Bringing the “Whole Being” Back into Holistic Healthcare
Hey, did you get the announcement that most modern complementary and holistic schools have moved to an Allopathic model?
What’s an Allopathic model you say?
The Allopathic model initially began as the system of medicine which is now known as our mainstream health care model. Allopathic medicine treats symptoms and diseases with medications, surgery, and other therapies rather than working to restore normal function to the body. See our article on “treatment” vs restoration for a better understanding of what treating actually means.
So how does this apply to traditional holistic models? In this realm, it is often called Green Allopathy which in this case relates to treating symptoms and diseases with herbs, supplements, template diet plans, and therapeutic management of symptoms rather than addressing the underlying driving mechanisms and restoring normal function to the body.
Have you ever gone to a holistic practitioner such as a naturopath or TCM practitioner and walked out the same day with an armload of herbs or supplements? Or go to a chiropractor, acupuncturist, or massage therapist who proceeds to treat you without ever looking at your whole life history, diet, and stressors.
You notice the treatment never seems to “hold” and you have to go back repeatedly?
Welcome to the world of Green Allopathy: treating the symptoms without ever addressing the underlying driving mechanisms.
It wasn’t always this way.
A True Whole-istic Model of Health
Prior to mainstream medicine having the foothold it has today, natural health practitioners were taught a true Whole-istic model of health and understood that restoration of health must involve a deep understanding of mind, body, and spirit as well as all that nourishes and stresses one’s being.
So you say you didn’t get the memo that the holistic model had changed?
Not surprising because there actually wasn’t one sent out. It happened under the radar when no one was looking.
Have you heard the old saying, if you can’t beat them, then buy them or control them?
Most of the complementary health schools today have been infiltrated by the Allopathic model thus limiting the knowledge, ability, and scope of the practitioners they train.
How?
Usually, this occurs one of three ways, via government oversight, industry influence, or the financial interests of the school’s shareholders. And this information is certainly not being advertised.
Often a financial investment is made by the student into this form of education, wherein by the time they discover something is “not right” about the philosophy or curriculum of the school, it’s too late to back out. They are left to push forward in hopes that after graduation they will may be able to piece together the knowledge they were hoping to gain during their training.
Or the student feels that the only way to attain recognition is to go through the system even if they don’t agree with the teachings during the training, and often not realising their qualification ties them to that specific training via their Scope of Practice.
Often we simply do not know the right questions to ask when we are exploring post-secondary education.
Sadly our school receives many calls on a weekly basis from students of other programs that feel financially trapped within a system they do not feel philosophically aligned to.
A Different Way
Over the last 10 years, NTA AU/NZ Diploma of Functional Nutritional Therapy has trained all walks of health and wellness, from naturopaths, osteopaths, chiropractors, doctors, physiotherapists, nurses, TCM practitioners to personal trainers, yoga teachers, and nutritionists as well as dieticians. The reason why they train with us is always the same because they feel ill-equipped to truly help their patients or clients based on their initial training. We hear firsthand the frustrations they’ve experienced in navigating a system that has moved to profit-first philosophy over people.
Why profit over people? Because the Allopathic model at its core is not a health care system but a business model. It’s a model that is designed to keep the customer returning, preferably from cradle to grave.
Here is an excerpt from our recent online Summit that discusses how this has happened.
Now it’s important to emphasise we are not painting all of conventional allopathic healthcare with the same brush. When it comes to emergency care and acute care medicine, it can be second to none. But in this pervasive era of chronic disease, we are, sadly - worth more sick than healthy as far as the business of allopathic medicine is concerned.
Nor are we tarnishing all holistic schools as having been overtaken by the allopathic model - but if you do not know the difference it can be difficult to find a true traditional holistic education that still honors a whole being approach to health from a functional perspective.
Why is it important that you know this?
So you can ask better questions and make better more informed decisions about the health and education of yourself and your family.
NTA AU/NZ is the only independently funded Ancestral-based Functional Nutritional Therapy Program in the southern hemisphere dedicated to bringing the “Whole Being” back to the forefront of holistic healthcare.
Functional Nutritional Therapy at its very core means two things:
Understanding the nature of dysfunction and dysfunction
Working with each bio-individual being innate intelligence to restore function to the body
Learn more about what innate intelligence means in our NTA Philosophy.
If you are looking for a Whole-istic Practitioner, our Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioners can be found worldwide through our Practitioner Directory.
Article by Leanne Scott, NTA AU/NZ Program Director & Lead Instructor, FNTP