My Chicken Thinks I'm a Quack: and Other Side Effects of Practicing Natural Medicine

A directionally-challenged woman with a dreaded fear of pain and the tendency to faint at the slightest physical malady goes on a soul search and winds up with an unconventional medical degree, an overweight chicken as a house guest, and a new road map for life.

Dr. Jennifer Smith disappointed her family and amused her friends by retiring from her steady job as a public school science teacher at the age of twenty-seven in order to attend one of only seven accredited North American naturopathic medical colleges. Despite her chronic fear of pain and aversion to most bodily fluids, she found herself elbow deep in a cadaver, and having to regularly ask total strangers to cough, bend over, or pee in a cup. Failing to recognize that she's not a natural for natural medicine (or any medicine for that matter), she completed her studies and became a licensed physician. Spending years in a profession she’s wholly unsuited for gave her a unique perspective on human suffering. It also put her in the position of being able to entertain and inform readers (and audiences) who are looking for a way to end their own suffering.

Determined to make her life a lot more difficult than it had to be, she chose to specialize in a type of medicine that tends to rile skeptics, raise eyebrows, and cause her to have to explain the unexplainable to frightened mothers with feverish children, eager medical students, and frantic surgeons who are moments away from cutting open people who just remembered that they forgot to list their homeopathic remedy under the current medications section of their medical intake form.

“I was immediately drawn into this book and couldn’t put it down. I laughed. I loved it. I loved the way it was written.”
--Bryan Robinson, PhD, author of #Chill: Turn Off Your Job and Turn On Your Life

“I loved Jennifer Smith’s memoir; My Chicken Thinks I'm a Quack. It is not only the story of one woman’s journey from and return to her native state of North Carolina, it is a wise and useful book about healing--the spirit as well as the body. Jennifer's discovery of her passion for homeopathy unfolds with humor, honesty and vulnerability. Her stories not only delight but illustrate the power and beauty of homeopathic remedies reminiscent of Dorothy Shepherd and Margery Blackie.” --Krista Heron ND, DHANP

"With her lovely, southern voice and humor, Dr. Smith tells the story of her personal journey to become a naturopathic physician and a homeopath. Her story provides an understanding of the field of homeopathy, the relationship of humans to the earth, the importance of really listening to people, and the power of humans to heal. Running through the book are the underlying principles of appreciating our humanity, learning to laugh at ourselves, the amazing qualities of breath, and the importance of moments." --Carol Jensen, M.Ed, Creator of the Integrative Health Care program at Metropolitan State University of Denver

Dr. Jennifer Smith is a licensed naturopathic physician who has specialized in homeopathic medicine for the past twenty-seven years. She studied homeopathy in the United States, Canada, and India with the best homeopaths of this generation, and is a Diplomate of the Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians. She served as an adjunct professor in an integrative health care program at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where her lecturing style and sense of humor helped fill class rosters and attract large audiences. She currently lives and practices in North Carolina.