It was nearly a year ago that I was beaming with pride because I finally completed a doctorate level of academic achievements in the field of Naturopathic Medicine. Before I began the course work, I knew little about the field and never had been to nor heard of a naturopathic doctor. However after six years, a transfer between two naturopathic medical schools and a complete holistic review of naturopathic tools, I began to fall in love with the rituals, practice and philosophy of naturopathy.
The naturopath seeks to enhance a sense of vitality in a being by recognizing and limiting/eliminating any toxic obstacles to cure, by fortifying undernourished systems and by increasing circulation in many ways, including addressing the influence of the mind on one’s sense of health and well being. Throughout my coursework, I learned so many fascinating tools which I call longevity practices, which simply enhance our sense of well being such as herbalism, medical nutrition, toxicology with depuration, hydrotherapy, and mind body techniques. Due to a combination of factors such as relationships, diet, habits, beliefs and lifestyle we feel a certain sense of vitality which always changes depending the moment. Just as it is a combination of factors which create our sense of health, it also requires a combination of techniques to enhance our sense of vitality.
My education provided me an honor and privilege to be exposed to so many tools to help co-create this combination for individuals. In short, naturopathy truly has become a passion of mine. However, a lot can change in one year, and life as a graduate proved to be a very humbling experience, as I found my first year in private practice to be an arduous and rewarding adventure.
Here are seven things I’d especially wish to share with soon to be graduates who may be planning to embark on the endeavors of private practice. I hope you can learn from some of my lessons.
1. Keep an open mind as your sense of validation may change
In school achievement is measured by your grades, attendance, participation, effort, professionalism and so on. The school environment brings students, teachers, administrators, and resources together to have a jam packed academic experience. Working three to six days a week with a variety of patients and serving community is something you will not be able to replicate your very first year in private practice. Academic institutions validate you by assigning you to show up for patients and shifts, passing tests, using critical thinking and remaining engaged with the material. Every hour is designed for success. Now, I don’t know how you can prepare yourself for this but all of a sudden you are the boss. You create the hours, the assignments, goals, field trips, inventory of what you would recommend and even your preferred location.
When I first embarked on private practice, I was losing big financially and began to think that my worth in dollars was the working world’s validation. Instead of a grade, I was only worth the value of my pay check which was nothing to speak of. It was a deep sense of shame that I all of a sudden became worthless to society because I could not generate an A+ in money my first year out. I knew my skills were valuable to people, I just did not know the first thing to generate clientele. For months I experienced a depression unlike any other because of my inability to achieve my wildest economic dreams my first months out. Luckily for me, our value as people is not equivalent to our bank accounts. Yes money is a very important tool we all invest in, but I discovered that one can be happy without it or miserable with it.
So I chose to validate myself by level of happiness. Not by a dollar amount, percentage or letter made up by a bigger institution. I began to understand that choosing to serve the community as a naturopath and dare to be an entrepreneur is a passionate and creative endeavor which deserves time to sweetly blossom.
2. You may experience the worst health ever – you are a Phoenix Baby
Although we learn in medical school that the sedentary lifestyle is killing the modern American, undertaking the academic course work of naturopathic medical school demands hours of sedentary study. Many of the naturopathic students start medical school right after college amounting to two continuous decades of sedentary study. It can be very difficult to maintain a routine of health when the mind is stretched to its limits and the body is limited to the desk. Also the never ending amount of what is to be known about the human body exhausts us enough to make unhealthy decisions such as staying up long hours or drinking lots of coffee.
Upon graduation, no longer chained to my desk or under the weight of a back pack I realized the decades of conditions these habits created in my body. My physical health was weak, I was out of balance and I began to notice symptoms which I hadn’t noticed while sitting still. In the first year post graduation, do not be surprised if the conditions of the student life created some uncomfortable symptoms in your health. This weakness may contribute to an uncomfortable emotional state as well.
It may be wise to honor this is a season by becoming a phoenix and start applying remedies you know you’d recommend to someone in your state. I learned that embracing this season of possibly the worst health I’ve ever noticed can be a humbling experience of self-reflection and divine time for a new naturopath to learn to practice as we preach.
3. You will need patients but especially patience for yourself.
If your physical health remains un-phased, you may notice some emotional discomfort when leaving the life of a student and starting the path of a professional. If you venture into a small practice of colleagues or even alone, you might miss the comradery of being in school. My last semester of naturopathic medical school required six days a week in clinic with a variety of patients. Each case I had, I shared with at least one other person and a supervisor. When there was a test or quiz, all of my classmates would prepare at the same time and sometimes compare notes. School creates an environment for collaboration. However, the actual practice of naturopathy is rarely like that.
If you aspire to open a private practice you will not be able to replicate the patient flow of a university you first year out. Give yourself a break! You may feel deficient in patients but more importantly, this time will require patience with yourself. Becoming a business owner requires you to earn the trust of the community you desire to serve. Your client base will want to know that you stick around so they will not be flooding in your doors the first day, week or month. They want to know you are reliable, so this is a time to cultivate trust in the community by marketing events, free lectures, tabling at events which your niche market may attend. For me, patience meant understanding that medical consults would not be the primary way I spent my hours the first months out of school. This is normal. Believe it or not all that foundational practice management takes a lot of time to gather and prepare so allow some time to get it all in order.
4. There is no shame in taking a complementary job
Naturopathic medicine is a field of mostly women. I don’t know about you, but the business plan so many people advised me was, “your spouse or partner will support you during unprofitable times.” Many of us do not have a partner and even some of us who are married do not have a spouse who can afford all of the bills of medical school and expenses of starting a new practice from the ground up. If you are a career person starting a private practice without a group or investor, there is absolutely no shame in taking a supplemental job to get the bills paid. This is one of the things I especially wish I knew before I graduated. Starting a supplemental job as soon as possible would have prevented me a lot of emotional distress caused by the economic transition of student to working world. I had wishful thinking about a busy practice and imagined my income of an established practice not one of a forming business.
