Dr. Soma Grotefend has joined the Southern Ute Health Center as the newest physician.

Grotefend is no stranger to the southwest; she was born raised in Albuquerque, N.M., where she completed medical school. She has also spent the majority of her career practicing in the Four Corners region from 1998-2013, and has more recently worked overseas in New Zealand.

Grotefend practiced in New Zealand for a year and a half, where she took on the tasks of learning a new culture, language and medical system. She prides herself on the experience, but says that she is glad to be home in Southwest Colorado.

Dr. “G”, what Grotefend goes by in the clinic, is excited to be working in the Southern Ute community. She says she has a more a natural approach to healing and believes it will mesh well with the community.

“I believe in the human body. It’s intelligent and always trying to heal itself, so I teach more natural ways of healing,” Grotefend said. “What’s our relationship with the Earth, what’s our relationship with our mind … to me those are absolutely primal and critical and they get ignored in western medicine.”

Grotefend said she loves interacting with patients and being a “health partner; not a health dictator.”

“I love just working with people. ‘How can we support your health’, instead of ‘how are you broken’ and ‘how can I fix you,’” she said. “What can we do to support your body, because it knows how to fix itself.”

On her free time, Dr. G enjoys exploring the outdoors and spending time with her family who reside in Durango.