A physician emerges from the student the way a figure is released from the marble by the sculptor. The spirit of the healer is already within. Southwest College helps students to use their talent, intelligence and compassion, with knowledge and experience, to become physicians, who help restore the sick to health, to cure.

Naturopathic medical students experience a transformation throughout their medical education, but this occurs most profoundly during their fourth year. This transformation is one I have had the privilege of encouraging, witnessing and honoring on my clinic shifts. At a certain point, clinical training and patient care catalyzes all the classroom bits and pieces of information into a profound understanding of health, illness and healing. Creating the environment to develop this intellectual and personal growth is what I call the Southwest College experience.

The Southwest College experience brings together outstanding students and faculty, demanding coursework integrated with naturopathic principles, and extensive and diverse clinical patient contacts supervised by naturopathic physicians and medical doctors, within the College’s dynamic, stimulating, and supportive learning environment. Over four years, we explore the healing power of nature; the relationships within a patient – among the organ systems, the immunological and the biochemical pathways; the relationship between a patient and the environment – both physical and interpersonal; and, in many cases, between patients and their own emotions. When, after years of coursework, taking patient histories, performing physical exams, and ordering labwork, students can analyze and the synthesize a comprehensive and profound assessment of the patient’s health problems, students are on their way to becoming true healers.

This new generation of naturopathic physicians will be integrated into the health care system and have rewarding careers treating thousands of patients who are calling out for answers to chronic, complex diseases. To help our students succeed, Southwest College will continuously grow, innovate, integrate and improve. Whether it is creating online course material, developing hospital and community medical center affiliations, planting botanical gardens, bringing technological innovations into every classroom or expanding our green medical center, we are committed to provide our students with the tools, opportunities, and role models to develop into the physicians of the future.

On one level, a Website is a collection of ideas, consisting of faculty, courses and policies. Look further and you will peer into the heart of a vital, living organization of people committed to developing physicians who will combine the science of medicine with the art of healing. Look even deeper and feel the underlying themes and values that infuse your dreams with the Southwest College experience.

Paul Mittman, ND, DHANP
President