Author of Healing & Wholeness: Complementary
and Alternative Therapies for Mental Health
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY       COUPLES       ANXIETY       DEPRESSION       TRAUMA       HOW  I  PRACTICE       BIOGRAPHY


Natural Medicine in Psychotherapy


I have a holistic approach to psychotherapy that I have developed from the knowledge I gained while studying for a Bachelors in Communication, a Masters and Ph.D. in Psychology, and Doctorate in Naturopathy (natural medicine). I blend my education, other trainings, and experience in order to provide a truly integrated approach to mental health.

Natural Medicine and Psychotherapy

Psychotherapists who use natural medicine therapies are mental health care providers who treat the whole person, calling on science and a person's innate qualities to stimulate healing. This philosophy is the belief in and support of the psyche's capacity to restore itself to a state of health from the effects of trauma, abuse, and cumulative stress. The therapist's role is to guide the patient's restoration process by increasing awareness and consciousness regarding the identification and use of his own inherent resources. The therapy itself draws on the therapist's and patient's relationship with nature as the primary context in which core transformation and healing occurs. Core transformation refers to the process of awakening to a greater understanding of oneself and one's environment.

Psychotherapy that uses natural medicine therapies is based on the premise of educating the patient on how to be responsible for their own health care. For example, I educate my clients about self care and make recommendations with regards to treatment options, both allopathic and complementary.

How I Use Natural Medicine With Psychotherapy

Because disorders are often affected by our emotions and state of mind, the goal is to obtain emotional balance. This involves diagnosing and removing the disturbing emotional causes, whether psychological, physiological, or spiritual. Just as in any type of psychotherapy, referrals to outside sources, such as medical doctors, are given as needed.

When I used natural medicine therapies with psychotherapy, I don't regard a person as just having a mind in a body, but as constituting a mind-body-spirit unity. Mental-emotional, physical, and spiritual factors act and react upon each other, producing either health or lack of it; balance or imbalance.

The Principles of Natural Medicine

The Principles of Natural Medicine are based on the six Principles of Naturopathy. The principles are characterized by an overarching theme that addresses the psychological, physiological, and spiritual nature of the person.

  1. First do no harm
    Illness is a purposeful process. Symptoms are an expression of a person's mind, body, and/or spirit attempting to heal itself. The therapist's treatment must support the healing power of nature and therapy must be congruent with the internal order of the person.

  2. Utilize the healing power of nature
    Each person has the inherent ability to establish, maintain, and restore their health. The therapist's role is to facilitate and augment this process, to act to identify and remove obstacles to health and aid recovery.

  3. Identify and treat the cause
    Underlying causes of disease must be treated before a person can recover. Symptoms are expressions of the body's attempt to heal, and should not be suppressed by treatment. The therapist evaluates underlying causes on all levels, addressing causes rather than symptoms.

  4. Treat the whole person
    Health and disease are conditions of the entire person, involving a complex interaction of physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, and social factors. The therapist must treat the whole person by taking all of these factors into account.

  5. The best healer is a teacher
    A cooperative therapist-patient relationship is, in itself, therapeutic. The therapist's major role is to educate and encourage the patient to take responsibility for health, and to be a catalyst for healthful change. It is the patient, not the therapist, who ultimately creates or accomplishes healing.

  6. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
    The ultimate goal of therapy is prevention, accomplished through education and promotion of life-habits that create good health. The emphasis is on building health rather than on fighting disease.
Why Naturopathic Psychotherapy Works

Rather than approaching emotional health from a strictly psychological approach, the therapist seeks to create a synergistic effect by combining various modes of healing. Each method that is used builds upon the others to create a more powerful catalyst for change.

The principle of synergism is the foundation of many ancient healing practices, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and herbalism. In herbalism, for example, herbs are used in certain combination to achieve a specific synergistic effect. In therapy using natural medicine, combining certain methods often result in a more profound and lasting change than psychotherapy alone.

In addition to combining natural therapies with psychotherapy, I have a good understanding of naturopathic medicine, Because of this, I often refer my clients to naturopaths who specialize in specific areas of treatment, such as treating certain medical conditions or supervised fasting. By doing this, my clients always receive the best possible care.


Articles by Dr. Randi Fredricks, Ph.D.

The Importance of a Healing Crisis

Understanding Naturopathic Psychotherapy

Combining Naturopathy with Psychotherapy

see more ...




Dr. Randi Fredricks' book Healing & Wholeness: Complementary and Alternative Therapies for Mental Health
Your Complete Guide
to Natural Methods for
Optimal and Vibrant
Emotional Health.

Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.
~ Hippocrates
Deep change differs from incremental change in that it requires new ways of thinking and behaving.
~ Robert E. Quinn
We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.
~ C. Malesherbez
The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy.
~ Henry Ward Beecher

Dr. Randi Fredricks, Ph.D., LMFT ♦ San Jose Psychotherapist, Psychotherapy and Couples Counseling
1174 Lincoln Ave Suite 6 ♦ San Jose, California, 95125

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Randi Fredricks is a Psychotherapist providing Psychotherapy and Couples Counseling, and Licensed as a Marriage Family Therapist MFC 47803. Dr. Fredricks is Executive Director of Randi Fredricks, Marriage and Family Therapist, Inc. © 1991 - All rights reserved. The recommendations on this website do not constitute professional advice, substitute for professional treatment, or establish a therapeutic relationship. Dr. Randi Fredricks, Ph.D. of San Jose Psychotherapist, Psychotherapy and Couples Counseling is a psychotherapist in San Jose, California providing counseling, psychotherapy, and therapy for individuals and couples with relationship issues, anxiety, panic attacks, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, relationship issues, self-esteem, addiction, co-dependency, trauma, abuse, eating disorders, and managing grief and loss. If you search for counseling San Jose, psychotherapy San Jose, psychotherapist San Jose, therapist San Jose, counselor San Jose, couples therapist San Jose, couples counselor San Jose, marriage therapy San Jose, life coach San Jose, career coach San Jose, executive coach San Jose, you can find San Jose Counseling and San Jose Psychotherapy and Dr. Fredricks in San Jose and the Silicon Valley as the leading provider of such services. In addition to serving San Jose, Dr. Fredricks serves Campbell, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Milpitas, Mountain View, Monte Sereno, Cupertino, Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz, Felton, Sunnyvale, Morgan Hill, Fremont, Los Altos, and Gilroy, California.