About the Conference
Sources of Health represents a progressive movement in medicine, taking academic medicine, which derives from natural science, and extending it to include a holistic human perspective (i.e. adding social, ethical, mental, and spiritual dimensions). This holistic approach is based on the concept and tradition of anthroposophic medicine, which combines modern western medicine with wisdom about humanity, producing new perspectives and approaches to diagnosis, therapy, and prevention.
Interdisciplinarity – Who is the Conference For?
The conference is intended for doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other medical professionals, who are interested in gaining a wider perspective, as well as understanding the deeper roots of their profession. This conference serves as both an introduction to, and extended interaction with, anthroposophic medicine.
Questions about the origin and essence of illness and health, as well as the potential prevention and successful healing of illness, are interconnected with questions about the essence of a human being. These questions lead one beyond the borders of health care to all areas of one’s life – particularly one’s upbringing, education, human development, self-formation and interpersonal relationships. The conference is traditionally open to all educators, social therapists, social workers, psychologists, psychotherapists and religious workers. Their awareness of the co-responsibility for human health care, together with doctors’ sense of co-responsibility for prevention and healing beyond the borders of their consulting rooms, is a potential cornerstone for interdisciplinary cooperation. Such cooperation among human services professions, which share the goal of healthy human beings, is one of the main goals of anthroposophic medicine, which could become a beacon of socially-responsible health care in the future.
We welcome everyone who shares this perspective, and we particularly welcome students of all the above-mentioned disciplines who seek inspiration as to how to perform their future jobs in the best way.
The Concept
Sources of Health is a continuation of the IPMT, an annual conference which started in Český Krumlov in 2010, and whose principles and methods remain intact to this day. The program structure reflects the conference’s interdisciplinarity, with some aspects open to all professions and other aspects being profession-specific.
Shared activities include morning workshops and evening lectures, which are geared toward the development of perceiving, feeling, and thinking skills essential for a holistic-approach to diagnosis and therapy. Afternoon workshops are geared toward specific professions, some of which are open only to certain professionals and others of which are open to anyone interested in that topic. (NOTE: open and closed sessions are identified in the workshop syllabus).
Thematic focus of the conference and further years
Each year revolves around a specific period of human life (biography) and relates medical, pedagogical, psychological and other topics to this particular period.
First year (2015) concentrated on everything connected to the birth of man and the period before the birth – sexuality, partnerships, gender, prenatal issues, embryology, gynaecology, midwifery and care during pregnancy.
Current year (2016) is centred on childhood: the period from birth to the ninth year of life. Using holistic approach, we will try to understand the nature of a child and the different needs a child has in various phases of his or her life. These anthropological findings are then transferred into medical topics such as childhood illnesses, vaccination, allergies, asthma and more. Then to questions about education and pedagogy, questioning what children really need from adults, when they are mature enough for certain things, what principles should pedagogy and school follow to support child development without causing harm… and many more – detailed list can be found under „Current Year“ and „Programme“.
Further topics will discuss the process of maturation, coming of age and entering individual life. After several years of our conferences we should conclude with topics of psycho-sociological issues of old age, medical care in old age, care of terminally ill patients, accompanying the dying etc. The topics of further years are not clear yet but will follow this concept.