Faculty

Begabati Lennihan, RN, CCH*, Director, Teleosis School of Homeopathy, is a 1974 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard who has spent 30 years in different aspects of holistic health care. For 16 years she owned a health food store, where she first began working with homeopathic remedies in 1981. She began studying homeopathy professionally in 1995 with Dr. Luc De Schepper, and with him co-founded the Renaissance Institute of Classical Homeopathy. She currently has a practice in classical homeopathy for women and children in Cambridge, MA.

Begabati has edited Dr. Luc’s guide for laypeople, The People’s Repertory, and his textbook for professionals, Hahnemann Revisited, as well as Yasgur’s Homeopathic Dictionary, a reference book used by homeopaths around the world. Her article, “Homeopathy: Natural Mind-Body Healing” is in the July 2004 issue of Journal of Psychosocial and Mental Health Nursing, and her interview on homeopathy and nursing was webcast on nursedaily.com (download audio file for interview 12.2MB).

Begabati lectures on homeopathy at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and co-authored the chapter on homeopathy in the American Pharmacists Association’s Handbook of Non-Prescription Drugs. She has also lectured on homeopathy at Northeastern University’s School of Pharmacy and MGH Institute’s training program for nurse practitioners. Her articles on homeopathic teaching and on homeopathy and spirituality have appeared in journals including Simillimum and Homeopathy Today.

Begabati has practiced heart-center meditation for 30 years under the guidance of spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy, who gave her the spiritual name Begabati. (Literally it means a fast-flowing river and symbolically it refers to the individual soul plunging headlong to merge into the ocean of infinite consciousness.) In keeping with Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy of community service, she teaches free classes in meditation at Harvard University’s Center for Wellness; in keeping with his mind-body approach to fitness, she has completed 50 marathons, ultramarathons and triathlons.

*CCH: Certified Classical Homeopath

Loretta Butehorn, Ph.D., CCH, Co-Director, has a private practice in Boston where she combines both psychological and homeopathic approaches in working with her clients. Her psychological training was quite eclectic and combines developmental psychology, cognitive behavioral theory, family systems, psychodynamic conceptualizations and transpersonal approaches.

Loretta was invited to address the annual conference of the National Center for Homeopathy in 2005 and 2006, sharing the insights she has gained from her psychotherapy practice that are applicable to homeopathy.

In addition to her traditional training, since 1985 Dr. Butehorn has extensively explored complementary/alternative approaches to health, recovery and healing. She developed the first course in complementary/ alternative therapies ever presented at Boston College; a course she continues to offer each year. She has extensive training in shamanism, hypnosis, EMDR, DBT and Thought Field Therapy. Expanding this interest, Dr. Butehorn began studying homeopathy in 1995. She is a graduate of the Renaissance School of Homeopathy, the Teleosis Clinical Program and completed studies with the British Institute of Homeopathy earning her DIHom and status of Fellow of the British Institute of Homeopathy.
In addition to teaching both undergraduate psychology students and graduate management students at Boston College in the College of Advancing Studies, Loretta consults and teaches on the post graduate level nationally on topics of health, substance abuse/addiction treatment and recovery, violence, family work and child welfare.

*DIHom: Diplomate of the British Institute of Homeopathy She is on the board of the Council for Homeopathic Certification.

Loretta is director of Teleosis' outreach program at a residential treatment program where women in recovery from substance abuse are treated with a progressive model of holistic therapies, including homeopathy. Under Loretta's guidance, both staff members and residents are encouraged to use homeopathy for acute conditions, and fourth-year students participate in an on-site student clinic to treat chronic conditions.

Peris Gumz, RN, Co-Director, The Elements of Homeopathy, brings to Teleosis 17 years of study and practice in the healing arts, including two years of study with Dr. Luc De Schepper at the Renaissance Institute of Classical Homeopathy; two years of the Teleosis Clinical Supervision Program; and three years of internship at the homeopathy office of Begabati Lennihan.

