How To Find Holistic Health Practitioners

“Who are your trusted holistic health practitioners and how can I find one in my local area?”

It’s one of the questions I am most commonly asked and one I am quick to answer for two reasons:

For one, finding a holistic health or alternative/complementary medicine practitioner can be a difficult process, especially if you don’t have a wide range of contacts in the field, or know anyone personally who has used a practitioner before.

And two, generally, you’ll be coming to a holistic health practitioner in a vulnerable state – perhaps either emotionally or physically unwell, or a combination of the two – and so it is necessary to find a support system that you feel supported by and safe with.

Finding a holistic health practitioner who you connect with, can build a foundation of trust alongside and feel comfortable sharing the intricacies of your physical and mental health, is the fundamental base of a synergistic relationship that will allow you to truly reap the full benefits of these complementary medicine practices.

read: which alternative medicine practitioner to see?

Whether you are looking for an acupuncturist, herbalist, Reiki master, cupping specialist, life coach or naturopath, this guide will help you begin the process of finding a support team of holistic health or alternative medicine practitioners, giving you insider tips and insights of how, where and what to look for!

How To Find Holistic Health Practitioners

1. Recommendations

A fairly common route to finding holistic health practitioners is scouting recommendations from friends, family members or people in your community whose opinions you trust and who have had positive and worthwhile experiences with practitioners. This could also refer to the recommendations of those from social media, blogs, groups and the like. Ask around and see if anyone you know has a recommendation.

Just remember, everyone will have a different experience depending on their own circumstances and taste, so it is important to remain open to the process you encounter.

read: how i reversed pcos

2. Referrals

Referrals often come organically between medical health professionals (both traditional and functional) but can also come about through a little inquiry to your wider practitioner circle. It could be a referral from your yoga teacher who has a great sound healer connection, or perhaps your functional doctor who has a preferred therapist, or your acupuncturist who knows a great abdominal massage specialist. As each field becomes increasingly specialised, there becomes a wide net between the practitioners. Ask around.

Nearly all medical, allied health, fitness and wellness professionals will have a referral network of practitioners who they can recommend onto, especially if it falls outside of their scope of practice. Whether that is someone they have personally utilised or have a professional relationship with.

3. Research

If it is proving difficult to find either recommendations or referrals, then your own research is the next step in sourcing the practitioners you require.  

A good starting place can be looking at the association boards of each modality in your region. Such as the Australian Naturopathic Practitioners Association – which will list those practitioners who are qualified and registered to be listed within their networks.

Rather than the overwhelming crush of information from a general search engine keyword, try researching through targeted social media – such as using a relevant hashtag and location, ie. #herablistlondon to see if you can find anyone marketing themselves or others. Look for reviews online, using key search terms such as “Herbalist Singapore Review” which can bring forward blog reviews or recommendations, rather than just landing pages.

4. Do Your Due Diligence

Before reaching out and booking a session, do a bit of a deep dive to find out a little more about the practitioner. As previously mentioned, you want to feel like you can connect with the practitioner you are seeing – so be sure to look for their qualifications, association boards, history and background. Most practitioners will have a website you can view most of this information from and perhaps some blog posts too. Take a look at their social media channels (if any) to get a sense of their treatment style and practices.  

During your due diligence, take note of your initial sense of the practitioner and the way they present themselves, your vibe and the way they are described, as this will generally give you a good sounding board of their values and ethos.

read: what is acupuncture really about?

5.     Question away

If you’ve found a few practitioners you feel drawn towards, but have a few hesitations or don’t feel clear on an issue – perhaps you want to know if they have experience with your particular situation, feel free to reach out and ask a few questions.

Most practitioners will be more than happy to respond with information that they can (noting that this will be within a scope of practice, without knowing the particulars of your full health history this isn’t always possible, but more general questions such as “have you worked with clients with PCOS before?” are). You may also want to ask the sort of time frames and commitments they work within, how they treat and see patients, how long a session is, if it is covered by insurance or the investment – so that you can draw up all the background information you require to make the decision.

6.     Look For Testimonials

Finally, look around or ask for testimonials from past or current clients. Most practitioners will be more than happy to give you their glowing reviews, especially from clients who may share the same experiences you’re going through.