The Centre for Homeopathic Education in Budapest

Who we are

The Centre for Homeopathic Education in Budapest – CHE Budapest – was founded in 2012 and combines the traditions of the academic programme at the School of the Association for the Art of Homeopathic Healing in Hungary with the standards and experience of the largest homeopathy college in the UK, The Centre for Homeopathic Education.

CHE Budapest is run by Director Andrea Székely, a graduate of CHE and management consultant in her previous career, and the Head of Academic Affairs, László Bóna. Bóna is a well known educator and prolific author of popular and professional homeopathic literature in Hungary and president of the Association for the Art of Homeopathic Healing in Hungary since 2006.

We train professional homeopaths who possess the core competencies for running a private homeopathic practice including medical, homeopathic, scientific and therapist competencies and who are able to co-operate with their colleagues in conventional or complementary medicine.

Our teaching language is Hungarian. Our faculty includes leading Hungarian homeopaths and homeopathic doctors, experienced conventional doctors, our own graduates and guest lecturers from London.

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Budapest Students of CHE

Our history

CHE Budapest grew out of its predecessor homeopathy school run by László Bóna, established in 2006. Besides Bóna’s inspirational teaching, the school hosted prestigious international teachers of homeopathy such as Dr. Farokh Master and Dr. Alook Pareek from India, Dr. Guy Kokelenberg from Belgium and the late Dr. Tinus Smits from Holland. In 2009, László Bóna met Andrea Székely, a recent graduate of the CHE in London, and it became clear they shared the ambition to build a world-class homeopathy college in Hungary. This meeting resulted in Andrea approaching the CHE for co-operation. The CHE leadership were open to the idea and during a three-year validation process, an enhanced Hungarian college validated by CHEwas born.

The first 22 Hungarian graduates who successfully completed the enhanced programme received their CHE diplomas in Budapest at an official ceremony on 7 December 2012 under the patronage of H. E. Mr. Gauri Shankar Gupta, the Indian Ambassador to Hungary.

Laslo Bona teaching M.M. in year one.

What we stand for

CHE Budapest are proud to offer the most comprehensive homeopathic curriculum taught in Hungary in terms of both content and study hours as well as a curriculum that integrates the classical approach with modern system-based methods.

Our long term vision is a BSc level programme that supplies a steady stream of highly trained professional homeopaths within Hungary and the European region, and whose graduates are sought after as homeopaths among both health employers and the general public.

To reach this vision, we aim for the highest academic standards that would be expected from a BSc level course and, equally importantly, aim to establish effective working relationships within the homeopathy profession and with health authorities to facilitate work opportunitites for our graduates.

We regard our colleagues in conventional and complementary medicine with respect and approach them with openness and in the spirit of cooperation.

We recognise that homeopathy is both a science and an art of healing and encourage students to use both approaches in our programme. We are proud to train highly qualified homeopaths who are able to run a private practice and participate professionally in integrated healthcare environments.

Curriculum and courses

Our short Foundation course covers basic homeopathic principles, rules and resources for acute treatment. It can serve as an introduction to the four year course or just to provide basic skills for those who wish to treat minor complaints in the family.

Our four-year training programme is aimed at what would be expected from a BSc level homeopathy degree and successfully combines:

• the teachings of classical proving based prescribing with modern system based, synergistic and clinical approaches
• our conventional medical knowledge base with holistic and energetic approaches to health
• the art of healing with the scientific aspects of homeopathic medicine
• students with a medical and non-medical backround

We are the only course in Hungary to fully integrate system based methods into our core curriculum. After having emerged as the single most important development in homeopathy during the last fifteen years, system based methods have by now achieved a level of academic refinement that allows their inclusion in undergraduate, not only postgraduate courses.

These methods approach the simillimum both using the information base of existing provings and also from a kingdom-subkingdom perspective as well and including Jan Scholten’s group analysis of minerals (andr more recently, plants) and Rajan Sankaran’s Sensation method, now practiced widely with an expanding number of cases shared at postgraduate events worldwide.

