In this episode of Transforming Trauma, Emily is joined by Dr. Sara Rapaport, a Naturopathic Doctor, Massage Therapist, Certified Biofeedback Provider and NARM Practitioner, with a passion for bringing agency and humanity to the practitioner’s room through mind-body practices. Sara has a deep appreciation for nature and the earth and believes that some of the best medicine in the world is the kindness and compassion that we can offer to one another.
Dr. Sara Rapaport shares her perspective on how humans don’t get a lot of information or education about their bodies. This means that whenever a client steps into their practitioner’s office, whether it be a doctor or a psychologist, the practitioner is viewed as the expert. Aligned with core principles of NARM, she works from a perspective that places clients as experts on their own bodies. This leads to a greater sense of personal agency for clients and helps to equalize the client-practitioner relational balance.
Dr. Rapaport highlights her tendency toward agency-driven interventions and how this aligns with the medical and philosophical principle of life energy, also referred to as Chi, Prana or vital force (depending on different modalities). One of the six principles of naturopathic medicine is “Identify and Treat the Cause”, which means there is a time and place for symptom suppression, however most naturopathic patients will benefit from identifying the underlying causes of illness and removing obstacles to cure. Dr. Rapaport interprets this to mean that the vital force is what helps people heal, however there are various ways that one’s life energy gets blocked. A naturopathic perspective - aligned with NARM - is that it is the practitioner’s role to assist the client to resolve these internal blocks.
Since taking the NARM training and incorporating the NARM model into her practice, Dr. Rapaport shares how she’s been able to bring more curiosity and presence to her clients. Her goal is to support her clients in their agency, in their increasing ownership of their own authentic experience. Additionally, she brings her awareness of the “50-50” in NARM, focusing on her own humanity and attempting to meet clients with curiosity, kindness and compassion.
We are grateful to Dr. Sara Rapaport for how she’s weaving the NARM approach into her naturopathic practice. We invite you to listen to the full episode to learn more about her journey into this integrative approach to healing and the personal connection that drew her to this work.
About Dr. Sara Rapaport:
Dr. Sara Rapaport is a Naturopathic doctor, biofeedback practitioner, and massage therapist based in Portland, OR. She specializes in mind-body medicine and the treatment of eating disorders. She combines counseling, nutrition, and physical medicine to support whole-person healing and transformation for her patients.
Learn More:
You can listen to this episode on the Transforming Trauma website, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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