There are many factors that can push us out of balance: genetics, unhealthy lifestyle and diet, environmental toxins, incorrect medical treatment, and an array of other physical, biochemical, and energetic forces. Life is a continual balancing act, and my effort is to help you tip the scales towards healthy balance, and give your inborn self-healing ability the chance to "win the battle."

It is important to remember that getting healthy is a process, not an event, and that in most cases it takes time and effort (yours more than mine) to rebuild and regain your health.

My primary tool in the practice of natural medicine is clinical judgment and intuition. This means that I spend 60-90 minutes on average with you at your first appointment (sometimes less for children) and during this interview, I can assess, in most cases, from your symptoms alone, the cause of your ailments, and the best course of treatment. I can do this because of my firm grounding in classical naturopathic philosophy; my 15 years of clinical experience as a practicing naturopathic doctor; and because I focus on you, the person with the disease, rather than on the disease itself. Much of both conventional and natural medicine is overly focused on treating and managing disease. Most people seeking health care expect the doctor/practitioner to DO something – to be subjected to a procedure or a mysterious and esoteric treatment or diagnosis, or to be receive expensive laboratory tests.

The most valuable thing I, or any doctor can do for you, is to truly listen to you, understand you, and THINK about your health, your problem, your situation. Sadly, clinical thinking is an undervalued ability in medicine, and all practitioners, including holistic ones, are under pressure by patients, insurance companies, drug companies, laboratory companies, and supplement companies to circumvent clinical thinking and intuition in favor of technology or cookbook shortcuts.

It is something of a truism in natural medicine that the goal is to treat the patient, not the disease. Every person has a unique way of presenting their condition and being in the world, and disease diagnosis – which is really just a name for a group of symptoms – is not always the most important thing in treatment. Often, it is the way your symptoms present, in a way that is unique to you and distinct from others with the same condition – that is the key to successful treatment.

My goal is to understand you, and to find the most efficient, healthiest way to get you back to enjoying life and living.

If you have questions about my practice, or natural therapies for your particular condition, I hope you'll contact me. I'm happy to be of service to you.