Naturopathic medicine is an integrated therapeutic approach based on the principle of the healing power of nature. Naturopathic medicine aims to restore balance by the use of non-invasive therapeutic modalities working synergistically with the body’s inherent healing capacity.
Naturopathic doctors observe the body’s own attempts at restoring itself to health and work synergistically with it using safe, gentle, non-invasive therapies including clinical nutrition, lifestyle counselling, botanical medicine, homeopathy, traditional chinese medicine, hydrotherapy and physical treatments. The focus of naturopathic medicine is centered on the person, taking the current symptoms and past medical history, including family history into consideration in the quest for the root cause of disease. Symptoms are considered the body’s way of communicating that something is out of balance. Naturopathic practitioners pay careful attention to the symptoms in order to work along with the body’s own healing ability instead of suppressing it.
Naturopathic doctors are graduates of one of six North American accredited colleges that provide four years of post graduate training in basic medical sciences and naturopathic modalities including one year clinical practicum. The profession is regulated by the The Board of Directors of Drugless Therapy – Naturopathy (BDDT-N). Practitioners may belong to provincial and national associations such as the OAND and CAND.