About Dr. Jeff

Background

Credentials
- Education
- Published Articles
- Speaking Engagements

Teaching

Background
Many folks are curious about how I found
my way to homeopathy, about my allopathic
training, and about other aspects of my
background. In response, here is a bit of
my personal history.
I grew up in northern New Jersey, and knew by the
time I was eight years old that I wanted
to be a veterinarian. As you might expect,
I had all of the usual pets, and a few unusual
ones. My thanks to my Mom and Dad for their
patience and support through an endless
succession of furred, feathered, scaled
and shelled critters that I brought home.
("I'll take care of him, Mom. I promise!")
In my teens, I bred and showed tropical fish. This is
the earliest experience I can recall that
started me thinking more holistically. I
discovered that my fish bred more successfully,
and were more disease resistant, when fed
live food (brine shrimp, tubifex worms)
than when given commercial 'fish food'.
Hmmm...
In college, I couldn't have a dog or a cat, so I got
a boa constrictor named Owsley. I had Owsley
for 16 years, and even managed to find him
a mate. Imagine coming home from a backpacking
trip to find 15 baby boas swarming around
the habitat!
I'd like to think that my considerable adolescent rebelliousness
eventually matured into a healthy nonconformity.
In any case, I've always thought for myself,
and so it's not surprising that by the time
I finished veterinary school I had already
joined the American Holistic Veterinary
Medical Association, and was particularly
interested in nutrition. I quickly embraced
and studied herbal medicine, and explored
kinesiology, electroacupuncture, and other
holistic modalities.
None of that, however, prepared me for my introduction
to homeopathy. I moved to Santa Cruz, California
in 1983, and met Dr. Richard Pitcairn, who
was also living there at the time. He encouraged
me to learn about homeopathy, but in my
youthful arrogance I felt that I was doing
just fine, thank you, with my nutrition
and herbs. Then came a case that completely
stymied my every effort to help. She was
a German Shepherd named Halley who was dying
from a chronic cough. Seriously! She had
been coughing day and night for weeks, could
not eat or sleep, had become emaciated,
and was headed toward death. Nothing that
I did, including allopathic drug treatment,
had any effect whatsoever. Finally, Lori,
Halley's caretaker, called to ask me if
she could try a homeopathic remedy, Arsenicum
album, which had been recommended by a human
homeopath she knew. To make a long story
short, the Arsenicum quickly cured the cough.
It turns out that Halley had been treated
for heartworms three years earlier, and
arsenic is the active ingredient in the
drug that had been given. The drug had induced
a state like chronic arsenic poisoning.
Thus, I had my first lesson in Similia Similibus
Curentur: like cures like.
Needless to say, I was blown away. Shortly thereafter,
I signed up for Richard's very first homeopathy
workshop.
Homeopathy is more than a system of medicine; it is
a way of thinking. Learning to think homeopathically
is like learning to think in a different
language. Not everyone is able to make the
paradigm shift necessary to change from
allopathic to homeopathic thinking. It turned
out that I have a certain aptitude for this
very unique system of medicine and thought.
I have continued to study all these years with some of the
best teachers in the world. Along with the
advancement of my homeopathic skills, and,
in part, as a result of my own homeopathic
treatment, I have also experienced considerable
personal and spiritual growth. To paraphrase
Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy,
in the first paragraph of his Organon, it
all works together in the wondrous process
of living life and striving to achieve one's
highest potential.


Credentials
Education
In terms of allopathic education, I received
my DVM from Cornell in 1981. However, my
real education, that is, in homeopathy,
began with Richard Pitcairn, DVM in early
1985. By 1987, I was pursuing more advanced
study with Vega Rozenberg, a master homeopath
for humans, and a very remarkable person.
Vega was my primary teacher and my prescriber,
as well as a good friend, for nine years.
While still studying with Vega, in 1990-91, I took a
year-long course with Paul Herscu, ND, of
the New England School of Homeopathy.
Finally, from 1996-99, I studied with Jeremy Sherr, another
master homeopath for humans. Upon completing
the three-year course, I received a PCH
degree (Practitioner of Classical Homeopathy)
from the Dynamis School of Homeopathy, with
a specialty in philosophy.
Along the way, I have also studied, at least briefly,
with George Vithoulkas, Vassilis Ghegas,
Lou Klein, Misha Norland, Miranda Castro,
Roger Morrison, Amy Rothenberg, and others.
In summary, the vast majority of my homeopathic training
has been with some of the most advanced
human prescribers in the world. I have translated
that training into dog and cat terms (and,
more recently, horse terms) in order to
help my furry patients. As a result, I have
been fortunate to have access to some of
the deepest insight and most sophisticated
techniques available in the world of homeopathy
today.

