Frequently
Asked
QUESTIONS
Step 1. Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to see if Trinity Wellness is right for you.
Step 2. If you decide we are a good fit as partners in health, call or email to schedule an initial consultation.
Step 3. I will send you an email confirmation that includes links for opening your patient portal account and new patient forms to complete prior to your visit. I will also send you a release form to obtain your past medical records. If you are confident you would like to follow with me, you may sign a record release at your physician’s office well in advance of your visit and have it mailed to Trinity Wellness. If we are lucky, we may have all of your information available before your initial consult!! I also ask at this time for a credit card to keep on file as a deposit for your new patient appointment.
Step 4. At your initial visit, you will experience deep listening as you tell me your story, your desires and goals for your healing journey and I will hold a safe and sacred space in which to share this information. We will dive deeply into all aspects of your life that may be contributing to your health concerns and we will focus on the seven core aspects of wellbeing: Nutrition, Movement, Sleep, Resilience, Spirituality, Relationships, Social, and Environment.
We will also review your demographics and health history. I encourage you to be prepared with any pressing questions or concerns and have available for review your lists of medications, supplements, botanical/herbal remedies, complementary and alternative health practices, other healthcare providers and primary care provider information, if applicable.
Depending on your goals for the visit and for our partnership, I may do a comprehensive or a focused physical exam. Or we may spend the entire visit in conversation getting to know you.
Step 6. I will review your records and pull all your information together based on your wish list for health and reported information. I will create an assessment and suggestions or recommendations for your next steps. I may order labs or diagnostic tests, request further information or start an initial treatment plan. You will have plenty of opportunity to ask questions and review any plans that are set into motion.
Step 7. At your follow up visit, together, we will begin to formulate a wellness plan tailored to your unique needs and desires by going over your wish list and prioritizing. As tempting as it may be, we don’t try to do it all at once, as too much testing, treating and sifting results can be overwhelming. Each intervention impacts your entire system in ways that may alter other lab or treatment results, so choosing a path early can avoid a lot of retesting and confusion later. The preliminary labs done after the first visit may help us to determine what paths are most urgent to explore. We will also start the process of ordering any specialty labs we have decided upon and I will instruct you on how to prepare for these tests. If emotional or spiritual issues are paramount, we will use this time to start exploring those issues. You are the one to decide what is most important to you – I will follow your lead.
Step 8. Subsequent visits will be similar to your initial follow up and are usually spent reviewing labs, discussing progress, and making further recommendations or providing in-office treatments and coordinating care. What happens during follow-up visits will depend on what has been done in the first few visits. I will work in partnership with you to take your healing journey in the direction that feels right for you.
Trinity Wellness, LLC does not participate with any health insurance plans. For commercially insured patients, a receipt or ‘superbill’ including all pertinent medical codes for visits and services will be generated at check-out and can be submitted to your individual plan for reimbursement under your plan’s out-of-network benefits.
Dr. Clemson has opted out of Medicare and Medicaid programs. All Medicare patients are required by law to sign an agreement that acknowledges Dr. Clemson’s non‐participating status. By signing this agreement, Medicare beneficiaries who receive treatment or services from Dr. Clemson are agreeing that they will not seek reimbursement for services rendered and receipts cannot be submitted by these patients to Medicare for reimbursement. The service will be an out-of-pocket expense for Medicare patients, however, she encourages you to check with your secondary insurance, as they may pay for a portion of the service.
Diagnostic studies ordered by Dr. Clemson and received outside of Trinity Wellness are covered as they would normally be under the insured patient’s plan.
She encourages patients to check with their employers and insurance plans regarding FSA or HSA benefits as most plans permit payment of visits and membership fees using FSA or HSA funds.
“To find health should be the object of the doctor. Anyone can find disease.” Andrew Taylor Still, founder of osteopathy.
Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine use a unique whole-person approach to help prevent illness and injury and treat chronic health issues.
What is a DO? Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine, or DOs, are fully licensed physicians who practice in all areas of medicine. Emphasizing a philosophy of holistic treatment and care, DOs are trained to listen and partner with their patients to help them get healthy and stay well.
In addition to the traditional medical education received by allopathic physicians (MDs), DOs receive some 400-500 additional hours of special training in the musculoskeletal system to diagnose, treat, and prevent illness or injury. Learn more about the DO difference.
More information:
In addition to the traditional medical education received by allopathic physicians (MDs), DOs receive some 400-500 additional hours of special training in the musculoskeletal system, your body’s interconnected system of nerves, muscles and bones, which comprises greater than two thirds of the body’s mass.
