Creating trust, building relationships, meeting health goals.
If you were led to this site form our business
card, congratulations! You have taken a first
step towards better health. If you found us
through other means, congratulations, you
too are on your way to better health.
Welcome!
Therapeutic Order
How can you help me maintain/regain my health?
For someone who needs to maintain their health, we work with the determinants of health, or the base of the pyramid, and optimize lifestyle. This includes getting fresh air, eating clean and healthy food, drinking clean water, exercising, getting sound and adequate sleep, having healthy relationships, and anything else that is an obstacle to good health. For those needing to regain health, we still start at the bottom and work on any obstacles to cure but we can and will add in upper levels of the pyramid and use higher force interventions as necessary. It's all very individual.
What does a typical first visit look like?
During our first visit, we will review the intake form you completed, filling in any additional questions that may come up, order any indicated labs, and develop a preliminary treatment plan. Depending on the complexity of your case, the first office call may last from one to three hours. The chronic conditions intake form is long and comprehensive. We suggest you start on it at least one week before your visit and complete it as thoroughly as possible. Doing so will save us time and will save you money. We also request you send to us your medical records before the first appointment so that we may review them ahead of time. Records pertaining to your current illness(es) and labs drawn within the past year are especially pertinent. Between visits, we will perform any needed research, review your labs, and determine a treatment plan. During the second visit, we will perform a physical exam, go over any labs, go over a detailed treatment plan with you, and map out what to expect in the future.
What makes your approach unique?
Naturopathic physicians work with the therapeutic order to resolve your symptoms and address the underlying cause while using the minimal intervention necessary to restore health. Looking at the pyramid above, you will notice least force modalities are at the bottom of the pyramid with the force of intervention increasing as one moves up the layers. We start with the base of the pyramid, called the foundations of health, with all patients. We then add in additional layers as needed. Notice pharmaceuticals are just under surgery and are therefore considered a higher force intervention. In treating the underlying cause, we may not have to ever use pharmaceuticals or may be able to remove them once the underlying cause is treated. Best case, we address underlying causes before they become symptoms.
Dr. Stevens' approach is even more unique in that she was an engineer for many years and has trouble shooting skills many other physicians do not. She views illness much the same as she viewed engineering problems - a challenge to be solved. Of course, the human body is much more complicated which makes the challenge even greater and the need for additional skills more important.
What types of treatments do you provide?
Treatments can include nutritional counseling, exercise recommendations, hydrotherapy including constitutional hydrotherapy, homeopathy, physical adjustments, botanical medicine, hormones, vitamins, injection therapy, pharmaceuticals, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and more.
How will naturopathy help me?
Naturopathy is a different way of looking at medicine. Instead of treating symptoms, we seek the root cause of those symptoms and treat that. For example, if you're tired, we are not going to tell you to drink more caffeine, but instead will look at your adrenals, your thyroid, whether your mitochondria are getting the nutrients they need, and whether you are methylating properly. We seek to determine why you are tired and fix that instead of palliating the symptom.
Our office appointments are also different. We spend the time needed to get to know you in a way no doctor has ever known you before. While the average doctor's visit is 8 minutes face to face, we will spend a couple of hours together in our first couple of visits, more on complicated cases. If we are going to treat the cause and not just symptoms, we need this time together to seek out where the problem truly lies.