ByRaluca Schachter, Contributor

One Radio Network

How do you determine if your doctor or any other health practitioner you are seeing is a true healer? How do you know if he/she has your own well being at his/ her highest interest?

Stories say that in ancient China healers were directly responsible for the well being of their patients, to the point where their heads were cut off if the patient couldn’t thrive or respond to the treatments they were applying. The patient died, so did the practitioner.

My acupuncturist / Ayurvedic practitioner once told me that in India traditional healers are very respected by their community and are not supposed to be “bothered” by stressful things like paying a mortgage or other bills. This would take away from their focus upon the patient. Instead, the community provides for them so they can go on undisturbed with their healing and do a good job at it.

Most of today’s so-called “healers” are preoccupied with keeping their business and clientele, while watching fearfully over their shoulder for the questioning eye of Big Pharma and stressing about insurance companies. Tons of studies to read about how the latest drug was able to suppress a number of symptoms while generating others. No time for patients, really. Five to fifteen minutes at the most. Enough to write a prescription while looking at the next patient in line. No time for building HEALTH.

But of course we also have now a wide range of naturopaths and other natural health practitioners that claim to offer a totally different alternative for healing. Are they truthful? Some of them are. Some jumped from an allopathic model to an alternative one by just exchanging synthetic substances with natural ones. A step forward, of course. But still far away from what true healing really means.

And then comes the money aspect. And the fame. And the TV and radio shows! And huge Facebook audiences.

But guess what? All of a sudden your practice is a business that needs to make profit first, and then take care of patients. How many? The more the merrier. Do you think they would ever say no to a patient or refer him to somebody else? No, because this is a place were money is counted at the end of the day, not the smiles on people’s faces. Because this society functions on a high competitive ground, while forgetting all about collaborative work, where everybody would benefit.

So what is a true healer then?

A person that is afraid of his head being cut off? Or one that is dependent on his community for survival? My personal vision of a true healer is this:

• His integrity should be intact; he shouldn’t compromise for the sake of any drug / supplement / insurance company just to stay in business. If he does, he’s not a true healer. He’s a business man.
• A true healer should never take in a large amount of patients or more than he could handle.
• He should see in collaborative work with other practitioners a way to benefit the ultimate goal of true healing FIRST, not a threat or a specific way to make more money.
• Take the time and provide all the necessary information that the patient needs to educate himself, so he can be his own healer one day. He should be able to empower, mentor and inspire his patient, not make him dependent for life. People that keep coming to their doctors routinely with new health problems each time and no improvement in their health, are definitely not healing themselves.
• The costs for consultations that he can control should be acceptable for the majority of people.
• Always take in a certain number of people for free, that can’t afford to pay the consultations.

And now you’d say that’s pure utopia. That this way, no doctor could stay in business. EXACTLY! Business… now take a moment to think about it…

I know it might sound idealistic, but that’s how I see it. And personally, I see myself building a community, rather than a business. I don’t look for fame, but for peace of mind that I did the right thing for the people that trusted me to help them with their health. I want my “office” to be in the middle of Nature, with animals and gardens, rather than in a glass building and lots of phones ringing around in a grey room… I would also offer some home made food.

I don’t want to invest in expensive marketing programs and campaigns. My mentors taught me so many valuable things and one of them was to rely on successful testimonials and “word of mouth”, being the most durable forms of building a practice. (the “healthiest” as well…)

Your health is your most precious thing for yourself and the ones around you. And I believe it deserves more than “compromises”. Don’t you?

About the Author

Raluca Schachter is a passionate Nutritionist and Metabolic Typing Advisor®, with a background in both nutrition and communication/PR. She believes in traditional, unaltered food, ancestral wisdom, sustainable farming and living. Raluca was able to naturally reverse chronic health conditions she was struggling with most of her life, and now uses her knowledge to help as many people as possible do the same. Her health programs and diet plans offer a very unique and comprehensive approach to health, where individual nutritional and biochemical requirements are firstly met using specific nutrients and foods that each metabolism thrives on. This approach reveals why and how ‘one diet/herb doesn’t fit all’ and why ‘one man’s food is another one’s poison.’ Raluca currently resides in Garden Grove, CA and offers her services for local and distance clientele. For more information visit her website and blog guide2health.net or join Raluca on Facebook