- Arthritis
- Fibromyalgia
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Medical Weight LossA Health Coach or Counselor is a nutrition expert, wellness authority and a supportive coach. People work with health counselors to achieve their health goals in areas such as chronic disease and weight management, food cravings, depression, sleep, energy and digestion.
- Primary CareA licensed naturopathic doctor (N.D.) attends a four-year graduate level naturopathic medical school and is educated in the same basic sciences as traditional medical doctors. In addition to the standard medical curriculum, the naturopathic physician is required to complete training in clinical nutrition, botanical medicine, homeopathic medicine, counseling, hydrotherapy, minor surgery and pharmacology. A naturopathic physician must pass rigorous professional board exams in order to be licensed as a primary care general practice doctor.
- Smoking CessationThe opportunity to join Integrative Health Center of Maine is a great honor. Dr. Chester believes learning is life-long, and ongoing. She is already employing the concepts of functional medicine and continues to learn more about this. Areas of interest for further study include evaluation and treatment of chronic stress, adrenal, thyroid and other hormonal issues (preferring to correct the underlying and causal conditions whenever possible), chronic insomnia, individual biochemistry and epigenetics, brain inflammation, EMF’s, chronic mold, MCS, CFS, homeopathic organ support, smoking cessation, and drainage/detoxification systems, and learning the application of functional medicine to many other chronic medical problems. She is eager to work with and empower people who are motivated to use natural methods to strive toward encorporating their vision of Healing and Wellness.
- Family PracticeSean McCloy, MD, MPH, MA received his Medical Degree from New York Medical College. He completed his Family Medicine residency training at Maine Medical Center in Portland. He is a board-certified Diplomate in both Family Medicine and Holistic Medicine. He received his Master of Public Health (specializing in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention) from Boston University School of Public Health and his Master of Arts in Medical Sciences from Boston University School of Medicine. He is certified in Chelation Therapy from the American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM).
- Infectious DiseasesThe field of psychiatry was full of hope and excitement when I trained in medicine and psychiatry in the 1980’s. The Bio-Psycho-Social Model of Illness promised an evolution to a more holistic understanding and treatment of illness. Medications appeared to offer much relief for severe conditions, especially in allowing for shorter hospital stays. Research appeared to be on the march forward to finding more and better medications that promised to correct “chemical imbalances” in the brain. Psychotherapy offered the hope of broader and deeper emotional healing. The hope of the field flowed from the seductively simple infectious disease model from decades ago (one bacteria causes one disease with one anti-biotic to cure it), that one cause for one disorder with one drug to cure the disorder could be found for each disorder in the diagnostic manual of psychiatry (DSM). The DSM was and still is a hopeful document with the hope that identifying clusters of symptoms that recur in patients will allow simple drug interventions to remedy the symptoms. While medication appears to work out long term for some, this hope has not bared out for many. Individual genes or imbalances that cause diagnoses have not been identified. Only more complexity has been found. To no one’s surprise, the brain turns out to be much more complex than this simple model. Infectious diseases turn out to be more complex than this simple model as well. The brain does not “want” medications to correct specific neurotransmitter imbalances. The brain responds to these psychiatric medications over time by attempting to negate their effect as though the medications were throwing the brain out of balance...even if the medication happens to be offering some symptom relief in the moment. This negation of medication effect is called “down regulation of neurotransmitter receptors” and leads to medication benefits decreasing or wearing off altogether over time and to the experience of withdrawal effects upon discontinuation.
- Irritable Bowel SyndromeThrough the 1990’s I saw all too often that medication treatment fell short of its promise. Family doctors and gastroenterologists told patients, “we have worked up your IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) thoroughly and there is no physiologic problem with your gut. Therefore, it must be all-in-your-head. Go see a psychiatrist,” and referred them to me. But when we got their emotional issues dealt with, their digestive symptoms were still present. These challenges eventually led me to the Functional Medicine model. This model is a science-based holistic approach to chronic symptoms that is taught to practitioners nationwide by the Institute of Functional Medicine. This model reminds us that we do know enough about human biochemistry, physiology and microbiology to make at least some educated guesses about how symptoms developed and evolved in a person to the point that they tip over into a chronic illness or “diagnosis”. These guesses, frequently along with a variety of medical tests through conventional and specialty laboratories, give us a much better chance of getting to the “upstream” causes of symptoms and developing a treatment strategy with more depth. Such a treatment strategy typically includes nutritional, lifestyle and emotional healing aspects in addition to physiologic supports. If medication is part of the physiologic support, where it can be helpful or even life saving, we work to make it as short term as possible. Collaborating with other practitioners of the healing arts, including: conventional and functional medicine, osteopathy, homeopathy, naturopathy, acupuncture and Chinese medicine, yoga and meditation, energy medicine of many varieties, bodywork, consciousness-based medicine, health kinesiology, life and health coaching, clinical nutrition, Integrative Manual Therapy (IMT) by physical therapists, many psychotherapy and trauma release approaches, Ayurveda, biological dentistry, and others is frequently important or even critical to clinical progress as no one approach has all the answers in many cases of complex chronic disorders.
