Naturopathy or naturopathic medicine is the name of a regulated health care profession in Canada. Naturopathic physcians must study for at least seven years in order to graduate, including three years of pre-medical training and four years of study at an accredited naturopathic college.

A naturopath or naturopathic pysician is trained in a number of natural health care modalities, including nutrition, botanical medicine, homoepathy, oriental medicine and acupuncture, physical therapies, lifestyle counselling, IV therapies and others. Each of those therapies are disciplines in their own right and may be practiced by other health care professionals such as medical doctors or chiropractors, doctors of acupuncture, nutritionists etc.

Homeopathy is complete method of natural healing. All naturopathic physicians receive basic training in homeopathy and some choose to take additional training and to specialize in this area, such as Dr. Zimmermann. One does not have to be a naturopathic physician to practice homeopathy, in fact, homeopathy is not currently a regulated health care profession in Bristish Columbia, but it is in Ontario. There are many well-trained classical homeopaths in BC and other parts of Canada or the US who do not have another designation.

There are several advantages to seeing a naturopathic physician who specializes in homeopathy. Most extended health care plans cover the cost of consultations as compared to unlicensed homeopathic practitioners, and naturopathic physicians legally able to diagnose and treat a disease and are trained to recognize conditions that require other medical testing, referral and intervention whereas homeopaths without another designation are not able to in most provinces.