Introduction

             Naturopathic medicine faces a great challenge, a challenge faced by every profession that fails to follow the principles and philosophy upon which it was founded.  Improving this situation will require the determination and commitment from the students and practitioners of naturopathic medicine. The dilemma we face within our profession is the challenge of identity: can we be successful remaining true to our identity by practicing our medicine hand in hand with our philosophy, or must we seek recognition and credibility by emulating the way of established medicine?

             The answer to this question is very simple: Naturopathic medicine will bring better health to the world and gain recognition from the public and the medical establishment when our medicine is practiced as it was conceived - in harmony with Nature and with the principles of our philosophy. Any attempts to gain recognition by emulating the ways of other medicines can only weaken our profession. 

This book is a discussion of how to remain true to our philosophy and why remaining true to our philosophy is absolutely essential at this time. This book will clarify each of the principles of our philosophy and explain how one can employ these principles to heal people. This book dispels much of the fear and doubt that arise when one practices whole person medicine, walking a path that is not yet fully accepted or established in society. In fact, this book encourages the student and doctor of naturopathy to facilitate the switch in medicine from the allopathic paradigm to the healing paradigm, in harmony with our philosophy. All the discussions within these pages encourage the practice of the pure form of our medicine and the letting go of ways that have been adopted from other medicines.  

There is a pure form of practicing Naturopathy that aligns it with the healing power of Nature (Vis Medicatrix Naturae – aka The Vis) and provides the longest lasting and deepest influence on a person’s health and well-being. The pure form also helps patients and doctors understand that we all have the power over, and responsibility for, our own health. Whole person naturopathic medicine ensures that a doctor understands how to act in harmony with Nature without claiming all responsibility for people’s health, and it does not attempt to manipulate the symptoms of disease to create the false appearance of health. Having a basis in the true form of naturopathy gives one a working foundation for dealing with all expressions of illness.

 Not everyone agrees with the definition of naturopathic medicine. I understand that there are many different ways of practicing. What I hope to establish is the understanding that the people we treat are best served when we practice in harmony with our philosophy. That philosophy is not my opinion; rather, it is something that has existed for many years. Even though the interpretation of the philosophy is left up to each person, when we work in harmony with Nature, even in the myriad ways of expressing our medicine, there is a commonality because we share the way of the healing paradigm. Thus the way of our philosophy, which is the way of naturopathic medicine, is not defined by a rigid set of rules that all must adhere to, but rather is governed by the healing power of Nature itself that all can recognize. So let this book be an inspiration for those practitioners and students already embracing our philosophy and let them find confirmation in the expression of naturopathic philosophy on these pages. Let this book also be an encouragement for those who do not work closely with our philosophy to gain some insight into the essence of naturopathic medicine and to find reasons for adopting as much of the philosophy as they feel comfortable with. (cont'd in book)

Chapter 1 

The 6 Philosophies of Naturopathic Medicine

Introducing the 7^th – Physician, Heal Thyself!

Currently, there are six different points within the philosophy of our medicine. They are all intimately related and work together to bring about their purpose – to heal people of whatever ailment or condition they may suffer from, whether it is disease that has manifested within the physical body, or mental, emotional dis-ease that has affected the individual. In each healing intervention or act, the naturopathic doctor employs the use of all the philosophies at once. There is no separation between acting as a guide/teacher and working with the healing power of Nature, nor is there a distinction between treating the cause and treating each person as an individual. Equally, when one works with the whole person, he/she is simultaneously practicing all of the other philosophies. The reason for this is because there are not six different points of philosophy – there are simply six points broken down from the one essential quality of our medicine – the way of healing. 

Since our medicine is a medicine of healing, all other healing professions and disciplines, such as hands-on healing, shamanic healing, and psychotherapy, for example, will recognize the commonalities between our professions and the different ways in which we work to bring healing to the whole person. Thus, our philosophy, though perhaps unique in its expression, is no different from the other forms of healing that have existed for years. 

This philosophy is not one person’s point of view, nor is it a fleeting fad. Rather, it is the very expression of the healing power of Mother Nature, communicating tenderly how we can return to a state of harmony within ourselves, with all of creation, and how we can reestablish fantastic levels of vitality and well-being. Thus we also recognize that health is not separated from life, so who we are as healers is not separated from who we are as people. In this way, we practice what we preach, and even more importantly, we practice what we are. We also lead by example, demonstrating how our health is intimately related to the way we are living; so much so, that our health is our life. The doctor acts as teacher by personally demonstrating all the benefits of the path of whole person health in harmony with nature. 

