At one point in his private practice in NY, Dr. Donald Epstein no longer found the term “patient” to be an appropriate or accurate description of the members of his wellness practice. He decided to hold a contest in his office to see who could come up with the best word to describe his clientele. In case you are wondering, the winning term was “practice member,” and from that point on Epstein began to call his patients “practice members.”
This was an important shift, since the word patient is defined in the dictionary as “someone who is under medical care or treatment,” and medical care is, of course, the diagnosis and treatment of symptoms or conditions. In the wellness model, a person may seek care without any need or desire for medical treatment. S/he may even be without symptoms, since many people seek wellness care purely for the life enhancing benefits that go along with that type of care. These benefits might include:
Better adaptation to stress
* Increased positive feelings
* Decreased moodiness
* Less depression
* More interest in life
* Fewer concerns about small things
* Improved ability to think and concentrate
* Less anxiety
As I struggled to find an accurate descriptive term for the people who participate in my wellness practice, I wasn't completely comfortable using the term “practice member”; something about it seemed a bit strange to me.
Clearly, “patient” won't do, and whenever someone says anything to me about “my patients,” my standard answer is, “I have no patients”. While it may be a marginal attempt at a humorous pun, it is also very true. I had begun using the term “client,” but even that doesn't sound quite right either.
I recently met a couple of chiropractors who had just opened an office nearby. Apparently, they are practicing in the wellness model because they came up with what I think is the best term yet — “participant.” They don't have patients, they have participants. I like it so much that I'm going to use it for my practice.
Participation is one of the most important aspects of a person seeking care in the wellness model. Normally, when someone sees their medical practitioner, they take more of a passive role in the process. I know I've mentioned before how many times I've heard someone say, “My doctor put me on this” or “My doctor gave me permission to do this.”
Do you remember being a kid and saying, “I wanna do it!”? As children we strived for the ability of and the right to self empowerment. We wanted to do it, whatever it was, for ourselves, and if for no other reason, then to prove we could.
In the wellness model, people are empowered in their own process. They are the decision makers. Instead of having a procedure done to them, the practitioner acts as more of a facilitator, guiding them through the process of healing. They begin to develop a trust and understanding of their own body and a deeper connection to their motivations and joy in life.
They are true participants in their process and in life... and from now on that is what I shall call them.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
What does that have to do with me?
A couple of weeks ago I went to see the debut of Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth. The evidence presented in this movie about global warming and its effects upon the future of the planet gives us an extremely powerful wakeup call. At least one would think so.
Despite the evidence, which, by the way, is universally accepted in the scientific community, our government refuses to see that there is a major problem requiring drastic action. Their response is to call it a natural swing, even though scientists are reporting record breaking numbers for heat indexes and tropical storms across the board.
As I looked at satellite pictures showing the melting of the polar caps, I wondered how we could let it get this far without noticing the changes. More importantly, upon noticing the symptoms of our modern society, I wondered how we could have sat by passively without altering our path.
While the evidence was shocking, I can't honestly say I'm surprised by the extent of the situation or by most folks apathy regarding it. In my observation, people generally see symptoms as an inconvenience to be pushed aside or swept under the rug as quickly as possible. The mentality of our culture has universally influenced our perceptions and resulting behaviors to the point of critical proportions.
Part of wellness is having an ever increasing awareness of what our body needs and wants. The more acutely aware we are the less need for more drastic or intense signals or symptoms to effect change. Better to hear the lion's roar than to feel his breath, as it were. To put it another way, you don't want a heart attack to be the first sign that you're too stressed. Unfortunately for many, it is the first symptom they notice. Sometimes, even such a drastic sign is not enough to illicit change.
Another aspect of wellness is one's realization of the relationship to the bigger picture of life. You affect everything and everything in turn affects you. This includes your relationship to yourself, others, to our environment and planet. We are so intimately connected to our environment that its health and function directly effect our own.
Just as a majority of the population fails to heed the warning of their own symptoms as a need for change, so it is with the symptoms of the planet. Generally speaking, if we feel like we are not responsible for the symptoms that we experience in our bodies, it only makes sense that the same dynamic would (and does) play out when it comes to our responsibility to what happens to the planet.
