Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nicola Ducharme. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Nicola thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

When I first graduated as a Naturopathic Doctor from Bastyr University in 2003, I wanted to work in an established clinic to get some experience under my belt. I had just moved to San Diego and so did not have a large network to draw from had I established my own practice right away.

I joined a practice where the medical director helped to train me in his specialization – autism. I loved learning from him and helping the kids, but there came a time when some of the moms of the kids started coming to me complaining of fatigue, headaches, cognitive deficits, pain and a host of other symptoms. At first, they would tell me, they assumed it was “new mom stuff” or “special needs kid stress” but over time, they’d suspect that it was more than that, and they’d come to see me. At that time I realized that many of them were suffering from chronic Lyme, and I turned my attention more towards that as my own specialization.

Ultimately that clinic moved to a different city, and wanting to stay in San Diego I decided to go out on my own. By then I had a couple of years of experience, had seen how another clinic was run, and had my specialization honed in. I actually started seeing patients in my home office while I looked for a space. My patients didn’t care, they were just so grateful to have another practitioner interested in learning more about Lyme, a world that is devoid of many dedicated practitioners.

Finally I found a small space in a suburb of San Diego called Mission Hills. It was 800 square feet – one waiting room and one office, and it was perfect for me at that time. I was even my own receptionist, biller, inventory stockist, shipping person, and all the other roles at first. I wanted to grow organically and not spend too much until I built more revenue. After a while I was able to hire part-time admin helper which was great, then I could focus on doctoring.

My practice, now 18 years later, is thriving. I have a steady stream of patients from word-of-mouth/referral only. I have moved into a 1600 square foot space, have a junior Naturopathic Doctor working for me, and I rent rooms to three other practitioners. I have two employees for administrative support.

For me there were 2 keys to success in my mind – the first was specializing. I found that one thing, got really good at it, and then I knew who my market was, and how to market. I gave talks at Lyme Support groups, went to Lyme conferences, wrote books on Lyme disease – all these things helped to build my practice organically.

The second was keeping overhead low as I grew. I never took a business loan in those early days to set things up, I just started small, did a lot of the extra work myself, and as my patient base and revenue grew, then I could delegate out more tasks. It meant that I never felt financially overwhelmed or overcommitted, although of course there were times along the way where things were tight!

I’ve been in practice 20 years now and I love what I do. I only see patients 3 days a week so I don’t burn out, and have used the extra days for projects such as writing books, creating online courses and social media marketing. I encourage every young practitioner I talk to do those two things – start small and grow organically, and find a niche, a specialty, that lights them up and get really dedicated to that.

Nicola, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Naturopathic Doctor and I own RestorMedicine, an integrative medicine clinic, in San Diego.

We work with chronic, complex illness such as Lyme disease, mycotoxin illness, mast cell activation syndrome, PANS and PANDAS.

Our patient base is quite complex so it’s a challenging group, but also very rewarding to be able to help people that haven’t been able to find help anywhere else.

We offer integrative therapies based on their individual needs – sometimes antibiotic therapy is needed, but we also use nutrition, herbal medicine, nutrient supplementation, homeopathy, IV therapy, ozone therapy and craniosacral therapy.

I am a firm believer in the power of mindset in recovery from chronic illness, and offer an 8-week group coaching program helping people with chronic illness rewire their mind for healing.

People come to us because we know our stuff really well and we’re good at what we do, but more than that, we truly care about our patients, we listen, we never tell them their problems are all in their head. We accept them fully the way they are and treat them as we would want to be treated.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think that there are two aspects to this – one is personality and commitment, and the other is networking.

I show up for each of my patients as a practitioner that cares about them and truly will do my best to help them. I keep up with education and current knowledge so that I am abreast of new treatments and protocols.

Secondly, I networked with other professionals and colleagues within my area of specialty. One turning point for me was being asked to be a chapter contributor in a book called Insights into Lyme Disease Treatment: 13 Lyme-literate Practitioners Share Their Healing Strategies. Being one of 13 “experts” gave me profound credibility in the field. She later invited me to contribute to another book New Paradigms in Lyme Disease Treatment: 10 Top Doctors Reveal Healing Strategies That Work. I had been at a Lyme conference and made friends with Connie, so we had that connection that led to her asking me to be part of her books.

I also wrote books of my own which helped get my name and reputation out in the community.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

For me word-of-mouth and referral has been the best way to build my practice.

It’s helpful to network with other practitioners that are complementary to what you do so that you have some professionals referrals.

But also getting referrals from other patients you’ve helped is key. For that to happen you have to be good at what you do and be warm, friendly and likable. People have to have a great experience with you and your office to want to refer to you. This could be as small as returning phone calls in a timely fashion, making sure your front office person is warm and friendly and not cold and rude – the whole experience needs to be excellent.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.restormedicine.com. www.drnicoladucharme.com
• Instagram: @drnicoladucharme
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/drnicoladucharme, www.facebook.com/restormedicine
• Youtube: @drnicoladucharme

Image Credits
Terri Ripple Photography