CNM Naturopathy Diploma courses

I would be interested in a reply too as well. I know CNM offers both naturopathic nutrition and naturopathy with a specialist subject such as herbalism. If someone has studied there please do provide feedback.

Thanks!

Just arranged to go speak to a course coordinator on Thursday about the course which should be interesting. The course is very expensive though - have an enrolment fee, study fees, then you have to pay for the clinical hours, books and travel - comes to just over £12,000. Does anyone know of any cheaper herbal medicine course?

I would be very careful about choosing a herbal medicine course as a steering group set up by the Department of Health has recommended that the Healthcare Professions Council should regulate medical herbalists. The Health Professions Council has now discussed this report and has recommended statutory regulation to the Secretary of State for Health.

The Health Professions Council was set up to protect the public. To do this, they keep a register of health professionals who meet their standards for their training, professional skills, behaviour and health. Currently they regulate 13 health professions: Arts therapists, Biomedical scientists, Chiropodists/podiatrists, Clinical scientists, Dietitians, Occupational therapists, Operating department practitioners, Orthoptists, Paramedics, Physiotherapists, Prosthetists/orthotists, Radiographers, Speech and language therapists

All of these professions have at least one professional title that is protected by law, including those shown above. This means, for example, that anyone using the titles 'physiotherapist' or 'dietitian' must be registered with the Health Professions Council.

It is a criminal offence, with fines up to £5,000, for someone to claim that they are registered with the Health Professions Council when they are not, or to use a protected title that they are not entitled to use.

Typical

Lavandula,

The cheapest would probably be a distance learning degree from the University of East London. It's recognised by NIMH so you will be fine in terms of it being recognised. It's blended learning which means you study at home but for the clinical modules you have to travel to London or you may do 40% of the 500 hours clinical practice in a clinic nearby which has been accredited such as Lincoln University's Clinic.

Regards,

Does anyone know anything about the CNM nutrition courses? Any good?

I would be very careful about choosing a herbal medicine course as a steering group set up by the Department of Health has recommended that the Healthcare Professions Council should regulate medical herbalists. The Health Professions Council has now discussed this report and has recommended statutory regulation to the Secretary of State for Health.

Hi Typical,
do you have a link to this information? I have checked HPC website but cant find any mention of it. I know it looks very likely that psychologists, psychotherapists and counsellors will soon come under their remit.

This is the link for medical herbalists

I had a look at the article on psychologists here

Interesting times and quite difficult to keep updated with all the changes

Typical

Why do psychologists need to be regulated by the HPC? Aren't most psychologists working in an official capacity have chartered status and hardcore qualifications, including post graduate? What's the point! What's next one going to be, a state licence to clean a toilet.

As for herbalists prehaps that's a different matter. Herbs are wonderful things but they can be highly toxic.

RP

i think perhaps it may be because in both cases you can do a herbalism or psychology course by distance learning (one of which advertises on here) and you can call yourself a herbalist or psychologist, just by completing a few lessons, and in both cases you can be dealing with peoples lives (herbs as they can be potent and toxic, and can you imagine someone suicidal being treated by someone with an 8 lesson distance learning diploma in psychology!)

Anyway, we are going off topic here, so I will agree with Typical and say that you should choose your course wisely if it may be regulated by HPC in the future.

ps thanks for the links Typical, they are very useful.

I agree with Sportstherapy it seems that the only way to stop distance learning providers from claiming that their courses allow their graduates to work professionally is to try and shut them out by 'protecting' the title.

When I choose to invest time and money visiting a medical herbalist I want to be confident that they have done more than a short distance learning course that doesn't cover anything more than reading a few books on the subject and if the only way to protect the public from badly trained medical herbalists is regulation then I, for one, support regulation.

Typical

Thanks for all your replies. After some serious thought and research, I've decided to give it a miss for the moment. I still really want to do herbal medicine but it will have to sit on the back burner for a while until I can afford to pay the large sum of money for the course.

I really think the CNM course is the one for me as the anatomy, physiology & pathology parts of the course are taught by medical doctors which really appeals to me. You also have to complete 400-500 clinic hours. It definitely looks the best course other than the University degrees but I don't live near any of the Universities offering the course.

I would never go with a distance learning course for any therapy - if you provide a hands on therapy then you need to do hands on training!

I am considering doing herbalism but I would only ever consider doing an NIMH course. I also look for the highest level of qualification when doing something. That way, come regulations, hopefully I will be educated to a level high enough for acceptance. regulation can't come quick enough for me (but thats another thread!!)

As for CNM, I can only say that I know two people who did their nutrition course in Scotland. One was totally unimpressed (finished it anyway because the money she invested) and the other one is saying nowt (probably because she ridiculed me for travelling to London to do my course when I could "do it easily with CNM in Scotland"). I know that girl started her course in Glasgow but due to high drop-out numbers her course was joined with the Edinburgh course which meant she had to travel more.

The girl who admitted to being unimpressed is already a herbalist and said that there was inconsistancy with the tutors (high turnover) and in general, the course was not of a standard she would have expected.

