The first pivotal moment for Britt Marie Hermes came during a bout of psoriasis. She was a teenager at the time, and she went to the doctor to get it taken care of.
“I remember asking him about other options to treat psoriasis. And he was very cold about it. His response was, ‘This is it, kid. You’re going to have psoriasis for the rest of your life, your best treatment is steroids, and that’s that,’” Hermes said.
That experience got her curious: Were there other ways of treating her ailments besides just swallowing whatever some overbearing doctor decreed? She threw herself into research, and discovered natural medicine. She went to school and into practice in Washington state as a committed naturopathic doctor.
But that fervor would begin to fade, as she began seeing things that made her uncomfortable. She had to confront whether her training, her beliefs and everything that made her feel like she had a place in the world, was wrong.
These days, Hermes blogs at the Naturopathic Diaries, where she critiques natural medicine and advocates for a science-based approach.
Hermes trained at Bastyr University, based in Kenmore, Washington. We also spoke with Bastyr’s dean of naturopathic medicine, Jane Guiltinen, who had her own experience of leaving behind some of her closely held beliefs. You can hear her take on these questions here:
