United Holistic Practitioners

Greetings!

United Holistic Practitioners, founded last June, is a membership organization made up of 120 holistic practitioners in four states representing a broad spectrum of complementary and alternative care: integrated medicine, naturopathy, energy medicine, dentistry, yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, life coaching, social work, psychology - and more.

We are dedicated to changing the public healthcare conversation to an integrated and participatory model. The initial launch of our new website is this weekend, www.unitedhpa.org.  It is launching in stages, and the final launch will be this summer. Once fully up, it will offer three databases: conditions/symptoms; holistic options; and providers of holistic services.

Consumers know what is bothering them, but don't necessarily know what their options are. This way, someone with, for example, asthma can search on that term, and drill down to local providers of different holistic options, with explanations as to what those options entail. The enewsletter will have personal interviews and clinical trial updates, among other things. All free to consumers, 24/7.

I am the CEO/Founder of the organization, and I have a strong background in public policy and legislative action.  We are consumer protection oriented, and will provide articles on how to choose a good practitioner, understanding unregulated fields, building bridges between your conventional practitioner and holistic practitioner, and outside resources for further exploration. We don't want consumers to blindly take our word for it - we want to teach consumers how to make informed decisions. 

We will also be partnering with the American Association for Health Freedom, www.healthfreedom.net for national lobbying and research. 

United HP membership is open to all health and wellness practitioners who practice with the understanding that their service is just one piece of a larger healthcare puzzle; who prioritize root causes, prevention, and maintenance; and who take the time to listen and understand the consumer's unique needs. 

The new triple-database is expandable, and we forsee as many as three thousand practitioners made available to consumers through this website. The site officially launches on Tuesday, May 1st, but will be going live at some point this weekend. 

I'd love to hear your feedback on it, once it is up!

In peace and health,
Norreida
www.unitedhpa.org and www.hvhpa.org 
norreida@unitedhpa.org">norreida@unitedhpa.org  

Re: United Holistic Practitioners

Norreida, I'm glad to see you're out there doing the work that you're doing.  Anything that informs the public in taking control of their own health and wellness is a big plus in todays world. 

I'm still unable to access your new site but I'll be sure to check back later…  thanks for the information!

Seth

Re: United Holistic Practitioners

Thank you, Seth. The site won't be live until May 1st, but here is the prototype if you'd like to take a look: http://www.uhp.kvisual.com/. It's coming along!

Ever since starting this project, I have met so many people who are at their wit's end about their health. I have learned so much about Lupus and ADD and Fibromyalgia and cancers, simply by taking the time to listen to these people who feel their doctor's aren't listening.

Sometimes I feel so helpless - I do not have the training to advise them, and I wish there was more that I could do. Right now, I post their questions (with their permission) to the United Holistic Practitioner members email list and ask if anyone out there can help them, or knows of someone who can help them, and then I take the information and forward it on to the people who made the requests, so they can choose who to contact.

I am being the website until the website is ready. I never expected to be in this position - and believe me, I am very careful to make sure they know that I have not the training or expertise to recommend anyone, and they need to ask many questions and rely on their best judgement.

But what does it say about the public here in the Capital Region of New York when after only a few months of beginning to build a holistic resource that I am beseiged with people desperate for somewhere to turn? They are finding me by word of mouth - actively looking for something, anything.

They are so vulnerable. I didn't expect there to be so much vulnerability. This site has U.S. and Canadian capability. When it expands, will I find this much vulnerability coast to coast? Is it like this everywhere? I have been having serious discussions with my board of advisors around protections for the more vulnerable wellness seekers.

I am surprised, dismayed, and determined to make this website the best resource that we can make it, but that is just a drop in the bucket compared to what is really needed.

Norreida

Re: United Holistic Practitioners

Now that’s an amazing site, Norrieda! I get a sense of excitement just browsing through it… kudos to you!!

I hear you on everything you’re saying, the wanting to help and not having the proper training along with the desperate time we currently face when it comes to our current healthcare. When people get old they get sicker and right now we have a demographic bulge of old people that is only getting bigger and we don’t have a functional healthcare system to address them properly, not to mention the rest of the public. The way I see it the only option we have is to make the shift to a more holistic and integrative approach, instead of this severed physical approach that only seems to prescribe drugs and surgery to deal with illness.

I was listening to some audio from Dr. Weil a couple weeks ago and he was saying that in four years of harvard medical school, and one year internship, he only received thirty minutes of nutritional instruction, and that was from a dietitian on the special diets they could order for their patients at one of the hospitals he was training at… unreal.

To see you bringing this kind of substance to the table with your website is very much needed, and I'm glad to see you out there doing what you're doing.  Your effort truly puts a smile on my face… plus it inspires!

Seth