LB: Why is licensing so important?

JP: If you are a physician, an N.D. it's a big deal. patients come to us expecting complete care, not just adjunct care. I think we are a threat to the medical profession because we represent a different way of thinking about a physician. Naturopathic medicine is a harder path to follow. For example, at Bastyr University we have programs in acupuncture too. This profession is licensed in thirty five states now; but it is relatively non-threatening because acupuncture is thought of as an adjunct therapy. I don't think most professionals realize that Chinese medicine is a complete system of medicine, and there are many acupuncturists who want to start practicing more broadly.

LB: What do you think of the current vogue in correspondence schools, some of which are offering degrees by mail?

JP: I think that if a person is going to call themselves a physician, they have to have a physician's training. You cannot do a complete training by mail order and call yourself a naturopathic physician. That is fraudulent. In this country it is a four year residence program. (Editor's Note: Bastyr University in Seattle, Wash., National College in Portland, Ore., and the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Phoenix are the only three fully accredited programs in the U.S.)

LB: You have been deeply involved in helping develop naturopathic medicine into a viable and recognizable profession. Once you reach this goal what is to prevent you from mandating, regulating and defining the profession to the exclusion of many other viable options?

JP: Health food store owners have worried that natural medicines will be turned into prescription items, so naturopathic doctors can use them and natural food stores not. I am a very firm believer in people having health care access to whatever they want, whomever they want, whenever they want. I can't say that my opinions are shared by everyone in the profession.

Some people would like to see only prescriptions. I do believe that this can be avoided through self-regulation. One of our strengths is our eclecticism and our ability to do, as naturopathic physicians, what is best for our patients.

One of the problems that the medical profession has gotten itself into is textbook medicine - that you do it this way or else. The main danger that may come is from the malpractice side, because malpractice lawyers always want to establish standards and practices. It may be that we are forced into standards and practices that are sufficiently rigorous that they decrease our effectiveness. Hopefully, we can avoid that danger.

LB: The G.O.P. is having a field day cutting programs and limiting funding for cutting programs for health care and research. How do you think this new direction in the federal government will affect the future of naturopathic medicine?

JP: Actually, the G.O.P's "anti-regulatory" attitude may help us. Regulatory restrictions are the tool that certain parties have used to suppress alternative forms of medicine. The G.O.P. tends to encourage competition, so they may actually be good for us. We'll have to see what happens.

LB: Will the unschooled, natural healer be forgotten in this momentum tostructure and legitimize the profession?

JP: We do have a place for them. I hope we don't regulate them out of existence because that would be very foolish. We would like attract to Bastyr University people who have both an innate healing ability and commitment and who also want a high-tech level of skills. That's the best of all.