FAQs
What is Integrative Health Care?
What is a Nurse Practitioner?
Where did Dr. Abercrombie receive her training in integrative health care?
What is integrative guided imagery?
What is Integrative Health Care?
Integrative Medicine combines the best ideas and practices of alternative and conventional medicine in order to maximize the body's natural healing mechanisms. It is not simply about prescribing herbs or acupuncture in addition to or in place of medications. Rather, Integrative Medicine has a much larger perspective and mission:
It seeks to restore the focus of medicine on health and healing rather than disease and treatment.
It views patients as whole persons-minds and spirits as well as physical bodies-and considers these other dimensions in the diagnosis and treatment of illness.
It emphasizes a true partnership between patient and practitioner that addresses healing on all levels-especially lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, stress, quality of sleep, relationships, and work, as well as the appropriate use of dietary supplements, herbs, and other forms of treatment.
It considers simple, inexpensive, low-tech treatment methods especially when conventional approaches are relatively ineffective or potentially harmful (from Andrew Weil, MD).
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What is a Nurse Practitioner?
A nurse practitioner (NP) is an advance practice registered nurse licensed to provide healthcare independently, held to the same legal and ethical standards of care as physicians, with a commitment to giving personalized, quality health care to all.
A nurse practitioner provides medical care to patients of all ages with a focus on health promotion and disease prevention. A nurse practitioner is a health care provider who: performs history and physical exams, diagnoses and treats medical problems, orders and interprets diagnostic and laboratory tests, educates and counsels individuals, families and groups, and does health care maintenance exams such as Pap smears and annual physical exams.
A nurse practitioner is certified by the California Board of Registered Nursing and practices under the Nurse Practice Act.
Nurse practitioners combine caring with curing.
Read more
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Where did Dr. Abercrombie receive her training in integrative health care?
She completed the Associate Fellowship in Integrative Medicine offered by the University of Arizona, Tucson. This program is directed by Dr. Andrew Weil. It is a two-year program designed for physicians and nurse practitioners who want to incorporate the philosophies and techniques of integrative medicine into their medical practice. The Associate Fellowship emphasizes clinical applications, case studies and collaboration to provide a broad conceptual and practical education in integrative medicine. Topics covered include: Philosophy of Integrative Medicine, Botanicals, Nutrition, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Mind/Body health, Energy therapies, Homeopathy, Manual medicine, and many others. It is a 2-year, 1000 hour program and the Associate Fellows are required to spend 3 separate residential weeks in Tucson throughout the 2 years. Read more about the Program in Integrative Medicine.
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What is integrative guided imagery?
There are many different ways to use imagery to improve health and promote healing. With integrative imagery you are actively involved in the imagery experience, making this a very personalized and transformative experience. You can use integrative guided imagery to tap into your inner healer to get insight into a health issue, relieve pain or create a special place of comfort and relaxation. Imagery can also help you access your inner strength to cope with fear or an illness. The sessions usually take about 30-45 minutes. It begins with a brief assessment and explanation, then the actual imagery experience and concludes with a few minutes to debrief about what happened during the session. Here are some examples of how integrative guided imagery is used:
Create a Special Place
Imagery can be used to create a place of comfort and safety that promotes relaxation and facilitates healing. With integrative imagery you create this special place to meet your own unique needs.
Work with an Image of a Symptom or a Problem
By exploring an image of a symptom such as abdominal pain, you can gain insight into it and learn how to deal with it.
Consult with your Inner Wisdom
We all have an inner aspect of ourselves that is wise, loving and intuitive and already knows the answers to many of our questions. Imagery gives us an opportunity to get in touch with this inner wisdom and explore an issue or concern that you have.
Access your Inner Strengths
This technique involves choosing a quality or feeling you wish to possess in a particularly challenging situation. Deep inside you already possess all the inner resources that you need to manage life's challenges. This is helpful for dealing with fear/anxiety, loss, performance anxiety, recovery, coping with an illness, etc.
Confer with your Inner Healer
Similar to consulting into your inner wisdom, you can tap into your inner healer to activate healing. The inner healer can help with all aspects of health; physical, emotional or spiritual.
Explore Inner Conflict
Many of us have been faced with a conflict within ourselves. For instance, the part of us that wants to exercise and the part of us that does not. This technique can help you gain insight into those conflicting parts so that you can move toward resolution and change.
Transform Pain
This technique is used to help change your experience of pain, stress, or a physical symptom. It incorporates the use of the body diagram as a visual representation of the pain or symptom experience.
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Testimonial
"My visits to Dr. Abercrombie have made a big difference in my quality of life. I used to have frequent migraines that left me debilitated for whole days at a time. Now, thanks to her advice about herbal remedies, I haven't had a migraine in months. Her wholistic approach has been comforting. I feel seen as a complete human being in a way that just can't happen in a traditional doctor's visit. Her gentle patient education gives me tools to use to improve my health, yet I have never felt judged or lectured to."
- Carroll
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