Naturopathy is a system of healthcare which encourages and promotes the body’s innate healing abilities. It addresses each client as a whole, looking at physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
It can focus on areas such as emotional patterns, blood sugar imbalance, adrenal health, cortisol levels, liver health, metabolism, lifestyle, dietary habits, nutritional deficiency, supplementation and more. Hippocrates said ‘Health is the expression of a harmonious balance between various components of man’s nature, the environment and ways of life, nature is the physician of disease.’
The principles of Naturopathic practice:
- The Healing Power of Nature (Vis Medicatrix Naturae): Naturopathic medicine recognizes an inherent self-healing process in people that is ordered and intelligent. Naturopaths act to identify and remove obstacles to healing and recovery, and to facilitate and augment this inherent self-healing process.
- Identify and Treat the Causes (Tolle Causam): The naturopath seeks to identify and improve factors that may be contributing to the ill health of the client. These include Adrenal stress, poor Gut function, Insulin resistance, poor Body Mass index, underlying inflammatory processes and more.
- Naturopath as Teacher (Docere): Naturopaths educate their clients and encourage self-responsibility for health. They also recognize and employ the therapeutic potential of the practitioner-patient relationship.
- Treat the Whole Person: Naturopaths treat each patient by taking into account individual physical, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, social, and other factors.
- Prevention: Naturopaths emphasize the prevention of disease by assessing risk factors, heredity and susceptibility to disease, and by making appropriate interventions in partnership with their patients to prevent illness.