NATURA, NATURALLY
WORDS Liam Stretch PHOTOS Sarah Rowlands
The body is a temple, and like all good temples, it deserves spring cleaning. Setting out to dust off the cobwebs with a holistic health approach is husband and wife, and business partners, Bridget and Henrik Prütz.
They met in Europe while Bridget was travelling and Henrik, a Swedish native, was studying at Barcelona College of Chiropractic. They’ve now settled in Bridget’s hometown, Christchurch, and established the chiropractic practice Natura – a reflection of the pair’s guiding principles and values; an embodiment of who they are and how they love their life.
“Natura offers family holistic healthcare. We have an emphasis on integrating the art, science, and philosophy of Chiropractic. We also support our practice members using the latest non-invasive scanning technology so they can track their progress and understand what’s going on in their nervous system.”
As the drivers behind the business, the couple perform different but complementary roles. Henrik is the chiropractor, and Bridget is the creative energy and the ‘behind the scenes’ of Natura. As well as liaising and communicating with practice members, she also works with other holistic healing modalities and facilitates women’s wellness retreats to support the Natura family with an extra layer of support as it’s needed.
At the Bealey Avenue studio, the environment of the space is a vital element.
“It was our intention to create a space that encourages and supports the parasympathetic nervous system response as soon as you walk in the door.”
The pair hold the belief that the body is connected to the natural world; there is ample capacity for healing if that relationship is restored.
“Chiropractic care ‘takes the cuffs off nature’. By restoring the vertebrae to its natural position, you release the flow of nerve impulses. When the nervous system is functioning properly, and the brain and body are communicating it supplies the body with what it needs for wellbeing; it allows the body to heal itself and return to its natural state which is health.”
A dysfunction in the nervous system is known as vertebral subluxation. This can result in communication problems between the brain and the body along the spinal cord – the “information highway that oversees the function of every cell, every tissue, every organ, every muscle, every movement”. This can translate to seemingly unrelated health challenges: digestion issues to menstrual problems, respiratory issues to sleep problems. Dr Henrik is trained to locate, analyse, and correct these.
Along with like-minded chiropractors in Christchurch, Natura offers a gift culture payment. This means “that our practice members decide what they pay for their adjustments. We have fixed fees for the first two visits, and then we utilise a gift culture system in order to make regular holistic health care more accessible and sustainable”.
Natura has truly aimed to make a healthy body and mind accessible to all that share this city. It’s a new season – is it time you had a check-up?