Dr. DEAN HOWELL

Dean Howell’s path to becoming a naturopathic healer began with him as a college student studying mathematics (University of Washington, 1978). He suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome, recurrent bronchitis, and obesity. His needs for answers for the reasons for his illnesses drove him to enroll in naturopathic medical school in 1978. Once there, he became fascinated with the concept of optimization of the mind and body. He studied blood-type diets, iridology, hydrotherapy, constitutional hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, physical therapy, physiotherapy, massage, manipulation, spinal manipulation, Bilateral Nasal Specific… ; And found that all of these treatments helped him to feel better.

But he continued to have many problems! And, worse than that, is that many of his conditions were only controlled with these new treatments, not cured.

Dr. Howell cried at his medical school graduation (Bastyr University,1982) because he thought that he was going to heal people of their conditions. Yet, recently graduated, he now found himself treating hundreds of patients with techniques that successfully removed the symptoms, but rarely cured the patient.

In natural medicine, there are three modes of treatment: 1) nutrition, environment, and lifestyle; 2) detoxification; 3) musculoskeletal.

In his family practice, Dr. Howell discovered that changing people’s diet and lifestyles was very difficult. Who wants to give up their favorite foods? Who wishes to change a lifetime of living patterns? He found that he was usually only partially successful in changing their lifestyle and diet. People would justify their partial compliance by pointing to the Improvement created with lower dosages of the offending items compared to their previous lifestyle. But that did not lead to a true cure!

Detoxification of chemicals, heavy metals, and bad food residue is extremely helpful. For this there are many methods employed: enemas and colonics, regular and infrared saunas, fasting, intravenous chelation and nutraceuticals, and orally administered nutraceuticals and botanicals., When employed with a carefully controlled diet and lifestyle, detoxification can be the cause of many conditions. Sometimes this even leads to a true cure.

When Dr. Howell found compliant patients and they followed an excellent diet and lifestyle as well as following a detoxification program, even then they generally were not well. They would complain of headaches, nasal congestion, pains n their neck, back, low back, pelvis, and feet. And he found hat the physical medicine treatment techniques that he had studied and learned both in medical school and as a post-graduate were not curative as well.

Dr. Howell’s answer to this problem was to develop NeuroCranial Restructuring, which is a method of releasing the connective tissue in the skull to create symmetry and idealized performance.

However, the NCR, although people were mechanically much improved, did not heal them.

Dr. Howell took his NCR techniques and expanded them by adding energetic bodywork methods. This was very unpopular with the majority of practitioners he had trained. A number of his students complained that the they did not wish to perform a “silly energetic technique.” A splintering of the NCR community followed in the early 2000s, with his students renaming the NCR technique into other titles: FCR, NCRT, ABC, CRT, and others are all techniques whose foundations are derived from Dr. Howell’s asymmetrical cranial releasing concepts and techniques.

Dr. Howell’s most recent addition to his bodywork techniques is the addition of energy work. He has studied energetic therapy techniques for years, already being trained in the reiki techniques, Peruvian medicine wheel techniques, radionics, and others— so that the bodywork techniques are intuitively guided rather than being strictly mechanical.

When Dr. Howell works in Los Angeles, he works alone. When he works in Switzerland and Miami, he is assisted by his son Derek Howell, also an NCR practicing minister. When Dr. Howell works in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Lake Como New Jersey, Boulder Colorado, and Seattle he is ably assisted by Rebecca, a highly skilled bodyworker and medical intuitive..

He and Rebecca are re-establishing their home outside of Tonasket, Washington. Dr. Howell also has a daughter and three sons. One of his sons, Derek, specializes in NCR, too. His daughter, Selena, is a naturopathic physician just outside of Seattle. His oldest son, Nathan, works in IT. His youngest son, Brandon, works in movies and television acting. Rebecca has two adult sons, Joseph (who works in the real estate industry) and Stephen, a forensic accountant