Dr. Andrew Leavenworth provides an array of services to assist your journey to health and well-being.

The deeper purpose of all forms of Natural Medicine is to stimulate the power of your own life force (prana or qi) to move in a harmonious flow to activate your body’s own healing forces to create your ultimate vitality.

In Natural Medicine we find that most disease is rooted in two key factors:  emotional and psychological knots and incorrect diet and lifestyle for one’s constitution.

The following services are offered to address these primary concerns:

Homeopathy Consultations

Homeopathy utilizes the subtle power of extremely diluted and potentized substances from the plant, mineral and animal kingdoms to match your current mental, emotional and physical state. 

Many of our chronic emotional and psychological knots lead to physical manifestations.  That is the law of the mind-body connection. 

In a Homeopathy consultation we explore your personality, fears, dreams, likes and dislikes, etc., in addition to noting any physical expressions of imbalance.

Through use of a matching homeopathic remedy to shift the central delusion that we hold onto in life, we are able to finally release age-old ways of thinking, behaving and feeling that have been holding us back from our highest expression of happiness and health.

When the correct remedy and potency are utilized, it will stimulate your own life force to create emotional and physical well-being.

In addition to emotional sources of imbalance, we must also look to the “maintaining causes of disease.”  These may include diet, lifestyle, breathing, home environment, etc.

Ayurveda addresses these maintaining causes and resolves them.

Ayurveda Lifestyle Counseling

Living in harmony with nature to prevent disease, using natural cleansing therapies to address accumulations that are already in the body, or using rejuvenative methods to restore depleted tissues are the foundation of the ancient and powerful science of Ayurveda, a 5,000-year-old science from India.

In your Ayurveda Lifestyle Counseling session we will discover the nature of your constitution, identify imbalances and create a program for you that can include such elements as diet, exercise, breathing and herbal supplements.

Recommendations are also offered for specific therapies that may be needed to aid in balancing your system.

“Breathe Easy” – Nasya Treatment

Be free from the suffering of chronic sinus conditions.  Nasya begins with a soothing herb oil massage of the face, neck and chest.   Hot, steamy compresses that open up the channels, nasal passages and sinuses are applied before and after receiving several drops of herbally-medicated oil into each nostril.   The herb oil moves deeply in and loosens and cleanses blockages and accumulations.  Warm saltwater gargles complete the cleansing process.

“Move Freely” - Joint and Muscle Care Treatments

The following treatments can be enjoyed for freeing the body from stiff and painful muscles or joints, whether recent or chronic.

Shali Pinda Sweda – Hot Herbal Compress Treatment

Your treatment begins with an herb oil massage of the affected joints and muscles.  Then, soft cotton bags filled with freshly cooked rice and soaked in rejuvenating hot milk and herb broth are used to revitalize stiff and painful muscles and joints.  As the heat opens up the pores, the affected areas drink in the herbal essences that work to eliminate pain and restore freedom of movement.

Greeva, Kati and Janu Basti – Neck, Back and Knee Rejuvenation Treatments

A special dough is prepared, fashioned into a circle and placed onto painful, stiff areas like the neck, low back or knees.  This dough creates a natural circular reservoir around the affected area.  A herbally-medicated oil is then repeatedly heated and circulated into the reservoir, bathing and healing the affected area deeply.  Ancient Sanskrit mantras are chanted to aid the healing process.  The treatment is concluded with massage and steaming of the surrounding region. 

Lepa – Herbal Plaster Application

After the above treatments are completed, a hot herbal paste can be prepared and applied to joints with chronic restriction of movement or pain.  This plaster is then covered with a cloth wrap and secured with an elastic brace and is kept on for 2-3 hours after application for best results.

Shirodhara – Stress Relief Oil Head Bathing

This popular relaxation treatment begins with a head, neck and shoulder massage and follows with a gentle river of warm herb oil flowing from a copper pot in a soothing stream onto the forehead.  The treatment eases the mind and enhances the clarity of the senses.  It has been used historically to reduce anxiety and insomnia and relieve other stress-related conditions.