I had a conversation with a friend of mine about which issues would determine his political vote. One of his issues was how the political out come would affect his financial picture. I pointed out to him that if this global conundrum wasn't quickly addressed the economic views of any given politician wouldn't matter much. Global warming and the associated change in weather patterns will have devastating effects upon countless species, human life and ultimately our economic stability.
From that standpoint, it doesn't really matter whether you're left, right, Conservative, Liberal, Democrat or Republican. All of our political, religious, economic and financial concerns are minuscule when measured against the fallout continued global warming will wreck upon our current way of life.
Unless you've been living under a rock, (and you might be doing just that to try and stay cool) then you've most likely seen all the news reports of record breaking heat around the country and world. If only we could ignore it, maybe it will go away?
But that's not what's happening. Countless species are heading for extinction because they are unable to adapt to the quickly changing environment. While many people don't really care too much about it now, they may change their tune when it begins to affect the food chain. Damage and claims due to the weather are continually increasing causing astronomical monetary and human losses.
How many people have stopped to consider what is going to happen if, and more likely when, the polar caps melt? A multitude of coastal cities will be under water. (It's already beginning to happen.) What effect is that going to have on our economy?
When the symptoms become too great to ignore in our bodies or on our planet, we will eventually come to the point where we will be forced to make a change... if it's not too late.
Despite the evidence, which, by the way, is universally accepted in the scientific community, our government refuses to see that there is a major problem requiring drastic action. Their response is to call it a natural swing, even though scientists are reporting record breaking numbers for heat indexes and tropical storms across the board.
As I looked at satellite pictures showing the melting of the polar caps, I wondered how we could let it get this far without noticing the changes. More importantly, upon noticing the symptoms of our modern society, I wondered how we could have sat by passively without altering our path.
While the evidence was shocking, I can't honestly say I'm surprised by the extent of the situation or by most folks apathy regarding it. In my observation, people generally see symptoms as an inconvenience to be pushed aside or swept under the rug as quickly as possible. The mentality of our culture has universally influenced our perceptions and resulting behaviors to the point of critical proportions.
Part of wellness is having an ever increasing awareness of what our body needs and wants. The more acutely aware we are the less need for more drastic or intense signals or symptoms to effect change. Better to hear the lion's roar than to feel his breath, as it were. To put it another way, you don't want a heart attack to be the first sign that you're too stressed. Unfortunately for many, it is the first symptom they notice. Sometimes, even such a drastic sign is not enough to illicit change.
Another aspect of wellness is one's realization of the relationship to the bigger picture of life. You affect everything and everything in turn affects you. This includes your relationship to yourself, others, to our environment and planet. We are so intimately connected to our environment that its health and function directly effect our own.
Just as a majority of the population fails to heed the warning of their own symptoms as a need for change, so it is with the symptoms of the planet. Generally speaking, if we feel like we are not responsible for the symptoms that we experience in our bodies, it only makes sense that the same dynamic would (and does) play out when it comes to our responsibility to what happens to the planet.
I had a conversation with a friend of mine about which issues would determine his political vote. One of his issues was how the political out come would affect his financial picture. I pointed out to him that if this global conundrum wasn't quickly addressed the economic views of any given politician wouldn't matter much. Global warming and the associated change in weather patterns will have devastating effects upon countless species, human life and ultimately our economic stability.
From that standpoint, it doesn't really matter whether you're left, right, Conservative, Liberal, Democrat or Republican. All of our political, religious, economic and financial concerns are minuscule when measured against the fallout continued global warming will wreck upon our current way of life.
Unless you've been living under a rock, (and you might be doing just that to try and stay cool) then you've most likely seen all the news reports of record breaking heat around the country and world. If only we could ignore it, maybe it will go away?
But that's not what's happening. Countless species are heading for extinction because they are unable to adapt to the quickly changing environment. While many people don't really care too much about it now, they may change their tune when it begins to affect the food chain. Damage and claims due to the weather are continually increasing causing astronomical monetary and human losses.
