Althera Alternative Care is a membership-based primary care clinic that features services not typically offered at standard primary care medical practices. Operated by Todd and Raquel LeCesne, the clinic focuses on lifestyle change, herbal remedies, and nutraceuticals.
Todd tells us, “We are really endeavoring to redefine primary care. We're providing a level of diagnostic assessment that is well beyond what others in primary care are doing. I was trained at the University of Utah, and some of the analysis procedures that I learned there in 1996 are still being used in 2026. In many cases, Western Medicine has been slow to implement newer diagnostics.”
Todd says, “One of the things that I've done at my clinic is to really try to distinguish us in the market by offering a bevy of diagnostic tests and services that you can't get at your regular primary care doctor's office. We are very much founded and rooted in the concept of salutogenesis, which is the science that keeps us well, as opposed to reacting to the problem and trying to put a Band-Aid on it once it shows up. That is the pathogenic model of care.”
Todd has been practicing medicine in Albuquerque for 30 years. He taught medical students at UNM and has also worked in urgent care facilities and emergency rooms. His wife, Raquel, directs operations at the clinic. Todd tells us, “I met her at the university where she was a vice president of the UNM foundation board, so she did policy and governance for the foundation. After leaving the foundation, she was the general manager of a wealth management firm out of Beverly Hills, California. She was basically the general manager for a group that did wealth management for pro-athletes and entertainers. She decided that instead of providing all of the operational expertise for that system, she should focus her light and her attention on our clinic. Now she's directing operations here full-time and really trying to provide some view of scale and growth for us and really reining in some of our supply chain issues. She’s also managing our marketing and our social media approach, as well as AI technology. I'm really grateful to have her knowledge and expertise.”
Althera Alternative Care gets a lot of excellent Google reviews. They have gone to great lengths to create a warm and relaxing environment for medical care, eliminating what is commonly known as “white coat syndrome,” i.e., hypertension where blood pressure is higher than normal due to anxiety in a medical setting. Todd characterizes the clinic as having an ambience similar to an Apple store.
Todd’s approach to patients is getting to know their concerns and goals. He tells us, “We are not bound by the limitations of the volume-based system that is regular Western medical care. Instead, we practice a value-based system where we're not necessarily beholden to seeing a patient in a 15-minute slot, but we can actually take as much time as needed to really dig deep and analyze all of these tools and come up with a well-defined treatment plan or program that is in alignment with whatever the patient’s goals and aspirations are. It takes some time to talk with the patient...what are you trying to accomplish here and what can we do to help move you in that direction?”
The clinic’s methodology is creating a healthy lifestyle for the patient. As Todd tells us, “We use alternative treatment and therapeutics...something different than the current toolbox of therapies. Those are the kind of things that sometimes don't take place in the doctor's office. Is the patient eating right and exercising, and getting outside in the sunlight, as well as having self-help, healthy social relationships, and some spirituality? A holistic approach.”
Althera Alternative Care is at 1100 San Mateo Boulevard NE, Building 4. Their phone number is 505.322.2411. Their website is https://altheraclinic.com/.