Starting a business is an investment which has many initial expenses and most of the earnings get reinvested in the growing project. Financial gains are not promised in the first year. I found a job which makes me very happy and provides me with a deeper understanding of herbalism. The establishment is popular and attracts the niche market I most want to know and serve so I can mention my deeper knowledge of herbs to those interested. Most importantly for me, the job is not clinical based. Stepping into the shoes of a doctor is a huge responsibility which can be somewhat intimidating the very first year, so it was very important and fulfilling to me to have my supplemental job have less serious responsibilities and focus more on the enjoyment of costumers. Some may argue that a supplemental job will distract you from developing your business. If you have the means, of course develop your business full time if you can. However, in my case, I found nothing could subdue my passion for naturopathic medicine and a supplemental job was not only a necessity but a worthwhile way to fund my business.
5. Take a subjective review of your niche clientele
As you might have noticed in clinic, naturopathic medicine is quite difficult because it requires compliance. Business classes and plans encourage us to have wishful thinking about our niche community. One colleague of mine explained how he wanted to serve a community with high rates of diabetes and he intended to focus his practice on diabetes since the community was in need. However after some time in practice, he found that it was of little interest to the community, and they would present to clinic more often for pain management.
Another example of this is that I had the intention to work with college students to incorporate naturopathic modalities in their daily lives however; young people rarely have serious symptoms and often feel invincible so their chief complaints are not what I expected. It is important to know and I wish I knew that, no wishful thinking in your business plan will allow you to predict what your clientele will pay for. You may know that the community has high rates of this or that, but if the community is not seeking treatment, you need to start listening to what the niche declares as their chief complaint.
Take a subjective of you niche market and they will start to tell you what they believe to be the most important issues to them. Remember that often when people identify their chief complaint this is where they are most willing to be compliant. As I let go of my preconceived notions, I found this to be a huge relief, to let my community guide me as to how I can serve them best.
6. Minimize drama: Eliminate (or limit exposure to) toxic relationships
With all of this accomplishment under your belt you may be expecting a great fanfare and celebration of your accomplishments. I hope that people do celebrate you. However, you may also start to notice lesser minded people not only diminish your accomplishments, but wish to knock you down to size. When I graduated, I know I did not just exchange student loans for a degree; it was hours and hours of desk study, sleepless nights, test taking and worrying, researching and supporting patient cases in both my native English and awkward yet helpful enough Spanish. I knew I had been a hard worker and had served hundreds of people at that point. However, loved ones started to tell me what a shame it was about student loans, my degree which is not recognized in all states and just general pessimism about my ability to work as a naturopath and create the business of my dreams. I am going to tell you now, if you are striving to make your dreams come true, ain’t nobody got time for that noise. I found it extremely hard to wholeheartedly fuel and grow my business while my mind was filled with other people’s doubts and criticisms.
If you read any entrepreneur publications, it has been stated many times, that when you are striving to new heights and to accomplish the unlikely, your friend and adviser circle will get smaller. It has also been said that haters are a sign that you are growing and doing something remarkable. I am not telling you to strive for bad reviews, I am just saying that you will need to brush off the pessimistic and doubtful comments and critiques you hear in order to save your energy to create and cultivate what you have always envisioned. Remember to look at the career and life of those who criticize you and see if they have any grounds for their opinions before you take their comments seriously. Sometimes they may be having an emotional reaction such as fear or jealous that you are pursuing something you are passionate about. Yes starting a business was very humbling and way harder than I expected, but it is not impossible to grow it. Depuration can apply to social influences and for the sake of self-preservation, you may need to disregard, eliminate or limit your exposure to even the closest of loved ones who do not share the vision of what you are trying to accomplish. It makes room for people who are truly supportive.
7. Collaborate and celebrate
I work in an unlicensed state and abide by the laws which declare me as a health care consultant versus a primary care provider. I prefer this because I hope to cultivate a health care culture where the patient can become the authority of their own health vs. looking to the doctor as the all-knowing authority. I do not wish to take the responsibility or create the illusion that I am an all knowing doctor. In my opinion, no doctor can live up to this image. Doctors consult with colleagues, medical libraries and when all is said and done they still can make errors, hence why it is a practice of medicine.
I provide complementary care. This mindset has allowed me to collaborate as an equal with many health care providers, primary care physicians, health coaches, energy healers and others in general wellness support. To me, cultivating a cooperative environment where wellness providers can collaborate and share clients not only creates a respectful working environment among colleagues, but provides clients with the absolute best experience because they truly get a chance to receive holistic care.
On this same topic of collaboration, it may be important for you to keep in mind as you find new and amazing ways to get naturopathic medicine to your greater community, “Imitation is the highest form of flattery.” If you find that you are the first person to highlight a way of doing something, a certain remedy, sales tactic, or even use a service more. Do not be surprised if fellow classmates or others who know you in wellness do so as well. Think of this not only as healthy competition, but a way that the greater world is reminded of the important messages naturopathic medicine has to offer.
Your first year out is one of humbling service; do not be stingy with your education or ideas. Your duty as a doctor is to share what you have had the privilege to learn. If your community or classmates embrace and enhance your message, consider yourself very lucky to celebrate with like minds.
Congratulations to you for finally completing your doctorate! I wish you great success, prosperity, a deeper passion for our field and a drive to share more and more with the greater community of the education you were privileged to receive.