Our Practice Model:
An Integrative, Evidence-Informed Model for Whole-Person Health
Your physical health, emotional wellbeing, relationships, stress load, and environment all interact to shape how you feel, both mentally and physically.
Research increasingly confirms what integrative medicine has long understood: health outcomes are influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors working together.
Our clinic is grounded in the Psycho-Emotional-Social model of care (often referred to in medical literature as the biopsychosocial model), a framework originally proposed by psychiatrist George Engel in 1977 and later widely adopted in global health systems, including guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO).
For patients seeking integrative care - including mental health, functional medicine, or naturopathic medicine in Portland, this framework is crucial in helping them reach whole-body wellness.
Biology and Physiology Shapes Experience
Hormones, inflammation, neurotransmitters, immune signaling, genetics, gut health, metabolic balance, and nervous system regulation all influence mood, cognition, energy, and resilience.
Research demonstrates strong biological contributors to mental health conditions:
Inflammation is associated with depression and anxiety disorders (Miller & Raison, 2016).
Gut microbiome patterns influence mood and stress response (Dinan & Cryan, 2017).
Chronic stress alters cortisol signaling and nervous system regulation (McEwen, 2007).
Thyroid dysfunction, micronutrient deficiencies, and blood sugar instability can all affect mood and cognition.
When we assess your health, we’re not just looking at lab results, we’re considering you as a whole person.
Our functional and naturopathic medicine providers evaluate underlying biological contributors through careful history-taking and, when appropriate, targeted laboratory testing.
The Psychological Domain: Emotional and Cognitive Health
Emotions, thought patterns, coping strategies, trauma history, attachment style, and stress regulation profoundly influence health outcomes.
Anxiety may be biochemical and experiential. Depression may reflect inflammation, grief, burnout, or cumulative stress exposure—often all at once.
In our Portland integrative clinic, psychological care is woven into medical care. We collaborate with mental health providers and incorporate trauma-informed, nervous system-aware approaches when appropriate.
We recognize that healing is complex and requires more than correcting a lab imbalance.
The Social Domain: Environment and Context Shape Health
The WHO characterizes health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease” (WHO, 1948).
Economic stability, access to care, community support, cultural context, work demands, and relational safety, all impact overall outcomes in nearly every health condition(WHO, 2008).
Two patients with identical lab results may have vastly different support systems, stress loads, or access to resources, and their care plans need to reflect that.
By acknowledging social context, we create treatment plans that are realistic, compassionate, and sustainable.
Why the Psycho-Emotional-Social Model Matters in Integrative Medicine
Traditional healthcare systems often fragment care. Medical symptoms are addressed in one office. Mental health in another. Lifestyle and social stressors somewhere else, if at all.
The Psycho-Emotional-Social model allows for integration.
Rather than asking, “Is this biological or psychological?”
We ask, “How are these systems interacting?”
This approach helps us:
Identify root contributors rather than surface symptoms
Personalize treatment plans
Improve long-term resilience
Support both mental and physical health outcomes
For patients seeking functional medicine in Portland, integrative mental health care, or naturopathic medicine, this model offers a more complete framework.
How This Model Shapes Our Portland Clinic
Our integrative team includes naturopathic providers and mental health clinicians who collaborate in patient care. We assess physiology, emotional health, and life context together.
Whether you come to us for anxiety, depression, hormonal shifts, ADHD, chronic fatigue, digestive concerns, burnout, trauma-related symptoms, or complex chronic illness, we consider:
Biological contributors
Emotional patterns
Nervous system regulation
Social stressors
Environmental context
Schedule a consultation to experience psycho-emotional-social care that sees the full picture.