After medical school, both MDs and DOs must complete residency training in their chosen specialties. DOs usually complete a traditional rotating internship through all primary medical specialties prior to residency and more commonly choose to practice primary care specialties. Both DOs and MDs must pass the same rigorous licensing examinations before they can treat people and prescribe medications.
Osteopathic physicians focus on prevention, tuning in to how a patient’s lifestyle and environment can impact wellbeing and recognizing that all of the body’s systems are an interconnected whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. DOs strive to help you be truly healthy in mind, body and spirit—not just free of symptoms. By combining this knowledge and philosophy with the latest advances in medical technology, they offer patients the most comprehensive care available in medicine today.
From their first days of education and training, DOs learn to:
- Look beyond symptoms of illness and disease to examine the whole patient.
- Partner with patients to help prevent illness and injury.
- Use their hands to diagnose illness and injury and increase your body’s natural tendency toward self-healing.
From the American Osteopathic Association:
Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment, or OMT, is a set of hands-on techniques used by osteopathic physicians (DOs) to diagnose, treat, and prevent illness or injury. Using OMT, a DO moves a patient’s muscles and joints using techniques that include stretching, gentle pressure and resistance. When appropriate, OMT can complement, and even replace, drugs or surgery. In this way, DOs bring an important dimension to standard medical care.
More Information:
As part of their education, DOs receive special training in the musculoskeletal system, the body’s intricate system of muscles, nerves and bones. This advanced training provides DOs with a keen understanding of how the body’s systems are interconnected and how each one affects the others.
When appropriate, OMT can complement, and even replace, drugs or surgery. In this way, DOs bring an important dimension to standard medical care.
OMT uses a wide variety of musculoskeletal modalities including massage techniques, muscle energy, fascial release, facilitated positional release, high velocity techniques (similar to chiropractic adjustment), and many more that you may be familiar with if you have experienced massage therapy, PT, acupressure, chiropractic or other forms of body work.
Benefits of OMT
OMT can help people of all ages and backgrounds. The treatment can be used to ease pain, promote healing and increase overall mobility. Employing a philosophy of form following function and recognizing that the body tissues are one interconnected whole, the osteopath can affect healing on a number of levels by using touch to diagnose as well as treat. Although often used to treat muscle pain, the treatment can also help patients with many other health problems such as:
- Asthma
- Sinus disorders
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Migraines
- Menstrual pain
- Many other chronic disease states and syndromes
Through OMT, physicians manually apply a specific amount of pressure to different regions in the body. These techniques can help:
- Treat structural and tissue abnormalities
- Relieve joint restriction and misalignment
- Restore muscle and tissue balance
- Promote the overall movement of blood and lymphatic flow throughout the body as well as promote clear movement of nerve impulses or the muting of unwanted chronic pain signals in the case of chronic pain syndromes
Cranial Osteopathy is a subtle form of osteopathic manipulative therapy that uses very gentle pressure to encourage the release of stresses and connective tissue tension throughout the body. It is called ‘cranial’ because treatment often involves the head, although other parts of the body such as the spine and tailbone can also be involved.
More Information:
A cranial osteopath can feel the very small fluctuations of movement within the body called involuntary motion or cranial rhythmic impulse. To the osteopath, this feels like a subtle expansion and contraction of all the tissues, similar to an ocean tide, occurring 7 – 14 times a minute. This involuntary movement is a basic physiologic function, much like respiration or heart beat and is integral to optimum health. It is perpetuated by the connective tissues covering the brain and spinal cord, the tissues lining the skull and sacral bony complexes as well as by the movement of the paired and individual cranial bones and sacrum and the movement of the cerebrospinal fluid. It is of interest that this motion has been definitively confirmed via research studies using functional MRI by the Department of Biomechanics at Michigan State University. This motion can be easily disturbed by any form of trauma, such as a difficult birth, a car accident, head bumps, knocks and falls, general illness and growth spurts. Gradually the body may accumulate these strains to the point that symptoms start to show. Over time the strain patterns may cause or contribute to acute or chronic imbalances.
Most of us have been exposed to physical trauma at some stage in our lives. The body may have coped well at first, but occasionally a lasting strain remains. Gradually the accumulation of strains may start to show. Mechanical problems can lead not only to aches and pains in joints and muscles, but also disturbances in the internal organs and the way they work.
