A Student's Retreat Reflection

After each class session, I’d leave with a different mix of emotions. Enlivened and curious, contemplative and doubting, or just mentally spent and in need of a nap out in the grass. But my first ever in-person retreat at PHI was like leveling up in a video game. Something deep inside of me shifted and when I tried to go back to my regularly scheduled programming as the person I was before, I couldn't. 

I was completely changed.

For the majority of our 3-year homeopathic training program we come together virtually for monthly weekend sessions. We’re all lined up in the Zoom room grid, like space-time travelers appearing instantly together from across the continent…or cosmos.

Technology is truly amazing to allow us to learn in this way!  But with technology also come glitches. Power outages, random software updates get pushed through at the most inconvenient time, or the spinning wheel of death seizes the computer and it takes an eternity for a page to load.

And sometimes the internet just drops, freezing faculty just as they are about to blow our minds…

Sure, online learning is super convenient but it's also weirdly disembodied - just floating heads and upper torsos confined to rectangles. Being stuck in those little boxes can feel really limiting in our ability to truly connect. 

So as part of our curriculum, twice a year, in April and October, we gather for a week of intensive learning at a retreat center in Minnesota. The whole school comes together in person for these retreats at a beautiful site on a wild and scenic river, a place that invites us to be fully embodied (and fully immersed as these brave souls are about to experience).

Why do we do this?

Because being in community changes us. At these retreats we are thoroughly immersed in all things homeopathy - we learn remedies, discuss philosophy, dive into the nuances of case-taking - all of it. We are simultaneously immersed in community. Here we get to learn more about each other: laughing at morning yoga, chatting in the lunch line, or walking a few laps around the pond at break time, digesting the morning’s topic and relating it to our lives. At a PHI retreat there are all these little spaces for sharing family updates, check-ins on a classmate’s sick backyard chicken, or recounting recent travel adventures. We take interest, share personal stories, we show how we truly care about one another. 

We also learn about ourselves. We realize we actually do know more than we thought we did! We get to express ourselves creatively. And we come up against growth edges and comfort zones. Then we hold space for ourselves, we ask for help, and we process challenges as they arise. And we hold space for one another to be with our inner content as it comes up, too. When we are in community we do not have to struggle alone.

Again, why do we do this?

Because this is the work of the homeopath. 

The core of our work is to sit with people in their discomfort. We ask our clients to share all that pains them and all their deepest sufferings, so that we may clearly perceive a remedy to bring about healing and relief, as quickly and gently as possible.

We practice doing all of this in our togetherness within the container of the retreat environment so that we have this lived experience, this embodied practice of caring and connecting on a truly deep level. Here we train the muscles of patience, unconditional loving presence, and empathy towards others in this precious way.

It is this that brings homeopathy off the pages of our dog-eared, excessively highlighted books, and out into real life: it’s all about relationships. 

Homeopathic practice is all about building relationships. We build relationships with the materia medica to engage with remedies as living essences. We contemplate the history and philosophical framework of homeopathy, developing a personal relationship with its principles. We cultivate relationships with colleagues and clients, and in maintaining our own homeopathic care, we deepen our relationship to ourselves. 

Homeopathy is a relational medicine.

And there is no better place to build these relationships than in person, on retreat, with a bunch of incredible people who care so deeply about healing the world. And then to find out that all of these people also care deeply about you and your wellbeing. It is such a blessing.

But you don’t have to take my word for it, if you want to level up, feel truly transformed, and go beyond what you ever thought was possible for yourself, then join us.

If you are someone who can sit in loving presence with another person - you can do this. 

If you are someone who cares about others and desires to humbly walk alongside them on their healing journey - you can do this.

If you are someone who feels called to this curious scientific art called homeopathy even though you feel so new to it all and aren’t even sure what a remedy even is - yes, you too can do this!

And when you join us here at PHI, I can assure you, you will not be doing it alone and you will absolutely be forever changed.

Ashley Keul, CCH

Classical Homeopath and PHI Director of Operations