Traditional naturopathy is a growing area of interest, practice, and pursuance by consumers. A Traditional Naturopath would be a person trained and credentialed in a traditional naturpathy program, ideally a Diploma or degree program, and certainly ideally hands on.
"Traditional" Naturopaths differ from "medical naturopaths" and that difference is becoming a wider gap as the years go on. That is for another few blogs, but for now, this clip by naturopath Linda Page will fill in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU3EdHPt6zI
One of the questions we get often is regarding what a graduate can do, as to market forces and job availability. Many grads follow a vision they have and create their own way of offering services. We are doing some Profiles on some of our grads and plan to publish these for readers in the weeks ahead. But for now, I can give some examples.
1) A " Job" : A recent grad was hired into an integrative clinic with an integrative staff: MD, herbalist, medical naturopath, possibly a nutrition consultant. The establishment features an herbal apothecary & dispensary. They hired her to fill herbal formula orders, and even create and design herbal compounded orders for client needs. There are and will be more opportunities of this kind as time goes on- grads desiring this are encouraged to do some outreach and taught to negotiate terms of employment.
2) A service enterprise- several grads have set up their own practices, offering consultations to clients for health and healing. One has worked successfully and consistently integrating the Amish into her practice; for this she travels to them. Another sells herbal items online in addition to offering Food Medicine and consult services.
3) Another grad set up , again, a private practice offering consults and some bodywork services. She may still do this, but was also hired by a 3,000 person corporation by the CEO to operate in their company designing and executing wellness programs and initiatives.
4) Hybridizing- this means combining existing or even future training, such as massage therapy, Yoga Teaching, fitness coaching- with the education - into a specalized niche.
5) Herbal Pharmacy and Dispensary- we are talking herbs here, not marijuana. We have a very servicable apothecary on site from which products are made and formulas can be made to custom. This complements a full practice which integrates all the elements of natural medicine training and practice, including hands on assessments and applied natural therapeutics.
What is unique about our training , and about the traditional naturopath field in general, is the space available to create and offer work that suits you and brings out your gifts and dreams, if you are attracted to this field. Last but not least- a good % of students realize fully that taking this training will enrich their lives and that of their family immensely, and they will be able to put potentially much better healing principles to work and alleviate suffering , while creating well being.
