ADVANCED CLINICAL SKILLS PROGRAM
Students who complete the Advanced Program training at our affiliated Acorn School of Herbal Medicine, with mentoring from Paul Bergner, receive the credits required for this course and are entitled to this NAIMH Certificate.
Skill Set
In this program you will learn to conduct an effective and comprehensive interview, learn to recognize patterns in the lifestyle, diet, constitutional presentation, and symptom pictures, learn to synthesize information through case analysis and develop and deliver an effective treatment plan, learn to develop patient-specific formulas in a fast and flexible manner, and learn a comprehensive approach with nutrition for the most common deficiencies and imbalances in the modern patient.
Prerequisites
Infectious Disease I: Viral Infections
Infectious Disease II: Bacteria, Biofilms, and Chronic Infection
Clinical Skills I:
Interview Skills in the Vitalist Tradition See full description
In this first course in the Clinical Skills sequence, we first describe the personal challenges of the healing path, and then give the skill set to get accurate and complete information from your patient. If you don't get the story right, then all your knowledge of plants and nutrition will be wasted.
Clinical Skills II:
Intake and Pattern Assessment See full description
In this second course in our Clinical Skills sequence, we describe the items for an intake in detail, and describe patterns to be assessed during the process.
Clinical Skills III:
Case Analysis in the Vitalist Tradition See full description
In this third course in our Advanced Clinical Skills sequence, we describe processes to synthesize the material gathered during the interview, to assess the contributions of nutrient deficiencies to the presenting symptoms, and to use pattern recognition in the presentation and the history to proceed to a treatment plan.
Clinical Skills IV:
Case Studies in Vitalist Herbalism See full description
In this fourth course in our Advanced Clinical Skills sequence, we present a series of successful case histories based on the interview and analytical methods presented in the first 3 courses, so that the vision of the successful case can help demonstrate the kind of information most important to elicit to develop an effective vitalist treatment plan.
Clinical Materia Medica II:
Herbal Pairing and Modular Formulation See full description
The clinical art of formulation is to devise a formula appropriate to each patient, specific in its components and their proportions to the condition of the patient, and adjusted or modified to their constitutional presentation. We begin with the study of simple pairs, and then progress to formula modules of 2-4 complementary herbs which can themselves be combined flexibly into larger formulas. In this course we study classical combination and formulas, as well as modern adaptations.
Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism III
Introduction to Insulin Resistance See full description
Insulin resistance is the root pathology not only of Type II diabetes, but also contributes to heart disease, stroke, obesity, hypertension, several common cancers, and other conditions ranging from polycystic ovarian disease to acne to brittle bones and depression. It is a pathology fundamental to the “diseases of civilization.” Although cell level pathology is complex, the roots of this condition are based in malnutrition in the basic nutrients that regulate insulin, untrained muscle mass, and imbalances in the carbohydrate content of the diet. Correcting these three roots of insulin resistance, along with herbal allies to help restore imbalance, can cause some chronic diseases to resolve in a matter of weeks to months. In this course you will learn the pathophysiology of insulin resistance, and the influence of diet, exercise, nutrition and herbs on the condition. You will gain understanding and competence in the clinical application of protocols based on the material learned.