A practitioner of naturopathic medicine, Jules Carpenter’s experience includes work through her business Your Health Your Healing as a yoga instructor, an Alchemy of Breath breathwork facilitator, a reiki level two energy worker, and a pediatric occupational therapist.
BIG RAPIDS — Jules Carpenter wants you to know there are more options for improving your health than just making an appointment at the doctor.
A natural health educator, Carpenter’s experience includes work through her business Your Health Your Healing as a yoga instructor, an Alchemy of Breath breathwork facilitator, a reiki level two energy worker, and a pediatric occupational therapist.
The services she provides focus on providing natural health practices to help with things like allergies, food sensitivities, respiratory health, immune system issues, vitality, hormone balancing, help with anxiety and stress, sleep challenges, weight management, cleansing, and healing disease in the body.
Carpenter said she became interested in naturopathic medicine after her own health struggles.
“I had a series of health challenges as a young child and saw medical doctor after medical doctor,” Carpenter said. “I just left disappointed and still very sick, and it was years of being sick until I met a naturopath, who was the first person to look into me as a whole person and spend two hours with me. They put me on a nutrition plan and an herbal plan and different kinds of practices for my mental health, and I slowly started to finally get better and feel better.”
After discovering the benefits of the practice, she began studying nutrition, health and wellness practices and began going to school to become a naturopathic doctor.
Carpenter said her goal is to educate people and help them take their power back and help them take their power back.
According to the Association of Naturopathic Physicians, these doctors are educated and trained in accredited naturopathic medical colleges. They diagnose, prevent, and treat acute and chronic illnesses to restore and establish optimal health by supporting the person’s inherent self-healing process.
Rather than just suppressing symptoms, naturopathic doctors work to identify underlying causes of illness and develop personalized treatment plans to address them.
Carpenter’s expertise can help clients determine mineral and vitamin deficiencies, if there is any type of metal toxicity in the body, and set up nutritional programs.
She also specializes in breathwork and somatic healing for trauma and emotional imbalance.
Carpenter said she has been able to find areas of neuropathic medicine she enjoys.
“I use and specialize in something called iridology, which is the study of the eye,” Carpenter said. “Studying the eye can actually tell you your predisposition to weaknesses, your current health, and what you’ve inherited as a predisposition to weakness. I focus on areas that we need to start addressing, and then on areas that you are clearly having private space concerns and how we can address them.
Carpenter’s iridology work often incorporates the use of a special machine to help analyze the eye.
“I consider myself and my client as a part of a team,” she added. “It’s a journey together. I’m there to support, cheer on, encourage and answer questions for a client when the healing process seems daunting or seems like it could never happen.”
Carpenter is currently working through Red Fox Market and studying under one of the naturopathic doctors who work there.
She explained that she chose to work out of Big Rapids after having success with some initial clients.
“Coming here in a smaller town of Big Rapids, I live out here in a country outside of Big Rapids and it has been a change,” Carpenter said. “I am seeing more and more people just being sick and tired of being sick and tired, of feeling unwell and not getting better despite seeing specialist after specialist.”
Carpenter has met many people who tell her their stories in Big Rapids and said often people are ‘blown away’ by what they learn.
A big focus in client sessions involves understanding how the body’s systems work and how they are all connected.
“I think that Big Rapids is a great area because there is access to a lot of farming out here,” Carpenter said. “Getting access to cleaner food, and people who are growing their own herbs and vegetables and fruits shows there is interest. Big Rapids I feel is coming around, it’s a great place to be to start helping people who are skeptical or curious but want to feel better.”
For Carpenter, working through Red Fox Market has given her access to noninvasive tools that she might not have elsewhere.
Your Health Your Healing hosts group sessions, normally once a month, and during one on one appointments, clients engage in a two-hour dialogue with Carpenter about their bodies and experiences or issues.
Much of the initial focus in the first session is on what a client is putting into their body in terms of food and drink, and how that impacts their emotional and physical state.
“I get a chance to educate the client on all of this and then educate them on what foods or minerals and practices can best nourish them,” Carpenter said. “We start small; it’s not this huge program all at once. My goal is that each client walks away with much more information than they had before and that it makes sense.”
Carpenter has three years of schooling left to complete her degree and is currently taking classes through the Naturopathic Institute of Therapies and Education in Mount Pleasant.
She said working with clients during her studies helps to expand her knowledge and allows her to better help them in more ways, and she believes hands-on work with people is one of the best teachers.
Moving forward, Carpenter hopes to continue meeting with new clients and improving her skills through the monthly classes she teaches.
For more information on Your Health Your Healing, visit the business’s website at www.yourhealthyourhealing.com.
