What is Naturopathy and how can it help me?

March 3, 2016

Naturopathy is a form of medicine that views the body holistically as a complex ‘whole’ network rather than as separate, unrelated  organs or body systems. As an example, when someone comes to me seeking Naturopathic help for a skin condition, most people wouldn’t think of looking at the gut. A Naturopath however, will. For this style of medicine, our aim is to look for the root cause of a problem and aim out treatment there. With a case of eczema for instance, we can treat the actual skin with lotions and creams, but the root of where this problem grows from, can often be found deeper inside the gut (including the liver, bowel, kidneys, stomach, etc), so we treat this along with external lotions. Naturopaths treat the root cause of your concern (e.g. an unhealthy gut environment, stress, etc), rather than simply the end symptom (e.g. eczema) which results in deeper healing.

What can a Naturopath treat? Anyone with a body! Naturopathy has a really broad spectrum of treatments and treatment combinations. We can treat young babies, elderly people, stressed our parents and executives, athletes, tradies, teachers, small business owners, travellers, backpackers – basically everyone! The best part – you actually don’t even need to be sick! We can use a beautiful array of Naturopathic treatments to simply enhance your wellness, to keep you feeling more and more amazing as you age!

Naturopathic treatments can work safely and effectively in conjunction with other medications too. This is not an area to take lightly and consult Dr Google over though! You absolutely need to see an experienced therapist who can take all medications and any possible interactions between them into account to ensure you safety. I have done additional training in using my treatments alongside other medications and 100% of the time cross check everything I use. Just because you are on multiple medications, definitely does not exclude you from using Naturopathic treatments to enhance your health and wellbeing. Naturopaths are trained in health sciences including anatomy, physiology, pathology etc. They are also trained in natural treatments including herbal medicine, nutrition, massage, iridology and more.

What does Saltuary’s Naturopath Tiina love treating? My passions definitely include fixing the gut. A healthy and happy gut really is the seat of all health. Even Hippocrates, over 2000 years ago, said “All disease starts in the gut”. Just some areas of treatment I enjoy here are for constipation, diarrhoea, bloating, irritable bowel, reflux, digestive issues, discomfort, burping, etc.

I also love treating energy problems, especially fatigue, and things like anxiety and stress. Stress is such a big one in todays world…I don’t think too many of my consultations go without some focus on stress (and the gut), to be perfectly honest. Stress is one of those little black clouds that follows us around everywhere and gets in the way of us achieving our goals until we have that under control. If someone comes to me for weight loss for example, but is very stressed, I always get the stress under control first before tackling the weight loss. Without this strategy, we only make the process harder for ourselves as well as risking getting demotivated for lack of achieving our goals.With my treatments, I first get my clients ducks in line, and then work through these systematically, just as the body needs us to.

Immune conditions are another very satisfying area of treatment. There seems to be a lot of confusion about our ability to work in this area. I’ve heard countless people tell me they’d love to see me, but can’t because they have an auto-immune condition. This is absolutely not so! Working with someone’s immune system is not necessarily about ‘boosting’ it. It is about working with the immune system to bring it back into ‘balance’. This may mean boosting it, but it may also mean balancing it, or perhaps even depressing it. Over the years, I’ve come to my own personal philosophy that, alongside our gut, a healthy immune system keeps us in an incredibly good place for health for life.

Detoxing is an area that people benefit hugely from and one that I enjoy working with. We live somewhat toxic lives these days as far as our basic functioning is concerned, and this can lead to an array of health problems. Everything from fertility to hormone health to weight loss, stress, muscle aches, foggy thinking and even gut problems can eventuate from toxicity. Detoxing doesn’t have to be drastic either.. it can be as simple as using a few liver herbs alongside whatever other treatment we may be doing. Again, I tailor this to the person and their capability and of course, their need…detoxing is definitely not a dirty (or hard!) word at Saltuary! We’ve recently launched our 21 Day Detox Program. Quite a few people have already completed the program, and just for a quick and enjoyable detox, they’ve each lost, on average 2.6kgs of FAT in just 21 days (we measure this as part of the program)! They are also reporting more energy, better sleep and less stress. Our Detox Program does involve Naturopathic consults alongside other relaxing in house services including our Salt Room and Infrared Sauna. Call us if you’re interested in this program.

