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eff Clark has been a paperboy, a cook, an auto mechanic, a computer design engineer and a small-scale cattle rancher. At age 48, he added the desig-nation of naturopathic doctor to his resume.

When Clark began attending Portland’s National College of Natural Medicine in 2003, it was a major change from his career path of the past 25 years. Clark, who has a computer science degree, had worked at Tektronix since 1983. Clark says: “I had a pretty good career: I have five patents, worked on a number of projects as an engineer, project manag-er, team lead, all that kind of stuff.” Clark’s career shift from the high-tech industry to naturopathic medicine was a result of his own health problems; con-ventional doctors were unable to diagnose the reasons behind his chronic symptoms. “I ended up rooting out the cause for myself,” Clark says.

After much research and investigation, including sending his blood to Sweden for

a specific blood test, Clark deter-mined that his body was reacting to the mercury in his dental fillings. Once the cause of his symptoms was pinned down, he was able to take measures to improve his health.

“As I felt I was getting my life back, I felt I needed to do things that were more directly benefiting other people,” Clark says.

In 2008, Clark co-founded a medical clinic in Tualatin, True Health Medicine, with three other practitioners. Although it was far from the best year to start a busi-ness, all four co-founders are still with the clinic. “We’re pretty optimistic right now,” says Clark. “I think we’re going to be here and be part of the community for the fore-seeable future.”

The co-founders of True Health

Medicine chose Tualatin for several rea-sons. For one, two of the four founders live in the area. And whereas Southeast Portland, for instance, has a plethora of naturopaths, Clark says “there wasn’t a strong naturopathic presence in Tualatin.” “We love Tualatin,” Clark adds. “We’ve been very involved at the commu-nity level through the chamber, which has allowed us to participate in other activi-ties.”

True Health Medicine’s doctors have volunteered at the library and the Tualatin Heritage Center, as well as at the farmers market, where they helped educate mar-ket-goers about nutrition by giving out samples of — and recipes for -— healthy dishes made from locally-available ingre-dients.

This kind of outreach is not only ben-eficial to the public but is also an essen-tial part of growing a medical practice. “It isn’t like you open your doors and put up a sign and people say, ‘Look, a new doc-tor, let’s go,’” says Clark. “People have to understand it a bit, especially with some-thing new” like naturopathic medicine.

The slow-drip educational approach seems to be working: Clark says that peo-ple to whom True Health Medicine doc-tors spoke months ago have later come into the office. Clark himself has added a number of new patients since the new year, including one woman who didn’t want to be dependent on pharmaceutical treatments for her health problems. Clark specializes in chronic health conditions, like the one he suffered, “where the drug answers aren’t necessar-ily good answers, or there are no drugs” for the condition. He finds that his skills as a problem solver — the same skills that served him as an auto mechanic and a computer engineer — also help him arrive at the best solutions for patients’ health issues.

“Being a physician is the zenith of my professional life,” Clark wrote in a letter to prospective patients, posted on the True Health Medicine website. “It is in this role that I am best able to use my ability to understand and solve complex problems for the most direct benefit of others.”