March 15, 2012

Mar 15, 2012-03-15 Blog In the beginning of this journey I am reminded of TS Eliot, The Four Quartets, “We shall not cease from our exploration And at the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. For forty-two years I have been practicing in Discovery…before there was integrative medicine…I been practicing as my father taught me. He would say, “God made the body to heal itself.” This healing position from a man who was a gynecologist and surgeon, practicing “first do no harm” and “to treat in order to prevent.” Surgery was the action of last resort. As my first teacher I learned from him, nutrition and vitamin therapy, no medication unless is was absolutely necessary and then for the shortest time required. He taught and practiced from the position of psychosomatic medicine. What he taught 30 years ago is accepted now. Ninety-eight percent of illness is psychogenic in its origins. So with this beginning blog…I return to these original teachings. The actual scientific foundations of what is known today as Integrative Medicine or Integrative Healthcare arose in part from the work of Milton Erickson the father of modern hypnosis and hypnotherapy. His student Ernest Rossi wrote in 1986 about mind body connections…from there was/has been an exponential explosion of research and data. My thought is to return to the foundations of Discovery discussing the implications for today’s students in Integrative Healthcare as well as for patients seeking control of their own health and preventive care. In the early formation of the treatment protocols we use in our practice, the first step is always a starting place with self-discovery. So if we consider this….discovery is always a process beginning in a development of self-awareness. What am I experiencing? What does it mean? What is the purpose of what is happening? What do I do with my particular perspective and view of the universe? To quote the character Hugo in the award winning film Hugo, “If you lose your purpose, it’s like you are broken.” There is a process in self-awareness where we begin a process of recognition of our brokenness, our limitations, our gifts…and from this ability to think about ourselves and our meaning in the place we find ourselves right now…this moment. So let’s begin with this question….which will lead into others and this blog will unfold. Where are you now….right now…this moment….at the beginning of this journey? It does not matter much what age you are….questions we ask in our teens open up the pathways for our future selves. If you are at mid-life and you have come here looking for something…then return to your beginning and ask these questions. Your answer is the first step on this invisible path unfolding under your feet.