Cranial Osteopathy is suitable for all ages and many conditions. As it is an extremely gentle treatment, it is even suitable for newborn babies and the very elderly. In adults, cranial osteopathy may be used in the treatment of a variety of problems including head and face pain, neuralgias, stress, malaise, fatigue, general ill health, chronic disease states, chronic pain syndromes and preventive uses, such as improved athletic performance, balance and agility. In babies it is especially effective for treating the effects of a difficult birth, irritability, feeding difficulties and disturbed sleep patterns. In children, it is extremely helpful as a preventive measure after illness, injury, growth spurts, and even after having braces removed to restore normal function of the head, face tissues and bite!
More information: https://cranialacademy.org/patients/faq/
Energy Medicine describes a group of healing modalities and traditional paradigms that consider subtle energies, including the electromagnetic field that underlies the physical structure of the body, and its interface with the environment. It incorporates hands on methods and other techniques that change, stimulate or shift this underlying subtle energy in order to restore balance and flow of the energy or life force.
More information:
Energy Medicine describes a group of healing modalities and traditional paradigms that consider subtle energies, including the electromagnetic field that underlies the physical structure of the body, and its interface with the environment. It incorporates hands on methods and other techniques that change, stimulate or shift this underlying subtle energy in order to restore balance and flow of the energy or life force. This energy is known as Qi (Chi) in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ki in Japanese traditional medicine, Prana in Ayurveda and Hindu Yogic traditions, Mana in Hawaiian traditions and Chu’lel in Maya traditions. More esoteric notions of the energy system include Spirit, intuitive wisdom, psyche or consciousness. It is believed that blockages, stagnation, deficiency or excess of these vital forces can lead to imbalance of the system as a whole and over time, cause physical, mental and emotional manifestations of illness or dis-ease. Though a significant body of scientific evidence has not yet accumulated, there is now a small growing collection of research that suggests such modalities as Reiki and Therapeutic Touch may have a positive impact on health and disease. There is now compelling evidence in support of acupuncture and acupressure, which are, at their core, traditionally considered to be energy modalities or mind-body modalities. In my personal experiences, I have found energy treatments to be great supports in all aspects of medical care and often facilitate tremendous improvements in restoring and maintaining the homeostasis of the human system.
More information from the University of Arizona Fellowship in Integrative Medicine, Introduction to Energy Medicine by Anne Marie Chiasson, MD, MPH, Co-Director of the Fellowship at the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine:
“’In addition to a system of physical and chemical processes, the human being is made up of a complex system of energy’ (Hurwitz, 2001).
The underlying principle of energy medicine posits that one can manipulate this system of energy (biofield) in a manner that can positively impact health. The term “Energy Medicine” is a broadly used concept that includes anything involving energy as part of the therapy. It includes such modalities as magnet therapy, sound energy therapy, light therapy, and acupuncture – although how these modalities work, and if their effects are related to a human biofield are currently a matter of study and dispute.
Energy-based therapies are a part of most traditional medicine paradigms around the world. In fact, many ancient healing techniques are primarily centered around the core tenets of energy medicine. Evidence of the use of energy medicine in Asian and Ayurvedic practices dates back more than 4,000 years. The “laying on of hands,” a fundamental demonstration of energy medicine, has been a common practice for centuries and, in archeological finds, dates back even further. While new schools of energy medicine are emerging, most of these modalities have emerged from principles that were mapped out long before the emergence of modern scientific medicine.
There are areas of overlap between energy medicine, spirituality, mind-body medicine, manual medicine and acupuncture. Again, much of this overlap points to the dispute over the definition of “energy medicine” and the human biofield. Some of these modalities could also be covered in other areas: shamanism under spiritual healing, zero balancing under manual medicine, and sound healing as a form of mind-body medicine. From the standpoint of most energy medicine practitioners, energy is everything and everything is energy.”
Here’s my personal take so far: we know that E=Mc2 and we know that every cell of the body operates on an ionic gradient (an electrical system of negatively and positively charged particles in continuous flow). There’s quantum theory in favor of a quantified field of energy connecting everything in our perceivable world. We are, essentially made of energy that has slowed down and everything has its own vibrational frequency, this is all scientific fact. It isn’t a stretch for me to believe that we are strongly influenced by various energetic forces, such as electromagnetic, piezoelectric, vibrational and others that are not as easily measured. The science that relates healing to these forces is coming along slowly, but the physical laws of nature that dictate it and the ancient traditions that have stood the test of time as well as my own experiential knowledge tell me there is something essential and important in this realm of inquiry and tremendous potential as a viable healing tool.
“We are energy first,” Elisha Halpin, spiritual mentor and life coach.