung folgende Ziele:  

• Die Weiterentwicklung der eigenen Fähigkeiten im Unterrichten, 
• das Kennenlernen und Umsetzen neuer Unterrichtstechniken, 
• Vertrauen und Flexibilität zu gewinnen und  
• die Möglichkeit der gegenseitigen Unterstützung und Stärkung innerhalb der Gemeinschaft. 

Teilnahmevoraussetzung sind eine erfolgreich abgeschlossene Ausbildung in einem von der Medizinischen Sektion am Goetheanum anerkannten Gesundheitsberuf, Berufserfahrung in der Anthroposophischen Medizin, entsprechende Lehrerfahrung oder die konkrete Absicht, eine solche Lehrtätigkeit auch praktisch in Klinik, Praxis bzw. als Mentor/-in aufzunehmen. 

Kontakt: 
Teaching Anthroposophic Medicine, Medizinische Sektion am Goetheanum
Ansprechpartnerin: Judit Kedves, judit.kedves@medsektion-ikam.org