Sharon Stills, NMD, is expanding her naturopathic practice to include women’s retreats, and her first event, An Affair with Yourself, will take place from April 30 to May 3 in Sedona. 

Stills’ clinical experience has revealed that many patients seeking help are interested mainly in receiving vitamins and other natural supplements, because that is what society has taught us to expect when we see a physician. However, they don’t always take her recommendations about emotional healing seriously, which is why Stills has created Destination RED–experiential retreats that focus on emotional healing.

For this transformational healing experience, Stills is requesting participants to commit to be free of cell phones, email and daily routines; to immerse themselves in a sacred atmosphere; and join in activities that include the AUM, a social dynamic meditative process, labyrinth journeying, a fire-releasing ceremony and group sharing exercises, culminating in a ceremony in which each participant marries herself.

“My own health challenges set the stage for needing to understand how to be a healthy woman,” says  Stills, a physician associated with
WomensHealthNetwork.com. “It’s a natural progression for me to share my knowledge and experiences with other women so they can benefit, as well. It isn’t enough to focus only on the physical body, but to give them the ability to find their purpose in life. Real medicine is not only about prescriptions. It has to also include exploration, creativity and choice.”

Stills’ Arizona medical practice is a low-key setting in a residential environment, a universe away from her clinic on Long Island, in New York. In her career as a naturopathic physician, Stills has merged the science and art of medicine to provide a wide range of therapeutic and diagnostic services to women confronted with disease and imbalance in their lives. The women’s retreat concept is the latest component to Stills’ medicine bag, which contains a fusion of functional and European biological medicine, thermography scans and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

European biological medicine is an evolving system that incorporates conventional and alternative medicine alongside age-old practices of ayurveda, Chinese herbalism, homeopathy and natural European remedies to regulate and restore body harmony.