Where Can You Find Naturopathic Practitioners?
Unfortunately, there has yet to be a chain of stores called Naturopathic Practitioners "R" Us, so it takes a little more work to go about finding one. When you do find any in your area, you want to see what kind of complimentary and alternative medicine they specialize in and about their payment requirements. You also need to keep in mind the legislation requirements for naturopathic practitioners in your state or province.
North American Requirements
Only fourteen states in America and four Canadian provinces have any sort of legislation concerning naturopathic practitioners, while the rest only require a certificate of a completed naturopathic medicine program. The states that currently require all natural practitioners to be licensed are Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington. The Canadian provinces are British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan.
First Places To Look
The first recommendations you can get in your hunt for naturopathic practitioners are from your doctor and your medical insurance company. You can also ask trusted friends, family members and neighbors for any recommendations. If those don't pan out, you can try looking in the Yellow Pages in print or online.
One of the best places to find any naturopathic practitioners in your area is through the American Association of Natural Physicians (AANP). They have a naturopathic practitioner finder on their website. You just enter your town or zip code and how many mile radius you can travel and then you are given a list of physicians. Naturopathic practitioners have to pay to become a member of the AANP and live up to certain standards.
The AANP is currently pushing for all states in America and provinces in Canada to require licensing for their naturopathic practitioners. They believe this will make naturopathic medicine more legitimate in the eyes of the public. This also makes their job of regulating their members a lot easier. AANP believes that just requiring a certificate of completion does not go far enough.
If you live in England, then you need to check out the British Naturopathic Association in order to discover the registered naturopathic doctors in your area. It is generally a lot easier to find naturopathic practitioners in England or Europe than it is in North America. Almost any kind of alternative medical therapy is given more credence than in North America. You can find most homeopathic, herbal and aromatherapy remedies at the corner chemist, where you would have to hunt high in low in America to find the same stuff.
