Services
Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic doctors are primary care trained experts in Alternative Medicine who provide Integrative and Complementary Medicine while working side by side with conventionally trained medical doctors.
Naturopathic Medicine blends centuries old natural, non-toxic therapies with the current advances of modern science. Naturopathic Doctors (ND’s) are primary care providers who follow naturopathic principles to diagnose and treat a wide range of conditions from fertility to end of life care.
Naturopathic treatment plans are developed by looking at the whole person, each new patient is provided a comprehensive treatment plan that is customized for the individual.The treatment plan will address your specific chief complaint and contributing factors and blend together the best of modern medical science with traditional naturopathic medical approaches.
Conventional medicine reduces the body to isolated parts and is limited by the emphasis on drugs that have a mixed range of effectiveness yet certain side effects. Naturopathic Doctors acknowledge the sum of the mind, body and spirit and have a vast set of treatment tools and therapies available to work with including: clinical nutrition,botanical medicine, physical medicine, IV nutrient therapy, homeopathy, diet and lifestyle counseling and stress management.
Naturopathic Doctors use the title “ND” and have earned the right to practice primary care in California by completing a rigorous training program. You can find additional information about the licensing and training of ND’s on our Naturopathic FAQ’s Page.
At Natural Medicine Works, we seek to empower and educate you to take charge of your health by providing skilled, experienced care that strengthens the body and effectively treats a wide range of conditions.
To learn more about naturopathic medicine, please call our office to book your appointment or to schedule a free introduction phone consultation.
Family Medicine
Dr. Murphy understands that for an entire family to be happy and healthy, all of the family members must be happy and healthy. She works with families to take charge of their healthcare and advocates for you as you navigate the complex healthcare system for yourself and loved ones.
The training of Naturopathic doctor resembles that of a Family Practice doctors, with most of the clinical rotations taking place in an outpatient setting.
In addition to this training, Dr. Murphy is a mom of two herself, so uniquely understands the challenges that families face from fertility to conception, pregnancy to birth and then throughout every phase of growth and development.
Dr. Murphy experienced personally the medicalization of pregnancy and birth during a hospital birth as well as the fears and joys of a midwife assisted home birth. The combination of extensive medical training, 10+ years of clinical practice and the empathy built from personal experience, allows Dr. Murphy to provide a full spectrum of family practice medical services to keep the focus on your entire family’s health.
Full Homeopathic Intake
If you are looking exclusively for a skilled homeopath to complete a full homeopathic intake, Dr. Murphy is happy to work with you.
Many people searching for a homeopathic doctor are actually looking for an Alternative Medicine expert and do not want to be treated exclusively with homeopathy but want their doctor to use this and other natural, non-toxic therapies. In this case, homeopathy will be part of your overall treatment plan that blends together other naturopathic protocols.
Dr. Murphy resonates with this energy medicine and has seen first-hand how effective it can be while offering little to no side effects. She employs homeopathy along with many other treatment modalities in her practice.
Homeopathic medicine is energy medicine, the ‘active ingredient’ in the medicine is highly diluted but the energy or essence of the original substance is magnified, thus producing a potent therapeutic agent that works on all aspects of our being including our physical, energetic and emotional bodies.
Homeopathy is likely the least understood area of naturopathic practice. It is hard to define how it works, and many critics of alternative medicine point to a lack of properly conducted clinical trials to question its validity as a treatment tool.
In fact, homeopathy does have a number of placebo controlled clinical trials demonstrating its effectiveness in treating sinusitis and hay fever, and lack of clinical trials in the U.S. can be attributed largely to the inability to patent and thus, profit, off of homeopathic remedies.
Your homeopathic remedy is most often prepared as tasteless pellet that you dissolve under the tongue.
Natural Medicine Works is committed to helping patients and families to understand how to use homeopathy to treat a wide range of conditions. Feel free to give us a call to discuss this sometimes confusing topic and hear from an expert how you can use homeopathic treatments in your healthcare regiment.
Woman’s Annual Exam/GYN/PAP
Most women toggle between their PCP and OB/GYN for an annual exam and the radiologist for imaging. With neither doctor looking at the whole you and spending little time to address your primary health concerns, it is easy for things to fall between the cracks and leave you unsure of how to proceed.
A woman’s annual exam with Dr. Murphy will take the time to review your personal and family health history, diet, lifestyle and risk factors for disease. We will perform a routine screening physical, address breast health, run a comfortable PAP and pelvic exam, and discuss in a non-judgmental way any sexual health concerns.
During the visit, we can look into any additional concerns of yours such as bone density and bone scans, hormone balancing, breast imaging, pre and post pregnancy conditions and discuss any questions you may have regarding past medical tests. Receiving your annual exam from Dr. Murphy is a chance for you to work with an expert in natural medicine who can address all of your health concerns and offer non-invasive testing and treatments.
Woman’s services at Natural Medicine Works is informed by Dr. Murphy’s own experiences navigating the modern health care system for herself and her family as well as her desire to provide women with effective treatments for all life stages. If you would like to speak with the doctor before committing to an annual exam, please contact our office to schedule a discussion to find out how naturopathic medicine can meet your need for an annual exam, check-in or second opinion.
Advanced Lab Testing
At Natural Medicine Works, we order many common lab tests and diagnostics, but also provide a unique array of non-invasive diagnostics to help identify suspected or hidden causes of disease.Many of the tests we employ are unique to naturopathic and functional medicine doctors and require non-invasive collection techniques such as saliva analysis.We do not order unnecessary or invasive tests and work with your current existing labs and diagnostics to help diagnose you and avoid repetition of tests.
