Some stories stay with us long after they happen. As I reflected on what I wanted to share at the AANP Annual Gala and Awards after spending the week connecting with hundreds of my fellow naturopathic doctors, one memory kept returning to me. It wasn’t about legislation, organizational milestones or professional accomplishments. It was about the people whose determination, sacrifice and unwavering belief cultivated the profession we are privileged to inherit. I hope that, in sharing that memory, you’ll see why protecting the future of naturopathic medicine is a responsibility we all share.
There was a moment for each of us when this field became a calling. When we actively chose to become naturopathic doctors. For some, it was a personal story or a family member’s story. For others, it was a patient that other providers had dismissed, and we were the ones who sat down and asked, “But why is this happening?” Maybe it was a professor, a mentor or the first time we watched the body do what the body was always designed to do. Whatever that moment was for you, hold onto it. It is the reason all of us chose this profession.
This year, our profession gathered under a banner in Madison, WI for the AANP 2026 Convention: One Gathering. Endless Impact. I’ve been thinking about those four words ever since. One gathering, because there is one of us; one profession, one family, choosing each other on purpose. And endless impact, because what we gain in this community does not stay in this community. It goes home with us. We share it with our patients and our neighborhoods. It travels further than most of us will ever see or fully understand.
Who We Are
I want to talk about who we are. Not what we do, but who we are. We are defined by six principles, and it’s worth naming them again, because they are the root of why we practice.
• Primum non nocere: First, do no harm. We choose the gentler path, and the world is finally catching up to what we already knew.
• Vis medicatrix naturae: The healing power of nature. We trust the body’s own intelligence.
• Tolle causam: Identify and treat the cause. We are the detectives of medicine, the ones who keep asking why, painstakingly, until we find an answer.
• Docere: Doctor as teacher. This may be our greatest strength: teaching people so they feel empowered, in a world where so many patients feel marginalized, dismissed and unheard. We teach so they can reclaim their own agency.
• Tolle totum: Treat the whole person. A human being is an integrated whole, not a collection of parts, no matter how much modern medicine tries to sort us into one.
• And prevention: Naturopathic doctors were talking about prevention before it was profitable; before the culture of biohacking, wearables, injections and peptides.
We built our practice on the basics: good food, good sleep, movement and balance.
Here is what I need people to understand. Everything I just described—root cause, whole person, prevention, the body’s innate capacity to heal—the world has given it a new name. They call it functional medicine. Integrative medicine. It shows up on social media, in magazines, on podcasts, in the bios of physicians suddenly eager to claim it as their own.
We Didn’t Follow the Movement, We Started It
We are the pioneers. We were doing this work before it had a brand, before it was fashionable. Naturopathic medicine was the root system, and functional medicine grew out of the ground we tilled. So when someone tries to tell you we’re not evidence-based, not “real doctors,” remind them: we are the originators. And origins are too easily forgotten. That is exactly why we cannot afford to be quiet.
Standing on the Shoulders of Those Who Refused to Quit
Consider the people who came before us. Some of whom are no longer with us to see this moment. The elders of this profession fought battles we can barely imagine. There were years when naturopathic medicine was declared dead, legislated out, nearly erased. A small, stubborn group of people refused to let it die. They kept schools open with almost no money. They taught classes in elementary schools and ran cadaver labs in trailer parks. They moved across the country to build new schools from scratch. They sat in state hearing rooms, were told no, and came back the next year, and the year after that, until licensure was won state-by-state.
Every one of us is part of this profession because someone before us would not quit. We owe them a debt, and there is only one way to repay it: we keep fighting, and we make sure the people coming after us have it a little better than we did.
Where the Fight Stands Today
This year brought real progress. In Maine, naturopathic physicians won expanded authority to prescribe and administer IV therapy, practicing to the fuller extent of their training. In New Hampshire, a new law will require private insurers to cover the care our doctors provide.
