Areas of Focus:
- GI Disorders
- Environmental Medicine
- Autoimmune Disorders
- Chronic Infectious Disease
- Lyme Disease
- Mold Illness/CIRS
- PANS/PANDAS
- Physical Medicine
PAUL DESPRES, NMD
Dr. Paul Despres is a compassionate naturopathic medical doctor skilled in a variety of modalities forever focused on addressing the root causes of illness, empowering patients to optimal health, and emphasizing disease prevention. He believes in providing an exceptional patient care experience integrating traditional medicine, cutting-edge scientific therapies, and the foundations of health. Dr. Despres is empathetic to his patients’ health challenges because he too has suffered from “incurable” chronic joint pain and auto-immune disease. Conventional medicine and the best specialists failed to diagnose the causes of his pain nor could they offer true solutions. It was this frustration that drove Dr. Despres to study naturopathic medicine and a devise a superior model of care. As a healer, he takes his time to get to know his patients, understand all the variables causing their symptoms, and determine which bodily systems must be healed. He specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases, mold disease, environmental toxicity, chronic pain, gastrointestinal disorders, mast cell activation, auto-immune disease, endocrine disorders, cognitive decline, and mood disorders. His clinical skills include IV therapy, botanical medicine, peptide therapy, depuration therapies, physical medicine (spinal manipulation, massage, cupping, craniosacral therapy, visceral manipulation), clinical nutrition, orthomolecular medicine, mind-body medicine, low level laser therapy, frequency specific micro-current, and hydrotherapy.
Dr. Despres is the youngest of three siblings and comes from humble beginnings in rural Rockford, MI. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2008, a license in massage therapy from Bellevue Massage School in 2014, and a doctorate in naturopathic medicine from Bastyr University in 2016. Dr. Despres spent three years working alongside Dr. Cynthia Keller and other integrative providers at Centered in Wellness in Kirkland, WA which specializes in managing complex chronic disease including Autism, Lyme Disease, mold disease, PANDAS, PANS, and environmental toxicity. In the fall of 2021, Dr. Despres moved to Tempe, AZ to support his partner Dr. Alexandra Mele, who is a first-year naturopathic medicine resident at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. It seems fate has brought Dr. Despres to Arizona to join the Nizhoni Functional Medicine medical team and further their fight against chronic disease. He is a voting member of ILADS since 2021. Together he hopes Nizhoni can revolutionize healthcare and create a future where every individual has easy access to the healing powers of naturopathic medicine.
