Your first appointment will be at least 60 minutes long. It is largely a “gathering data” appointment. It will entail a very thorough intake (the initial intake form is completed online prior to your appointment and helps make our time together more productive), a physical exam, Bolen analysis, likely a Food Intolerance Evaluation, and any conventional labs/imaging will also be ordered at this time if indicated. Some treatment plan may be initiated at this time.

Your second appointment will be 45 minutes where we go over the report of findings based on the information gathered at the first visit and we initiate a detailed treatment plan or add to the treatment plan started in the first visit.

A licensed naturopathic doctor completes a four-year, graduate-level naturopathic medicine program. The program consists of the same basic sciences as an MD, including anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, histology, embryology, and more. Clinical studies consist of diagnosis, nutrition, botanical medicine, counselling, homeopathy, pharmacology, minor surgery, and more. In addition to this, naturopathic doctors must pass a professional board exam to become licensed as a primary care physician.

In short, we treat you– the unique person you are. You are not defined by your disease. Western medicine typically treats disease because it prescribes medications to eliminate symptoms, but if these medications are stopped, the symptoms typically return, because the cause of the symptoms was never addressed. Naturopathy looks at chronic disease and its symptoms as a sign that the body is not in balance. The self-healing mechanism is not working correctly. In naturopathic medicine, we look for the reason(s) the body isn’t able to heal itself. A naturopathic doctor will teach you the tools you need to help your self-healing mechanism work properly again. We might also prescribe botanical herbs, homeopathy, or very occasionally even prescription medications to alleviate symptoms while also addressing the body’s ability to heal.

In naturopathic medicine we call this the “Vis Medicatric Naturae” or “Vis” for short. This translates to “the healing power of nature”. When you break a bone or cut yourself, it heals. When you get a cold, your body eventually heals, whether you took any over-the-counter cold medicine or not. This is your Vis working to heal you. Another way to describe the Vis would be that thing which is present in the living, which is absent once we cease living. The Vis encompasses all aspects of life- the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. This is why the person must be treated on an individual level in order to heal.

No! While naturopathic physicians are trained as primary care doctors, we can also work alongside other treatment modalities and practitioners you are seeing, including Western medical doctors and prescription medications. It may be necessary, however, to reduce and sometimes to quit taking your prescription medications as your body learns to heal. Please don’t do this on your own! Naturopathic doctors are trained to do this safely, or your prescribing physician may help you with this as well.