The Macdonald Centre for Natural Medicine - Courtenay, British Columbia

Jacqueline L.

Deirdre is amazing! She is kind and really cares about her patients and I like how she takes time to really listen and form relationships. She works hard to figure out the right treatments and always backs up her knowledge with real, timely data and relevant scientific studies. She helped me with my menopause journey and I feel 100 times better than I did 6 months ago. Go see her!

Laura B.

I am so grateful to have found Dr. Macdonald, and would highly recommend her to anyone. I moved to the island in 2019 and didn't have an MD for years after that so she was my go-to. She helped me deep dive into various things I've dealt with over the years, and she's so easy to talk to (she even offers women's health exams, including PAPs, as well as counselling). I'm so tired of MD's just scratching the surface on things, and immediately wanting to just prescribe medication for everything instead of working to get to the root cause, so Dr. Macdonald is truly a breath of fresh air. It feels like I finally have someone who's actually on my side who wants the best for me.

Christy N.

Can I just say thank you from the bottom of my heart. My brain has been hurting for the better part of 2.5 years if not longer. It physically hurt every day, kind of like the feeling of "having your bell rung". A low grade but constant sensation.

Thanks to the most recent recommendations from Dr. Macdonald, for the first time in years it doesn't hurt and that natural and intrinsic joy I always used to feel is coming back!

I've worked with multiple practitioners trying to solve this problem and Dr. Macdonald was the first one to figure it out. I'm very grateful!

Laura M.

Deidre is a wonderful person! I highly recommend her!

KamaSutraOnMars

I’ve been seeing Dr. Shawn Peters through this organization and overall I’m happy with the care I’ve received so far because I was really let down by the medical system before finding him. Numerous doctors in town overlooked my symptoms, test results and brushed aside my concerns, didn’t listen to me and some blamed my severe symptoms on anxiety.

But Dr. Peters listened to me, went through a very extensive history with me, went through all my test results that I had done in the past and found things that other doctors would have never found. Thanks to him I’ve changed my diet and lifestyle around so much. He was a huge catalyst in big changes I’ve made in my life.

One thing I don’t like about the place is there’s no elevator in the building (not easily accessible for disabled or extremely sick people). Going up the stairs was very difficult for me some days when my symptoms were bad.

Also it’s expensive. That’s I guess to be expected though and I was willing to pay for my health. But I’m on PWD so it’s not easy to afford, I wish there were better options for people on PWD. But also Dr. Peters does not like to go even a few minutes overtime, like he once cut me short and said I had to schedule another appointment to hear something I was sure would only take a few seconds to tell me about. So I ended up having to pay more for an extended appointment. Well but I can understand going over time isn’t good for him. He does answer brief related questions over email but if you want anything more in depth you have to pay for another appointment. Which can really add up if you’re already planning on having regular follow ups or using a naturopath in place of a doctor like I’m doing.

But other than how expensive it is, I’d say it’s definitely worth it because he does extensive testing and doesn’t seem to leave any stone unturned, he seems definitely knowledgeable about a lot plus he seems open to both traditional and non traditional medicine.

Knowing my low income situation he was more than willing to suggest cheaper vitamins and supplements etc.

He also wasn’t “judgmental” or rude about my poor diet or terrible lifestyle choices like some doctors have been to me, he was very understanding, respectful and professional and encouraging about it all.

In all I would highly recommend him as a great Naturopathic Doctor most definitely. It’s been helping me a great deal.