Our Team
Dr. Andersen ND, LMT (he/him)
Naturopathic Doctor - Matrix Medicine
My passion for natural medicine began as many stories do, “So, there was this girl…”, who I followed to Hawai’i in 2008 to partake in my first Yoga Teacher Training at Yoga Hanalei in Hanalei, HI. (coincidentally the same place Puff the Magic Dragon hails from) with the absolutely spectacular yogini Bhavani Maki. Although I couldn’t have imagined at the time, this training sparked an interest within and fervor for the Eastern philosophies of healing arts leading me to study Ayurveda, the sister science of Yoga, at the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico from 2009-2010 under the guidance of world renown Dr. Vasant Lad. I continued to deepen my own understanding of East Indian philosophy with further practice and training in Yoga at the Mount Madonna Center in Watsonville, California in 2011, home of resident guru Baba Hari Dass. Through my education in Ayurveda I learned about the contribution of proper diet and lifestyle modifications in building the vitality of the blood to bring about balance in the physical body, while my teaching and practice of Yoga led me to understand and experience the importance of mind-body integration as a means of creating space for one’s spirit or inherent natural healer to shine through. Through this experience I became aware of the synergistic effect that occurs when we combine the efforts of our multi-dimensional nature (body, mind, & spirit) to coalesce in the aims of living, healing, and longer lasting health.
Inspired and driven by my own curiosity and expanding imagination as to what was possible, I continued my education at the New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2012. Here I earned both a Massage Therapy License and Certification as a Natural Therapeutic Specialist. In the pursuit of additional manual therapy techniques, I eventually came to Portland, Oregon in 2013 to study Structural Integration at a Kinesis Myofascial Integration training, as taught by Thomas Myers in his theory of Anatomy Trains. Here I learned about the value of structural integrity in the body, its contribution to proper circulation and flow of both physical and subtle energies, and the important role this plays in the body’s natural ability to heal itself.
After hearing multiple testimonials from clients who felt the conventional medical model was misguided in its combative, symptom suppression-based philosophy I began to pursue a career as a Naturopathic Physician in 2014. Initially, I did this for two reasons: 1) to expand my scope of practice and have the ability to utilize all of the therapies I had learned; 2) to gain an understanding of the western medical model with the goal of being able to communicate with western doctors. I graduated from the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon in 2019 with a Doctorate in Naturopathy. While there I learned about the theory of Vitalism, often referred to as the Vis Medicatrix Naturae, which is, “The Healing Power of Nature” or, “the body’s own innate propensity to heal itself.” However, It wasn’t until my residency that I gained the clinical experience of Vitalism in practice. I was selected as the first recipient of a one year residency granted by the Naturopathic Medicine Institute (NMI), which was hosted at Windrose Naturopathic Clinic in Spokane, Washington with Resident Director and now President of the NMI, Dr. Letitia Dick-Kronenberg, ND. The NMI is an organization founded by Dr. James Sensenig, ND. His aim was to preserve the philosophy, principles, and practices of Vitalism for future generations in an effort to educate both the public and medical professionals alike in the separate and distinct healing art of Vitalistic Naturopathy.
My goal is to educate and inspire patients to reconnect with and rediscover themselves by becoming actively involved in their own health and healing process. I work together with patients, at their pace and discretion, to choose a path that first establishes the foundation for optimal health by identifying and removing any obstacles to cure. I will recommend dietary strategies, lifestyle modifications, and natural therapeutic interventions that directly address the cause of your symptoms or condition. These recommendations focus on stimulating the body’s own innate healing capacity through the support, restoration, and integration of body, mind, and spirit. This in turn empowers my patients to reach and reimagine their unique potential for whole body health and achieve their highest potential for inspired living.