I would, in general, be wary of anyone who offeres courses in as many places as they claim to. I did my nutrition with ION (accredited by Bedforshire Uni) but ION don't go all over the country, you have to attend in London. IMO I don't see how quality and consistancy can be maintained when something is spread so thinly.

Oh and as an ex-nurse, can I just say that medically qualified doctors are not always the best at teaching anatomy and physiology. They will only be hired on an ad-hoc basis so again the quality will be sketchy, but have to say that docs tend to be not great at teaching.

Patchouli

I would, in general, be wary of anyone who offeres courses in as many places as they claim to. I did my nutrition with ION (accredited by Bedforshire Uni) but ION don't go all over the country, you have to attend in London. IMO I don't see how quality and consistancy can be maintained when something is spread so thinly.

I agree with that statement wholeheartedly!

I studied nutrition with the CNM in Scotland (Edinburgh) and it is interesting to read Patchouli's response, I may even know the people she is talking about! There were teething problems up here, I think maybe they did expand too quickly and there was some organisation issues BUT...

on the whole, the course content is excellent, they are always updating things in line with the governing bodies to ensure the qualification is recognized by those who matter and I am sure this would be the same with the naturopathy / herbal courses. The teaching was variable, but we had some amazing lecturers visiting us - I think if you are based in London it may be better.

Cost wise, I think it sounds like it has gone up, and it is a lot of money - hard to make this back easily for quite a while! But I don't regret doing the course and I would recommend it to others, but warn them that it is hard work. :dft009:

Hi Frances, nice to see someone else who is into nutrition.

Your website looks brill and I hope you are doing well.

I am sure you will know the people I know, its such a small community up here (nutrition, I mean). I know one of the tutors you had and the herbalist girl told me she just seemed to leave suddenly. I was going to join the Glasgow CNM course after year 1 at ION (due to the travelling) but thats when I heard the girl I knew locally had been transferred over to Ed which had me a tad concerned. But, hey ho she is just came to the end of her course too so all is well.:)

If you are going to any of the lectures such as Nutri or Biocare or any else that we (rarely) get up here then it would be great to meet up.

I think all the nut courses have been going through a hard time with all the NTC NOS stuff. The content of our course took a dramatic change after year 1 when they brought in Val Bullen from Westminster Uni. Even the lecturers had to up the anti and the training clinic hours increased dramatically. March and April this year I was down five times between classes and training clinic. I nearly went into meltdown from that and work commitments. 😮

Joyce

Just arranged to go speak to a course coordinator on Thursday about the course which should be interesting. The course is very expensive though - have an enrolment fee, study fees, then you have to pay for the clinical hours, books and travel - comes to just over £12,000. Does anyone know of any cheaper herbal medicine course?

at westminster university

Hi
I was also looking to enroll at the CNM college in Ldn.
I wanted to follow the Homoeopathy route and looking at the syllabus I thought to be very in depth with A&P and pathology and biomedicine giving you a good basic medical knowledge.
It's quite expensive but at the end you get two diplomas, and one of those allow to practice everywhere in the world.
Anyone here that qualified from CNM in Homoepathy?
Would be nice to have some feedback on what level of preparation on the subject you can get compared to other colleges.

If you are going to do any course, you need to go to the most highly respected and recognised professional body for that discipline and ask their advice before spending a penny on training. Professional bodies will be aware of developments, either in legislation or just in education that a course provider may not know about or may not tell you about.

The best professional bodies have an independent accreditation board, or a similar way of recognising qualifications at an adequate and appropriate level. If the body does not list a particular course, it is likely because that course has not met the required standards. Statutory regulation is all about protecting the public - last year there was a well publicised case about a so-called herbalist (basically a shopkeeper) who gave a woman a banned Chinese herb and the woman developed cancer. The startling thing was that the judge in the case said she was not to blame because she didn't know. If she had been properly trained, or if she had been a member of a recognised professional association, then she would have known not only why the herb was banned in the first place (because of the cancer risk) but she would have known the pharmacology of the herb too - if she had ignored the ban she would have been struck off. In fact she should have been found guilty simply for giving a banned substance - saying she could walk free just because she didn't know is an enormously dangerous precedent.

So, if you want to train in any modality, go to the top and pay whatever is necessary to be properly trained.
Medical herbalists are trained in the same medical sciences as doctors, trained to diagnose illness, examine patients in exactly the same way as doctors.

If you want to be a herbalist, or an acupuncturist, homeopath, osteopath or whatever you need to have the highest level of training possible - your are dealing with people's health and nothing short of the highest standards is enough. Once you've trained join a professional body that makes sure you work under a code of ethics, and has mandatory continuing professional development. To find out where to train go to the professional bodies in the first place and see what courses meet their standards for entry.

I have just completed the Diploma in CNM Naturopathy and next month I had to join in hospital but I lost my diploma in accident. I want to buy fake diploma. Please have any idea about university from where I can buy diploma as soon as possible.

diploma