Published Articles
I have written quite a few articles over
the years for publication in holistic or
homeopathic journals.
In the earlier years, I wrote for the journals of the American
Holistic Veterinary Medical Association
(AHVMA) and the California Holistic Veterinary
Medical Association (CHVMA). One reason
that I started writing very early in my
homeopathic career is that I took over as
editor of the CHVMA newsletter from Richard
Pitcairn in 1986. As you can probably imagine,
it is a real challenge to get busy professionals
to write publishable articles. In order
to fill those pages, I started writing up
my own cases that had responded dramatically
to homeopathic treatment.
As my homeopathic skill improved, I was asked to write articles
for human homeopathic journals, specifically
Homeopathy Today, the Journal of the National
Center for Homeopathy (NCH), Resonance,
the Journal of the International Foundation
for Homeopathy (IFH), and the New England
Journal of Homeopathy.
Most recently, I have been writing for the Journal of the
Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy (AVH),
since this is where I feel I can do the
most good.
Over the years, the number of veterinarians practicing homeopathy in some form has increased dramatically. As a result, some veterinary homeopaths practicing today are relatively inexperienced. I have tried to support and assist my colleagues in their professional growth by sharing what I have learned through articles, conference presentations, seminars, and mentoring.
Since the journals for which I write have a relatively
limited circulation, I thought I would include
in my website a number of articles that
I have published for your perusal.
See
Also: Published
Articles

Speaking Engagements
I have also done a fair amount of public
speaking over the years. Early on, it was
at venues such as the Whole Life Expo in
San Francisco, and many Annual Conferences
of the AHVMA. I addressed, for instance,
the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph,
and the Annual Meeting of Affiliated Study
Groups of the NCH. In recent years, for
the reasons stated above, I have concentrated
on the Annual Conferences of the AVH, giving
presentations in Charlottesville, Virginia,
Washington, DC, and Monterey, California.
In April, 2001 I gave a post-conference
workshop in veterinary homeopathy at the
Annual Conference of the NCH in Burlington,
MA.
Giving talks like these is usually quite fun. With a
presentation of 90 minutes to 3 hours, I
can pick a topic and do something interesting,
informative, even enlightening. Although
it can entail a considerable amount of preparation,
it is basically a fun little project. A
much greater challenge, though, is assembling
a roomful of knowledgeable and relatively
experienced veterinary homeopaths and teaching
for three days.


Teaching
I have taught quite a few seminars in advanced
veterinary homeopathy in Massachusetts, Florida, and North Carolina.
It is said that you never learn so well
as when you teach. I have found this to
be profoundly true.
I have been a mentor for a few veterinary homeopaths,
and have helped others by answering questions
and addressing issues posted to the AVH
E-mail Forum and the AVH Mentor Forum. The
serious teaching though, takes place in
the seminars.
In my seminars, I emphasize case taking by having a new
live patient each day. It is one thing to
tell someone how to take a case, and quite
another to show them how. These are real
clients with real patients, where the rubber
meets the road, so to speak.
I also study and prepare one 'featured' remedy to teach
in great depth, a new remedy for each seminar.
This has been tremendously beneficial to
me (and my patients!), as I have gained
much greater insight into the remedies that
I have studied, as well as many others remedies
related to them.
I delve into the finer points of homeopathic philosophy,
primarily from Hahnemann's Organon and Kent's
Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy. I present
a variety of tools that I have found useful
in enhancing pattern recognition and a gaining
a deeper understanding of remedies. I share
clinical techniques, tricks of the trade,
you might say, that I have learned from
my teachers or developed on my own. Basically,
I try to convey that which I have found
to be of value in my own evolution as a
homeopathic healer.
I have been blessed with great teachers who taught me
not only the nuts and bolts, but also the
creative side of homeopathy. Not just the
science, but the art as well. The vital
force is dynamic, and disease is dynamic,
so healing must also be dynamic. Having
received this great gift, I feel that I
have a responsibility to share what I have
learned with others, that they may heal
their patients more effectively. It is,
I believe, an example of what Hahnemann
refers to in the Organon as a healer's highest
calling.
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