The Art & Practice Blog
A Whole Body Approach to Healing Anxiety
With 18% of the population suffering, anxiety is the most common mental health condition in North America. Through clinical practice, I've quickly come to learn that "anxiety" is a term that means many different things to different people. Its symptoms can range from...
“Fat” is not a Feeling
I'm tucking away at the cake again because the people who've invited me for dinner have dessert. Dessert: the gluten-y, sugar-y, dough-y sweetness of relief from deprivation, the dopamine and serotonin rush when the food smashes against my lips, teeth and tongue and...
An Exercise for Boosting Self-Worth (+ Why Positive Affirmations Only Make You Feel Worse)
We all have a critic inside of our heads. Through talking to people, I've been able to form more complete pictures of what these critics look like. I've found them to be as varied as the heads they inhabit, with personalities and characteristics of their own. Some...
De-Centred Naturopathic Practice
People seek out naturopathic doctors for expert advice. This immediately positions us as experts in the context of the therapeutic relationship, establishing a power imbalance right from the first encounter. If left unchecked, this power imbalance will result in the...
Is Wu Wei the Modern-Day Stress Solution?
When a successful person is asked to share the secrets of his or her success, the unanimous response is that success requires "effort" and "hard work". Other popular euphemisms are that success demands "sweat, blood and tears" or "1% inspiration, 99% perspiration". In...
30 Years, 30 Insights
Today, I'm 30, working on my career as a self-employed health professional and a small business owner and living on my own. I've moved through a lot of states, emotions and life experiences this year, which has been appropriate for closing the chapter on my 20's and...
A Naturopathic Approach to Depression and Mood
According to Statistics Canada, 1 in 4 people suffer from a mental health condition in Canada. Most of these individuals will fall between the cracks of a medical system that is not equipped to deal with the rise of stress and mood disorders, such as depression....
Will That Be Form or Function Today?
I've come to see my migraines as an internal measuring device for wellness, or rather, lack of wellness—kind of like a very painful meat thermometer. From time to time I get bouts of low energy compelling me to spend more time doing low-key activities. However, quick...
The Dangerous Single Story of the Standard Medical Model
A singular narrative is told and retold regarding medicine in the west. The story goes roughly like this: the brightest students are accepted into medical schools where they learn—mainly through memorization—anatomy, physiology, pathology, diagnostics, microbiology,...
A Tale of Two Failures
Premature Ovarian Failure no longer bears that name. It's not a failure anymore, but an insufficiency. POF becomes POI: Premature Ovarian Insufficiency, as insufficiency is apparently a softer term than "failure". For me, it's another telling example of how our...
Balancing Hormones for Healthy Weight Loss
This is a common story that can describe any number of patients I see in my private practice: My patient has been doing well–she's been exercising regularly; she's been cutting out sugar and processed foods and watching what she eats. She's been having salads for...
Stories of Street Medicine
I was recently told that a benefactor would contact me about the work I've been doing for the Evergreen Yonge Street Mission in Toronto—I provide naturopathic services to street-involved youth twice a month in the drop-in health clinic. There is a natural health...
DIY Rosemary Wine Tincture
As a student of naturopathic medicine, I didn't quite get herbs. They were natural, sure, but why would I prescribe them in lieu of homeopathy, dietary changes or nutritional supplements? I didn't get it. I liked herbs; I understood the idea of synergy—the fact that...
Self-Care Practices for Constipation
I feel sorry for the digestive tracts of this nation, I really do. The owners of these digestive tracts have my sympathy as well—there really is nothing so bad as pooping too much or not pooping enough. Sometimes it's hard to know which one is worse. Having regular...
Let’s Talk Mirena (anxiety and hormone imbalance)!
I've been noticing a trend in my practice, which places an emphasis on women's hormonal health and mental health. Many women are consulting me for treatment of anxiety and panic attacks that have shown up in addition to other hormonal symptoms: painful periods, PMS,...
Naturopathic Narrative Therapy
As a child, I was obsessed with stories. I wrote and digested stories from various genres and mediums. I created characters, illustrating them, giving them clothes and names and friends and lives. I threw them into narratives: long stories, short stories, hypothetical...
Uncertainty, Guaranteed
In most service industries, there are certain guarantees. If you go to a restaurant, your soup is guaranteed. At the GAP, you will get a pair of chinos, guaranteed. In lots of instances, you get what you are paying for and in most cases, you get to see if before you...
Quack Attack! The Naturopathic Docs are BACK! (Well, actually, we never really left…): An unofficial response to a scathing Globe & Mail op-ed)
Sigh... I just finished reading a rather annoying article in the Globe and Mail (don't even bother to click and add more Google street-cred, seriously) that doesn't really warrant a response but... here we go. It's my day off. The article was written by one Carly...
How to Reinvent Your Life in 20 Steps
According to James Altucher, author and entrepreneur, it is possible to reinvent yourself in 5 years. In his book, The Power of No, he tells us how to reinvent our lives by first saying a big, fat No to all the things that don't serve us—toxic friendships and...
A Naturopathic Approach to Healthy Hair
This is likely one of the shallowest posts I’ll ever write—it's about hair. However, what is so shallow about hair? We all know the importance of having a good hair day. It seems from the moment we wake up, look in the mirror and notice that our top bun has left...