Holistic Medicine: The Who of Health Care Options

Health care options include a what (name or class of therapy), a how (particular school or style of the therapy), and a who (particular provider). All health care occurs in a context — the larger context of your life. Although you may see your health as separate from your life context, it is not. Health and disease are very much interwoven into the fabric of your life.

That is why you hear about people who undergo miraculous cures of their diseases talking about changes in themselves that go far beyond the resolution of a health problem. Your health care is simply a local focus for you to get the help to get out on your road to healing.

The Who of Your Healing Programhttps://irisbell.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

Your program will most likely involve you and professional providers in selecting and implementing various tools for healing. The Who is variable. You will always be the person making the decisions as to whom to involve in your care. Some of the way, however, you may also learn about a valuable self-care tool from a provider or a book or website or a friend or family member.

Some of the tools will involve self-care, not a professional provider. You may identify a form of a tool that is helpful for you to incorporate into your program. You do not necessarily need a provider for every aspect of your health care.

In chronic disease, research shows that one of the most important aspects of improving your sense of self-efficacy and your outcome is learning how to manage day to day aspects of living well and coping with disease-related challenges for yourself. Expecting a professional to be there all the time is not only unrealistic; it misses the point of growing through facing challenges on your own.

To the extent that a health care option depends on a particular provider’s judgment of what is wrong and what treatment is needed, things may go better or worse. In the ideal, each provider is equally qualified in terms of technical training and preparation to help you to the maximum possible and in personal qualities with which you resonate. In the real world, providers are people with their own technical and personal strengths and weaknesses.

In the real world, you may or may not develop a good relationship and communication channel with a particular provider. A provider may have what appear to be good tools technically, but difficult to work with in the therapeutic relationship. Another provider may be very caring and compassionate but still not have the perspective, knowledge, or tools that will help you the most.

If you happen to find both the relationship and the tools in the same provider, rejoice and partner with them in your healing process. However, some providers, even the most talented, may also be so bound up in ego issues about needing to help you and taking credit for your recovery that they have their own unresolved issues that are not yours to take on.

For your healing, seek selfless compassionate healers who have only your highest and best good as their intention, not another notch on their therapeutic gun. Flee from providers who tell you that you must forsake all other care for them and their approach, as they have the only right and true answer for you. In some way, they are more of a cult leader than a true healer.

For an optimal healing environment, you will want your healers to relate to you in a way that makes you feel heard and understood. Although you may find that the turning point for your healing occurs under care with a particular person, you may also find that you need several different providers with different tools at the same time or over time.