Another trend to watch for is the increasing number of alternative medical clinics being run by an M.D. as the oversight physician, with a variety of alternative practitioners such as acupuncturists, chiropractors, massage therapists and body workers, herbalists, and others all working under the authority of the M.D. According to Robert Duggan, M.Ac., Dipl.Ac. (NCCA), who teaches "The Philosophy and Practice of Healing" at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, this approach is "the wave to come, be it for good or ill."12 Many worry that if the M.D. is not committed to overseeing an alternative clinic that is founded on the spirit and ethos of a holistic approach to health care, then such a clinic could become a patient mill that fails to provide high quality alternative medical care. Fortunately, there are a growing number of M.D.'s who are committed to the spirit and ethos of holistic approach to health care and many of them will oversee these developing alternative medical clinics. Still, it is in your best interest to do the Five Step process outlined in Part I of this book to be sure you receive high quality alternative medicine when considering treatment at such a clinic.

Here are two stories about two very different alternative medical doctors:

Two years ago, I was in bad car accident. I had injuries to my right knee, a broken collar bone, as well as a concussion and "internal bruising." After two surgeries on my knee, I took a month off work to heal my other injuries. But at the end of the month, I did not feel back to my old self.

Five months after the accident, my back and neck were still hurting me; my body was stiff and bruised-feeling; my right knee was still causing me problems; my digestive system did not seem to work right; and, worst of all, I was having a recurring nightmare of the accident and at times had episodes of unexpected terror when riding in or driving a car. No matter what I did, I felt "out of sorts" all the time. My body just did not feel right.

My older brother knew about all this and suggested I see an M.D. he said might be able to help me. He said that this doctor was into "different things" than most medical doctors but assured me that he was not a quack. Given that I had a lot of respect for my brother, I decided to go see this doctor.

When I went to this doctor's office, I was given some papers to read. One was an article on alternative medicine and another was on holistic medicine. I read the information in the articles and many of the ideas were new to me. Still, I especially liked the idea that I would be seen by my doctor as a human being rather than a diagnosis and that the doctor would want to really hear my thoughts and feelings about my health condition. When the doctor came into the examination room, he greeted me with a warm "Hello!" along with a smile and a handshake. He sat down and asked me to tell him why I was there to see him. As I told him my story, I was amazed at how he listened to me: he really listened. Afterwards, he asked me some questions about my personal life and about my job, as well as how I was doing generally. Next he gave me a physical examination with special attention to the auto injuries. He was very gentle and told me to let him know if anything he was doing was causing me pain. When he finished the physical, he shared with me some of the treatments that he thought would be good for me based on the exam and what I had told him. He talked about the idea of a "healing program" that would help me really get over the effects of the auto accident. First he discussed what we could do for my body. As part of the healing program, he suggested I take a beginning hatha yoga class to stretch out my tightened muscles and to massage my internal organs. He said that would help me let go of some of the trauma my body was holding onto from the accident as well as possibly help my digestive system to work better. He also told me about homeopathy and said he had some homeopathic remedies that could help the bruised feeling inside my body and even help with my digestion. Next he talked about the terror episodes I was having and told me that this was a normal reaction after such a traumatic event. He suggested another homeopathic remedy for this as well as three to six sessions of Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). These sessions would focus on the accident and help me learn to let go of the trauma that was causing the terror episodes. After sharing his recommendations, this doctor asked me if I had any questions or concerns about his ideas for a healing program. I thought for a minute and told him I was somewhat familiar with yoga, but asked him to explain to me exactly how the homeopathic medicine worked and what EMDR was. The information he shared with me about homeopathy and EMDR was new but seemed to make sense. He gave me several articles and a brochure to help me understand them both even better. He told me that even though he could not absolutely guarantee it, he believed I could expect to feel at least 75 percent better in about three or four months if I did the whole program. He then asked me if I would be interested in doing the healing program as he had described. I told him I was. To my surprise, he then asked me if there was anything I could think of that would be good to include in my "healing program." I thought for a moment and said it would probably help if I stopped eating as much junk food and added more "rabbit food" into my diet. He laughed and agreed and offered to give me some information on the power of foods to cause illness or to heal.