Before studying natural medicine, I worked as a nurse. My greatest satisfaction came from sitting at the end of a patient’s bed.
I often asked what a patient had understood after a doctor had visited them on a ward round. I noticed that people often felt a sense of disempowerment around procedures, tests and medical language. Many didn’t understand what it all meant. Sometimes they didn’t even know what questions to ask.
I observed that people often felt better when they understood a test or a result. This sense of empowerment can shift the axis of someone’s wellbeing.
While I value my nursing experience and have a healthy respect for Western medicine, I decided to change my professional path and began studying to become a naturopath.
I know that there is so much more to being healthy and well than just the absence of symptoms. Spirit, mind and body are interconnected, and all require nourishing for us to be well.
By Liz Gillman, naturopath.
