Holistic Practitioners & Scope of Practice: What We Actually Do

When people hear that I work in the holistic health space, they often assume I’m anti-doctor or even anti-treatment. On the contrary, I would never discourage anyone from seeking emergency care or preventative conventional care, whether that’s antibiotics used appropriately and not overused, IV drips, chemotherapy, blood transfusions, or highly necessary surgeries. What I don’t believe in is treating the body like a machine, assuming it can be patched up or withstand any strong intervention simply because it’s controlled. Too often, the conversation about health becomes polarized, conventional medicine on one side, holistic approaches on the other, as though a person must choose a camp and stay there. But real life doesn’t work that way. Someone may need life-saving surgery and also need help rebuilding their strength afterward through a holistic approach. True care is not about choosing sides, it’s about doing what’s best for that person at that particular moment.

Most holistic support lives in the realm of functional imbalances, like sluggish digestion, early inflammation, or mild microbial imbalance. These are patterns of dysregulation, not disease. Herbs, nutrition, lifestyle shifts, and terrain-based work shine here because the body is still self-regulating. But once an imbalance progresses into structural change (like tissue damage, erosion, blockages, or loss of elasticity) or infectious progression (where microbes multiply faster than the body can keep up), holistic tools become supportive rather than corrective. At those stages, what I refer to as Stage 3 and Stage 4 imbalances, the body needs faster, targeted interventions to prevent complications, protect organs, or stop escalation.

What I am strongly against is in relying on drugs as a lifelong management tool for functional imbalances that could be better supported by addressing the root terrain. A person may need antibiotics to stop a progressing infection and still benefit from herbs to soothe tissues and rebuild their terrain afterward. Someone may need surgery and also need nutritional support, lymph support, and nervous-system support during recovery. True care is not about replacing one system with another, it’s about understanding which stage an imbalance is in, what the body is capable of at that moment, and choosing the intervention that honors both safety and healing.

Understanding Where Holistic Support Ends and Medical Care Begins

As holistic practitioners, our work lives in the realm of functional imbalance, not medical diagnosis or disease treatment. We support the body’s natural ability to regulate itself by working with underlying terrain patterns like dryness or dampness, tension or relaxation, heat or stagnation, depletion or overwhelm. Herbs, nutrition, lifestyle shifts, and terrain-based guidance are powerful for restoring balance in these early stages, when the body is still adapting and responding. This is where holistic care shines in helping clients understand why patterns show up and how to gently shift the terrain to balance through nourishment, rest, movement, plant medicine, and awareness.

However, it’s equally important to understand the point at which a functional imbalance becomes a structural issue or an infectious progression. Once the body crosses that threshold, for example, when an irritation becomes a true infection, when persistent inflammation begins damaging tissue, or when a pattern moves from “annoying” to “clinically significant” holistic tools can still support recovery, but they cannot reverse the process on their own. Herbs can soothe, nourish, cool, warm, relax, moisten, strengthen, and regulate, but they cannot replace antibiotics in a rapidly rising bacterial infection, undo structural damage, drain an abscess, or restore function where tissue has been compromised. At that point, a medical provider becomes essential, not because holistic care “fails,” but because the body is asking for a different level of intervention.

My role is to help you understand the terrain that led up to the imbalance, support your body through gentle, natural tools, and guide the healing process before and after medical care when needed. I stay firmly within the realm of education, nourishment, pattern recognition, and lifestyle support, and I refer out when something moves into the territory of medical diagnosis or treatment. True holistic care isn’t about choosing between “natural” and “conventional”, it’s about knowing when each one belongs, and helping you navigate both with clarity.

• Functional Patterns Herbs Can Correct:

  Here are some examples of what herbs can correct, These are physiological pattern changes in the terrain, not damage or disease.

  Dry mucosa, dry skin, dry stool, thick mucus, mild edema, early dampness, bladder irritation from acidic foods, stomach irritation from acidic foods, mild reflux, early sore throat, early cough, constipation from tension, constipation from low tone, pelvic floor weakness, mild nighttime wetting, early digestive stagnation, slowed peristalsis, post-viral irritation, lingering inflammation, early dysbiosis (gas, bloating, mild imbalance), PMS symptoms, mood swings, irritability, metabolic sluggishness, fatigue, low appetite, muscle tension, headaches from dehydration, early immune patterns (swollen lymph nodes, lingering cough).

  These stages involve terrain patterns, not structural change, herbs, foods, movement, and lifestyle are extremely effective here.

Herbs can support comfort, recovery, and terrain, but they cannot “undo” structural changes or reverse deeper infectious progressions that are stage 3 and 4.

• Structural Changes Herbs Cannot Reverse

  These are physical changes, not functional patterns.

