Your first visit begins by filling out a new patient intake form. We encourage you to visit our Forms & Handouts page to download, print, and fill out your new patient intake form before your visit By filling this out, you provide Dr Rudd with a full overview of your health history, even before you have sat down to have a discussion. This form helps Dr Rudd streamline the visit, and provides much of the information that she would normally need to ask you during the visit.
Once the intake form has been filled out and Dr Rudd has had a chance to review your health history, you will have a discussion regarding your current needs and health concerns and formulate a treatment plan to achieve those goals. The first visit may entail a screening physical exam, or other brief exams depending on the presenting complaint. Follow up laboratory testing, and/or imaging may also be recommended to assist in diagnosis and treatment. You will typically follow up with Dr Rudd in one to four weeks to go over testing results and/or check in about how the treatment plan is going. You and Dr Rudd will continue to work together to find and treat the underlying cause, and together, move toward a more optimal wellness.
It is hard to put a time frame on how long it will take to resolve a health concern. The path to wellness can sometimes, but certainly not always, be a long and winding road, and the relationship you form with your Naturopath is lifelong. As a general rule of thumb, if a chronic illness is being addressed, you can expect to undergo at least one month of treatment for every year of illness.