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  • "Thank you again for the most remarkable education. I have never felt so satisfied and content with my path of life!" Sarah D., 2018 Grad

    Sarah D., 2018 Grad

  • Hi Kim, I want to thank you again for an amazing weekend!  I learned so much & really appreciate your straight forward teaching style. --Gwen K. Post Grad participant 2020-2021

    Gwen K. Post Grad participant 2020-2021

  • This Acute role play course was such a great learning experience and also a lot of fun! The actors were playing their patient roles so well.  And the learning experience is not over for me because I took a lot of notes for every case and after submitting my own...
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    Véronique M., first year student 2020

  • "That’s the best part of CCHM. Everyone is so helpful no matter what. It feels like talking to family."

    Level 3 student 2023, Amit D.

  • Having returned in April from a trip to Taiwan and the Phillipines, I would like to tell you how homeopathy ‘saved the day’ as per usual!  Since I never travel anywhere without my kit, I was especially glad to have brought it on this trip.  Personally, I used remedies for...
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    Leslie D.Johnson, RPh, DCHM CCHM Class of 2013

  • Thank you for this most exceptional experience (as I wipe my tears..). I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am for this privilege to study with such exceptional teachers, students and administration. What a gift and a blessing. As Voltaire said “with great privilege comes great responsibility”. I...
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    Sarah M., 2016 alumnus

  • Thank you so much!  I just returned from Hawaii and can’t wait to get started. I asked Kim Elia to lecture for the organization that I am president of, (The International and American Associations of Clinical Nutritionists).  He knocked it out of the park!  Totally Awesome!  Several of my Canadian pharmacist...
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    Lisa A., 1st Year Distance Student 2018

  • I  am a distance student from Texas. I  really enjoyed  Lisa’s presentation on “Womens Issues.” She always does a stellar job of presentation of material.  I also enjoy her approach on teaching on the tapes within my lessons. She makes it very easy to understand and see the remedies true...
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    Maria A., 2nd Year Distance Student, 2019

  • You are so fortunate to have  Dr. Kellerstein as faculty; CCHM is a place for quality study of homeopathic medicine and I refer my chiropractic students to your college for advanced study in homeopathy. I am always so excited when I can touch a student in the chiropractic program to look...
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    Julie Plezbert, DC, DNBHE

  • Thank you for a wonderful weekend. The perspective of case taking that we learned this weekend was exactly what we needed at this stage of our homeopathy training. I will always appreciate and be grateful to you for showing me this path.

