become the holistic provider you always wished you had.

Students enrolled in our original programs are required to complete a graduate essay, as these programs contain fewer quizzes, tests, and final exams.

In contrast, students in our newly-updated programs are not required to submit a graduate essay, since assessments are integrated throughout the curriculum in the form of quizzes, tests, and final exams.

You can email or call our office (see the Connect dropdown) to find out which programs have been updated for our 2025 Tenth Anniversary edition.

Alternatively, graduates of our newest program editions may choose to write a micro-dissertation, which qualifies them for graduation with honors and potential publication in our emerging peer-reviewed journal.

If you're enrolled in one of our original programs—or if you're aiming to graduate with honors—keep reading for more details.

We provide graduate support and a writing lab to guide you throughout the entire process. This support is essential because your essay helps us assess your understanding of key learning objectives and measurable practice outcomes while strengthening your written communication skills.

However, there is no dissertation requirement because, unlike law, conventional medicine, real estate, and even massage therapy, our field operates within an educationally unregulated industry. This gives us the flexibility to define our entry and graduation requirements and the titles we bestow. Each holistic education provider offering natural health PhDs will have its own unique process.

In mainstream academia, doctorates typically take longer to complete. However, in the natural health industry, 'doctor' has long been recognized as a title that does not require eight years of study, as it would at a conventional college.

In fact, a holistic doctorate may take considerably less time due to its unique educational structure, which focuses on specialized learning rather than conventional academic pathways—pathways dictated by sometimes questionable and outdated standards of the conventional medical and pharmaceutical industrial complexes.

For example, physicians generally spend 90% of their time studying drugs and contraindications while routinely receiving only 1–2 hours of training in outdated nutritional models.

We followed a conventional model and required graduate dissertations for a brief period. However, we no longer do so because our definition of a PhD—as 'doctor as teacher'—extends beyond the traditional doctorate-dissertation model valued by mainstream educators.

Many of our students are licensed medical professionals, including physicians, NPs, PAs, NDs/NMDs, RNs, LPNs, CNAs, and pharmacists, who have already completed this type of extensive academic work and have no desire to do so again. Instead, they wish more immediately to study and apply the contents of our holistic doctorates for their personal and professional enrichment.

Additionally, our student body includes stay-at-home parents juggling children and managing busy households and older students who prefer to focus on learning rather than spending their free time writing lengthy dissertations. Given these diverse backgrounds, we have chosen an approach prioritizing practical application, accessibility, and meaningful education over rigid academic formalities.

Most practicing and aspiring holistic providers dedicate much of their free time to researching and uncovering hard-to-find information. For this reason, we consider them practical research scientists who fully recognize the value of research, anecdotal theory, and strong written communication skills. Therefore, if you’d like to write a dissertation, a shorter paper, or an article, we would love to feature it on our blog under 'STUDENT PAPERS & DISSERTATIONS' in the 'CONNECT' drop-down menu. 

We're well aware that some holistic educators of this caliber cost-prohibitively and illogically—if not questionably— charge $20,000 per holistic program and arbitrarily require graduates to write 100+ page dissertations. We do neither—and never will.

Furthermore, we refuse to exclude or discourage anyone from studying natural, functional, or holistic medicine simply because writing another 20-30+ page paper after an extensive academic background no longer aligns with their personal and professional goals.

Education should be accessible, meaningful, and focused on real-world application—not an overpriced, bureaucratic exercise in compliance.

As the most provider-friendly educator on the market today, we offer self-directed learning programs for personal and professional enrichment—free from unnecessary red tape, upsells, and opportunistic price gouging.

While the papers on our website are not exhaustive, we plan to publish all backlogged papers and dissertations this year. In the meantime, the current ones provide a helpful reference if you're interested in writing your own or are simply curious about what our other students have written.