The Academy for Homeopathic Studies is a project of Will Taylor, M.D.
Please visit my other web presences:
http://courses.homstudies.com – for my live & recorded webinar-based courses
https://www.facebook.com/Academy-for-Homeopathic-Studies-1116577451860946/ – my Facebook business page (find link as well via the FB button in the upper right-hand corner of this page)
I was introduced to homeopathic medicine c.1990, when, in my first medical practice, I developed an excruciatingly painful case of shingles (zoster). Skeptical of the conventional medical management recommended, I consulted a colleague who’d been studying homeopathy. Following his prescription of a few tiny poppy-seed-sized pellets, I woke in the middle of the night, startled by the sudden absence of pain. Waiting until 6 a.m., I called him to report the good news. He responded “great – but you could’ve waited ’till 9.” I purchased a few books & a kit of remedies & began apprenticing & treating my family & friends, & my wife one day emptied our savings & bought me a course designed for physicians that met for monthly 3-day weekends over a year. I attempted to overlap a conventional medical practice with homeopathy, but soon came to the conclusion that my community had many competent conventional medical providers & an inadequate supply of homeopaths, and began practicing homeopathic medicine full-time, initially in South Freeport Maine & subsequently for 9 years in Blue Hill Maine. I began sharing my knowledge & experience at state homeopathic society meetings in Pennsylvania & Ohio, at the national conferences of the NCH, and as a teacher in The School of Homeopathy New York, as well as in congresses & seminars in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Slovakia,& India, and a several-year-long postgraduate program for homeopathic practitioners in the Czech Republic. In 2001 I was invited to join the faculty of the National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) in Portland Oregon, where I directed the homeopathy program for 12 years. Having been taught website development by a patient in barter for care, I developed the course support platform for that school, and began independently with a colleague to offer webinar-based continuing education courses.
In the fall of 2014, I suffered a debilitating stroke (is there another kind?) but continue to wish to share the knowledge & experience I’ve been privileged to have had in my career as a healthcare provider.
I was born & raised in a dairy farming community southeastern Wisconsin (Menominee Falls, Thiensville-Mequon), where I aspired as a child to ornithology; attended Michigan State University with a degree in biochemistry, and pursued graduate studies in marine biology at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Biological Station & the University of Maine in Orono, with fieldwork in Monterey Bay & the Big Sur coast of California, the Gulf of Maine, & Antarctica. My initial training in conventional medicine was at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, with clinical internships in rural Maine & on the Navajo Nation at Chʼínílį́, Dáʼákʼeh Halání, Lókʼaaʼchʼégai, & Beʼekʼid Baa Ahoodzání; followed by a residency in family practice at St. Mary’s Hospital (affiliated with the Medical College of Wisconsin – Marquette University) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I had wonderful mentors who pressed the limits of conventional iatrogenic medicine, including Larry Weed M.D., an iconoclastic genius & the originator of the S.O.A.P. note, the Problem-Oriented Medical Record, & the first electronic medical records system; Lou Rosin, M.D., the director of my residency program & for 40 years a primary care physician in rural Bayfield Wisconsin, who brought radical compassion to the practice of medicine; Shelly Burchman M.D., a retired anesthesiologist who never retired, an early pioneer of hospice/palliative care in North America; Christopher Smith M.D., a family physician who operated a primary care practice and birthing center in Strong Maine; Tom Whitney M.D., a wonderful pediatrician in Norway/South Paris Maine; and countless others, as well as some of my best teachers, the countless patients who have entrusted their care to me over these past 40 years. I believe the best way to give thanks to these individuals for the gifts they provided me is to continue their tradition of compassionate teaching to help ease the pain of suffering humanity.
As many of you know, I had a stroke in September 2014 (I’d say a “serious stroke” – but is there really any other kind?), hospitalized for 4 weeks at the time, after spending 30 hours on the kitchen floor before being discovered by my son. I’ve had a recurring dream since, of cycling across the continent, from Oregon to my former home in Maine, 4,000 miles (6400 km) distant, quite the metaphor I suppose for my efforts in recovery.
Things I am struggling with –
I cannot use my left hand for much, certainly not for typing; so my typing speed is down from 140 wpm to 25 wpm with my right hand only; so I cannot be as productive in generating content as I used to be;
My voice – hoarseness from painful laryngeal spasm, and lack of vocal expression; along with lack of facial expression, which make it difficult & emotionally painful to communicate, something I struggle with immensely in my teaching; I’m typing this in an “Eeyore moment,” trying to recover from disappointment after trying to re-record a class session that was lost due to software failure;
Fatigue – Over the past 5-1/2+ years, I’m needing 10-12 hours of sleep/night, along with an extended afternoon nap daily, and constantly feel like I used to in my residency at 4 pm following a busy night on call in the hospital;
“Brain fog” – not the “brain cloud” Tom Hanks suffered in Joe vs. the Volcano, but this & the fatigue conspire to make everything just a bit more difficult; by 3 pm, the world fragments to resemble a painting by Wassily Kandinsky (fortunately I do like Kandinsky, but an occasional visit to the Lenbachhaus Gallery in Munich would be sufficient);
“Executive function deficits” – difficulty with complex multistep projects, especially those that involve “switching gears,” and those with which I lack passion, such as financial management tasks;
Sensory “flooding” – I’ve lost the input “filters” to filter out sensory stimuli, so I “overload” when too much is going on about me – “too much” being 3 people at the dinner table, the furnace kicking on when I’m recording a course, &c.;
I might make this list longer, but don’t wish to dwell on my infirmities.
Things I still do well –
I’ve always had a passion for collecting information from diverse sources, synthesizing this, and communicating it succinctly in a readily understandable manner. I haven’t lost that, despite the struggles outlined above. Fortunately I’ve been able to make this my life’s work.
Things I still wish to do in this lifetime –
Support my family by engaging in “right livelihood”.
Pass on what I’ve been graced to learn about listening & observing & healing, from my own experiences, from some remarkable mentors, & from my best teachers, my patients over these many years.
It is stated in the Quran, “O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, and given you diverse languages, that you may strive to know one another.” I treasure my time with you, even tho it is only mediated electronically these days, to that purpose.
Thank you for walking this samsara with me,
Will