Briefly describe your personal history:
My first career was performing in musical theater, which gave me a wonderful opportunity
of traveling and meeting many interesting people. During my travels with One Music,
I suffered a back injury and developed chronic fatigue and other health problems.
This turned out to be a gift in that I was introduced to several different alternative
medicine practitioners who helped me to regain my health. I gained such respect
and interest in the work that these people did that I decided to pursue a career
in natural medicine myself. I graduated from Bastyr University in 1999 and have
enjoyed practicing in downtown Seattle at Natural Healthcare Northwest since then.
How is natural medicine accepted in your region?
I feel very positive about the acceptance of natural medicine in Seattle, by both
patients and other health professionals. I have a very friendly and professional
working relationship with several medical doctors and other alternative/complementary
health care providers who refer patients to me and accept referrals of my patients
when necessary. I feel these type of relationships are important to allow me to
offer my patients the finest type of integrated care possible. I'm grateful that
Seattle has such a rich pool of caring and high-quality providers.
What do you find to be the most interesting aspect of practicing?
For me this is meeting and understanding the people who come to see me as patients.
I am honored that they share their stories of pain and hope with me and that they
trust me to advise and guide them toward attaining better health. I also really
enjoy taking continuing education classes and reading books and articles to learn
new ways of approaching the health and wellness needs of my patients.
What do you consider your winning business strategies?
There is no doubt that I owe a great deal of my professional success to my husband,
Rick, who has much more business sense than I do and has helped my in every business
decision that I have made. We run Natural Healthcare Northwest as a family business
and Rick works at our front desk handling the finances, billing, patient scheduling
and much more.
What keeps you motivated to practice?
Easy answer: I like to see people regain their health and happiness! Natural medicine
is so helpful for so many people. Every day I witness my patients' vitality, function,
mood, energy and emotional and physical health improve.
What has been your most useful resource?
My schooling at Bastyr gave me a good solid education. Continuing education classes
have been vital to expand my knowledge and skills in the healing arts. My husband
and family have been an incredible support and my classmates continue to be a
valuable resource and support system.
What's next for you? Where would you like to place your energies?
I want to continue to grow as a healer and as a person. Rick and I would enjoy
bringing other natural health care providers into Natural Healthcare Northwest,
expanding the types of medicines offered to our patients.
What are your interests/hobbies outside of medicine?
I enjoy partner dancing, music, singing, gardening, water activities, movies,
traveling, family, cooking ethnic food and fixing up my "new" 1910 house!
The Northwest is such a beautiful area to live and I enjoy sightseeing in our
pretty cities and gorgeous outdoors.
What would you like to see from Bastyr University Alumni Department?
I'd be interested to see Bastyr interface with other medical professionals to
present "integrated" continuing education or social events where different
professional types could meet and learn more about each other's medicine. I would
also be interested to see if Bastyr could negotiate with other educational institutions
to have them offer Naturopathic Physicians advanced standing in other medical
degree programs such as Medical Doctorate, Chiropractic Doctorate, and Nurse Practitioner
programs. I would like to see Bastyr show more interest in the financial viability
of our practicing doctors. In particular, insurance companies are discriminating
against natural medicine practitioners by paying us less than the rate paid to
medical doctors, placing more restrictions on patient access to alternative care
providers and harassing us with targeted audits and delayed payments. I would
like to see our Alumni Department work with WANT to protect insured patients'
access to natural medicine each year when the insurance companies and small business
association support legislature to eradicate or reduce insurance coverage for
alternative medicine.
What types of CEU topics would you be interested in seeing Bastyr host?
I would like to learn the food allergy testing methods utilized by Dr Jared Zeff.
I would like to see refresher courses on things such as minor surgery, pharmacy,
and medical procedures, especially if our scope of practice increases to allow
us to perform more of these medical procedures. I would love to have more homeopathic
continuing education. I always enjoy classes offered by Matt Callison, LAc and
Dr. Tran, LAc on their successful acupuncture techniques. I would like more physical
medicine classes and also appreciate the courses on business management and insurance
billing that have been offered. I would like to see more educators from other
countries for the diversity of information.
What would it take for you to get totally excited about returning to campus (or
the Northeast location) for the annual reunion?
I have not attended this in the past because it was always held when I had previous
plans to go out of town, either for family events or continuing education. I hope
to be able to attend next year.
Do you know anyone that would like to help support our mission?
I don't know anyone personally, but I always thought it would be great if Bastyr
had one or more "celebrities" willing to lend their support and vocal
approval of Bastyr. For example, Suzanne Summers recently wrote a book about her
positive experience with bioidentical hormones in menopause. Perhaps someone like
this who had a good experience with natural medicine would volunteer their name
and endorsement to Bastyr and our professions.
Cynthia Buxton, ND, MS ('99)