Healthcare Revived, with Revive Naturopathic Medicine
I had the pleasure of first meeting this week’s feature, Doc Derek of Revive Naturopathic Medicine, over a cup of Lofty coffee in downtown Encinitas. A referral from my friends Dr. Ben Terrano and Dr. Stephanie Barbakoff at Oculus Brain Centers, I knew I would like Doc Derek right away (he was wearing Vivos). After chatting for an hour or so, I asked him if he’d be interested in being featured through this platform! He kindly invited me to his Carlsbad Village office.
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Dr. Derek Lawrence, founder and lead clinician at Revive Naturopathic Medicine, has been around medicine and healthcare all his life. When asked about why he studied naturopathic medicine, he had this to say, “My dad was a radiologist so I kind of grew up around medicine and all the big medical words, and I think that it evolved into some like, ‘well my dad’s a doc, I want to do that too’” We both laughed. “I don’t think there was ever really any entertaining other paths because I was always gravitated to biology and sciences. I also happened to be around a cohort of kids growing up who also wanted to pursue similar paths, it wasn’t something that was assumed but it was always something that I wanted to follow. I was lucky in that I saw the successes and challenges of the conventional medicine approach but I was exposed to naturopathic medicine towards the end of high school and university, both through my own experiences and through family members, and it just kind of fit with my philosophical approach and made practical sense to me. It was the part of the equation that I wanted to participate in. I wanted to understand more about health and not just disease.”
*An excerpt from the Revive website. To read more about naturopathic medicine and the Revive team, click here.
Doc Derek and I both agree in that patient education should be at the forefront of the healing process and the patient experience. I asked him to describe the process of orientation and patient intake for the typical experience, “It starts before the patient even comes into our office. We even offer free consults to people who might be kicking the tires a little bit. People need to know that this is the right place for them, because when we’re doing the type of care that we do I, need a teammate - not a patient. You know the intake paperwork, the medical history, those are just nuts and bolts. Half of our visits consist of discovery - putting those nuts and bolts together to see what fits. The other half is an explanation what I think is happening, what dysfunctions we’re seeing, which nuts and bolts may need to adjusted.”
“Let’s take lab tests for example. I’ll sit someone down and go over the results and tell them, ‘This is you! This is the inside stuff that you can’t necessarily tell me.’. You can ask question after question about signs and symptoms, but you can’t find the inflammatory markers in your blood or see the health of your microbiome. Now the results are important, but it’s also important for the patient to understand why we’re these running tests, why I think it’s important for their cases, but also why they should think it’s important for their case and their health in the grand scheme of things. It’s paramount for them to understand, especially when it comes to the intervention - whether it be medications, supplements, diet, hormones, or other therapeutics. I want them to know why we chose that intervention. What bothers me the most is when people come in with a bag of stuff that they’re taking and they don’t know why! Because their doctor told them to? It’s not even a matter of right medications or wrong ones (that’s another story), but the patient doesn’t know why they’re taking something. You could say the say the same thing about exercise - why am I strengthening my glutes because my knee hurts? You HAVE to educate your patient - the shit is connected (laughs all around).”
For both naturopathic medicine and chiropractic, the scopes of practice are very broad. Through our conversation, Doc Derek made a good point in that it can be scary for people to explore other options or look for other paths to health away from the traditional, western medicine approach.
He jokingly described himself as being “good at making people weird”, in that he serves a good bridge between the typical medical model and potential alternatives.
Also having a background in western medicine, I agree with him in that filling that niche is important, especially when serving those who haven’t been happy with that western medical model.
Featuring wood accents and a soft undertone, the Revive office is unique among healthcare providers.
“It’s all about introducing people to practices that are very much anchored in evidence and science, but viewed from a different lens. How is our body functioning? How can we support the biochemistry? How can we make these processes work better or faster? You know I relish the opportunity to be somebody’s first naturopathic experience but I’m also a lot of peoples 4th or 5th. My hope is to be their last, in the way of getting them well.”