The Friendly Naturopath

1. First, do no harm
2. The healing power of nature
3. Find and treat the cause whenever possible, not only the symptoms
4. Doctor as teacher
5. Treat the whole person
6. Education and prevention

So what does this mean?

First, do no harm

It’s as simple as it sounds really. There are many ways to go about health; but as educated individuals, we have a duty of care to ensure our treatment does not contribute to more pain and suffering. It also is important that we remember this principle to refer when a patient presents with a complaint outside our scope of practice.

The healing power of nature

We believe that nature has an intrinsic ability to heal and we are a part of that cycle. The human body is incredible. You have trillions of cells that have innately collected to create you and they work every day to keep you alive. In a similar way, nature has this incredible capacity to heal and protect itself, and we utilise these secondary metabolites to create a similar healing effect within ourselves.

Find and treat the cause wherever possible, not just the symptoms

I’m not about speaking poorly about other professions. The truth is, we all have a role to play to support the health of our population and all bring to the table unique tools and techniques with specific strengths. But where naturopath’s thrive is how we work to identify the root cause to your suffering.

For example, you may suffer with acne. This is the condition whereby your body is experiencing an imbalance. From our perspective, there are many root causes. Is it a hormone imbalance? Does stress play a key role? Is there immune dysfunction causing increased inflammation? Do you have a nutrient deficiency compromising your skin barrier function? Is your lymphatic system working efficiently? Is your microbiome out of balance?

A simple pill, no matter how effective it is at reducing your symptoms, will often not address your root cause. Therefore, you stop taking the medicine, and your symptoms return. Hence, a reliance on medication develops and commonly stress builds at the idea of stopping said medication. If you’re unlucky, the root cause might also begin to cause further issues, thus requiring you to take more medication.

As naturopaths, we work differently. By identifying and addressing your root cause using herbs, nutrition and lifestyle advice, we work to empower you to create permanent positive change. Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t always take longer to achieve a desired effect. But it does require you to make minor tweaks to your diet and lifestyle; which for some can be a daunting process. Hence the next principle.

Doctor as teacher

As a naturopath, we cannot do the work for you. But we can simplify the process and guide you in the best possible way whereby you see lasting results. We will guide you in what to take, when to take it, and for how long. We will also provide you with timeframes you can expect to see a benefit so that the guessing game is removed. There is a lot of misinformation out there. We simplify this for you.

Treat the whole person

We are complex beings. Often there is not one things that has contributed to our health status today (good or bad). There are multiple pillars of health. Therefore, our consults are typically longer than that spent with other professions so that we can address all facets of your health.

Educations and prevention

Finally, like I’ve previously mentioned, we work to provide you with lasting results. Part of that is educating you on how you can now make your changes permanent. This then enables you to prevent your symptoms from returning.

References:

Ooi, S. L., McLean, L., & Pak, S. C. (2018). Naturopathy in Australia: Where are we now? Where are we heading?. Complementary therapies in clinical practice, 33, 27–35.