Insider view of naturopathic training ∞

• Mar 13, 2015 • by Paul Ingraham
Get posts in your inbox:

Weekly nuggets of pain science news and insight, usually 100-300 words, with the occasional longer post. The blog is the “director’s commentary” on the core content of PainScience.com: a library of major articles and books about common painful problems and popular treatments. See the blog archives or updates for the whole site.

Naturopathic doctor training does not hold a candle to medical training, as I’ve explained before (see Chiropractor, Naturopath Training Way Less Than Doctors). It’s nice to have some insider confirmation of that now. Britt Marie Hermes is a naturopathy apostate, and she’s telling her story on her own new blog, NaturopathicDiaries.com and in a new series of guest posts on ScienceBasedMedicine.org, starting with an exposé of her training (which I was particularly proud to help publish). It’s cringe-inducing.

Given my journey through naturopathic medical school, I can provide strong evidence and testimony of the quality and quantity of training at Bastyr University. I base what follows on my academic transcript, course syllabi, course catalog, and the student clinician’s handbook in addition to my personal experiences. It should come as no surprise to readers of ScienceBasedMedicine.org that naturopathic training is not as the profession presents. I’ll say it anyway: naturopathic education is riddled with pseudoscience, debunked medical theories, and experimental medical practices.

Britt Marie Hermes, ND Confession, Part 1: Clinical training inside and out