Dr. Kim Wetzler says her job isn't to heal patients. Instead, as a naturopathic physician, she sees her job as a teacher.

"I believe in teaching patients how to heal themselves. I am not the healer. The healer comes from within, and that is what I am here to help bring out in people," says Wetzler, who recently moved back to Milwaukee from Portland to open the Riverwest Clinic, 826 E. Center St., with her father, a medical doctor, and her stepmother, a registered nurse.

The Riverwest Clinic will have an open house on Wednesday, Jan. 19 from 2 to 7 p.m.

Wetzler uses nutrition, herbs, homeopathy, bodywork and lifestyle counseling to help her patients get to the core of their health problems and start to heal from within. She also encourages a proactive approach, meaning that people engage in a healthy lifestyle and concentrate on wellness before something goes wrong.

"My patients have to be willing to work with me on their underlying issues, really getting to the root of why they have the symptoms that they have," she says.

Wetzler believes Western medicine offers valuable treatments for many conditions and, ideally, a person should combine approaches. Unfortunately, most insurance policies do not cover natural -- or homeopathic -- medicine.

"It takes only a little forethought to realize how much money can be saved by focusing on preventive care. Prevention is the key here," she says. "Many people just need to reprioritize where they spend their money. If a pack-a-day smoker quit smoking, they would save more than enough money to pay for my services. It's a choice."

Many of Wetzler's patients are children -- a segment of the population that she loves to work with.

"Their little bodies are so incredibly receptive to natural medicine. Everything seems to work better with kids," she says. "My theory is that they still have such clean systems, uncluttered with the effects of life and environmental toxins that accumulate in adults and block the healing process."

According to Wetzler, naturopathic medicine can be very helpful when working with kids with allergies, chronic and acute ear infections, autism and learning disabilities. Often it just takes educating the parent on nutrition and lifestyle techniques to improve the child's health.

Wetzler, 34, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, which has a four-year doctoral medical program. In the state of Oregon, Wetzler is a licensed physician, but Wisconsin is not one of the 12 states that licenses naturopathic doctors.

Even though she knew she wouldn't be a licensed ND in Wisconsin, Wetzler -- a native of Franklin -- came home to open a practice with her parents and get married. She currently lives in Bay View, and although she misses Portland, calling it a "city that does everything right," she is impressed with the progressive nature of Milwaukee's Bay View and Riverwest neighborhoods.

"I think the Riverwest community is a great location for my business because I am convinced that the progressive mindset here has an understanding of the concept surrounding natural medicine, and is looking for alternatives," she says.

Dr. Wetzler's Web site is drkimwetzler.com.