Russell Desmarais

Body, Mind & Spirit - Health Care as Unique as You [top]

Turtle Island has been providing alternative health care for over 30 years. A comprehensive integrated team of professionals work together to improve the health of people like you. Here, we see you as the whole person you are, not as your disease or disorder. We believe that full recovery from any disease, accident, or other condition, cannot be entirely achieved by focusing on your physical symptoms alone. The process of healing is an intricate web of interactions among the physical, biochemical, energetic, mental and emotional aspects of a person. Spiritual and lifestyle choices unique to each person also affect the pattern of the web. Our team of healers and practitioners are here to assist you by providing complete integrated natural healthcare services.

People can move through illness and experience a passive recovery. But merely feeling better, by simply reducing symptoms, is not the same as establishing vibrant health. At Turtle Island, we are committed to helping you achieve maximum health, because we believe it is within your power to live in full wellness − a concept of health that includes more than just not being sick.

Our goal is to help create a community of healthy, thriving people who realize their full purpose and potential. For people experiencing pain or illness, we specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of muscular-skeletal, nutritional and internal disorders. For people in good health, we offer individual wellness programs to assist you in achieving your maximum potential.

Wellness depends on the harmony of body, mind and spirit. Let us help you develop a healthcare program that optimizes your health and well-being.

Turtle Island - Healing the Total Person [top]
“The difference between holistic care at Turtle Island and conventional health care is that while conventional practitioners use methods such as surgery and drugs to treat symptoms, our integrated team of holistic health healers and practitioners look for ways to reduce the symptoms as quickly as possible at the same time as we seek the underlying causes of the illness−the reasons the symptoms appeared in the first place”, says Dr. Russell DesMarais, Founder of the Turtle Island Holistic Health Center.

Dr. DesMarais established Turtle Island in 1978. He named the center “Turtle Island”, the Native American term for the North American continent, because it is a place where people reclaim their natural ability to heal from within, once the obstructions to good health are reduced.

When individuals are experiencing good health, there is balance and harmony in their lives. Holistic healing is based largely on the belief that illness or disease is caused by imbalances in our health habits, lifestyle choices, and from the absence of periodic treatments to stay well. By modifying and correcting these imbalances our illnesses will also diminish or disappear, and our need for radical and invasive methods of conventional care will be greatly reduced or eliminated completely.

New patients at Turtle Island are tested for balance in five major areas: physical, nutritional, energetic, psychological and environmental. There must be balance in each of these areas for a person to experience high levels of consistently excellent health.

When a patient is experiencing disease, imbalances are treated with methods including: chiropractic, acupuncture, nutrition, herbs and supplements, massage and therapeutic exercise, QiGong, stress management, energy balancing, life style planning and wellness. These methods are integrated into individual plans of care for each person through time-tested and proven approaches.

Holistice Health Care - Learning to Use Turtle Island [top]
At Turtle Island, we practice a program of alternative holistic health care that offers four distinct stages of care: Initial Intensive Care, Corrective Care, Maintenance Care and Wellness Care.

In Initial Intensive Care, we address your immediate symptoms and relieve your discomfort. Next, in Corrective Care we help you regain proper balance in all your body’s major systems. Then, in Maintenance Care we help your body remember how to stay in proper alignment. Finally, in Wellness Care we move beyond the state of “passive” good health to achieving the active state of optimum health − true well-being.

Normally, you begin with our Initial Diagnostic Intake Process. This introductory program consists of three office visits and one evening workshop.

Your first office visit includes an examination by your doctor. This exam assesses your postural and nervous systems, integration and alignment, the balance of your internal energy system, your nutritional needs, and your level of stress. During your second visit, you receive your first treatment to discover your initial response patterns and help with any immediate complaints. Your doctor also reviews with you our initial impressions about your health. At your third visit you receive your personalized Plan of Care. At this time the doctor shares overall findings, and recommends a program designed specifically to meet your healthcare needs.

Because wellness is a process−an ongoing goal throughout your lifetime−our doctors and staff will work with you to develop your individual Wellness Plan when you have completed your Initial Plan of Care. This Wellness Plan assists you in achieving your maximum potential and harmony of body, mind and spirit.