In addition, her ten years of studying perceptual processing with Dr. Dawna Markova have provided the basis for her exquisite attunement to the variations in auditory, visual and kinesthetic learning among her students. In retrospect, Peris’s learnings with Dr. Markova have provided an ideal base for practicing homeopathy, with a focus on self-awareness, receptivity and curiosity without judgment, attention to variations in human energy, and entering another’s model of the world.

In addition to working as a nurse in an allopathic setting, Peris is also a teacher and interpreter of Serbo-Croatian; over time she has developed a deep appreciation for the importance of metaphor and the translation of one way of thinking into another, which facilitates her “translating” from homeopathic to allopathic modes of expression. Peris recently completed an R.N. program and is a staff nurse at the Cambridge Health Alliance. Her homeopathy practice is based in Belmont, MA.

Joel Kreisberg, DC, CCH, Founder and Director Emeritus, has 15 years of experience as a health care practitioner, as an herbalist, a chiropractor (a graduate of New York College of Chiropractic) and homeopath (a graduate of Hahnemann College of Homeopathy with clinical training at the Bengal-Allen Institute in Calcutta, India).

Based on his years as a teacher, Joel developed a vision for homeopathic education which he shared nationwide in his role as founder of the North American Network of Homeopathic Educators. In that capacity, he developed seminars with Dr. Janet Hafner, Director of Faculty Develoment for Harvard Medical School, on student-centered, problem-based learning in homeopathy. As President of the Council on Homeopathic Education, Dr. Kreisberg revitalized the national accreditation process for homeopathic institutions.

Dr. Kreisberg founded the Teleosis School of Homeopathy in 1996 after teaching at several homeopathic colleges. By directly supervising emerging homeopaths for over ten years, he has mastered the teaching of homeopathy in a live clinical setting. He is currently enrolled in a master’s degree program in environmental sciences, specializing in Integral Ecology, at Prescott College in Arizona. He maintains homeopathy practices in Berkeley, CA and New York City.

Practicing what he preaches—that homeopaths need to maintain a spiritual or exercise practice for personal growth—Joel is a longtime practitioner of Vipassana Meditation and Astanga Yoga, in addition to doing the daily transformative exercise routine described in The Life We Are Given (a required text). He fulfills his commitment to community service by volunteering in a homeless clinic in Berkeley.

Dr. Kreisberg publishes extensive lectures notes. His Lectures on Materia Medica and Lectures on Homeopathic Philosophy form the basis of his teachings. His Homeopathic Handbook for Poison Ivy and Poison Oak is the definitive text, and his book The Complete Guide to Botanical Nomenclature for Homeopathic Plant Remedies is a basic reference.

Dr. Kreisberg will be on sabbatical during the 2006-2007 school year.

Visiting Factulty Each year Teleosis invites several nationally and internationally distinguished homeopaths to lecture for a weekend or to conduct live patient interviews for the class. These visiting lecturers are different each year and enhance students' exposure to different aspects of practicing homeopathy as well as placing their studies in the larger context of the national and international homeopathic community.

In recent years these visiting homeopaths have included:

• Dr. Farokh Master, an internationally-distinguished homeopath from India and author of numerous books, including Clinical Observations of Children's Remedies and Lacs in Homeopathy
• Dr. Molly Punzo, a homeopathic physician and board member of the National Center for Homeopathy
• Karen Allen, RC, RSHom(NA), CCH, professor of homeopathy at Bastyr University, vice president of the Council on Homeopathic Certification, and author of A Tutorial and Workbook for the Homeopathic Repertory, one of out first-year textbooks
• Dr. Asa Hershoff, founder of The Canadian Naturopathic College and author of Homeo-pathy for Musculoskeletal Healing and Homeopathic Remedies
• Dr. Luc De Schepper, founder and sole teacher of the Renaissance Institute for Classical Homeopathy, lecturer at numerous schools and institutes of homeopathy worldwide, and author of numerous books including Hahnemann Revisited, The People's Repertory, and Homeopathy and the Periodic Table
• Dr. Richard Moskowitz, former president of the National Center for Homeopathy and author of Homeopathic Medicines in Pregnancy and Childbirth and Resonance: the Homeopathic Point of View