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Finding The Right Natural Health Care Practitioner For You
As published in The FACTS Newsletter, April 2000
by: Karen Jonas, FSHomMed e-mail: naturaldoctor@yahoo.com
Traditional Chinese medicine, naturopathy, nutrition, cranio-sacral therapy, shiatsu,
reiki, homeopathy
- the list of natural health care modalities is extensive, And finding the therapy and therapists that are right for you is often a process of trial and error.
Before You Call
– Many individuals come to natural therapies after years of
treatment by Western medicine. Utilizing Western medicine's ability to diagnose
illness reduces the risk of delayed treatment for serious health conditions.
And don't forget that diagnosis is just as important during your natural therapy as it
is before you start. A good therapist understands that there is more than one way
to solve a health problem and that every therapy, including his/hers, has its
limitations. A good therapist will therefore be open to working with other health care
providers throughout your treatment.
Expectation of Miracles
– A competent, ethical practitioner will work hard to
help you, but will never give a guarantee.
Natural healing supports and employs the body's defense systems to help it heal
itself. By definition this takes time. If your body has struggled with a specific problem
for twenty years, it is unrealistic to expect that a natural therapy can build up your
defense systems and completely resolve the problem in one or two months. A broad
rule of thumb is that one month of successful treatment is needed for every year of
illness. (This does not apply if the illness has caused physical tissue damage in body
organs).
Generalists and Specialists – In contrast to the Western medical practitioners
who tend to focus on and specialize in only one aspect of the body, natural
therapists look at the whole person. A therapist with a general knowledge of many
therapies can expose to a number of different treatment options. Then, if one
treatment gives you superior results, you may choose to work with a specialist. To
qualify as a specialist a therapist should have extensive training in that particular
therapy and should practice it on a regular basis. (See editor's note.)
Referrals
- Referrals are still the best way to find a good practitioner. The practitioner
should be someone with whom you find it easy to communicate; this is essential with
any therapy. What percentage of his/her patients has he/she been able to help?
Remember that 90 percent of ten people is quite different from 90 per cent of 1000
people. But be aware as well that although new practitioners may not have treated
many people, they may still be successful because they generally have more time
to spend with their clients.
Training and licensing - In the absence of government standards it is best to ask
therapist the length of their training, the name of their school, and the names of their
teachers. Five hundred hours of training with accredited specialists is far more
valuable than 1000 hours of training by unqualified, ill-informed teachers.
There is often more than one association, school, or group that provides training.
Ask therapists what schools exist in their field and why they chose the training that
they did. You can then contact the various groups yourself to determine which one
gives you the greatest sense of confidence. Find out how students at the school are
evaluated is the most accurate test of ability. "Independent evaluation" means that
the examiner had no direct connection with the school in which the practitioner
studied.
Discuss your treatment plan - It is important to discuss your proposed treatment
plan with the therapist. This discussion should give you information on the following:
how long the practitioner thinks the treatment will take (which depends on
how long it takes for the practitioner to find a therapy to which your body responds
positively), at what point you and the practitioner will review your progress; and
what criteria will be used to evaluate the success of your treatment.
If, after an extended period of time, some of your health care concerns still remain,
a new therapy or a more experienced practitioner may be necessary. Before
leaving a practitioner that you feel comfortable with, however, consider asking your
therapist to have an expert to review your case. This may give you the results you
are looking for at no cost, and will save you from having to find and establish a
relationship with someone else.
Pursuing multiple therapies
- If you pursue different therapies at the same time
you may discover that it is very difficult for each practitioner to determine the
effectiveness that his/her therapy is having on you . If you still prefer to try more
than one therapy at once, try to choose a hands-on therapy such as acupuncture,
massage, shiatsu, reiki, and a non hands on therapy such as herbal medicine,
homeopathic medicine, or nutrition. This will make it easier to differentiate the
effects of each therapy.
Finally, I recommend that you listen to your intuition when choosing a natural health
care provider. It is your right as a client to have a practitioner whom you trust and
with whom you feel completely comfortable, a therapist who will appreciate and
enhance your unique experience in this journey towards greater health.
Suggested reading: Collinge, William B., The American Holistic Health
Association Complete Guide to Alternative Medicine, New York: Warner Books, 1996.
Editor's Note:
FACT is constructing a database to help you find out more about
therapies that would benefit your specific medical conditions (see the FACT
website www.thefacts.org under the heading Database). Education and
credentials for FACT Practitioner members, as well as a list of Canadian educational
institutions, will be help consumers make more informed decisions when choosing practitioners.
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