TIM ALTMAN B.Sc (Psychology Major); B.S.Sc (Naturopathy)
www.timaltman.com.au
I initially wanted to become a psychologist as I had always had a strong interest in understanding myself, others and how the mind and world works. I had always felt that conventional science, medicine & psychology left far too many unanswered questions as to the deeper nature of things and our own deeper nature as humans. This has led me to a lifetime interest in health, metaphysics, eastern philosophy, meditation, yoga, western psychology and relationships.
I qualified for the honours in psychology, but postponed these studies to pursue my dream of representing Australia in Kayaking at the Olympic Games. Whilst I represented Australia twice in this sport, illness cut my ambitions short. I developed ‘chronic fatigue syndrome’ at a time when very little was known about this illness, so it took me several years, and enormous anguish, to actually determine what was wrong.
Crisis can lead to opportunity and this setback led me on a life changing pathway, and eventually to a passion that has become my career in natural medicine and optimal wellness. After the only treatment or advice medical practitioners could give me was to rest, I was fortunate to have been treated by a fantastic natural medicine practitioner (who was previously both a doctor of biochemistry and medicine in Russia). The treatment and recovery was so comprehensive that I have never experienced any of the symptoms again, despite a heavy exercise schedule.
This also led me to change career paths and study natural medicine. I developed a very strong affinity with nutritional and herbal medicine, and treating the whole body as an integrated system rather than viewing systems in the body as separate entities. The intention being to understand and treat illness at level of the ‘root cause’ of what led to pathology, rather than simply focusing on the symptoms that eventuate from the pathological functioning.
Following on from this is a passion in guiding people from levels of relatively ‘normal’ health to levels of ‘meta’ health rarely experienced by most people following conventional medical advice. My clinical work is merely an extension of my own personal discovery and work in attaining optimal function in as many areas of living as has been possible. This has resulted in having a very real and long term experience of these ‘meta’ levels of health over the last 15 years I have been able to develop understanding, techniques and skills that allow people to transcend their previous experience of health and vitality. Some of these techniques and modalities include:
- Naturopathy
- Mickel Therapy
- Nutrition
- Weight Loss
- Herbal Medicine
- Breathing Retraining for optimal health, chronic illness, relaxation and performance.
- Bio-Impedence testing for body composition and cellular health.
- Nutritional and physiogenomic testing (genetic profiling) for optimal health, chronic illness and performance.
- Sports nutrition for training and race day performance
Recently my original studies in psychology merged with my naturopathic work as I took on Mickel Therapy as a modality for healing and removing self-limiting patterns that hinder our performance and happiness. Mickel Therapy identifies the most central or deepest cause (or root-cause) of illness and has yielded extraordinary results with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Fibromyalgia, Anxiety, Depression and IBS.
I still have strong interactions with athletes of all levels as anutritionist, competitive paddler and coach of paddlers . I have been coaching kayaking for 15 years including beginners at school level to international athletes aiming for Australian Olympic selection.
I have also practiced meditation on a daily basis for the last 10 years, and have been practicing yoga regularly for the past 6 years.