It is neither wise nor ideal that sick people treat other sick people. Thus, naturopaths and all practitioners who fall within the healing paradigm must heal themselves! This is so fundamentally important that naturopathic medicine will not be able to produce whole NDs until self-healing is made a part of the curriculum. To be a healer, one must go through the process of healing oneself. A naturopath who has gone through his/her healing process has the capacity to provide the necessary space for their copatients¹ to also go through their own healing process. (Copatient – A new word for the ‘patient’ of a naturopath or healer which integrates the fact that there is equality between doctor and patient, thus the prefix ‘co’. Copat for short)

The healing process does not just involve healing oneself of physical disease, but of all the issues and disharmony one faces in their lives in relationship with themselves, their loved ones and those who grace their lives. All the painful points of our lives, the issues that trouble us, the burdens that weigh us down can be difficult. The ways in which we are judgmental and non-accepting are also places we must learn to heal ourselves and find a more harmonious way of being, because judgment and healing do not mix. Someone with a sense of peace and who understands the healing process in a non-judgmental manner can provide the right space for a sick, aching person. Otherwise, the situation becomes too uncomfortable, too overwhelming for both the doctor and the copatient. In fact, one who has not embarked upon his/her own healing process is a less effective healer. He/she will have difficulty understanding the subtleties of the healing process, the different expressions of illness in each individual. He/she will be forced to select allopathic solutions with easy formulas. In fact, whether or not a naturopath has learned to heal him/herself might be the most important factor, or even the sole factor, in determining whether he/she will treat the whole copatient naturopathically or whether he/she will treat the symptoms of disease allopathically.

Hypocrites’ famous statement, “Physician, Heal Thyself!” should become the 7^th Philosophy of Naturopathic medicine because implementing it, carrying it forth within our curriculum, and embodying it amongst our practitioners is crucial for our medicine’s well-being and future.

(cont'd in book)

Chapter 3

Naturopathy’s Gift of the Mind-Body Connection

“Pythagoras said that the most divine art was that of healing. And if the healing art is most divine, it must occupy itself with the soul as well as with the body; for no creature can be sound so long as the higher part in it is sickly.”   – Apollonius of Tynana

       People have called naturopathic doctors, “Jacks of all trades, masters of none.” Other professions specializing in their own treatment modality, such as chiropractors, herbalists, or homeopaths, have criticized naturopathy because of this eclecticism. Yet having access to the knowledge of so many different medicines, philosophies, and scientific knowledge, naturopathic medicine has a special ability to unify these different theories and philosophies with science, to demonstrate the connection of the mind and body in healing. By providing the bridges that show how they all relate and interconnect, we have the potential to explain and demonstrate how disharmonies in the mind and emotions result in disease in the body.  

Keeping with the essence of the previous chapter, this unification and explication of whole person medicine might not yet be accepted into current scientific theory. This doesn’t indicate that we are incapable of understanding based on our current knowledge of healing and science. It just means that it hasn’t yet been accepted. In the future, there might be technology to demonstrate all of the philosophy in this chapter. Before then, we can help make it acceptable by trusting in it ourselves and then by sharing it with the public with clear examples and good analogies. The naturopath and healer, having trust in the treatment modalities that the profession offers, doesn’t require absolute proof of the common vein that runs through many of our healing modalities and philosophies. It is at our fingertips to personally experience and understand by intuitive and empirical confirmation. We have a model to remind us that there is a connection between the mind and the body. We have a model that can help uncover many of the mysteries of holistic medicine. And then we can further carry out our role in society as “Doctor as Teacher” by providing this model to our copatients to help them understand their own healing processes.

Let us take a look at the gift that naturopathic medicine has in providing the whole picture in whole person medicine. We will dip into the wells of knowledge of acupuncture and Traditional Chinese medicine, hands on healing, homeopathy, chiropractic, counseling and psychotherapy, physiology and anatomy, and other medicines and scientific knowledge. (cont'd in book)

Chapter 11

Love in Medicine

“The main reason for healing is love.”

Paracelsus

      There is one thing that brought us into the world and when we die, we will return to it. It is the basis and foundation of the major religions of the world. When we are born into a world without it, it makes us sick, and we become even sicker when we do not impart it and share it in our lives. When dealing with the subject of health, it is the number one issue responsible for the health of our planet, whether it is the absence of it that creates misery, suffering, and disease, or the presence of it bringing peace, harmony and well-being. That one thing is love.  

              When children are brought up in a family that is devoid of love, they become sick. Their view of reality is distorted. They do not understand how the world can be a happy place, where people help each other and look out for each other. Their reality becomes skewed and when this occurs, they are dis-eased. Even if they never manifest disease on a physical level, they are imbalanced and ill because they are not experiencing or witnessing the world as it could be; joyous, caring, and loving, but as they learned it to be; loveless and cold. 

Since naturopathic doctors are not just responsible for treating the physical manifestation of disease, we therefore must understand the importance of love within our profession. Love is something that is impossible to convey to another through rational terms. It is not possible to even directly communicate its essence, its qualities. Science will never reproduce or even remotely understand the fullness and depth of love.

“Man can try to name love, showering upon it all the names at his command, and still he will involve himself in endless self-deceptions. If he posses a grain of wisdom, he will lay down his arms and name the unknown by the more unknown… by the name of God.” Carl G. Jung.

          God is one name that we have given for that divine force that inhabits all places and encompasses all things. It is the Source of life and the place we go to when we die. Love is of the very same essence, and being vital and crucial to life, yet at the same time unknown, we cannot ever put our finger on it. Love is the healing power of Nature, which is something also that we can never fully grasp or define. What we can all do is embody love in our practices. By perceiving the people that come into our lives seeking our care and guidance, we place our relationships with our copatients into the proper space where we allow the healing power of Nature to work through us. Even if one has few or no skills as a physician, a naturopath whose practice is imbibed with love is a good naturopath. Just by their presence and their state of being, they will have a positive influence on the well-being of their copatients.