"I Want to Heal People" - Careers in Holistic Medicine

There is a school of thinking that says certain people are just natural born care givers. That they're born with a natural sense of empathy and a desire to take care of other people. Whether this is true or not is questionable, but it does seem that there are certain people in the world who really do appear to have a special gift for helping others.

Maybe it's the joy the get from knowing the good they've done, perhaps they feel it's their duty as a human being to help others. For whatever reason, those types of people exist, and often find themselves gravitating towards healthcare related jobs.

One booming area of the healthcare industry is holistic medicine. As opposed to Western Medicine, holistic medicine looks at how everything around us affects our health like our environment, our diet and lifestyle as well as our emotional and social lives and how they affect our body and mind. In holistic medicine they focus on alternative treatments to encourage a better connection to our body and mind which, in turn, improves health. This is markedly different from Western Medicine which often uses prescription drugs as a bandage for ailments without getting to the core of the problem.

There are many different routes one can take when it comes to a career in holistic medicine. There are career options that are more hands on line massage therapist, yoga instructor or acupuncturist but there are also many careers that focus on the internal side of health. Herbal medicine and homeopathic practitioners are becoming increasingly in demand as more research is done showing the benefits of these types of therapies. There is also a growing interest in Indian Ayurveda medicine and Naturopathic medicine from both people in the know about holistic treatments and those who aren't as familiar. What makes alternative medicine so appealing to many is the wide range of career choices you have once you decide to enter into the field, few segments of the healthcare industry offer so many choices.

Another added benefit of working in holistic medicine, making it much different from Western medicine, is the wide range of employers who are looking for people specializing in these fields. Many hotels, gyms, cruise lines, wellness centers and spas are adding massage therapists, acupuncturists, herbalists and the like to their roster of services available. Beyond that many doctors offices are enlisting the help of those specializing in holistic medicine in a bid to offer their patients a wide range of services.

In addition to potential employment at any of the aforementioned locations, many working in holistic medicine opt to go the self employed route. This allows them to create their own schedule and be their own boss, something many people can only dream of.

As you can see, if you've got that need in your bones to help others, but aren't sure of exactly how to do it, holistic medicine just might be the industry for you to look into.