A Healing Story: Healing the Wounded Healer

Doreen Oneschuk, MD Palliative Medicine Physician University of Alberta

Physician Heal Thyself

Paul, New Testament

That Physician will

hardly be thought very careful of the health of his patients if he neglects his own Galen, 130-200 AD

MY STORY

Rolfing
Bodywork technique that improves balance and flexibility through deep manipulation of rigid muscles, bone, and joints, intended to relieve stress and improve energy. Rolfing facilitates the realignment of the body and involves education about body position.

Hypnosis
If you are distressed by any thing external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment Marcus Aurelius

Hypnosis
Hypnosis is believed to have the ability to create greater self awareness, self understanding, and a holistic body-mindspiritual connectedness. We validate reality by the way we feel. We may have symptoms because of irrational beliefs. With hypnosis, there is suspension of peripheral awareness by moving into a dissociate state. The altered perception produces trance logic. About 20% are not suspectible to hypnosis. Was this me?

Hypnosis
The approach I experienced was based on the work of Milton Erickson, an American psychologist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy. I was encouraged to visualize a beach setting with my dog present. I was directed to generate warmth at the site of chosen trigger points for that day. I also gated out the pain and pictured alleviation of pain at the cellular level. The word discomfort was substituted for the word pain.

Acupuncture
Qi is one of the fundamental substances constituting the universe, and which maintains the normal activities of the body. According to ancient Chinese thought, all phenomena were produced by changes and movement of qi. Together with blood and body fluids, qi provides the material foundation for the functions of the organs, tissues, and meridians.

Acupuncture
Pathogenesis The onset of disease can be generalized as being due to disharmony of the yin and yang and conflict between internal factor qi and external factor qi. Pathogenic processes can occur in 3 ways: Disharmony of yin and yang Conflict between internal and external qi Abnormal descending & ascending of qi

Acupunture
Biomedical Acupuncture (the application of biological & neurophysiological principles to clinical acupuncture) retains the major principles of Oriental medicine, namely 1. restoring the physiological homeostasis (balance of yin & yang) 2. maximizing self healing without side effects 3. treating both ben (root of the disease) & biao (the symptoms of the disease)

Acupuncture
Intramuscular Stimulation releases the muscle shortening and restores the normal flow of sensory impulses . Inserting the needle creates a desired minor injury (inflammation) to the area which stimulates the body to deliver PDGF to the area which induces DNA synthesis and stimulates collagen formation.

Meditation-Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

Mindfulness is the final common pathway of what makes us human, our capacity for awareness of self knowing. Mindfulness is cultivated by paying attention, and this paying attention is developed and refined thorough a practice known as mindfulness meditation. It increases ones awareness by making the mind more receptive to ones current situation and internal states. Dr. J. Kabat-Zinn
MBSR program founder Massachusetts Medical Center

MBSR

Here for Now:

Living well with Cancer Through Mindfulness

Elena Rosenbaum,2005

Simply Notice
It is about seeing clearly: SIMPLY OBSERVE It is about paying attention: PAY ATTENTION It is about having an open heart and mind: HAVE AN OPEN HEART AND MIND It is about courage and fearlessness: WATCH WHAT ARISES It is about impermanence: NOTICE THAT EVERYTHING CHANGES It is about riding the waves of our mental and physical states: IT IS ABOUT LETTING GO It is about giving and receiving love, compassion, and wisdom: RESTING IN THE MOMENT PEACE ABOUNDS

Joan Halifax Roshi (Upaya Center) From her Website

Mindfulness
Matthieu Ricard ( A Guide to Developing Lifes Most Important Skill: Happiness, 2006) is a Buddhist monk who had a promising career in cellular genetics before leaving France to study Buddhism in the Himalayas 35 years ago. He lives in Tibet and Nepal and is a translator of French for the Dalai Lama.

Meditation
Long term Buddhist practitioners were asked to meditate on love and compassion, focused attention, open presence, and visualization of mental images. They showed a dramatic increase in gamma waves of a sort that never had been reported before. Showed more activity in the left prefrontal cortex. This area connects to the amygdala which plays a key role in the regulation of our emotional status.

Meditation
Upregulate prefrontal cortex and down regulation of the amygdala when focused on compassion. There was a notable decrease in parietal lobe activity , an area of the brain responsible for orientation. This correlates with the description of a sense of no space or time that people who meditate often describe
Lutz A, Greischar L, Rawlings N, Ricard M, Davidson R. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2004

Spirituality
What is Spiritual Care? Puchalski C, Lunsford P, Harris M, Miller T (2006) Interdisciplinary Spiritual Care of Seriously Ill and Dying Patients: A Collaborative Model. Cancer Journal

Spirituality
May be described by what it is not: It is not a technique It is not something that can be dispensed, managed or controlled It is not linear nor progressive It is not a thing It IS relational, mutual, and transformative
Zinia Pritchard, Chaplain Tertiary Palliative Care Unit, Edmonton, Alberta

Research in Spirituality, Religion, and Health

Aids with: Recovery from Illness Coping with Illness (surveys) Will to Live Resiliency to stress and adverse effects of stress Quality of Life Mind-Body Connection (relaxation response, meditation, positive mental attitude, hope)

Thank you!