When I was 16 years old I spent one year living in Helsinki Finland. I was a sophomore in high school. I also went to Israel for four weeks; including Eilat, the Old City in Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv.
I then traveled through Europe for a summer in a Volkswagen bus and spent one month in France being educated by gastronomically inclined parents. My Mom is a gourmet chef ("Alice Waters of the East Coast" as one magazine put it) and my Dad is sociologist professor and wine connoisseur. Mom had a takeout shop, restaurant, and a B & B in Princeton for 20 years. The restaurant was given two stars by the New York Times on two separate occasions. There were hundreds of other glowing reviews in many publications. I was the Maitre D’ there for five years.
Truly, anything is possible if you have enough faith, hope, and perseverance.
Before I worked for my Mom I went to Culinary School. During my two summers in between semesters I did two internships: one in Verbier, Switzerland and the other at a restaurant in Valence, France. The 2nd internship was paid for by the Paris American Society in NY, it was the highest award that my school gave out. After each summer of working I ventured down to the French Riviera to get as tan as I could. I traveled up and down the coast and stayed in St. Maxime and Presque Ile de Gien. After my second summer working and touring in Europe I spoke fluent French.
Just after graduating from NYCTC I worked for Parker Meridian Hotel in Manhattan.
Afterwards I opened the Jockey Club in the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Central Park South as a Captain.
Next I went back to New Jersey and did a management trainee program with Prime Management. I worked the front of the house and the back of the house intensely for one year. Then as a front desk manger and dining room manager and finally Food and Beverage Manager in less than two years, in very busy hotel properties.
As you can see I was on the very fast tract for a complete burn out.
I went back to school at this time at Florida International University for Hotel and Restaurant Management.
Then I officially burned out, at age 30 I did not know what to do, I had already been and done so many things, but I was far from healthyw.
Once I had reached the bottom, I began my spiritual journey.
My first job along this new path was perfect for me; the shipping and receiving manager of a natural pharmacy in an integrative medical clinic called The Princeton Bio Center, initially started by Carl Pfeiffer, M.D. Ph.D. He worked with Linus Pauling among others using his brand of Orthomolecular Medicine to help thousands of people who would have spent their entire lives in a mental institution if he had not intervened. I once saw a book Dr. Pffeifer wrote that had a set of pictures in it organized chronologically of a girl with Down’s syndrome. He started treating her when she was two years old; when she was twenty-five she looked almost completely normal. In conjunction with his treatments the patients went to Earth House; a totally organic, pesticide free, environmentally safe inn and kitchen. I learned a lot from him and the other M.D. Ph.D.’s there.
I also worked with Sid Baker M.D. a renowned pediatrician and autism specialist, Bonnie Camo MD (amazing homeopath and herbalist), Roberta Foss-Morgan D.O. specializing in anti-aging and longevity medicine in New Jersey, and Jim Neubrander MD, an incredible autism specialist in New Jersey.
Also, a bit off the medical path, I was a model for Jones of New York for two years.
At this time I went back to school at Rutgers University and got a BS in Clinical Nutritional Biochemistry. (In high school the only science class I took was Biology – I had a bit of catching up to do)!
My last year at Rutgers I was a research assistant at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick NJ. I worked on a SIDS study with a Neonatologist and a Respiratory physiologist.
After this I went to the National College of Naturopathic Medicine (NCNM) in Portland OR for five years. I did one extra year to have more time at the 15 satellite clinics for student’s shifts, it was a type residency. I specialized in Classical Homeopathy as well as many other Naturopathic treatment modalities.
For the five years at NCNM I worked closely with the Chair of the Homeopathy Dept., world renowned homeopath Will Taylor M.D. a brilliant man of which this earth desperately needs more of. Will taught me many things but the most important is that there are no diseases that we cannot treat, and "cure is the only way", as Hahnemann (the founder or homeopathy) put it.
While I was at school I preceptor-ed with one of my mentors from the Princeton Bio Center, Dr. Roberta Morgan D.O. She has a very unique clinic in New Jersey called the Anti-aging and longevity Center. She is using mesotherapy, IV cocktails, and bio-identical hormones to literally turn back the clock. She gave me the courage to become a doctor and to surmount all obstacles in the way.
There is much more that I can say about my journey, but I'll save that for our face to face conversations. Just know one thing; as someone who was almost dead 16 years ago and had no friends because of his lifestyle (even my family was tired of dealing with me) and one who has had many “diagnoses” such as ADD, Dyslexia, Hypertension, Hyperlipidemia, pre-diabetes, severe allergic constitution, depression/anxiety… Truly, anything is possible if you have enough faith, hope and perseverance.
All of the above events have helped shape and mold the way I practice medicine. I have been drawn to homeopathy the most of all the modalities I have learned. It is true healing as close to nature as one can be. It gets to the root of the disharmony and eliminates it.
Because of the mountains that I have been confronted with and have knocked down during the course of my life I really want every one of my patients to be the very best they can be! I will not settle for mediocrity. I will push you to keep striving forward to understand all the pieces of your proverbial health puzzle, and if necessary hold your hand and guide you forward step by step. It is not easy healing the traumas of life but it is possible and incredibly rewarding to accomplish the task.
To schedule an appointment with Dr. Churchill, please call 310 230-5228 or Contact him for free.
