Working from home provides a great work-life balance for Dr. Erika Buckley-Strobel, who runs Aqua Vitalis Naturopathic on 11th Street S. in Golden.
Since graduating as a naturopathic doctor in 2004, Buckley-Strobel began her first practice, and has worked for herself ever since then. Originally from Newfoundland, Buckley-Strobel moved to Ontario, where she grew up, went to school, and began her first naturopathic practice.
She met her husband, Joachim, and they were married. They decided to make the move west together, after he was able to get a similar job to what he had, without the hour and a half commute.
They came to Golden to live their love of skiing, and the house they bought became available at just the right time.
Equipped with a side entrance and the perfect office space downstairs, Buckley-Strobel turned the area into her office and treatment space.
“Now that we have a little guy, we can’t think of another place we’d be,” she said, adding that Golden is the perfect place to raise their son Sebastian.
One of the things that really drew her to naturopathic medicine was the chance to sit down and get to know clients, working with them to find the root cause of their issues.
“I was always interested in medicine, and always saw a career in medicine,” she said. “I really appreciated that I could get one hour with patients to really get to know them.”
Working from home has its benefits, Buckley-Strobel said. She is able to work childcare around her hours, set her own holidays, and take patients at hours convenient for them.
“Work-life balance is a little bit easier when you work for yourself,” Buckley-Strobel said.
As the community ages, Buckley-Strobel recognizes the need to care for seniors in the community. She recently completed an advanced certificate of gerontology from Selkirk College to help meet the physical, social, environmental, cognitive, and spiritual needs of the elderly. There are also acupuncture and nutritional approaches she can provide for seniors.
“We have excellent healthcare in the community,” she said. “As the population is aging, there’s definitely going to be a need.”
Buckley-Strobel also offers her botanical medicine, nutrition, acupuncture, hydrotherapy, and homeopathy services at Element Therapeutics part time.
At Aqua Vitalis Naturopathic, she offers acupuncture and Oriental medicine, botanical medicine, clinical nutrition, homeopathic medicine, hydrotherapy, soft and hard tissue manipulation, and prevention and lifestyle modification. A summary of these services is available on her website.
Aqua Vitalis Naturopathic is located at 1309 11th Street S. Call Dr. Buckley-Strobel at 250-344-4983, or visit www.aquavitalis.ca for more information.