Some of the Tests We Routinely Use
- Neurotransmitters tested from saliva
- Gut microbiology and parasites tested from stool or breath
- Adrenal and reproductive hormones tested from blood draw
- Heavy metals and other toxins tested from hair or urine
- Nutrients and essential fatty acids from blood
- Food sensitivity (IgE and IgG) testing from blood draw or finger stick
- Gluten intolerance tested from stool
We are constantly evaluating new tests to help pinpoint diagnosis, especially in the areas of allergies, food sensitivity, parasites, hormones and heavy metal toxicity.Knowledge is power, once armed with results of your labs, we can work together to craft a treatment plan and set goals to improve any areas of disease or deficiency. If there is something you are interested to test for, please give our office a call to discuss if we carry, or can special order a diagnostic test.
Functional Weight Loss
Weight loss is extremely challenging to accomplish alone and often, reducing calories and increasing exercise is not sufficient to lose and keep weight off.
Naturopathic Doctors look at the whole person to prescribe a weight loss regiment focused on removing the barriers to optimal metabolism. We acknowledge the important role of gut health, hormones, as well as diet and lifestyle that plays into your ability to lose weight and keep it off. We recognize that sleep, mood, seasons and many other factors all work together to cause shifts in weight.
Functional Weight Loss is a naturopathic approach to weight loss that looks at an individual’s genetics and hormone levels to prescribe a treatment regime meant to boost metabolism, improve digestion, fine tune your diet and remove obstacles to success. The protocol prescribed by Dr. Murphy will start first with detoxification and removal of barriers to the body’s natural systems of elimination. Next, we look at hormones and neurotransmitters and bring them into balance so all of your organ systems are functioning at full vitality. Then we implement a whole foods diet that gives you structure and adaptations so you can navigate a world filled with too many opportunities to over indulge in unhealthy foods.
These changes will rev up your metabolism and increase calorie burn, while giving you the energy you need to ramp up your physical activity. Finally, we address the physical and emotional concerns that lead to over eating and focus you on reaching and keeping an ideal weight.
Weight loss is more than counting calories, there is an art to it and the psyche can often sabotage your best efforts. In these cases, treatments such as naturopathic counseling, acupuncture, and/or homeopathy can help provide the necessary shift to keep you on track toward your goal.
Call us today to speak with the doctor to see how Functional Weight Loss can help you to permanently achieve your ideal weight.
Acupuncture
As a licensed Acupuncturist, Dr. Murphy is able to draw from a vast medical tradition and treatment system that has proven effective, through controlled clinical trials, to treat over 30 specific medical conditions.
Many of the conditions where acupuncture has been proven effective are pain related,and Dr. Murphy uses acupuncture extensively for treatment of pain but also relies on Chinese herbal medicine and treatment modalities such as moxibustion to create the most effective treatment plan possible for your unique condition.
Many websites effectively describe the art and science of acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) so we will not go into detail here except to say that the doctors’ technique is gentle and should be pain free. Dr. Murphy draws inspiration from the 5 Element school of acupuncture to go beyond routine acupuncture protocols to address psycho-emotional issues, intractable pain and other difficult to treat conditions.
Advanced Bodywork
Most patients will receive some form of touch therapy from Dr. Murphy during the first office call or upon follow up, especially those presenting with pain or musculoskeletal issues. Dr. Murphy was a professional massage therapist prior to her naturopathic medicine and acupuncture training, so is well versed in hands on treatment such as Thai Massage and Craniosacral therapy. During her schooling, she learned to incorporate naturopathic manipulation, hydrotherapy, acupuncture and Chinese medical arts such as moxibustion and cupping into her treatment protocols.
Hands on treatment at the office or at your home will draw from the vast experience and techniques that Dr. Murphy has honed over the years to provide you with the most effective therapies to address your unique health concern. If you are interested to know what specific body work techniques are indicated for your ailment, please call to schedule your complimentary initial discussion with the doctor.
Men’s Health
At Natural Medicine Works, we offer men a number of ways for men to take advantage of naturopathic medicine and acupuncture to improve vitality and sports performance, balance hormones, get cholesterol in check, and treat the complications that come with ageing.
We offer wellness exams for men, as well as hormone testing, bioidentical hormones,and functional blood work panels to better understand your body’s organ systems. Male ‘Andropause’ is the concept then men go through a hormonal menopause similar to women. As men age their hormones decline resulting in decreased libido, greying, and a slowing down of mental and physical stamina.
Men’s hormones change gradually over time after puberty so many men do not notice the signs of worsening health, and only see symptoms that can be too often ignored or treated quickly with pharmaceutical intervention.
Eventually, hormonal changes and ageing will impact vitality, mental focus, athletic performance and libido and may serve as a wake-up call to focus on your personal health. Health crises can result in rapid ageing and speeding up of the andropause process.
Men will find that the guided use of energy boosting vitamins, minerals, supplements and herbal medicines can induce higher vitality and get you off of medications that come with unwanted side effects.
Give us a call today to speak with the doctor to see if naturopathic medicine can help you to achieve the health results you are looking for.
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More Info
The office is located on the second floor of the building and accessible via stairs or elevator. Ample parking is available in front of the building. The lobby doors are unlocked during regular business hours.
Address: 30320 Rancho Viejo Road, Suite 10
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
Phone: (949) 667-4436
Email: drmurphy@natmedworks.com