In 2012, after 3 years of study at the College of Naturopathic Medicine in London, out into the world I went, as a newly qualified Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist. A time when banking and a daily commute from Crystal Palace into Canary Wharf, in London, were still the mainstay of my fabric, but not for much longer as the call to follow my mission and passion were banging too loud.
I soon started running a weekly small private practice as a nutritional therapist, at a local holistic health centre.
Nutrition as a therapy.
An hour talking with someone about the deeply personal nature of their food habits. As a case taking clinician in this setting, it matters to create safe harbour. To ask the best questions for that unique person. To understand how they sleep, eat, move, feel and love. How was their health as a child. What change do they feel is manageable at this time. Have they had a recent life event such as a loss or illness or divorce.
As a nutrition student, I took the cases of my folks and my sister. And learned so much more from those people, dear and close to me, through carving out space, asking questions that felt pertinent for that person. Like a cascade, we find a route into an interesting enquiry. I had not known until then that my Dad had salivary glands removed due to calcification when younger. Interesting!
The stories that infuse a space when we converse around our health.
How did it come to pass the newly wedded man developed a porn addiction living with life long debilitating full body eczema.
Or how is the woman managing as a new mother, being diagnosed with a secondary cancer after the birth of their first child.
Or the young woman suffering terribly with persistent urinary infections, so bad she has miscarried after 10 rounds of antibiotics in a year.
These are just a hint of some of the people I have met and worked with over the years. I learn from each one. We learn together.
There are no magic bullets. There are many ways to heal. Food is such a powerful tool and has such immediacy in its effect (on the flip side, consider a dirty birdy bout of food poisoning!)
Nutritional therapy seeks to create greater balance and ease in the body. Breathing is nutrition. Moving is medicine. Food is information for our cells. It’s all a weave. So nutritional therapy, Wholly Aligned style, is about you. The Whole of you. All your processes - digestive, respiratory, muscular, hormonal, shedding skin, losing hair, breaking bones, healing from heartbreak….
There many tools in the naturopathic medicine bag to draw upon. What works for you might be different to another.
Let food be thy medicine.
How do we feel after eating certain foods? Do we notice palpitations after too much sugar. A liverish rage after a night on the booze. What did we observe and learn about food growing up. Was food a reward or a punishment. What does cooking mean to us. Who made us the best cakes. What did we not have. Did we get scurvy. Anyone ever had scurvy here?
Oh it’s such a gorgeously rich topic, that remains so overlooked in mainstream medicine and changes being made slow, for many complex reasons. With obesity, anxiety, depression all ongoing global public health crises, be heartened there are ways to return to true nourishment.
It starts with you and the daily choices. Small changes make a difference. Small changes over 12 months create significant change. It’s habits and beliefs. We recognise a pattern e.g. eating that bun for breakfast everyday, make a decision to have the bun only on Saturdays and switch up to something else.
The time feels ripe to share and remind each other of the naturopathic principles. This does not decry modern medicine. As someone who has relied on dialysis machines for many years to sustain life and had two kidney transplants. I am so glad to have the real inside view into the reality of the machinations of the health system. It’s why I take such an active interest in medic wellbeing as well, as these health crises impact everyone. There is no them/us. The narrative that there is, can be a compelling one and leave us caught in our own mind traps.
Our healing is collective. The more at ease we each feel in our lives, our bodies, the more we are able to understand each other better.
The philosophy of naturopathic medicine.
These are the seven time tested medical principles that form the foundation for naturopathic medicine. (Sourced and adapted from The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine by Michael Murray and Joe Pizzorno)
*First do no harm. Seek as a clinician to recruit safe and effective remedial actions and counsel.
*Nature has healing powers - think of a swim in the sea, a hug of a tree, a skip through a meadow!
*Identify and treat the cause (note that it is the role of a qualified medic to diagnose, hence the importance of working alongside a healthcare team as is appropriate for each person. )
*Treat the whole person - mind/body/spirit interdependent on air, water, soil
*Physician/clinician as teacher. Help educate.
*Prevention is the best cure. We can also note that healing happens in many forms. If the cat is already out of the bag, we need to discover effective methods to rebalance
*Establish health and wellness - no matter the context, there are always ways in to invite and cultivate greater inner harmony and balance.
You are part of your healthcare team. Especially when there is a need to see medics regularly. It is a conversation and dialogue.