How does Tiina treat you? I base my treatments mostly on herbal medicine and nutrition. Both of these come from the earth, and are well understood by our body. I find these two modalities incredibly powerful at bringing the body back into balance and a place of harmony. I use a mix of herbal tonics in liquid form, herbal tablets and creams. I also use various combinations of vitamins, minerals, flower essences, homeopathy and absolutely, without a doubt – food! Alongside our actual day to day diet, food based supplements such as mushrooms are such a potent way to improve our health. You need to keep in mind though, that supplements can do as much damage, as they can good, if used incorrectly. Always consult with a professional rather than self prescribing – it will work out cheaper in the long run! Rather than spending your money on supplements that you may not need, or may not be absorbing, speak to a trained professional to help you uncover the correct balance of ingredients to supplement with. You may not even be needing them at all, a few simple shifts in your diet may be all it takes! A big concern with supplements is their bioavailability. This sounds like a big word, but in essence, it means how ‘available’ they are to the body – how well they break down and how well they are absorbed. There is no point taking something that you will only pass out the other end…see what I mean, investing a little time and money in seeking out the right information can give you a lot more more bang for your buck when it comes to your health.

With regards to diet, I offer a lot of guidance on this front and have access to an online recipe portal that I share with my clients, making it easy for you. I understand that not everyone in families and couples likes to eat the same thing, and I absolutely take these things into account when working to better someone’s diet. The smallest and simplest of additions or subtractions, can make vast improvements to your wellbeing.

What should I expect in a consultation? Naturopathic consultations are a lot longer than most people are used to. I spend up to an hour with you at our first meeting, getting to know everything about you from your diet, your social life, to cravings, your family history, stress levels, job, hormones and more. Naturopaths take a lot of time to get to know you in order to give very personalised, individual treatment to you. As I mentioned, if you come to me with a skin concern for example, I won’t be giving you just a cream. Naturopathy is a very holistic way of looking at health and takes into account all the driving factors – everything from the gut to your stress levels, diet etc. Because we take the time to really get to know you – we’re able to tailor the treatments very specifically to you for very comprehensive, individualised healthcare. I often perform in house screening tests as well as send you for further external testing wherever required. I tend to recommend other therapies and services that will enhance your treatment alongside my personal treatment as well. I spend a lot of our time together educating you on how the body works and why we are doing what we are doing. This gives you the knowledge for life and allows you to continue on benefiting from these things. At all times, you are in control of the treatment, taking it as far or as slowly as is required – there is no one size that fits all here.

At Saltuary, you get more! Our aim for Saltuary was always to provide comprehensive health care with a range of options to suit peoples different needs. We have an incredible and very experienced team working with us, offering Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Naturopathy, Yoga and Massage Therapy that covers everything from sports to pregnancy, hot stone, and now clay therapy as well. We also have our large range of in-house services including our Infrared Sauna, our Salt Room, our Float Rooms, and something we are very excited to be bringing back is our natural Beauty Therapy! All of these can be mixed and matched for the perfect treatment plan for our clients. When it comes to working with any of our therapists, you actually get the combined benefit of all of our therapists knowledge and skills, as we like to discuss your case and work together on achieving your health goals. It really is a very comprehensive approach and we see great things happen for people daily! It’s very inspiring…

More about Tiina… I’ve worked both here and overseas as a Naturopath, and the one thing I love is that despite our perceived differences of age, sex, religion or race, we are all simply human! We all have kinks, we all have guilty pleasures, we can all make changes for the better and we are all in it together! We all eat, we all breathe, all our hearts beat the same etc…I love working with people who are committed to change for themselves. Sometimes our capacity to change is big, sometimes it’s very small, but the belief and the want to feel better and to be better is what I like to harness when working with people. I absolutely and wholeheartedly get onboard my clients buses with them! We both go along for the ride  and we deal with changes together as they come. We are all individual, and that is something I celebrate and enjoy working with – it’s like working out where the pieces for each persons puzzle lay, and then slowly but surely putting them back into the right order.

Keen for a health boost? Tiina offers Naturopathic consultations with people every Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at Saltuary. She’s covered by health funds, and most claims are made on the spot so you simply pay us the gap. Tiina is a Professional Member of the Australian Traditional Medicine Society and earned her Health Science degree through the University of New England and all of her diplomas through the Australasian College of Natural Therapies. Tiina attends a huge array of seminars and workshops throughout the year, not just to help her clients – but because she’s quite simply obsessed about all things to do with natural health!

To book, call us on 9713 8688, visit us in store, or book online via our website, or email us at info@saltuary.com.au

 

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