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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A team of health professionals, including a much-sought-after female chiropractor, can now be found under one roof at the new Gaia Integrative Clinic downtown.

Naturopathic doctor Nicole Redvers has hired a host of health specialists to work at the new Gaia Integrative Clinic. - NNSL file photo

Expanding her practice, which until last month was run out of the basement of her Bigelow Crescent home, naturopathic doctor Nicole Redvers has hired a diverse mix of specialists to work at the multidisciplinary clinic.

With a mandate of blending science and nature, the so-called circle of care clinic offers a wide spectrum of health services and practitioners, including chiropractor Carrie Lehman from Orangeville, Ont., as well as a yoga therapist, art therapist, life coach, and massage therapists.

"We really look at it as sort of a circle of care, team-based care," said Redvers. "That's sort of the goal, that if patients choose, they do have access to various practitioners under one roof."

The multidisciplinary clinic setting has become very common in other parts of the country, but Redvers believes it is much-needed in the North.

"There's been a lot of research behind the success and benefits of these types of clinics, where people can have multiple sources of care under one convenient roof, working together as a team," Redvers said.

"And what they found is that patient outcomes improve much faster than when they're seeking service in multiple different areas from multiple different people, so we really wanted to duplicate that aspect that again has been showing such success in the south and bring it to the North where we do have a lot of health challenges currently."

The professionals have now settled into the private 47 Street clinic, including Lehman - said to be a novelty as a female chiropractor in the North.

"The other chiropractors, as far as I know, currently, are male," Lehman said, in response to the buzz from new clients around her establishment in Yellowknife.

"They have just been excited that there's a new chiropractor in town."

While clients at the clinic are a mix of men and women and range in age from infants to elderly, Redvers made a point of recruiting a female chiropractor for the clinic.

"I do have a lot of female clients in my clinic and sometimes they do feel more comfortable with female practitioners, and again it really is individual in terms of choice, but (Lehman) is fantastic and we're happy to have her."

While Lehman and art therapist Rhonda Miller come from Ontario, the other specialists, including life coach Simone Goudreau, yoga therapist Krystal Thompson, massage therapist Corina Pletscher, and massage practitioner Olga Kovalenko, had previously established practices in the North.

Most of the services at the clinic are covered by extended health care options offered by employee benefit plans.

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