About apitherapy in Slovenia
Apitherapy is a professional service.
This applies when it comes to apitherapy, which a certified apitherapist
should be able to perform.
It is certainly not enough for an individual to be a beekeeper or bee lover to obtain the national professional qualification of apitherapist. A year-long course is required.
Only beekeeping or any consumption of honey is not apitherapy.
The opposite point of view belittles the expertise of apitherapists
and apitherapy as a profession.
It is believed that honey has positive pharmacological effects even if it is consumed unheated in a culinary way - but this is not due to apitherapy,
but due to the biochemical properties of honey.
To obtain a certificate or national professional qualification is a condition of completion of an apitherapy course run by the Beekeeping Association of Štejerska. This more than excellent course is very different in content from the equally excellent course for beginner beekeepers run by the Beekeepers' Association of Slovenia. In the latter, one learns beekeeping and obtaining bee products and preparations from them, while in the apitherapy course one learns to use bee products for the purpose
of strengthening and maintaining health.
It is nice to live in Slovenia, where beekeeping and apitherapy
are so well supported and organized.
At the Institute for the Development of Empathy and Creativity Eneja, they have taken education on the topic of apitherapy to a higher level - they have developed apipedagogy, which in its segment of professional apitherapy represents
support for children's development and introduces a more professional approach to children. It was successfully introduced in public kindergartens and schools in cooperation with the City of Ljubljana.
For the welfare of children, it would be expedient to place these trainings in the general training of apitherapists, as working with children requires a special degree of care. It would be good to involve a larger number of qualified apitherapists in the cooperation in professional apitherapy in kindergartens.
01
Beekeeping Services
In the field of bees and bee products, we know several different activities:
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Beekeeping
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Apitherapy
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Apipedagogy
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Apiturism
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Api-culinary
It is useful to know how to distinguish between them, as they require different skills and competences.
Apitherapy means the ability to use bees and all bee products: honey, pollen, propolis, wax, royal jelly and venom. Most of it is carried out through nutrition, apipedagogy and external care.
Apitherapeutic preparations are extremely useful and high-quality: https://apipripravki.czs.si/
Apitherapy with bee stings is not (yet) legal in Slovenia, but it is allowed to use bee venom as an ingredient in creams.
02
Principle of Expertise
Professional apitherapy is conducted when an apitherapist knows how to combine his formal education with knowledge from the profession of apitherapy and advise the user in a specific individual situation.
We can expect from an apitherapist knowledge of when and how to recommend which bee product, how, when and why a certain type of honey and in combination with what, and above all with what methodology.
Professional apitherapy is when an apitherapist follows the example of the father of modern apitherapy, dr. Filip Terč. dr. Terč established apitherapy by combining his expertise from formal education (in his case it was medicine) with knowledge of bee venom.
His apitherapy was professional because, in addition to knowledge of the pharmaceutical effects of bee venom, it also included
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medical profession,
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purpose of therapy (goals),
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definition of methodology and
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recording.
The fact is that these are elements of professional (api) therapy is still valid today.
03
Apitherapy for Children
In apitherapy for children, the principle of professionalism defines professionalism as the foundation and value with which the apitherapist demonstrates his responsibility towards users and thus his credibility.
Formal educations that serve as a professional basis and are most suitable for an apitherapist are formal educations in food, medicine and pharmacy. This means that formal education defines in which aspect of apitherapy the apitherapist is competent - in addition to apitherapy as a profession.
Lifelong improvement is more than desirable in apitherapy, as certificates of additionally acquired knowledge and skills also demonstrate the credibility of the apitherapist's work to the user.
It is the apitherapist's responsibility to be aware of his limitations, as this is the only way he can safely advise users.
Professional apitherapy is complementary to official medicine and does not want and cannot replace it.
04
Looking Ahead
It would be good to upgrade or to develop Slovenian apitherapy also in the field of bee stings, but apitherapy as a science will certainly not gain weight or reputation as long as the mentality that apitherapy is already beekeeping or the culinary enjoyment of honey is sold.
Equally, if not more, the reputation of apitherapists and apitherapy itself is harmed by the interpretation that an apitherapist does not need a meaningful basis in the form of relevant formal education to perform professional apitherapy.
Because in the field of apitherapy one should feel a great deal of responsibility towards people, especially towards children, and present apitherapy realistically and responsibly. That is the responsibility and performance of all apitherapists and organizations related to beekeeping, which try to work for the good of apitherapy and its users.
