mind body spirit

Naturopathy

Naturopathic medicine, or naturopathy, is an alternative type of medicine that has been around for hundreds of years.  Based on the principle of using the healing powers of nature, naturopathic practitioners work to heal ailments or illnesses by understanding a person as a whole.  This means that they do not work on just curing a person or relieving them of their symptoms; they work to understand the mind, body and spirit of a person in order to find out exactly the right remedy for what they need.  

Naturopathy is different from other holistic treatments because it is not based one particular technique.  In fact, there are a variety of treatments used in naturopathy from herbal medicine, to acupuncture, massage, homeopathy as well as proper nutrition.  A naturopathy doctor works to help an individual learn to heal from within as well as empowering people to make the lifestyle changes they need to get optimal health and wellbeing.  Basically, even though they are treating people for whatever illness or ailments they have, their main goal is to help the patient learn how to prevent the ailment in the future by teaching them proper ways in which to take care of themselves.  

Techniques that have been used are forms of hydrotherapy as well as other natural therapies, traditional Chinese medicine, herbal and vitamin supplements as well as relaxation techniques.  All of these techniques work on healing from the inside out so that there isn’t a need for prescription medicine, invasive tests and other more traditional ways of treating illnesses.  Again, the practitioner is there to treat the whole person rather than just the problem.  

Other Aspects of Naturopathy

Naturopathy doesn’t just stop at the physical being; it also works with the mind as well.  Although there are natural approaches to helping cure a problem such as physical touch, sound waves, detoxification of the body, as well as different therapies, naturopathy also looks at the spirituality of the problem as well.  They encourage personal spiritual development as part of a naturopathic health program.  Naturopathy also includes lifestyle and psychological counseling such as hypnosis, guided imagery, and other types of counseling.  Because naturopathy balances the mind with the body, the entire system works to make the person a participant in the process rather than someone just taking medication.  This may include changing sleeping habits or exercising more.  In fact, naturopathic doctors were some of the first to look at nutrition as a cause for bad health.  Because they were looking at the person as a whole, they realized very quickly that toxins in what we eat and drink are often the cause of life’s major illnesses.  The benefits of naturopathy are clear; you will not only be able to heal the illness, but the spirit as well while at the same time you will learn proper practices to keep the body and mind as health as it can be.