How many people have stopped to consider what is going to happen if, and more likely when, the polar caps melt? A multitude of coastal cities will be under water. (It's already beginning to happen.) What effect is that going to have on our economy?
When the symptoms become too great to ignore in our bodies or on our planet, we will eventually come to the point where we will be forced to make a change... if it's not too late.
Sunday, September 3, 2006
Time out!
A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting with some friends who have two young children. The mother was telling me that her son, who we'll call Johnny, had some challenges with focus and attention currently not significant enough to warrant the label of ADD/ADHD. When I inquired about which methods or strategies she used to deal with the situation I was pleasantly surprised.
Whenever Johnny has difficulty listening or focusing, she sends him to his room for what she called a “sensory time out.” He goes to his room and bounces his back on his bed five or six times. He can also hug himself, or someone else, real tight. The method basically helps him bring his attention into his body.
After listening to her I said, “Oh my God, that's just like SRI” (Somato-Respiratory Integration). Of course, SRI is a little more involved but the basic concept of connecting to the body is the same.
Whenever we are not present, which includes times of depression, anxiety or inability to focus, among many others; we are effectively having a conversation in our head. When our attention is on the conversation, we have very little attention or presence in our body.
SRI utilizes a combination of breath, movement and focused attention directed to specific parts of the body. One of the many results is a deeper connection to one's own internal body rhythms. As I say often, it is impossible to be focused on your body rhythms and mental conversation simultaneously.
In my experience, I would say that an overwhelming majority of the people I work with are quite “disconnected” from their bodies. This isn't all that surprising to me based upon how busy our lives have become. What is a little surprising and somewhat disturbing is the fact that this epidemic is even affecting our children. The increasing numbers of children being labeled with ADD/ADHD is sadly alarming.
It is good to see that at least some other disciplines are beginning to take a body centered approach to this problem. I encourage everyone, adult or child, to seek a system like SRI that helps develop simple tools for increased body awareness, connection and focus.
Whenever Johnny has difficulty listening or focusing, she sends him to his room for what she called a “sensory time out.” He goes to his room and bounces his back on his bed five or six times. He can also hug himself, or someone else, real tight. The method basically helps him bring his attention into his body.
After listening to her I said, “Oh my God, that's just like SRI” (Somato-Respiratory Integration). Of course, SRI is a little more involved but the basic concept of connecting to the body is the same.
Whenever we are not present, which includes times of depression, anxiety or inability to focus, among many others; we are effectively having a conversation in our head. When our attention is on the conversation, we have very little attention or presence in our body.
SRI utilizes a combination of breath, movement and focused attention directed to specific parts of the body. One of the many results is a deeper connection to one's own internal body rhythms. As I say often, it is impossible to be focused on your body rhythms and mental conversation simultaneously.
In my experience, I would say that an overwhelming majority of the people I work with are quite “disconnected” from their bodies. This isn't all that surprising to me based upon how busy our lives have become. What is a little surprising and somewhat disturbing is the fact that this epidemic is even affecting our children. The increasing numbers of children being labeled with ADD/ADHD is sadly alarming.
It is good to see that at least some other disciplines are beginning to take a body centered approach to this problem. I encourage everyone, adult or child, to seek a system like SRI that helps develop simple tools for increased body awareness, connection and focus.
Friday, September 1, 2006
Do you ever feel out of synch?
In his book, The Biology of Transcendence, Joseph Chilton Pearce discusses, among other things, how the millions of “frequency entrained” heart cells together create an electromagnetic field known as the heart energy.
I found his writings on this subject particularly interesting because the work we do with clients utilizing Network Spinal Analysis and Somato-Resiratory Integration is based on exactly the principles Pearce illustrates.
He describes how a single heart cell placed under a microscope will pulsate evenly for a time before it eventually fibrillates and dies. When a second cell, also fibrillating, is placed in spatial proximity, the two cells actually stop fibrillating and resume their regular pulsing in synchrony with each other.
