An initial naturopathic visit for adults is 90 minutes long, and 60 minutes for children. Return visits for both adults and children are 30 minutes. Acute care visits are usually 15-30 minutes.
During the visit, we will address your main area of concern, but will also address health issues that you and your family have dealt with in the past. You may be asked questions that may be different from what you have come to expect from a typical doctor’s visit. Physical exams are also often used to help with assessment of your unique situation.
You can expect treatment to begin on the first visit. These may include any or all of the following:
- Homeopathy
- Home hydrotherapy treatments
- Nutritional supplements
- A diet diary to fill out for the next visit
- Dietary recommendations
- Spinal and/or extremity manipulation
If there are lab tests that are well-indicated, you may also be asked to get lab tests done prior to the next visit.
It is common for people to go to a doctor and be given a prescription for a pill or two that will deal with a person’s disease. Taking a drug, for many people, is seen as the extent of addressing a disease. Naturopathic medicine is quite different from this model. Here, you will be encouraged to take a proactive role in determining your health, and not just addressing your disease. Alongside supplements, you may expect to be given recipes, treatment guidelines for home treatments you do yourself, and information about groups, websites, or other resources to help you on your journey back to wellness. Instead of using a simple “take two aspirin and call me in the morning” approach to health (which often amounts to symptom management), naturopathic medicine addresses the whole body-mind-spirit complex.