Ralf Jeutter teaching a class

Our curriculum spans 1000 hours of classroom training and structured work, plus about 500 hours of individual study:

• Medical subjectsinclude anatomy & physiology, clinical pathology, allopathic pharmacology, basic clinical examination and advanced clinical medicine, with the emphasis ofdisease risk factors, pathogenesis, prognosis and red flag signs and symptoms pointing to potential serious underlying disease
• Homeopathic philosophy and methods includes the detailed study of homeopathic philosophy as set out in the Organon and by classical authors, the study of important modern authors and thinking,system based methods and other approaches such as homeoprophylaxis, isopathy/tautopathy, polypharmacy and famous protocols
• Materia medica includes proving based to system based drug pictures
• Clinical skills – students gain substantial hands-on clinical experience through our clinical training with live cases.
• Additional subjects include the history of homeopathy, communication with the patient and boundary issues, self reflection and self-development, evidence based medicine and research methods, homeopathic research to date and the application of research in modern homeopathic practice, practice building and development and ethics.

Medical doctors, pharmacists and those with health science degrees who study with us enjoy the appropriate exemption from medical subjects.Students with no previous medical education take part in a state recognised A&P exam for complementary therapists at the end of the second year. In years three and four, medical studies move beyond the level of this exam to advanced clinical medicine and red flag signs & symptoms; this knowledge is then put into practice during clinical training.

Classroom study is organised into ten weekends between September and June, over four years. Before graduation, students prepare a final thesis on either a scientific or philosophical subject relating to homeopathy. Subjects to date included, for example:

• ’Occurences of the simile principle in conventional medicine’;
• ’The effects of high Arsenic content of ground waters in Hungary and possible homeopathic management’;
• ’Literature review on the types of so-called side effects of homeopathic treatment and methods for its prevention’;
• ’Models of integrated clinics around the world and suggested model for an integrated clinic for those living with autism’.

Our partnership with CHE London and New York offer international opportunities for our students such as attendance at CHE London and New York City lectures for free, or being able to acquire a skype mentor/buddy from our partner institutions abroad.

Final certificates

At the end of their studies, our successful graduates receive:

• a Licentiate Diploma (LCHE) awarded by CHE UK, which gives the holder full practice rights in the United Kingdom and qualifies them for purchasing UK professional indemnity insurance; it may also qualify the holder to practice homeopathy in other European countries depending on local regulations.
• a Hungarian State Accredited Certificate of ’Homeopathic Advisor’, certifying the holder’s full competency in selecting homeopathic medicines, treating and following up patients responsibly. However, this Hungarian certificate has only existed since 2013 and as yet has not been integrated into the legal system of health service provision in Hungary (see Our Challenges below).

Having obtained a CHE licentiate diploma, graduates may continue their studies on a one-year-long BSc Conversion course in the UK run by CHE London, where, following successful completion of their studies in English, they are awarded a BSc(Hons) Homeopathy degree by Middlesex University. Further studies at MSc and PhD level are becoming available at UK and Indian educational institutions outside the CHE.

Our partners and special projects

We maintain a close working relationship with the major homeopathic organisations in Hungary, such as the Hungarian Homeopathic Medical Association (MDs) and the Association for the Art of Homeopathic Healing (MDs and non-MDs) to be able to promote our homeopathic profession on a common platform. The two organisations offer a discount to each other’s members at seminars and it is not uncommon that we all team up in support of each other when times call for it – such as in response to the recent NMHRC  study and other attacks on homeopathy. We maintain friendly connections with other providers of homeopathic training, both domestic and in neighbouring countries, some of whom we share marketing efforts with.

A strong relationship has emerged with the Embassy of India in Budapest, where two consecutive Ambassadors have shared and supported our aim to promote the use of homeopathy in Hungary. H.E. Shri Gauri Shankar Gupta became the Patron of our college in 2012. More recently H.E. Shri Malay Mishra, together with India’s Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homepathy) provided and financed a field trip for Andrea Székely to study the system of India’s homeopathic institutions and governance; from ministry through research institutes down to the doctor-patient relationship (a report is available).The trip has provided useful models to examine for the future development of homeopathy in Hungary and has contributed to raising the profile of homeopathic medicine in the country.

Our graduates run a special project in the area of veterinary homeopathy. They work with an animal rescue centre to treat distressed dogs and cats with homeopathy before adoption. Students can join them on field trips to gain practice in treating animals. We also plan to start a similar project in the area of agrohomeopathy for which we are looking for would-be partners in the form of interested organic farmers. We seek to establish a professional ties with an interested leading Hungarian medical university or health sciences college to work together in promoting the establishment of BSc level homeopathy education in Hungary in the future.

