At the Northwestern Academy of Homeopathy (NAH), in Golden Valley, students learn more than simply the basics of homeopathy. They learn to listen without judgment, quiet themselves to better invest in others, help clients grow and achieve freedom from suffering, and maintain a constant love and curiosity for learning.

NAH, founded in 1995, has become one of the largest accredited homeopathic schools in the nation. Graduating some of the country’s most respected homeopaths, NAH advocates a “know yourself first” approach to education. The academy teaches that a successful homeopath is not created solely from medical intelligence but also from adopting a new approach to relationships, to medicine and to disease and healing processes. But it does take time.

“There is a process that has to happen within each person [student], and you can’t really speed that process up,” says Kris Nelson, director for the NAH student clinic and a 2007 NAH graduate. “Within the first couple years, [instruction] is in the classroom . . . to help people look at the world and at health in a very different way.”

NAH’s four-year program is divided into two main components, lectures and hands-on clinical training. For the first two years of the program, students spend more than 500 hours in classroom settings covering a range of topics, including the history of classical homeopathy, clinical case management, botany and geology.

During this early time, students study homeopathy’s Germanic origins as well. They discover what it means for people to have a vital life force within themselves, what happens when one’s vital force becomes imbalanced and how this imbalance can be brought back into harmony through homeopathy. Pharmacology is also an important aspect of NAH’s program, as homeopathy is a combination of both complementary and alternative medicinal practices.

“We learn how to study the remedies, how to do the research, how to listen to the person, how to get your biases and your prejudices out,” says Nelson. “It is quite a transformative thing.”

During the program’s third and fourth year, students gain hands-on clinical experience in the NAH student clinic. Here students learn to build individualized homeopathic remedies and are exposed to the real-life challenges that licensed homeopaths encounter. The reduced-fee clinic is staffed by students and supervised by NAH faculty. Clients are interested residents from the Metro area.

Because homeopathy is not currently covered by most medical insurance plans, the reduced fees at the student clinic are attractive. An initial visit, which includes a full consultation and personalized homeopathic remedy to take home, is $60. All follow-up visits are $40. This fee schedule offers an affordable way for Twin Cities’ residents to give homeopathy a try.

The clinic is designed to be an interactive referral center where people can build lasting practitioner-client relationships that extend beyond the academy. Clients often follow graduating students and become a part of their new homeopathy practices.

Student clinic hours are held one weekend each month, although NAH plans to increase its open hours to two weekends a month. In addition, NAH offers introductory public lectures on homeopathy on the first Wednesday of each month. The school hopes to increase such presentations as well.

Currently, there is no financial aid program, as NAH is not accredited with the federal government. The school is working toward accreditation, however, which will help the academy and clinic to grow, and which will enable more students to enroll.

“Students [at NAH] are usually older, have had life experience already and would like to try something new and fulfilling,” says Nelson. “They come to the school because of their awe and amazement and they desire to develop a lifelong practice.”

Northwestern Academy of Homeopathy is located at 7575 Golden Valley Rd., Ste. 385, Golden Valley. For more information, call 763-746-9242 or 877-946-9242 or visit HomeoVista.org.

Michelle Hamburger is the marketing director for Natural Awakenings – Twin Cities.