The fact that the two cells weren't touching indicates the presence of a field that appears to transform disorder into order, entraining to the rhythm of life. Pearce goes on to talk about the concept of entrainment:
When brain and heart frequencies entrain, they enter a synchronous, resonant, or coherent wave pattern. Though rare in adults, such entrainment is critical to full development of our human nature, and new research is revealing how this can be achieved. In the example opening this chapter, entrainment between two heart cells lifted them from chaos into order. The same entrainment of heart frequencies occurs between mother and infant during breast-feeding and other close body contact. In a state of full frequency match, the body, brain, and heart produce a single coherent frequency pulse or wave form, and a similar resonance occurs between infant and mother.
The heart certainly has intelligence, though this calls for a new definition of the word to differentiate it from cerebral intellect. The heart's intelligence is not verbal or linear or digital, as is the intellect of our head, but rather is a holistic capability that responds in the interest of well-being and continuity, sending to the brain's emotional system an intuitive prompt for appropriate behavior. Intellect, however, can function independently from the heart – that is, without intelligence — and can take over the circuitry and block the heart's more subtle signals.
The procedure that someone in Network Care receives is called an entrainment. The entrainment is designed to help a person to release defensive patterning and synchronize with the body's peaceful inherent signals. In this care, the body actually develops respiratory and muscular waves that break the patterned responses dictated by the previously locked structure.
If someone is in defense, and a majority of people are, it is difficult if not impossible to overcome the survival-based logic of the intellect and fully connect with the wisdom of the heart.
Energy of unresolved events, stresses and perceptions held in the body limit our flexibility as well as our ability to pick up the subtle but important internal cues that help us adapt to an ever-changing environment.
Advanced Network Care is all about bringing greater awareness and connection with the heart rhythm. As the heart signal becomes more pronounced, individuals receiving care report being more fully able to make healthier choices for themselves, being more compassionate, vital, creative, self aware, and responsible to human culture.
I found his writings on this subject particularly interesting because the work we do with clients utilizing Network Spinal Analysis and Somato-Resiratory Integration is based on exactly the principles Pearce illustrates.
He describes how a single heart cell placed under a microscope will pulsate evenly for a time before it eventually fibrillates and dies. When a second cell, also fibrillating, is placed in spatial proximity, the two cells actually stop fibrillating and resume their regular pulsing in synchrony with each other.
The fact that the two cells weren't touching indicates the presence of a field that appears to transform disorder into order, entraining to the rhythm of life. Pearce goes on to talk about the concept of entrainment:
When brain and heart frequencies entrain, they enter a synchronous, resonant, or coherent wave pattern. Though rare in adults, such entrainment is critical to full development of our human nature, and new research is revealing how this can be achieved. In the example opening this chapter, entrainment between two heart cells lifted them from chaos into order. The same entrainment of heart frequencies occurs between mother and infant during breast-feeding and other close body contact. In a state of full frequency match, the body, brain, and heart produce a single coherent frequency pulse or wave form, and a similar resonance occurs between infant and mother.
The heart certainly has intelligence, though this calls for a new definition of the word to differentiate it from cerebral intellect. The heart's intelligence is not verbal or linear or digital, as is the intellect of our head, but rather is a holistic capability that responds in the interest of well-being and continuity, sending to the brain's emotional system an intuitive prompt for appropriate behavior. Intellect, however, can function independently from the heart – that is, without intelligence — and can take over the circuitry and block the heart's more subtle signals.
The procedure that someone in Network Care receives is called an entrainment. The entrainment is designed to help a person to release defensive patterning and synchronize with the body's peaceful inherent signals. In this care, the body actually develops respiratory and muscular waves that break the patterned responses dictated by the previously locked structure.
If someone is in defense, and a majority of people are, it is difficult if not impossible to overcome the survival-based logic of the intellect and fully connect with the wisdom of the heart.
Energy of unresolved events, stresses and perceptions held in the body limit our flexibility as well as our ability to pick up the subtle but important internal cues that help us adapt to an ever-changing environment.
Advanced Network Care is all about bringing greater awareness and connection with the heart rhythm. As the heart signal becomes more pronounced, individuals receiving care report being more fully able to make healthier choices for themselves, being more compassionate, vital, creative, self aware, and responsible to human culture.
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