Our challenges

We face a number of challenges, partly due to our ambition and partly to the legal environment. One of our major challenges is the design and delivery of an integrated curriculum, encompassing the teaching of proving-based and system based methods, giving due credit to both but avoiding method confusion by the student. Aiming to integrate available homeopathic knowledge in the world of today in a core curriculum is no small task.

Fortunately not only modern system based methods are developing with increased academic rigour – there are too many books to mention here -, but important literature is emerging on the subject of casetaking techniques, case management and the history of different prescribing methods with the academic standard that BSc level education requires, as seen for example in recent books by Alistair Gray.

Developed as a team effort with key members of our the faculty, our curriculum aims to provide:

• solid homeopathic philosophical and health sciences foundations in the first year,
• solid casetaking and case management skills and good working knowledge of the most well-known remedies in the second year, whilst introducing students to systems-based thinking,
• consolidating all the above during clinical training in the third and fourth years whilst continuing to teach system based methods and supplementary subjects alongside.

Our other big challenge is the lack of legal status of our non-MD graduates, who are not yet able to practice: only medical doctors with a postgraduate certificate in homeopathy may currently provide homeopathic treatment in Hungary. Homeopathy as a profession is yet unregulated. Whilst in Hungary and approximately fifteen countries of the European continent – such as France, Slovenia or Austria, homeopathy can only be practiced by MDs, some other European countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia allow pharmacists and nurses to run their own practices and approximately twenty European countries – including the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Finland, Portugal and Croatia –have systems in place in which highly trained professional homeopaths are an integral part of the health system.

The legal system for homeopathy in Hungary was designed in the 1990s when homeopathy only just re-emerged after being banned during the post-war communist era. Initially just one school of homeopathy existed, for doctors only. With the appearance of BSc quality education and training provided by the CHE Budapest, the 1990s regulation of homeopathy has become outdated and a revision is needed:

• By 2017, up to 120 highly trained CHE graduates will be available to join the health system; and
• As the general public knows more about homeopathy, so market demand grows for homeopaths. The interest in our four-year course –30 existing graduates plus 85 students in two year groups –, reflects a strong market demand for homeopathy as a second profession, especially among university educated people and among naturopaths, even with practice rights being uncertain.

Conclusion

CHE Budapest is proud to represent the most comprehensive programme of homeopathic education in Hungary. We believe this programme ensures the training of reliable and competent homeopathy professionals who are aware of how far their competency stretches and what are its limitations. Graduates are able to involve, and work with, conventional medical colleagues in the patient’s treatment in a timely manner, by keeping the patient’s health as the main priority. We are working with state authorities and European and local professional organisations to ensure we open a possibility for our graduates to practice in Hungary in the future.

Our Faculty, including guest lecturers

(in alphabetical order)

·        dr. Katalin Auer MD Dipl.ECH

·        László Bóna MA hon.LCHE

·        Mike Bridger BA(Hons) PGCE LCH–from CHE London

·        dr. Orsolya Farkas MD

·        István Fekete LCHE, Naturopath

·        dr. Marianne Gerő MD Dipl.ECH

·        Péter Hassmann MA

·        Tímea Hazay MA LCHE

·        dr. Andrea Herczeg MSc Pharmacist, Naturopath

·        dr. Zsófia Hídvégi MD Dipl.ECH

·        dr. Ralf Jeutter BSc(Hons) PodophyllumMed PhD (Lit./Phil.) RSHom–from CHE London

·        dr. Éva Kovács MD MSc PhD

·        Viola Kis Tóthné BA(Hons), Naturopath

·        Ágnes Pocsaji MA Dipl.Hom(USA)

·        dr. Zsuzsanna Rácz MD Dipl.ECH

·        Katalin Réczey MA LCHE

·        dr. Ferenc Sasvári MD Dipl.ECH

·        dr. Ildikó Sík MD Dipl.ECH

·        dr. Ilona Siska MD Dipl.ECH

·        dr. Zsolt Somogyvári MD MSc PhD

·        Andrea Székely BA(Hons) BSc(Hons) LCHE

·        Bettina Szilágyi BA(Hons) BSc(Hons) LCHE

·        Zsuzsanna F Várkonyi MA

Our honorary teachers, who have significantly contributed to the development of this college and to whom we will always be grateful for:

·        dr. Katalin Horváth MD Dipl.ECH

·        Prof. dr. Farokh Master MD(Hom) LCEH, hon.PhD(Hom)