- Pregnancy
- Endoscopy• Architecture of Human Living Fascia: The extracellular matrix and cells revealed through endoscopy, by Jean-Claude Guimberteau, Colin Armstrong
- Cancer CareIntegrative Cancer Care Integrative cancer care is an approach to oncology care which recognizes the multiple components of the dynamic human being as an indivisible holistic system (mind, body, and spirit) and is dedicated to the science-based delivery of holistic care to oncology patients. Interwoven into this approach, are modalities such as immunonutrition, botanical(herbal) medicine,…
- Depression
- Mental HealthLauren Como, PhD, LCSW Psychotherapist and Play Therapist, is in private practice in Portland and Saco, Maine. She received her clinical degree from The University of New England (UNE). She received her PhD from Smith College. In addition to providing outpatient therapy, she has extensive experience treating children, adolescents, adults, couples and families. She also has experience with employee assistance program counseling (EAP). She served as adjunct faculty in the School for Social Work graduate program at UNE. Lauren’s specialty is working with adults and children of all ages, including infants, working with attachment and developmental issues. She was on the board of directors for the Maine Association for Infant Mental Health and she worked as a consultant to pre-schools and child development services.
- PsychiatryIn working with patients over the years, Dr. Simmons has come to believe that love in its many forms and/or coping with the absence of love, constitutes the fulcrum upon which suffering and healing turn. As a holistic psychiatrist, he believes that love in the form of listening with full presence, whether as a friend or family member or healing practitioner, also includes listening to the body as a teacher. His services include Holistic Psychiatry, Functional Medicine, Psychopharmacology, Psychotherapy, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Therapy through Casco Bay TMS, Thought-Field Therapy/ Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and Tappas Accupressure Technique.
- Insomnia
- Anxiety
- Diabetes Care
- HypothyroidismOther health issues such as hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue respond very well to the Bioidentical approach. BHRT practitioners can often get to the root cause of why the thyroid is sluggish, why the adrenal glands are tired. Rather than simply covering up symptoms with a pharmaceutical drug, we attempt to fix the problem using natural methods. Come see one of the practitioners at Integrative Health Center of Maine and see how good you can feel!
- Thyroid
- ChemotherapyIntegrative cancer care is an approach to oncology care which recognizes the multiple components of the dynamic human being as an indivisible holistic system (mind, body, and spirit) and is dedicated to the science-based delivery of holistic care to oncology patients. Interwoven into this approach, are modalities such as immunonutrition, botanical(herbal) medicine, and other such “supplement” guidance, as well as complementary therapy modalities such as acupuncture and massage therapy, amongst others. Treatment strategies are not an alternative to conventional care, but rather integrated into conventional treatments. A strong understanding of the conventional approach to cancer care (surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy), along with the adjunctive treatment modalities is important in order to expertly apply this approach with cancer patients. The approach is generally not a singular modality application, but rather multistrategic in order to maximize the patient’s capacity for healing through the application of applicable and reliable modalities for healing.
- Sciatica
- EczemaInstead of treating specific diseases, Homeopaths treat the whole person. All of the person’s symptoms, whether physical, mental, or emotional represent a state of imbalance very specific to that individual. The goal of the homeopath is to recognize the unique pattern of symptoms and to identify the remedy that most closely matches that specific pattern. Homeopathy can often cure many of the various ailments that people take for granted or have been told to put up with, such as hay fever, asthma, constipation, migraine, eczema, menstrual, and menopausal problems. It is particularly useful in conditions for which conventional medicine either has nothing to offer or offers only palliative approaches.
- Physical Therapy
- Shoulder Pain
- Back Pain
- Manual TherapyOffering Osteopathic Manual Therapy for the entire family, babies through seniors, pregnancy, postpartum, accommodating for common chronic conditions as well as preventive care. Iris Savernik has a special affinity for dancers, performing artists and athletes.
- Foot Pain
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Allergies