And then there was Florida. A bill that would have ended a ban in place since 1959 moved through the state Senate and House with strong bipartisan momentum. The people spoke. Their elected representatives did their jobs. And in the final days, it was vetoed. Providing naturopathic care in Florida is still treated as a felony. That is not an ending, it’s a pause. We will regroup, we will learn, and we will be back, because that is what our predecessors taught us to do.
The Fight That Cannot Wait
But the most urgent threat right now is coming from Washington. At the federal level, the Department of Education is moving toward decisions that would strip the naturopathic doctorate of its standing as a recognized professional degree. If that happens, it doesn’t just affect paperwork: it cuts off federal student aid for future naturopathic students and threatens to close the pipeline of new NDs before they ever begin.
This is not a someday problem. It is not a fight we can plan to take up next year, once we’ve caught our breath. It is happening now, and the decisions being made in Washington this year will shape who is allowed to become a naturopathic doctor for a generation. Our degree meets every standard required of it, and we are committed to the legal fight necessary to prove that.
But that fight is not free. It will take real financial resources such as money for legal counsel, for expert testimony, for the sustained advocacy required to protect a profession’s future in real time, not after the damage is done.
This is one of those moments where a profession finds out what it’s made of and what we do in the coming months will determine whether the next generation of naturopathic doctors gets to exist at all.
This is where we need you. Every donation to the AANP’s advocacy and legal defense fund (https://naturopathic.org/donations/donate.asp?id=20509) goes directly toward protecting our students, our future students, and the degree that makes this profession possible. We are asking every naturopathic doctor, every student, every patient who has been helped by this medicine, to give what they can, now, while there is still time to shape the outcome.
Building, Not Just Defending
We are not only protecting the profession, we are building something greater. We must build mentorship so a new graduate never feels as alone as some of us once did. We must build career pathways in schools, hospitals and in administration, along with residencies and post-graduate opportunities, so that choosing this profession never means choosing struggle. We need a coordinated voice across our organizations, through the Naturopathic Coordinating Council (https://naturopathic.org/page/2026NCCPanel), so that when this profession speaks, it speaks as one. That is the “endless impact” we owe to those who come next.
Our profession is small. It has always been small. But smallness has never held us back. Every triumph this profession has achieved came because a small group of people decided they cared more than they were tired. As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Unity breeds strength, and strength creates change. That is our history in seven words.
We are the legacy of people who refused to disappear. We are the pioneers of the medicine the world is now trying to claim as its own. And we are the ancestors of every naturopathic doctor not yet born; the students who will one day stand where we stand now and carry this work forward, if we protect their path to get there.
The fight in Washington will not wait for a more convenient season. Please consider a gift today to the AANP’s advocacy and legal defense fund (https://naturopathic.org/donations/donate.asp?id=20509), so that the door that was opened for us does not close on the students coming up behind us.
One gathering. Endless impact. Let’s keep building the naturopathic revolution.
Dr. Jaquel Patterson is a nationally recognized leader in naturopathic and functional medicine. She has trained thousands of physicians worldwide in integrative medicine, is a sought after speaker, three-time Amazon bestselling author, and Forbes contributor. She is the founder and owner of Fairfield Family Health, a successful multidisciplinary medical practice based in Connecticut and serving patients throughout the country, with more than 16 years of clinical experience specializing in integrative psychiatry, Lyme disease, autoimmune conditions, complex chronic illness, and environmental medicine. Dr. Patterson currently serves as president of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP) and as treasurer of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM). She was the former medical director of Education with Psychiatry Defined, and currently serves as faculty for HMF Education. She also serves on the scientific advisory board for Xymogen and Microbiome Labs. She is certified in functional medicine with the Institute for Functional Medicine and completed a fellowship in functional medicine for psychiatry with Psychiatry Redefined. She has also been featured in multiple media outlets including Forbes, USA Today, Fox and ABC. In addition to her naturopathic medical degree, she completed her MBA in Healthcare Management from Quinnipiac University and her Bachelor’s of Science from Cornell University.
