The Process of Healing

It is easy to assume naturopathic medicine offers a natural version of what western medicine provides with drugs. However, naturopathic medicine has an entirely different perspective when it comes to approaching a patient. The question is not - what natural herb or supplement can I use to ‘treat this disease’? The first question to ask is - what is getting in the way of the body healing itself and what does the body need in order to do so?

It is not about symptom treatment and symptom suppression. Naturopathic medicine seeks first to create the conditions for healing to occur at a deeper, more foundational level. Symptoms are not mistakes of the body, but signs indicating something is out of balance in the environment the body is placed within. The environment we surround ourselves with is what creates the conditions for health and vitality or creates the conditions for disease.

Our biology evolved with inputs of the natural world over thousands of years. Real food, real water, clean air, natural light and dark cycles, sleep and rest. These natural inputs and rhythms the body depends on for homeostasis, a fancy word for dynamic balance within the body. Our modern life with processed foods, fast paced social media feeds, contaminated water, unnatural light sources and sedentary lifestyles are in conflict with the needs of our biological reality.

And it’s not just the physical inputs that matter. Our thoughts, feelings and emotions are equally part of the internal environment that our biology is responding to. The human body is naturally self-healing and self-regulating when given the conditions that it needs to do so. 

Dr. Jane Litsey