As in any other business, there is no single chartable route to success as a naturopath or an entrepreneur running your own clinic, but there are plenty of commonalities. The most essential part of the process of becoming established in a practice requires intense involvement in the community at large. The establishment of personal relationships with clients and the resulting referrals is often the single most important factor in determining the success of an ND’s practice.
Engagement with the Community
Dr. Brian Davies of Westcoast Integrative Health in North Vancouver stresses that it is important to “Leave your ego at the door. Clinical practice is 100% about supporting the patient. Medicine is steeped in preconceptions, misconceptions, and beliefs about disease and treatment. As such, the focus needs to be on what the patient wants. Being a good listener and learning to manage expectations is one way I have worked to meet the needs of my patients.”
“I was extremely studious throughout my university career (University of Victoria and the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine.) I wanted to know absolutely everything about medicine, to be able to recite it all forwards and backwards. Although my understanding of the discipline has been essential in clinical practice, knowledge isn’t everything. Equally important in my opinion, is how well you use this knowledge to educate and be educated by your patients.
“These concepts where not things that I learned in school but have allowed me to excel in my practice of naturopathic medicine. “
As far as actual marketing is concerns, Dr. Davies takes an even more low key approach. He volunteers in the community, teaches courses and gives lectures when the opportunity arises and says he gets 100 per cent of his business through referrals, a loyal patient base and networking in the community. He can identify a single occasion when he spent money on advertising during his ten plus years in practice.
Determining and Providing the Services that are Most Essential
Dr. Cathryn Coe, owner of North Vancouver’s Marine Drive Naturopathic Clinic has taken quite a different path. She regards it as vital to reach out to the people most likely to need your services – to educate them regarding possible causes of symptoms or conditions, and offer them solutions to these concerns. She is not averse to reaching outside of her immediate neighbourhood and putting the word out in nearby communities through advertising in both community newspapers, magazines and publications in the lower mainland. Even as an associate working out of someone else’s clinic, she advertised quite aggressively. Dr. Coe’s specialty is endocrinology and menopausal health and Marine Drive Naturopathic has benefitted and grown from her reputation and drive to get the word out about her services and personalized care. By establishing close and trusting relationships with her patients and offering her own expert insights and suggestions, the circle often widens – so that other family members come in to see her. This creates something of a RIPPLE effect, bringing attention and new clients to her associates – who themselves offer a diverse range of specialties. Her Marine Drive Naturopathic Clinic is experiencing considerable success and popularity, situated as it is in a well established community of people ranging from young professionals to active parents to productive and engaged retirees.
“I have used the same model both as an associate and as a business owner., “explains Dr. Coe, “identify the needs of your community, educate them about the steps that can be taken for them to overcome their symptoms or condition, and offer solutions. Even if patients don’t book with me directly, the type of advertising I do is educational, and for that reason benefits the profession as a whole.”
Every business decision Dr. Coe makes is calculated to deliver maximum benefit to her patients and her communities. She chose the physical location of her clinic because it is in the neighbourhood that has demonstrated the greatest demand for and appreciation of the work she does. “I can’t emphasize enough the importance of creating the right environment for your clients. In my clinic, your treatment begins right when you walk through the door.”
It’s All Personal
Regina’s Dr. Marika Geis agrees wholeheartedly with the need to establish personal relationships with patients.
Owner of Daziran Integrative Health, which operates out of the Cathedral Centre for Wellness in Regina, Dr. Geis enjoys a broad primary care practice emphasizing family medicine including women’s health issues, pediatric care, fertility counseling, perinatal care and stress syndromes (fatigue, insomnia, digestive issues, immune dysfunction and pain complexes).
Dr. Geis thinks of her patients almost as family – with whom she pursues relationships based on education and enlightenment: using nutritional counseling, botanical medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, clinical nutrition, lifestyle counseling and hydrotherapy – whatever speaks to and works for her individual patients. Determining and examining the physical, emotional, environmental and spiritual influences impacting the patient’s health – allows her to tailor treatments for each patient – bring them to a state of independence in their health, a sense of understand and having vital input into their own states of wellness.
Any entrepreneur in any field faces challenges common to the marketplace – weighing foot traffic against cachet, worrying about accessibility and signage, paying the rent, making budgets and managing cashflow.
But integrative healthcare practitioners have a unique role. Just by coming to see you in the first place, your patients are, as human beings, demonstrating their willingness – or even eagerness – to take responsibility for their own health, their own life and the lives of those they love.
As their caregiver, you can empower them further by giving them an understanding of their condition – and their options, roles and responsibilities in their own wellness.
Your toolbox contains an endless array of effective resources ranging from your understanding of physiological processes; knowledge of breaking research; awareness of and openmindedness to newly developed therapies and insights. But more than anything else – and perhaps more than in any other profession – your success depends on the relationships you create and maintain.
It’s not like you’re selling bread or auto parts or some other interchangeable product that your patients can find cheaper just down the road. The advice you give and the relationships you form are unique, valuable and irreplaceable. They come to you because of who you are and what you can give them that others can’t. The trust you build is your coin in trade.
