It is indeed the first step in most of the cases. Unfortunately the world is full of people pretending they have the keys for everything, and wiling to experiment that on others....and of people willing to believe in the good will of everybody else...when these two meet, you need the clinical medicine to clear the mess
There are things that can be done amazingly well with alternative med and things that only the clinical medicine could cure; I have always found place for both in any situation.
RE: What's on your bucket list?
And what a fab pic that is!