The California Homeopath
Journal of the California Homeopathic Medical Society

One of the most exciting aspects of teaching homeopathy is also its inherent challenge: we are teaching adult learners.  Some grew up in an age when education was designed around a lecture format.  Information was “told” to the student.  Others grew up within the technological age, in a period when multisensory data could fly at us from myriad directions, simultaneously. Each environment created different experiences of learning.  Some of us look to experts, leaders in the field, others of us feel more familiar and comfortable with exploring the data ourselves.  Each of us has a predilection toward what we think of as learning.

When we develop our classroom approaches for homeopathic education, we often have students from both models of education.  A lecture format suits some and sedates others; the experiential format engages some and annoys yet another group. So what’s an instructor to do?

Hahnemann himself understood the diverse ways of advancing in the mastery of a subject.  Wenda Brewster-O’Reilly observes:

 “…Hahnemann uses various terms to refer to different modes of knowledge.  To be aware: wissen. To have intellectual awareness. Discursive cognition, such as that knowledge gained from books, lectures or scientific study.  Wissen has both a cognitive and perceptive component….To know kennen,…to have a deep personal knowledge, such as that based on life experience, specifically that part of life experience that cannot be conveyed to another through teaching or demonstration.  For example, the difference between wissen and erkennen, is the difference between knowing about water from reading about it and studying it scientifically versus knowing about it from diving into lakes, waded in streams and walked in rain.  Through direct experience, one receives an impression about something and has a response to it.”

Once again Hahnemann who is such an innovator in areas of hygiene, public health, research and medicine, proves to be an innovative thinker about education. So following his lea d, perhaps it is useful to lay a common ground so both the educator and the students can be aware of how adults actually learn. 

600 Billion Pieces of Data Per Second

A first step, is for all to realize that adults have had years of both classroom and life learning.  This is both the good news and the bad news.  The good news is that we can build upon skills and content already mastered.  The “bad” news is that all previous learning creates “filters” which catch certain data, especially data we think we know about.  It’s the old experience of thinking the remedy is Lachesis and only hearing and seeing the Lachesis qualities, missing the “obvious” Lycopodium characteristics until Lachesis has failed to cure, and suddenly we say “oh, its Lycopodium!”

Current science tells us the brain is recipient of 600 BILLION bits of sensory data per second.  Our consciousness can “get” only 2000 bits per second, AND to truly comprehend something we need to slow the process down, by concentration, to a mere 60 bits per second.

So as adult learners, the more we can be aware of our expectations, prejudices, predilections, biases, the more we can “see” what it is we actually might miss.

By Loretta Butehorn

Dr. Butehorn is a licensed psychologist, nationally certified homeopath and consultant.

Her psychological training was quite eclectic and combines developmental psychology, cognitive behavioral theory, family systems, psycho-dynamic conceptualizations and transpersonal approaches. In addition to her traditional training, since 1985 Dr. Butehorn has  explored complementary/alternative approaches to health, recovery and healing.

Dr. Butehorn has extensive training in shamanism, hypnosis, EMDR, DBT and Thought Field Therapy (TFT) and is a Fellow of the British Institute of Homeopathy. She is also CoDirector of The Sidewalk School in Boston offering homeopathic education integrating classical and innovative approaches to homeopathy; and is a directing senior faculty of Teleosis School of Homeopathy in Cambridge. She is on the faculty of Boston College and the American College of Homeopathy. Always interested in providing excellent care, she is an executive board member of the Council for Homeopathic Certification.

In addition to teaching both undergraduate psychology students and graduate management students at Boston College's College of Advancing Studies,  Dr. Butehorn consults and teaches nationally on topics ranging from homeopathy, health and recovery, substance abuse/addiction and treatment, violence, family work and child welfare. She has a private practice in Boston consulting with both psychological and homeopathic clients

Contact: lbutehorn@earthlink.net or www.lorettabutehornphd.com or www.thesidewalkschool.com.

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