by Kirby Lindsay, posted 20 January 2015
The Bastyr Center for Natural Health stands on the corner of Stone Way and N 38th St in an office and treatment building renovated for its own use by the non-profit clinic. Inside, on a tour with Bastyr Center Chief Medical Officer Jamey Wallace, ND, the Center is clean, orderly, functional and anything but flashy. Yet, it still manages to impress with the quantity of resources it contains for helping patients with either maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and/or resolving chronic health concerns, all while providing Bastyr students and staff with an atmosphere, and the tools, they need to learn and grow in their fields.
Naturopathic, And More
Bastyr Center serves as the teaching clinic for Bastyr University, with its rich legacy of holistic medicine education. In serving our community, the Center provides a team care approach – pairing licensed, experienced practitioners with student clinicians – that partner with patients, allowing everyone to work together toward wellness. As Dr. Wallace observed, “let’s do what we need to do to provide for patients.”
“You get a team,” Dr. Wallace explained, “many capable minds, focused on you and helping.” By meeting with both experienced and learning practitioners, patients get the wisdom of licensed clinicians and the eager, enthusiastic and passionate eyes of the students.
As students consult with supervisors, and everyone reviews cases together, doing summaries of treatments and options, the patients also gain. This isn’t a one-and-done scenario, but a full, involved partnership where patients have time to talk, and be heard. Initial appointment times vary, but they generally involve 60 to 90 minutes during which time the clinician team can do full routine checks of vital signs, discuss all symptoms and concerns, and patients participate in their own health care. Those unsure about natural medicine, and Bastyr, can even schedule to come in before their first appointment for a free, 20-minute ‘Welcome to Wellness’ meeting with a naturopathic health care team.
Those who know the Bastyr Center usually are aware that it offers patients access to some of the most skilled Naturopathic Medicine practitioners, but Bastyr also can provide consultations and treatments in:
- Acupuncture and East Asian Medicine
- Chinese herbal medicine
- Physical medicine
- Homeopathy
- Nutrition
- Counseling
- Mind-body medicine
- Ayurvedic medicine
The Bastyr Center can provide the best in natural medicine, but it is so much more. The physical medicine department offers physiotherapy, manual therapy, and hydrotherapy, with treatments for injuries, detoxification, immune support and chronic pain relief.
Patients, And Students
Yet, Bastyr Center is also a teaching center. As Dr. Wallace observed, “we take very seriously the root of the word doctor as in ‘docere’, to teach.” Bastyr wants patients to be able to learn about their own health and wellness, but they also provide calm, functional surrounding for the students to be able to study in order to become the skilled, caring health care providers that Bastyr wants treating their patients.
Bastyr Center students use the library, consultation rooms and classrooms to further their studies. Those in the naturopathic field will have four to five years of medical training, including the two-year clinical internship the serve at the Bastyr Center. These students are educated in all of the same basic sciences as a medical doctor. In fact, doctors at Bastyr work with Allopathic (western medicine) physicians. “We view ourselves as part of the larger health system,” Dr. Wallace explained, “and we can help identify the best treatment,” even when that means referring patients to an allopath doctor.
Within the Bastyr system, students learn from books, from each other and from patients that come in with their real-world symptoms, situations and expectations. “We have a lot of training here to help,” Dr. Wallace observed. Bastyr clinicians can help patients identifying what isn’t working, as they help find the cause of a problem, for optimizing health and treating the whole person.
Leading Authority In Natural Health
Best of all, Bastyr Center has doctors licensed as primary health care providers in the state of Washington, and patients can use most insurance plans, plus Medicaid. The Bastyr practitioners will refer patients as needed, to other specialists within Bastyr and outside of it. They also offer reduced cost care to seniors (over age 62,) and the uninsured, along with providing well-child visits at a reduced price at convenient times throughout the year.
The Center provides an in-house lab, as well as working with LabCorp, for test results. The Bastyr Dispensary can provide the prescriptions recommended to patients, as well as a selection of supplements, teas and tinctures all fully tested and backed by a quality assurance program.
Find out more about Bastyr Center, and the resources it offers to Fremonsters ready to partner in their health and wellness journey, through the website or one of the upcoming free ‘Living Naturally’ presentations at the Center:
- January 21st & February 18th – ‘Death & Cupcakes’ with Brad Lichtenstein, ND, BCB at 6:30p
- January 24th – ‘One-Pot Anti-Inflammatory Meals’ with advanced nutrition students supervised by Kelly Morrow, MS, RD, CD at 10:30a
- February 12th – ‘Mindfulness for Stress Reduction’ with Brad Lichtenstein, ND, BCB at 6p
- March 14th – ‘Natural Tips to Keep the Brain Young’ with Katherine Raymer, MD, ND at 10:30a
- April 11th – ‘Start Spring Fresh with Detoxifying Foods’ with advanced nutrition students supervised by Kelly Morrow, MS, RD, CD at 10:30a
Also, check out the Bastyr YouTube Channel for more opportunities to learn and experience what services this leading authority in natural health has to offer you, and your family.
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©2015 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.