About Dr. 'B'
Dr. Larry Bernstein has been a veterinarian since graduation from the University of Pennsylvania veterinary school in 1977 and has been using alternative medicine since 1991. He is certified by IVAS in Acupuncture, the AVH in homeopathy and has taken the AVCA training in chiropractic. His first love, although, is homeopathy. He studied with Dr. Richard Pitcairn in 1993 and was one of the earliest veterinarians certified in homeopathy by the Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy .
He served on the AVH national board since its creation in 1997 until 2004 and is the past-President and an honorary lifetime member. He was askd to run again and re-elected to President-Elect in 2007. He is a graduate of both the Dynamis School of Homeopathy (3 year training) and the New England School of Homeopathy (2 year course). He is a lifetime member of the National Center of Homeopathy and immedite past President of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association. He presently has a 100% holistic practice in Florida where he both sees clients and does telephone consultations in homeopathy all over the world.
In March of 2001 he and his wife Karen founded the Society For Vitalistic Health - a healing ministry dedicated to promoting natural healing for its members and their families (both 4 leggged and 2 legged).
I hope that did not seem too dry. It was a biography that was originally written to put up on America Online since I ran two alternative medicine boards for years before tiring of having the same allopathic versus homeopathic argument over and over and over again. I have begun to realize I have a finite quantity of energy and I would rather use it for cases that want homeopathic healing rather than try to convert those that do not.
There are so many ill animals and people that are seeking a better way to health and I am more than happy to teach and guide those that are truly interested and am starting to ignore those that just want to debate.
What things about us would interest a client and help them to entrust their child to our care? I was born in February of 1952, have 2 children from a prior marriage and have been with Karen for over 20 years. I love to fix things and have built everything from houses to computers with a bit of furniture making thrown in for good measure. I am a person who hates to fail at something and will try anything I can think of to turn a bad situation around. I have trouble being patient and homeopathy has helped me learn that things need time to grow and to heal.
I spent 12 years after graduation creating a very busy, high tech practice. I did every kind of surgery including microsurgery and orthopedics. I had a fully equipped surgery and practice. I then found that I was spending way too much time on the business aspects and not enough on the patients. I had also written a commercial software package for veterinarians that was in use nationally. I sold the practice in 1990 and used the following year to work on the software, do specialty surgery and to explore other forms of healing.
In 1991 a local non-profit clinic lost their main veterinarian and I offered to fill in for a few weeks. That stretched into six years. During that time that clinic grew to five veterinarians. I found that I had to do surgery with old instruments and sometimes we did not have enough drugs or the correct supplies for a case. Since it was a "free" clinic and these patients had no one else to help them. We were constantly trying to find ways to help that depended more on the patient and less on the medication.
I trained in acupuncture, chiropractic and homeopathy during those years. I reached the point that I would only treat the surgical cases and left the vaccines and steroids to the other side of the clinic. Even with this limitation, I felt torn. Then came a pivotal event in my evolution. A puppy came in with parvovirus and I treated it homeopathically. Another puppy came in from the same litter the day I had to leave for a week of homeopathic training. When I returned I was told that the homeopathic puppy had died and they (the board) did not want this holistic medicine practiced at their clinic. I agreed to cut my hours, stay on and do surgery but also to pursue my holistic cases in a separate practice. This went well for a few months but I kept hearing about this puppy so I pulled the files and it was the OTHER puppy that had died. The homeopathic puppy went on to a full recovery!
When the "board" saw this they semi-apologized and said I could re-incorporate my holistic practice into their clinic. Things were so much easier as they were and I decided to maintain a separate practice. That slowly evolved until I had to leave Animal Welfare to deal with the patient load and my own sense of the correct way to heal. That opportunity came early in 1997 upon completion of the new clinic.
One of my long-term goals for Animal Welfare Society was the construction of a state of the art clinic for the indigent. This was sidetracked with the destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew but was finally completed in 1997. I designed and supervised the construction of a multimillion-dollar hospital and, upon its completion, left to dedicate myself 100% to holistic medicine.
I have finally reached the point where I feel I am, once again, a healer. There are people who are healers and there are many doctors who are not. To heal and to be a doctor is a great privilege and I realize how much of a blessing.
If you made it this far, thanks for letting me be self indulgent
and listening. IF you want to see what I have been doing to keep busy since I first wrote this then click on the Training and C.V.
Dr. B.