The Sourdough School

Baking eating and sharing bread to improve physical and mental health

Using a robust evidence-based baking protocol combining the evidence of thousands of years of baking with modern clinical insights, we offer comprehensive training to bakers and healthcare professionals, providing students with the tools to use baking in everyday practice as a wellness intervention.
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Baking as Lifestyle Medicine for Bakers and Clinicians

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Vanessa Christmas
mindfulness retreat

Clinical Diploma Online || + 1 week Graduation Retreat at The Sourdough School (UK)

£49.99 / month for 24 months + £2,999.00 registration fee

“There is nothing simpler or more empowering in disrupting the status quo than baking your own bread and sharing it ”  – Vanessa Kimbell

  • IN PERSON 1 Week (6 days) in-person Retreat here at The Sourdough School + The Online BALM Clinical Diploma
  • COURSE STARTS: 28th September 2023
  • FOR:  Healthcare Professionals
  • BENEFITS:  Qualifies you to apply for the BALM Clinical Prescribing Licence
  • AVAILABILITY:  Applications are open until 27th September 2023
  • ENROLMENT DATE: 21st September 2023
  • REGISTRATION FEE: £ 2999 – this is required as you enrol
  • TUITION FEES: £49.99 a month ( for 24  months). Please note that your payments will begin when you enrol, NOT from when the course starts.
  • FOCUS:  Preventative health  – Baking as Lifestyle Medicine (BALM)
  • LEVEL: Clinical
  • SUPPORT: Live weekly clinics keeping you on track & a supported community forum
  • RESOURCES: A total of 600+ hours of lectures and library access are available.
  • TYPE: Combined Course – Online & In Person
  • HOURS: 200 hours over 2 years
  • Request a callback.
  • Download the Prospectus 2023-2024
  • Learn more about scholarships, bursaries and discounts.
  • IN PERSON: 6-day in-person retreat where you can consolidate your knowledge with Vanessa

Please select your retreat date below:

This course is one year, and you have two years within which to graduate; you may wish to attend the retreat here at The Sourdough School at the end of the first year OR the 2nd year.

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SKU: N/A Categories: BALM Diploma, Live Courses
  • Description
  • Additional information
  • What will we make? 
  • What will I learn?
  • What is included?
  • What is the teaching style?
  • What is not included?
  • Essential reading: Why we check your baking level 2 months before your retreat.
  • General about the week here
  • Combined Course

“This is a journey. And these aren’t just courses. Kimbell wants to change the bread we eat, one loaf at a time. She’s the real deal: a total inspiration.”–Diana Henry, The Telegraph.

Learn How to Clinically Prescibe Baking As LifeStyle Medicine 

This unique offering combines a 6-day in-person Sourdough Retreat with a comprehensive Clinical Diploma in Baking as Lifestyle Medicine (BALM).

Before enrollment, it is essential to review the guidance tabs below for detailed information on what to expect throughout the program. This holistic approach to sourdough and baking education brings together immersive, hands-on learning and in-depth online resources, ensuring a well-rounded understanding of BALM principles and practices. Activities include baking, discussions, wild swimming, a day on understanding agro economics, and a mill visit.

Don’t just take our word for it.

‘Vanessa’s work on sourdough and the gut microbiome is changing the way we think of food, health and baking.’– Professor Tim Spector, Founder of Zoe

Student interview – Dr Ed Copley 

How can you prescribe Baking as Lifestyle Medicine?

Our Diploma Students are trained to prescribe BALM clinically. The BALM Protocol is the framework for the way the Sourdough Club teaches people to approach baking.  By inviting their patients to join the club, they learn to bake nourishing bread that enhances mental and physical and mental health as a social prescription.

BALM can be used to support health in the following clinical areas:

  • Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
  • Cardiovascular diseases.
  • Chronic constipation.
  • With symptoms that are indicative of social isolation.
  • High-stress levels due to life events (e.g., grief, menopausal transition, life stressors).
  • Mood disorders,

    including depression and anxiety.

  • Blood glucose dysregulation (e.g., pre-diabetes, insulin resistance).
  • Obesity or weight management issues.
  • Anxiety from situational challenges that include parenting difficulties, caregiving stress, or adolescent issues.
  • Any other medical or psychosocial conditions where the Licensee perceives that the BALM approach could provide therapeutic benefits, such as chronic loneliness.
  • For individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or early-stage dementia, as participating in baking activities could help stimulate cognitive functions and provide a sense of accomplishment.
  • For persons with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) or Fibromyalgia  -baking and reducing inflammation serves as a therapeutic activity.
  • For individuals recovering from addiction, baking serves as a mindful activity that contributes to their recovery process.
  • For patients with sleep disorders –  the grounding and relaxing nature of baking might and blood sugar management aid in establishing better sleep routines.
  • Carers looking after a patient with cancer or the patient themselves.
  • Patients who are at risk of bowel cancer, as the extra fibre in BALM is clinically shown to be protective.
  • Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), are subject to following the strict guidelines on retarded wholegrain and the 12-week introduction of wholegrain protocol to ensure that gluten is broken down, reducing potential inflammation from unfermented gluten.

