The Integrative Mental Health Clinician Program was created to raise the standard of proficiency of Naturopathic Doctors and other health professionals in understanding complex mental health concerns such as anxiety, bipolar disorders and depression. It explores mental illness through the lenses of trauma, psychoneuroimmunology, pathophysiology, epigenetics, and patient-centered compassionate management. The program is evidence-based yet holistic, considering the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual as vital parts of an integrative system.

This course is for clinicians that want to grow in clinical practice and help their patients in addressing the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of health.

Initially, you will learn about the role of neurotransmitters, hormones, environmental toxins, diet, sleep, and exercise. This is the foundation to gaining a deeper understanding of the connection between mental and physical health. You will learn to identify the multiple factors that influence one’s mental state. We will explore substantial research about the connection between exercise, diet, and mental health, and how to teach patients to implement positive routines in their lives.

Having established the conditions for mental well-being with sleep, exercise, and diet, we dive into the inner work required to improve your mental health. In light of neuroplasticity and drawing from my extensive experience of treating patients with mental health concerns, we will discover how to shift distorted thought patterns. Subsequently, we will focus on how to break the thought-emotion cycle, how to manage stress and burnout, and the importance of setting healthy boundaries. Emotional avoidance through anger, denial, distraction, and addiction are discussed in terms of recognition and management. You will learn how to teach your patients to “live without the storyline”.

In subsequent lectures, I will outline models that address struggles around willpower and motivation, and then explain the impact of environmental stimuli on mental health. Finally, we will discover the power of self-compassion, and address core and shadow beliefs. You will learn practical tools and resources that you can use in practice with your patients to help them connect to their inner resources, establishing the foundation for lasting change.

The better you understand the factors that influence your patient’s mental state, the more you can empower him/her to heal. You can educate your patient about positive and negative influences on mental health and suggest powerful changes that have lasting effects. A healthy diet, as well as a regular exercise and healthy sleep schedule are the very foundation for mental wellbeing.

Only if you, the practitioner, have become aware of your own unhealthy beliefs and thought patterns, and have done the necessary inner work to shift them, can you truly support your patient in dealing with his/her thoughts and emotions. The beauty of this work is that you will become a practitioner that embodies what you teach. You will be more able to support your patient in identifying and shifting unhealthy thought patterns and addressing emotions from a perspective of wholesome compassion.

After setting the foundation for mental health with diet, sleep, exercise and the management of thoughts and emotions, you can begin to empower your patient to set meaningful goals. The techniques you have learnt will help you support your patient in introducing lasting changes. The seeds of change will grow in the fertile ground you and your patient have been ploughing together.

The power of self-compassion that you have explored during this course will become an inspiration for your patient that he/she can integrate into life. Through exercises and a renewed perspective informed by self-compassion, your patient might continuously be nurtured by this inner resource, while establishing changes that last.

My personal experiences and journey of healing.

While I was doing my undergraduate degree at UBC in the late 1980’s, I experienced a debilitating depression and anxiety. I also had an eating disorder and was not coping with the stress I was under. After taking the medication that was initially prescribed to alleviate depression, I swung into a psychotic manic episode and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder type 1.

I was not able to accept myself and lived with the shame and stigma of mental illness. In 1994, and in the aftermath of surviving a suicide attempt, I read the book “A Return to Love” by Marianne Williamson and began my journey of healing.

The sole reason I became a Naturopathic Doctor was because when I was struggling with my illness, there weren’t many natural experts in the field. I created this course to teach practitioners how to support their patients using a holistic approach.  

It is through my own journey of regaining my mental health over the past 30 years that I can now say that I thrive in my life. This program combines my education as a Naturopathic Doctor with the additional training I have in five types of counselling: Gestalt psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Compassion-focused therapy, Integrative Reprogramming Technique, and Mindfulness based therapy. I have taken this knowledge and training and created a solution based course that teaches you how to manage your mental health. From the place of “physician heal thyself” you will then be able to guide your patients to regain their mental health.

The structure of the course is 10 recorded videos, each 75 minutes, that participants will access online. The total program is 12.5 hours. Homework and resources are given to participants between weekly videos. If you would like additional guidance from Dr. Chris, you can purchase 2 live 1:1 calls as a follow up to the recorded lectures. Please email admin@naturalterrain.com or call the clinic at 587-521-3595 for more information. I am looking forward to hearing from you!

“The course is a unique learning experience. Not only will you learn relevant, practical and tangible clinical information to utilize with patients right away, you will also learn the importance of ‘physician, heal thyself,’ which can often be missing in other professional educational courses, allowing you to put into practice what you’re learning.”
~ Dr. N, course participant

“Dr. Chris draws upon her own personal and professional experiences in the area of mental health in an engaging and dynamic way, sharing personal and clinical examples, concepts, techniques, and tools learned from various sources providing a foundation for acquiring knowledge and skills for an effective and integrated approach in serving others. The small group setting was intimate, supportive and relaxed, with invitation to share, discuss or just listen. I enjoyed my experience and I’m sure you will enjoy it as well.”
~ Dr. H, course participant

“I found the course helpful for myself personally as well as in my own practice. The course was very integrative, and included aspects of the physical, mental/emotional and spiritual components of mental health. I would recommend this course to anyone wanting to expand their naturopathic approaches to mental health care.”
~ Dr. Z, ND

“I wanted to thank you for your course. It was really nice to have reassurance that what I had been doing in practice was the right direction. But it had also provided quite a few insights that have been fundamentally helpful for not only my practice, but for myself.
I would love to stay informed of future courses you may offer for practitioners.
Thank you, again!”
~ Dr. L, ND

“I found the course to be very informative as a clinician and also for myself. Dr. Chris, ND presented information in a way that was practical and easy to understand. She presented concepts that I could easily integrate into my practice. I particularly enjoyed the “homework” self-reflection sessions, as it allowed me to reflect on my own health and wellbeing throughout the course.”
~ Dr. Vaishna Sathananthan, ND