What is Naturopathy?
Naturopathy, or naturopathic medicine, is a system of medicine based on the healing power of nature. It is a holistic system meaning that naturopaths strive to find the cause of disease by understanding the patient as a totality of body, mind, and spirit. Most naturopaths use a wide variety of therapies and techniques (such as dietary changes, nutritional supplements, herbal medicine, and homeopathy) to support the body’s ability to heal itself.
Naturopathy is based on the following six principles:
- First, do no harm; provide the most effective health care available with the least risk to patients at all times
- Recognise, respect and promote the self-healing power of nature inherent in each person
- Identify and remove the causes of illness, rather than eliminate or suppress symptoms
- Educate, inspire rational hope and encourage self-responsibility for health
- Treat each person by considering all individual health factors and influences
- Emphasize prevention as the best cure
The two main areas of focus in naturopathy are:
- supporting the body’s own healing abilities
- and empowering individuals to make lifestyle changes necessary for the best possible health.
Both acute and chronic conditions respond well to naturopathic treatments and a strong emphasis is placed on prevention of disease and patient education.
Naturopaths treat the whole person which means they consider a variety of factors before they work with an illness. This includes the client’s mental, emotional & physical state.