 The membership includes engaging with both medical and baking experts in live sessions, encouraging patients to use baking as a therapy to support health and well-being in a warm, supportive, friendly community, and supporting patients with the tools they need to engage in their health journey actively.

How can I prescribe?

To understand the licensing and how practitioners can access and the extensive resources offered to graduates as they become part of the systems change. Notably, each licence enables medical professionals to prescribe patient vouchers worth over £10,000 subsidised by The Sourdough Club social discount vouchers, reducing monthly membership to less than the cost of the average supermarket sandwich.

Course Prospectus

We highly recommend that you download THE FULL COURSE PROSPECTUS before enrolling on the course.

‘Vanessa’s approach to baking nourishes both the gut and the mind.’
– Dr Michael Mosley

‘This is a journey. And these aren’t just courses. Kimbell wants to change the bread we eat, one loaf at a time. She’s the real deal: a total inspiration.’
– Diana Henry, the Telegraph.

 

Additional information

Retreat dates

October 1st – 6th 2024, 7th – 12th October 2025

What will we make? 

What recipes will we make?

All recipes will be based on the recipes in the Sourdough School books.

  • Create a Botanical Blend flour
  • A sourdough fizz
  • Sourdough Pizza
  • 10 minute Focaccia
  • A sourdough Boule
  • A fermented cake and a probiotic accompaniment such as cultured butter
  • A symbiotic recipe such as a soup to eat with the bread
  • Vegetable or fruit probiotic pickles such as kimchi or sauerkraut
  • Fruit compote

What will I learn?

You will learn more than you even knew there was to learn, just by being here for the week.

  • Every step of making sourdough
  • Starter refreshment
  • Blending and milling flour
  • Timings
  • Familiarisation of the variables affecting fermentation
  • About fibre, protein & gluten in the flour
  • An overview of nutrition & digestibility of bread
  • Eating symbiotically for optimal gut health
  • Why diversity is key to gut health
  • About the gut microbiome and why the kind of bread you eat matters
  • Probiotics & prebiotics
  • How to make sourdough central to your lifestyle

What is included?

What is included:

  • An exclusive ceramic jar with breathable wooden lid & some of our sourdough starter to take home
  • A set of sourdough record cards
  • A personalised signed The Sourdough School book worth £24.99
  • A Botanical Blend flour that you will create and mill on your course
  • You can also book a wine tasting & tour of the vineyard (providing the proprietors are available)
  • All trips, food & drinks whilst at the school are provided, including lunches and supper at the windmill

What is the teaching style?

Retreat Teaching Style .. some modules are quiet…

All courses are run in the same style and it is really important that you understand that our teaching style is not that of a cookery school.   We teach using a participative demonstration style,  making sourdough, and working with one mixer, Vanessa will make larger batches of dough.  There will be ample opportunities to touch, taste, smell and feel the dough. It is important, however to understand that The School is a classroom, and the teaching style is about understanding the principles of sourdough rather than each of our students individually making bread. Some classes are taught in silence to allow students to connect to the process.

The practical side of learning to shape is supported by the Sourdough Club video tutorials for when you get home. This teaching style enables us to still run courses by maintaining a safe learning environment for both students and the team at the school.  We ask that students are considerate of this approach and that you read and agreed to follow our COVID-19 guidelines before attending the school.

What is not included?

You will need to budget for your:

  • Travel
  • Accommodation
  • Insurance
  • Food outside of teaching hours

Essential reading: Why we check your baking level 2 months before your retreat.

General about the week here

The retreat itself is about baking for the joy of it.  A retreat to bake and laugh and de-stress. We have a beautiful week planned of sourdough baking, wild swimming, making fruit compotes, cultured butter, fermented cakes and of course, our classic sourdough boules.

You will immerse yourself in connecting to the Botanical Blend flour concept this week and make your own blend.

We have a visit to a flour mill to find out more about how stone ground flour is still being milled today in an incredible historic mill, followed by a pizza evening.

We have yoga, and a life coach to plan how to use sourdough and the schedule to re-centre your priorities.

Places on this course are limited – if you are unable to attend please do request a copy of our prospectus to see if you are able to attend any other course options we have.

Please note all visits and non-baking events within the course are subject to change depending on their availability. We reserve the right to change them to suitable alternatives as and if required. Thank you.

Combined Course

 

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