Naturopathy is a holistic approach to wellness that treats the mind, body and soul.

Naturopathy is based on a philosophy that focuses on treating the person, who happens to be unwell, rather than concentrating on the disease mechanism which happens to be inside a person - like is done in allopathic medicine. Therefore naturopathy looks for causes of disease rather than just treating symptoms and aims at restoring balance in the body. Naturopaths search for the underlying cause of any unbalance by treating the whole person, taking into account emotional, psychological, environmental as well as physical aspects. Using a naturopathic approach, healing is a lot like “peeling the onion” which means slowly peeling layers away until the root of the problem can be found and dealt with. Onion peeling can be a slow method when there are many layers of issues to work through.

Naturopaths use a range of different healing modalities, such as personalised nutrition, herbal medicine, homeopathy, flower remedies, as well as lifestyle changes, exercise etc, to bring the body back to optimum health and wellness

My role as a naturopath is to support each person to take self-responsibility of their health by educating each client about their illness and how to care for themselves and help them develop strategies so that future illness can also be prevented. Sometimes improving one factor alone can improve symptoms, but most often a combination approach of improved diet, improved lifestyle habits, herbal and nutritional supplements are needed.

I see naturopathy as a form of treatment complementary to allopathic medicine and believe in working collaboratively with a full health team including your G.P., specialists, oncologist etc. I recognise the need for surgery or medication when appropriate and refer without hesitation back to your G.P. when further investigation is necessary. I do not recommend you stopping any of your medications that your G.P. has given you without first consulting him/her.

There are six principles of naturopathy which guide a naturopathic practitioner:-  

1 - First, Do No Harm (Primum non nocere)
The client's well-being is the primary consideration. A Naturopathic treatment plan uses a range of natural modalities that are gentle, non-invasive and do not have adverse side effects.

2 - The Healing Power of Nature (Vis medicatrix naturae)

The body has an innate wisdom and ability to establish, maintain and heal itself when it is given the right conditions and treatment. When the obstacles to wellness are removed, healing can occur naturally and health maintained.

3 - Identify and Treat the Causes (Tolle causam)
The main goal of a naturopath is to find the root cause of the problem rather than suppressing or managing a person's symptoms. 

4 - Doctor as Teacher (Docere)
Naturopaths educate their clients so they can make informed choices about their health and treatment options.They also help to empower clients to take responsibility for their own health. 

5 - Treat the Whole Person (Tolle totum)
Naturopaths treat the client, not the disease. An holistic assessment takes into account all areas of a clients wellness as the human being is multi-dimensional. This includes your physical body, movement, nutrition, emotional health, community and social support, genetic environment, and purpose in life. Health also includes spiritual health. Naturopaths do not disempower anyone else's beliefs systems instead, naturopaths encourage clients to follow their own belief system that feels true to them as we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

6 - Prevention (Praevenic)
Naturopaths believe prevention is the best cure and promote a focus on overall health, wellness and disease prevention.