Hi I’m Sophia, I’m a student at Southern Cross University and I’m also a naturopath and I’m
pursuing a PhD with the National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine.
Naturopaths provide patient-centred health care by delving into the underlying causes of ill health
so naturopaths use a range of different therapies including nutritional,
herbal and lifestyle medicines to support the person and support body systems, understanding
the interconnectivity between body systems with what we eat and the way we live our lives.
So it's very much patient empowerment focused and assisting people to take control of their own
health. I wanted to become a naturopath because I could see that there was a missing link in
conventional medicine and that missing link is the holism, it's the patient empowerment and patient
education and treating the person rather than treating the disease so I think that's a really
important component of healthcare that naturopaths provide. I think research is really important for
the advancement of any profession and that includes naturopaths and also in my clinical
practice as a naturopath a number of questions have started arising about why certain treatments
work the way they do and the best way I can think of to answer those questions is by doing research
so I’m really excited to be able to contribute to my profession in that way by and contribute
to research. I really love being on campus at Southern Cross University here at Lismore,
it's a beautiful campus, it's in a lush tropical environment surrounded by nature and for me that's
an ideal place to spend my days so I really love being here each day and I also really enjoy being
surrounded by a lot of other wonderful people who are doing all sorts of work in very interesting
and exciting new areas. Now I’ll tell you about courses offered through the National Centre for
Naturopathic Medicine, our facilities and how you can apply. Southern Cross University offers
a Graduate Certificate of Advanced Naturopathic Medicine which can be completed in eight months
part-time. There are three intakes a year and for 2022 those are in March, July and October.
The Graduate Certificate and Master's Degrees in Advanced Naturopathic Medicine are the only
postgraduate qualifications in Naturopathic Medicine to be offered in Australia.
This course is designed for students with a bachelor's degree or equivalent in naturopathy
to allow you to develop specialized knowledge in a particular field such as gastrointestinal health,
mental health or reproductive health. The Graduate Certificate also provides
a pathway for graduates wanting to undertake further postgraduate or higher degree studies.
The degree is available 100% online to allow busy professionals the flexibility to fit their studies
in with their careers and to be able to study from anywhere in the world. If you would like to study
in more depth National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine also offers a Master of Advanced
Naturopathic Medicine, the Master's Degree also has three intakes per year and is delivered 100%
online, it can be completed in 1.3 years part-time with the same course content as the
graduate certificate. The Master's Degree allows you to delve deeper into an area of specialized
study and also further extend your research skills through a dedicated research component.
The Master of Lifestyle Medicine is Australia’s first master's degree offered in this discipline,
it is comprised of eight units which align with competencies in of the
international board of lifestyle medicine and the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine.
The contemporary curriculum addresses clinical reasoning, metabolic health,
self-care, health behaviour, shared models of care and research in the context of lifestyle medicine.
NCNM is also well equipped to supervise students completing higher degrees by research. Students
are able to pursue a master of science or a PhD, these degrees allow you to develop the knowledge
and research skills essential for a career in research or academia. You'll be involved in
making meaningful contributions to health research and to improving health outcomes through your work
opportunities and experiences that you can be a part of at Southern Cross University
are established professional networks, courses are designed and delivered by experts in their fields,
HDR supervisors are engaged and committed to helping students excel in their research
and of course state-of-the-art labs across our campus locations. I’m here at our Lismore campus
in a biomedical lab and we've got science and health labs across campus locations.