What is a naturopath? And why choose to see one?

I often meet someone in practice for the first time and they say, ‘I have no idea what a naturopath is! I’m just here because my wife/friend/workmate/brother etc. told me I must come.’ And while I love hearing this, I thought it might be worth answering this question for those people who too might be wondering?

So, let’s start with the basics?

A naturopath is a practitioner of natural medicine, and we hold a Bachelor of Health Science. Many naturopaths go on to do post graduate studies and further their knowledge on a particular subject by completing a master’s degree or they work towards their PhD as is the case in our practice @perthhealthandfertility

Your naturopath sees you as a whole person, not just one specific symptom, disease or diagnosis. Your health is a combination of lots of things! Genetics, environmental exposures, your lifestyle, what you eat, how much you move your body and even your thoughts. Together, we aim to restore balance to your body and support its natural healing process.

People are often surprised to find out that a naturopath is also a nutritionist and that we spend a lot of time talking about how to nourish your body and use your food as medicine.

Naturopaths are herbalists and have an extensive knowledge of botanical medicine. We love thoughtfully crafting herbal formulations tailored specifically to you.

Many naturopaths are trained to interpret your pathology test results. You might have had blood tests recently and been told your results are ‘normal’ or ‘within range’ yet you know something is not quite right? Good health is not about just sitting within an average range and your pathology tests provide us with so many clues as to why you feel the way you do!

We are problem solvers, we know so much pathophysiology from cellular biochemistry to systems biology, we are researchers, we know how to find out.

We use traditional knowledge from the beginning of time. We use the latest evidence informed clinical trials, epigenetics, microbiome research…

We individualise, we understand and look for causes, we provide symptom relief that does no harm.

Hope this helps for those of you that might have been wondering?

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