You May Already Be Helping People. Now We’re Going to Give You More Tools.
Something new is coming to SPFU. And for some of you, it may feel surprisingly familiar. For generations, people have shared simple things they’ve learned about caring for themselves and the people they love.
A grandmother knew what to make when somebody had an upset stomach. A neighbor had something for a cough. Someone knew which tea helped them sleep.
Families passed along knowledge about foods, herbs, oils, minerals, poultices, compresses, bathing, fasting, rest, sunshine, movement, and countless other ways of supporting the human body.
Long before we could search the Internet for an answer, people learned from one another. Some of that knowledge was valuable. Some of it wasn’t. And today we’re surrounded by more health information—and misinformation—than any previous generation could have imagined.
So how do we make sense of it?
That’s where the SPFU Natural Alternative Specialist Certification comes in.
What Is a Natural Alternative Specialist?
A Natural Alternative Specialist isn’t a replacement for a physician. The role is different. A Natural Alternative Specialist is someone who is curious about the many natural approaches people use to support health and wellness—and who learns how to investigate those possibilities thoughtfully, responsibly, and compassionately.
You may already be that person. Are you the one your family calls when somebody asks: “Do you know anything natural for this?”
Are you always reading about nutrition, herbs, minerals, traditional remedies, or alternative approaches?
Have you discovered things that made a meaningful difference in your own life?
Do you find yourself researching why something is happening instead of only asking how to make the symptom disappear?
Then you may already have the heart of a Natural Alternative Specialist.
We’re going to help you develop the tools.
A 10-Week Journey Into Natural Alternatives
The new SPFU certification is being developed as a practical 10-week program, with one major area of natural wellness explored each week.
We’ll begin with the most important subject of all:
How to help.
Students will explore the role of the Natural Alternative Specialist, responsible boundaries, asking better questions, researching alternatives, listening to the person in front of you, and knowing when a situation requires expertise beyond your role.
From there, we’ll investigate areas including:
- infection, contamination, and unwanted microbes
- muscle, nerve, sleep, and stress complaints
- pain, inflammation, injury, and recovery
- skin, wounds, germs, and everyday first aid
- digestion, elimination, and natural body rhythms
- parasites and gut health
- surprisingly useful natural alternatives available at ordinary supermarkets
- food, nutrition, lifestyle, and the body’s internal environment
- putting everything together into a responsible Natural Alternative Specialist practice
Each class will feature a particular natural product, substance, practice, or idea while also exploring other approaches associated with that week’s subject.
Because one of the principles we’ll return to throughout this program is:
There are 200 ways to do a thing.
Finding one approach doesn’t mean we’ve discovered the only approach. It means we’ve found one more tool.
This Isn’t About Memorizing Remedies
We aren’t interested in graduating students who simply memorize: “Take this for that.” Human beings are more complicated than that. Instead, we’re going to learn to become investigators.
- What is the person experiencing?
- When did it begin?
- What changed?
- What might be contributing to it?
- What has the person already tried?
- What does the research say?
- What have people traditionally used?
- What alternatives exist?
- What are the risks?
- What shouldn’t be combined?
- What deserves professional medical investigation?
And most importantly: What does this person actually want?
Natural wellness should never become something we force onto another person. A Natural Alternative Specialist learns to offer information without taking away someone else’s ownership of their health.
Old Knowledge. New Research. Open Minds.
We’ll look backward as well as forward. Some remarkably ordinary substances found in kitchens, grocery stores, gardens, and medicine cabinets have histories of use extending back generations or even centuries. We’ll explore those traditions.
We’ll also examine contemporary natural-health practices, modern research where available, personal and practitioner experiences, competing viewpoints, and some ideas that remain controversial.
Students won’t be required to believe everything they encounter. In fact, we hope they won’t.
Curiosity is more useful than unquestioning belief.
- Learn.
- Ask questions.
- Investigate.
- Compare.
- Pay attention.
- And remain willing to change your mind when better information arrives.
Helping Without Judging
There is one more thing we want this program to represent. Compassion.
People make different health decisions. Some trust conventional medicine completely. Some are deeply skeptical of it. Many live somewhere in between.
Our job isn’t to ridicule any of them. Our job is to meet people where they are, respect their autonomy, share what we know when invited, and help them investigate possibilities.
Sometimes the most powerful thing we can give another person isn’t a remedy. It’s someone willing to listen.
Natural Alternative Specialist Certification Is Coming
We’re building the new program now. Over ten weeks, students will assemble a growing toolbox of natural-health knowledge while learning something even more important: how to use that knowledge wisely.
If you’ve been interested in natural wellness for years, this may finally give structure to something you’ve already been doing. If you’re relatively new to natural alternatives, we’ll start at the beginning. Either way, you don’t need to arrive knowing everything. Nobody does. There will always be
- Another plant.
- Another nutrient.
- Another study.
- Another tradition.
- Another person’s remarkable story.
- Another question.
- And probably another 200 ways to do the thing.
That’s part of the adventure.
You may already have the heart of a Natural Alternative Specialist. SPFU will help you build the toolbox.
More details about enrollment, class dates, and certification will be announced soon.