Anthroposophic Medicine originated with Rudolf Steiner around the turn of the 20th century. At the heart of it is the view that each of us is in a process of incarnational development and that nature, in its multiplicity of forms–mineral, plant and animal–manifests the very processes that are going on within us…and so can be called upon for healing in very specific ways.
Serving on the care group for some years at the Seattle Waldorf School (Waldorf schooling was also authored by Rudolf Steiner and based on the same perspective of development), I was impressed with how the content and presentation of the curriculum met the children right where they were at each stage of development…and with the overall health, well-being, and intelligences of the graduating classes. Working side-by-side seeing students with an anthroposophic physician, I found that the anthroposophic organ-level diagnoses corresponded to the Five Element organ-level diagnoses, most of the time, despite very different conceptual approaches. This exposure stimulated me to take up the study of anthroposophic medicine through reading, contemplation, courses and mentoring, and I now incorporate anthroposophic perspectives and remedies in my practice, adjunctively.