Panchakarma – Detox and Rejuvenation Therapies

Panchakarma cleansing therapies, specific to each season, prevent the over-accumulation of certain imbalances in the system that lead to disease.  These cleansing therapies are also utilized when the body already has an imbalance that is creating certain disease presentations regardless of season.

Usually panchakarma therapies are preceded by several days of a specific diet and increasing amounts of ghee (clarified butter).  The clarified butter is able to move into various channels of the body’s tissues and loosen up toxic accumulations.  Heat and massage are also applied to the body during the last 2-3 days prior to the cleansing therapy in order to further mobilize these toxins, moving them into the bloodstream and lymph and move them to the organs of elimination. 

After this preparatory period of diet, ghee, massage and steaming, the actual panchakarma treatment is done based on dosha imbalanced.

Virechena – uses a laxative herbal decoction to cleanse excess pitta (heat and transformation principle) from the system.  Typical signs of excess pitta may include burning sensations anywhere in the body, red skin conditions, irritability of the bowels, stomach acidity, emotional irritability, etc.  This is frequently done in the late summer and early fall for prevention of pitta build-up.

Basti – uses herb oil and herb tea enemas to cleanse excess vata (air/space and movement principle) from the system.  Typical signs of excess vata may include dryness of skin, mucous membranes, bowels (constipation), etc.; anxiety, nervousness, restlessness; cracking, aching joints or painful muscles; gases and bloating.  This is frequently done in the mid to late fall season.

Nasya – uses medicated herb oil in the nasal passages to clear excess kapha (water/earth and stability principle).  Typical signs of excess kapha may include blockages of the channels in the body, i.e. congestion in the nasal passages, sinuses or lungs; excess fat accumulation in the body; sluggishness of the mind; growths and tumors; edema.

“Healthy Body – Fat Reduction” – Udvartana

The accumulation of excess fat in the body is often due to an imbalance of the digestive system resulting in over-accumulation of the kapha material of fat.  In order to remove this excess, the digestion is first corrected through diet and herbs, the mind may be cleared of excess kapha with nasya treatment and the body can undergo a body treatment called Udvartana.

Udvartana uses fragrant herbal powders in a vigorous “dry massage” that creates strong friction to help breakdown fat and increase circulation to areas where fat has accumulated in excess.  These herbal powders have special drying properties of their own to assist in the body’s own fat reduction process.  When combined with a kapha-reducing diet, herbal supplements, exercise and proper breathing, the results are both slimming and rejuvenating.

Asian Bodywork Therapy

Healing sessions are offered that combine various bodywork techniques from world traditions including:

Tuina - a series of techniques developed in ancient China that help free the body of stagnation in the channels through pressure, palpation, assisted movement of joints, stretching, traction, etc.

Shiatsu - use of finger, elbow, palm pressure on various points in the body to stimulate healing flow of life energy (qi).

Abhayanga - Ayurvedic massage using warm medicated herb oils to nutrify and detoxify the system and encourage healthy movement of the body's natural circulation.

In addition, American and European traditions of circulatory massage and sports massage are integrated into sessions for a complete treatment.

Transformational Movement Therapy

Each of us are subject to various emotional challenges in life that our body responds to and creates a posture toward.

This often shows up as "armouring" of the body's muscles and joints to protect us from further hurt.

This mechanism is understandable in a "fight or flight" situation, but, unfortunately, for many of us, the body retains the "memory" and posture even after the threat is long gone.  Emotions become somatized into the body and the rigidity they create in us can limit our emotional expression and inhibit real happiness.

Using movement derived from world dance and combining it with the knowledge of the Asian concepts of meridians and points, we work together to release these postures of rigidity, so that freedom of expression is attained and happiness can be a daily reality.