    From Sumera A., 2020 – 2021 participant

A Day In the Life of a Homeopath: Mary Blackmore, HOM, DCHM Hons

A Day in the Life of a Homeopath with Mary Blackmore What inspired you to become a homeopath? As I was getting older I started taking care of myself.  I didn’t want to grow old with all sorts of aches and pains and generally not feeling well.  I started investigating alternative medicine and I discovered Homeopathy.  I had actually never heard of it until about 10 years ago.   I was totally fascinated from the very beginning and that sense of awe has not left me.  The more I continue to learn, the more fascinated I am and the more I want to learn.  What does your average day as a homeopath look like? My days are all different because I still have another full time job.  I practice in the evenings and on the weekend.  Often I make house calls for the initial consultation so I travel around the GTA and the Hamilton area.  I usually see patients at the clinic and research in my home office.  I like to go out and give talks and teach classes on Homeopathy.  Last year I gave 4 classes at Goodness Me in Mississauga and I participated in the Live the Smart Way expo at the International Centre.  When I am not seeing patients, I am studying Materia Medica and taking other courses in Homeopathy.  I am really excited now because I have just about everything I need on my phone.  I have the Synthesis repertory, Homeopathic Housecall, Allen and Hering Materia Medica.  I have my Quickbooks for my client information, billing system, and expenses.  I even have links to CCHM and Whole Health Now courses on my phone so I can watch and listen with headphones while I commute on the train! What do you most love about being a homeopath? I really love it when you can see the results that a remedy is giving a person.  It is really satisfying when they see it too and they get excited. What is your favorite homeopathic story? My favourite homeopathic story is about one of my recent cases.  I made a house call to a young woman for initial consultation.  She has had eczema all of her life.  Based on the totality of her symptoms, I had two remedies in mind:  Arsenicum Album and Silicea.  In addition to the eczema, she was full of anxiety and had low self- confidence.  What decided the remedy for me was that she called herself a germophobe.  I chose the Ars and gave her a 200ch dry dose to be repeated one week later if needed.  She aggravated on that so I gave her a water dose that she would take on days that she was not using her steroid cream.  Yes, I know, I really wanted her to avoid that steroid cream!  She also aggravated on the more gentle water dose.  At that point I knew that the Arsenicum was the wrong choice and I switched her remedy to a water dose of Silicea 200ch.  On last contact, her eczema that she has had all of her life is gone and she had not used the steroid cream.  We are both thrilled! We don't need to know what you had for breakfast, but I'm sure it was healthy and delicious, so do tell! What did you have for breakfast? Well, I won’t tell you what I had this morning because it was really bad!  I try to heat healthy most days, but every once in a while….  Normally, I start my day with an anti-inflammatory smoothie made with kale, beets, celery, and apples with some chia and flax seeds and I often have some berries a little later. Tell us a little about your life before you became a homeopath. Well, I have worked for RBC for over 30 years and I began as a computer programmer.  You might think that it is a radical change for me to become a Homeopath but not really.  I look at both of those careers as being involved in solving a puzzle.  In computer programming, you are devising logic to solve a problem and get to an end state.  The same is true in Homeopathy.  To solve a case you need to explore an individual’s symptoms and logically arrive at the genius of the case to find the remedy that best fits to cure the case.  I must say that is so much more satisfying to solve the Homeopathic puzzle and help facilitate improved health! The banking industry is a little different than the health care industry, though!  Also, being employed by a company and having your own business are both very different. How did you change your life through homeopathy? When I first became interested in Homeopathy I had no idea where it would lead.  As I learned more, I became more daring to experiment with remedies.  Over time I realized that was not getting sick as often with colds and flu and when I did get sick, it passed much more quickly.  I also used to have migraines and headaches regularly.  I rarely have headaches now and I haven’t had a migraine in well over a year.  I haven’t taken Advil for years and years.  I have totally raised my level of wellness.  Now, I like to bring this knowledge and experience to others and help them through their wellness journey.  It really feels good when you get people to buy into it and they start showing results. What role did CCHM play in supporting your transformation? CCHM played a huge role in supporting my transformation.  I began as a distance student when I was first exploring Homeopathy.  I really wanted to move to classroom courses and I was able to do that for year 2 and 3.  A big thank you to Joyce for helping me split the course load so I could manage it with my full time job. It was really good to be in class and have others to talk to about Homeopathy and watch us all become more confident in our knowledge and abilities.  CCHM is very supportive and flexible and provides a wonderful environment for learning about Homeopathy. What are three key memories from your experience at CCHM? Proclamation of Homeopathy occurred in my final year at CCHM.  I felt strongly that I should be registered as soon as possible so I was preparing my registration package while completing my final year of studies.  It made sense to do that because we were studying Standards and Guidelines which made the Jurisprudence piece of registration easier.  Also, when I was writing up my externship cases, I was writing them as I would to submit for the registration package.  In my final year, I also decided to do the Independent Research paper.  It was a lot of hard work but very worthwhile. My own personal experience is related to headaches and migraines so I wanted to write a paper that addressed that while also providing a go-to handbook for me to review headache remedies. Because I took two calendar years to complete year 2, I was fortunate to be in classes with two different sets of graduating classes.   Many of us are in contact with each other beyond CCHM.   It is a very diverse group of students at CCHM.  My classes included people of many nationalities and many ages and we all could learn from each other. What obstacles did you have to overcome in order to become a homeopath? For me, my full time job at RBC is quite demanding and I often have to work long hours to meet deadlines.  Fortunately, my manager was very supportive and allowed me to book vacation days for Friday clinics.   It was difficult to juggle my responsibilities.  Most importantly, my family also made sacrifices. I worked Monday to Friday and then I was often gone for the weekend.  They had to pick up the slack.   In spite of it all,  my husband was always waiting at home with a glass of wine for me when I got home from class and he was always willing to debrief me.  For those who don’t know me well, I am a person of few words, but I sure had lots to say when I got home after class! How do you see your future in homeopathy? I expect to retire from my full time position in about 3 years and then I will practice Homeopathy full time.   My husband and I are planning to move out of the GTA to a small town.  I will be practicing Homeopathy while my husband will practise Medical Accupuncture and Chriopractic.   I believe the future is bright for Homeopathy.  I am noticing that I am getting more patients that are covered by insurance and that makes the difference for many people.  I believe that regulation has made Homeopathy more credible to the public. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"357","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"270","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"480"}}]] What do you love about the homeopathic community? I love that everyone is willing to share and help with tough cases.  It is a very supportive community and most people are willing to share their experiences and advice. What advice can you offer to a person considering becoming a homeopath? Have a desire for continuous learning.  You must study Homeopathy constantly.  It takes a long time to master (not that I think I have) but nevert give up.  It can be frustrating at times but the rewards far outweigh the frustration. Be persistent.  When you graduate you won’t necessarily have a line of patients beating a path to your door.  Word of mouth is the best advertising so ask your externship patients to recommend you if they were pleased with your services and continue to ask for referrals. Can you recommend a couple of good books on homeopathy?
  1. The Organon of the Medical Art by Dr, Samuel Hahnemann 
This is the ultimate Homeopathy book for me because I am constantly going back to it when I need to get back on track with Hahnemann’s philosophy and principles.   It gets me back to basics. 
  1. Boericke’s New manual of Homeopathic Materia Medica with Repertory 
The reason I mention this book is because I constantly use the appendices in the back of the book, especially the Relationship of Remedies.  That chart shows which remedies are complementary, which follow well, inimical, antidotes, and the duration of the remedy.  This is really useful when I am changing remedies. How to contact Mary Blackmore: I am excited to announce that I have joined the Natural Health Clinic of Halton (NHCHalton) team.  The clinic is located close to the new Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital in a brand spanking new medical building.  The clinic is opening late September/early October.  See the link below for details. http://www.nhchalton.com/   I also have my own private practice and can be contacted at 647-692-8098 Website:   www.blackmorewellnesshomeopathy.com https://twitter.com/BWHomeopathy https://www.facebook.com/BlackmoreWellness https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-blackmore-dchm-hons-4b8b5597?trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"356","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"109","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"480"}}]]

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