FOR: Medical, Allied Health & Complementary Health Professionals

If you are a medical, allied health or complementary healthcare professional seeking information about our services or if you would like to refer a client to The Sanctuary Byron Bay, we invite you to contact us directly. We welcome all genuine referrals and clinical enquiries and we are always available to clarify our unique treatment philosophy and approach. We will also work collaboratively with referring practitioners to ensure consistency and continuity prior to and post treatment.

Some relevant information about our treatment philosophy:

We are leaders in integrated treatment
While much has been made in the media about The Sanctuary being ‘luxurious’ and ‘indulgent’, the fact of the matter is that The Sanctuary is still leading the integrated treatment field with

the highest staff to client ratio found anywhere amongst its peers around the world;
our ability to respond and adapt treatment to the client’s needs on a daily basis;
our flexibility in being able to offer a wide variety of treatment settings for each client according to their specific needs;
out commitment to work collaboratively with other practitioners in the interest of consistency and continuity in pre and post treatment care over the long term; and
the exceptional quality of our staff who are leaders in their respective areas of expertise.

The Sanctuary Byron Bay is squarely located amidst a seismic shift in the health care landscape where an integrative approach utilising multiple healing perspectives in a coordinated, flexible setting is increasingly being recognised as the best practice approach. Resolution of complex and long-standing health problems requires a range of interventions, not just the medical perspective alone. However integration of various health perspectives requires consistent coordination and regular consultation between practitioners. Despite claims to be multi-disciplinary, many treatment centres lack truly coordinated approaches where different practitioners liaise on a regular basis in joint case consultation. At the Sanctuary Byron Bay, multiple practitioners liaise regularly and this very integration of outstanding medical and complementary healthcare distinguishes us from other treatment centres around the world.

The fact that our programmes are also one-on-one and individually customised, means that each client has available to them, a full range of resources dedicated to their recovery. They have their own homes, their own team of carers and an entire team of practitioners from different modalities treating each client under an integrative care plan conceived and monitored by highly experienced clinical consultants who are leaders in treating co-morbidity. Moreover, our infrastructure is extensive and is structured to maximise security, confidentiality and privacy and most importantly, able to respond quickly to the shifting needs of our clients.

We are a PREMIER therapeutic service with every part of the therapeutic experience – from environment through to treatment - carefully conceived and choreographed for optimal results. Our aim is simply to provide the best therapeutic service possible – and while we undoubtedly provide one of the most comfortable and responsive treatment settings anywhere in the world, our real value is embodied in the exceptional quality of our clinical services. For those who want the best integrated treatment, our services are no mere indulgence nor luxury, but a potentially crucial life-changing opportunity.

We heal with compassion and skill

Medicine is both science and intuition – healing requires skill and compassion
(James Lake, M.D., Textbook of Integrative Mental Health Care, Thieme Medical Publishers: New York, 2007)

Truly effective healthcare is not possible without trust, empathy and mutual respect. At the Sanctuary Byron Bay, we not only value the technical, professional expertise of all our medical, psychotherapy and complementary health practitioners, we also admire their genuine heartfelt commitment and respect for our clients. All Sanctuary staff are chosen for their exceptional skills and their ability to be truly present for their clients.

Our approach to healthcare recognises the importance of a true collaborative relationship between client and practitioner and we strive to provide the best care while preserving each client’s autonomy and dignity.

If you have any questions about how treatment is deployed at the Sanctuary Byron Bay, please contact us for further information.

We are able to treat co-morbidity with prescribers on staff who can prescribe and monitor required psychopharmacological medications.
Many rehabilitation environments do not have the capacity to monitor the therapeutic use of prescribed psychopharmacological medications such as anti-depressants, anti-anxiolytics, tranquilisers, hypnotics and sedatives. This presents a real limit to treating co-morbidity where treatment centres are often distinguished as either focusing on substance use or mental health – but rarely both. The Sanctuary Byron Bay however, has on staff, doctors and psychiatrists able to prescribe and monitor medication as required. Natural and mineral supplements are also prescribed and monitored by a qualified naturopath in conjunction with any use of pharmaceuticals. Liaison between practitioners is a key feature of our treatment philosophy ensuring drug interactions and adverse side effects are minimised and treatment is coordinated.

We consider the experience of illness to be culturally mediated and the flexibility of our programmes reflects this understanding.
The Sanctuary is one of the only treatment centers in the world to have a consultant medical anthropologist on staff. Generally, medical anthropologists study the variety of ways in which human beings throughout history develop technologies and philosophies of healing with their focus being:

the development of systems of medical knowledge and medical care – how these systems might be similar, or how they might differ;
the practitioner and patient relationship –how different cultural expectations might affect this relationship;
the integration of alternative medical systems in culturally diverse environments;
the interaction of social, environmental and biological factors which influence health and illness both in the individual and the community as a whole; and
the impact of biomedicine and biomedical technologies in non-Western settings or vice versa.

This focus is especially compelling and relevant in a setting such as The Sanctuary where our client base is international in scope. Our clients arrive from all corners of the globe, each bringing with them, different expectations of treatment and unique needs. Bringing a medical anthropological perspective into the mix, allows us to consider culture from the beginning so that each treatment programme is relevant, sensitive and designed for lasting impact.

With a medical anthropologist on board, the Sanctuary Byron Bay remains a leader in the field of integrated treatment as we constantly improve dialogue between different healthcare perspectives and remain committed to continual improvement in how we deliver our services.