In many systems of healing, including much of Western medicine, the approach to healing is typically symptom-centered. We eradicate, destroy, fuse, stitch, and put out fires. We send you home with another pill, or a referral to a specialist to further diagnose you when a solution evades us. We tell you to tolerate all of your symptoms through numbing or suppressing the irritations that we cannot resolve. There is greater attention given to the problems that have discernibly surfaced, and less heed paid to the underlying integrity of a system as a whole. Focusing on “What’s wrong?”, i.e., the particular challenge of the moment, may be critical in the near-term, for instance when dealing with a broken bone, dangerous or contagious microbes, uncontrolled bleeding, even a tumor that is best contained by being surgically removed – in other words, situations that require fast or immediate action in order to stave off disaster and/or save a life.
However, if we continue with our standard approach to fixate exclusively on the things we say we don’t want – symptoms and disease – we may miss the larger opportunity for whole-person connection and whole-person healing.
If you're interested in discovering whole-person connection and whole-person healing, with a Certified Nurse Coach, explore my website, TahoeTruckeeNurseCoach.com or email me at Barbi.BucklesRN@gmail.com.
