The Southern School of Natural Therapies

The Southern School of Natural Therapies can help you discover amazing facts about the human body, food, physical activity, and much more!

It is one thing to take responsibility for your own health & wellbeing, yet it is quite another to accept the challenge of helping others achieve better health and wellbeing. With 50 years of academic excellence, SSNT aims to produce highly trained health care practitioners that have a sophisticated understanding of clinical research methodology, using both scientific methods and new research models.

Teaching staff include many of the country’s leading lecturers and practitioners, who with their expertise and experience deliver the highest standard of academic and practical education in a nurturing environment. Some of the most important developments in complementary medicine in the last 50 years have been instigated by The College and have contributed to the growth and acceptance of complementary medicine in the wider community.

SSNT maintains close links with industry and aims to continue providing the best quality education to the next generation of leading practitioners in complementary medicine. Adding to students’ studies is The Think Wellbeing Centre at the Fitzroy Campus. It is a multi-disciplinary teaching clinic for SSNT students during their studies. Open to the general public, as well as SSNT students and staff, consultations are supervised by a qualified and experienced practitioners to ensure clients receive quality healthcare and service. SSNT delivers vocational and higher education, specialising in degrees and diplomas in the following areas:

Nutritional Medicine

Health and wellbeing are affected by multiple external and internal factors, some of which lead to functional disorders and chronic disease. The role of the Nutritional Medicine practitioner is to identify the cause of dysfunction, educate the patient, develop a treatment and prevention plan to re-establish and maintain wellbeing.

Nutritional Medicine practitioners understand the nutritional, dietary and lifestyle factors which impact wellbeing throughout the lifespan, during illness and disease and seek to educate the individual or community on the impact of food choices in the maintenance of wellbeing and management of disease.

Naturopathy

Naturopathy aims to restore vitality through supporting and stimulating the body’s own healing mechanisms. Naturopathy today occupies an important and prominent role in the contemporary health-care system with a rich history dating back thousands of years. Health, from a naturopathic perspective, involves the capacity to maintain optimal order and function of the body (homeostasis) and is an outcome of a healthy mind, body, spirit and environment. A modern scientific approach is applied with the ‘power of nature’ to recognise the ability of the body to overcome disease. A SSNT trained Naturopath can clinically assess, diagnose and treat patients through the use of herbal medicine, homoeopathy, nutritional and lifestyle advice.

Western Herbal Medicine

Western Herbal Medicine is the use of medicinal plants for therapeutic purposes. A degree in Western Herbal Medicine is ideal for those who want a career incorporating herbal medicine practice as part of a holistic and scientifically based health plan. It is a holistic form of medicine which not only treats the symptoms but addresses the underlying causes of the condition.

Chinese Medicine

Chinese Medicine is a system of primary health care that works holistically to maintain or restore balance, harmony and order in our bodies. Chinese Medicine philosophy is based on the Yin/Yang principle of balancing and harmonising conditions within the body. The origins of Chinese Medicine go back thousands of years, and work with the philosophy that balanced and free-flowing Qi (energy) results in health, while stagnant or imbalanced Qi leads to disease. Chinese Medicine is truly holistic in its approach and believes that the body, mind, spirit and emotions are all interlinked. It recommends that we as humans follow the universal laws of nature to achieve total harmony and health.

Clinical Myotherapy

Clinical myotherapy is a system of health care focusing on assessment, treatment and management of musculoskeletal pain. Musculoskeletal pain can be divided into three categories: myofascial pain arising from trauma or muscle contracture; neuropathic pain deriving from the nervous system; and articular pain that originates from the joints. Clinical Myotherapists can treat various issues such as sporting and occupational injuries, stiffness and sore body, chronic overuse syndromes, symptoms associated with arthritis, back pain, neck pain, stress and tension, pregnancy and more.

Massage

A remedial massage practitioner has the ability to provide a comprehensive treatment plan based on their evaluation to address the underlying cause of many musculoskeletal problems.