Naturopathic and Chinese medicine both recognize an inherent self-healing process in people that is ordered and intelligent. Naturopathic physicians act to identify and remove obstacles to healing and recovery, and to facilitate and augment this inherent self-healing process.

We educate our patients and encourage self-responsibility for health. They also recognize and employ the therapeutic potential of the doctor-patient relationship.

We seek to identify and remove the underlying causes of illness rather than to merely eliminate or suppress symptoms.

We emphasize the prevention of disease by assessing risk factors, heredity and susceptibility to disease, and by making appropriate interventions in partnership with their patients to prevent illness.

We follow three guidelines to avoid harming the patient:
- We utilize methods and medicinal substances which minimize the risk of harmful side effects, using the least force necessary to diagnose and treat;
- We avoid when possible the harmful suppression of symptoms; and
- We acknowledge, respect, and work with individuals’ self-healing process.

The theory of yin and yang states that all things have two opposite aspects, which are both opposite and at the same time interdependent. This is a universal law of the material world. These two aspects are in opposition to each other but because one end of the spectrum cannot exist without the other they are interdependent.
The ancient Chinese used water and fire to symbolize yin and yang; anything moving, hot, bright and hyperactive is yang, and anything quiescent, cold, dim and hypoactive is yin.

The yin and yang properties of things are not absolute but relative.  These two opposites are not stationary but in constant motion. If we imagine the circadian rhythm, night is yin and day is yang; as night (yin) fades it becomes day (yang), and as yang fades it becomes yin. Yin and yang are therefore changing into each other as well as balancing each other.

We treat each patient by taking into account individual physical, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, social, and other factors. Since total health also includes spiritual health, we encourage individuals to pursue their personal spiritual development.

Hippocrates, the writer of the Hippocratic oath (the oath that physicians take when they become licensed said, 'Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food'.   Here are Tend Natural Health we believe that a whole foods, plant-based, high protein diet is the cornerstone for building a strong physical, spiritual, and mental body and open heart.  We work with patients first and foremost on eating for health and internal harmony.   

'Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body & soul alike.'  ~ John Muir

Something I make a priority to do is to play in nature.  Over the last 7 years that I've lived here, the nature of the PNW has healed me in ways that I could not have predicted.  I spend a fair amount of time walking in the woods or just in my neighborhood and find a great way to mark time and be in touch with seasonal light, plants, and cycles.  I encourage my patients to spend time outdoors in order to be connected to beautiful foilage and topography this region has to offer.