  Herbs CANNOT reverse structural changes such as: Bladder lining damage from repeated infections, Ulcers or erosive gastritis, Fissures or cracked skin in severe eczema, Large painful hemorrhoids, Prolapse or significant pelvic floor collapse, Muscle tears, ligament damage, Kidney stones or gallstones larger than 4–5 mm, Impacted stool or bowel obstruction, Blocked ducts caused by significant swelling, Deviated septum or hernias, Structural scoliosis,

• Deeper Infectious Progressions

  This is where a functional irritation becomes a progressed and severe infection that can spread, escalate, or damage tissue especially in children.

  Herbs CANNOT stop infectious progression such as:

  UTIs progressing toward kidneys
  (early irritation → low-grade infection → kidney involvement), Bacterial bronchitis or pneumonia
  (herbs help early cough, but not deep infection), Ear infections with fluid pressure or bulging eardrum, Impetigo, spreading rashes, or worsening abscesses, GI infections with fever or bloody stool, Strep throat
  (herbs can soothe, but strep must be treated to prevent complications), Deep Dental abscesses, Kidney infections or high fevers with chills

  In these situations, herbs still play an important supportive role, reducing irritation, aiding recovery, restoring terrain, protecting the gut, and strengthening the body afterwards, but they cannot stop bacterial escalation once it crosses a certain threshold.

Here is a more detailed and final example, let’s take High Blood Pressure. High blood pressure starts as a functional imbalance, but if it stays elevated long enough, it becomes a structural and then dangerous condition. In it’s earlier stages such as stage 1 & 2, the body is still regulating and herbs can for sure help. This is where calming nervines, vasodilators, circulatory relaxants, hydration, diet, and lifestyle work beautifully. In stage 2, herbs still help, but it takes longer and requires consistent lifestyle changes. This is still within a holistic scope with monitoring. In stage 3, when high blood pressure persists, the blood vessels start physically changing… The thickening of artery walls, loss of elasticity, micro-damage to vessels, early changes in kidney filtration, At this stage, herbs SUPPORT the terrain, but they cannot reverse the structural remodeling of arteries. This is no longer in my scope to manage alone. Stage 4 is even more dangerous and this is where high blood pressure can become a risk factor for stroke, kidney damage, eye damage, heart strain and aneurysm. At this point, herbs can slowly still support stress, circulation, kidney function, etc., but they cannot lower blood pressure fast enough to prevent complications and even death.

Traditional Medicine Was Built on Early Intervention, Not Late-Stage Rescue

One of the biggest misconceptions about traditional and herbal medicine is the idea that ancient healers used herbs to “cure” advanced, life-threatening conditions. In reality, traditional healing systems were never centered around late-stage emergency rescue. Healers understood the limits of plant medicine and knew that once the body crossed a certain threshold, once an infection spread deeply, once bleeding became internal, once breathing failed, once a fever climbed dangerously high, or once severe injury or tissue damage occurred, there was no herb capable of reversing that level of breakdown. These events were often recognized as transitions the body could not recover from without support we did not have at the time.

Because of this, traditional medicine placed its strongest emphasis on early intervention. Healers watched carefully for the first signs of imbalance: changes in pulse or appetite, shifts in moisture or heat, early irritability, shallow breathing, digestive changes, changes in elimination, disrupted sleep, or subtle emotional dysregulation. Their job was to correct patterns before they hardened, restore balance before symptoms progressed, and strengthen the body long before a crisis ever had the chance to form.

This is why prevention was considered the truest form of medicine. Early balancing, dietary correction, rest, gentle herbal support, observation, daily routines, and community care were the pillars of survival. Traditional systems understood that the body’s terrain determines outcomes and that once an imbalance becomes structural or life-threatening, it can no longer be influenced by the same tools that work so beautifully in the early stages. In the terrain model, the real medicine happens before things break down, not after.

Why These Boundaries Matter

The goal of holistic work is not to replace medical care, it’s to understand terrain patterns before they turn into something more serious, and to support the body in recovering before, during, and after any necessary clinical treatment. Holistic practitioners work in the realm of patterns, nourishment, function, and balance. Once an imbalance becomes structural damage or a rapidly progressing infection, the body simply requires a level of intervention faster than herbs can safely provide, especially in children. True holistic care is knowing when natural tools are enough and when the body needs medical support, and helping clients navigate both without fear or confusion.

Whether it’s supporting someone through post-vaccine fatigue, restoring someone’s energy after an illness, helping a new mother regain balance after birth, teaching how to use food as restorative medicine, teaching an elder how to strengthen their vitality as they age, helping a client notice how stress shows up in their digestion, guiding better sleep rhythms, teaching children to feel grounded in their bodies, or offering herbal wisdom that’s been trusted for generations, holistic practice always returns to honoring the whole person. My hope is that more people will recognize holistic medicine as a vital partner to conventional care, one that restores context, dignity, and long-term balance. Because the body is not a machine to be patched, it’s a living, intelligent system that deserves to be honored and supported at every stage of health.