Spotlight with Dr. Andrea Brockman, Holistic Health Educator
by Andrea Brockman, BSN, DDS, CEO of Lifetime Horizons, LLC, and blogger for ExploreHolistic.com.
Holistic Health Education Should Be a Requirement
“The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion” Arnold H. Glasow
I had no education in nursing or dental school about holistic health options. It was traditional all the way. But, it was my own health issues from mercury exposure that set me on the holistic health path less traveled.
Obtaining information was not easy prior to the Internet and finding holistic health practitioners was even more difficult, especially in a city with influential conventional medical and dental schools and giant pharmaceutical and insurance headquarters.
Core conventional beliefs and the educational system that promotes them are hard to change when an influential majority has the money and power to maintain the status quo. Still, in my twenties, when I didn’t get results from the traditional tests and treatments trying in vain for a diagnosis, and I was only offered medications with serious side effects for my multiple symptoms, I refused to succumb to a poor quality of life and a drug dependency. My inner voice told me there were options I had yet to discover.
It took over a decade of education, offered by scientifically run holistic professional organizations, and lots of research for me to transition fully into Biological Dentistry. During that time there were few holistic dentists and alternative health care providers. Most had to keep a low profile, making it a challenge to find knowledgeable and experienced holistic health practitioners to use for myself and also refer my patients to. I learned of holistic practitioners from my patients who used their services and through networking at professional organization conferences. These practitioners saved my life and those of my patients.
Holistic Health and Wellness is Finally Becoming More Mainstream
The fact that respected mainstream doctors have an education that ignores holistic practices and promotes conventional services generally covered by health insurance has not stopped utilization of holistic products and services that are all out-of-pocket expenditures.
Today, holistic, natural, green, complementary, alternative, and integrative health providers, services, products, schools, organizations, and continuing education are exploding, making it one of the hottest emerging industries in the world.
This has occurred gradually over the course of the last decade where more people have been waking up to the benefits of alternative health. It’s hard to imagine that a generation ago, there were few places to go for Yoga classes, Massage Therapy, Nutritional Counseling, Life Coaching, and mainstream markets for natural products and organic food. Previously looked upon with skepticism, there now is trust in the services of naturopathic physicians, acupuncturists, chiropractors, functional medicine practitioners, energy healers, holistic veterinarians, and biological dentists.
For those who understand that they cannot afford to be sick, choose to avoid medications, and prefer natural health, wellness, and longevity, it is a positive health choice to follow the holistic path.
Finding the Path to Holistic Health
There is a vast array of holistic health services and providers. And people are coming to realize and trust that non-invasive, safe and effective solutions for their health problems exist. The conundrum for many consumers and health practitioners (who can make holistic health referrals) is they don’t have enough knowledge of who or what is out there and how or where to find them.
We must educate one another – health seekers, conventional and holistic practitioners – with reliable information. And we must be able to find trusted experts and products that help to deal with root causes of illness that eliminate symptoms rather than just suppress them.
To address this, we developed an online resource that helps to promote good judgement when searching for holistic practitioners, businesses and schools, products, events, and organizations. Let us all have the discernment and freedom to benefit from the holistic path to health and wellbeing.
Biography
Dr. Andrea Brockman got her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Doctor of Dental Surgery both from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.
She worked as an Intensive Care Nurse and opened a dental practice with her husband where they took care of the dental needs of medically compromised patients.
Dr. Brockman practiced Biological Dentistry as well as being an author, speaker, and co-developer of the website ExploreHolistic.com that serves as an educational site, holistic directory, and marketplace resource.
“Find other Alternative Health Care Providers in the Holistic Practitioners Directory
If you are a provider of holistic, natural, integrative or alternative health services and/or products and would like to extend your reach and be more visible to health seekers, Contact Us to post an original guest blog on our educational site.
You may also want to consider joining our Holistic Practitioner Directory today. Spread the word!
About Us
As holistic dentists, we've recommended products and services that supported our patients’ health for decades. In experiencing our own health challenges from mercury toxicity, we worked closely with many natural, alternative, and integrative health practitioners who aided our recovery as well as our patients’. We built this site to provide you with a simple-to-use, comprehensive, informational, and functional resource for your physical, emotional, and spiritual health & well-being.