Sunday Musings - April 16, 2023
Prayer
One day recently I was reviewing clinical charts at a mental health center. Part of my part time job is to review clinical charts from the distance of a fresh perspective to explore whether the assessment and services are capturing the essence of who the person is and what their presenting symptoms are saying. The body always lets one know what is going on. Just as a forensic pathologist might allow the body to speak, the clinical records must give one a hint of who this person is and, thus, what assistance/support/treatment might be helpful.
Unlike in times past when the shaman, the wise healing elder or the physician who was also a neighbor likely knew the history of the individual, their family and all the members of the community, today trained licensed medical individuals meet with someone whose only prior knowledge may be that they are a member of the same human race. They may or may be a member of the same, often disconnected, community. In a few minutes or an hour at best, the clinician is required to arrive at a diagnosis and at least a tentative treatment plan even if that treatment plan is additional tests. In that brief time the clinician needs to absorb the essence of that person while the “client/patient” must absorb enough of the essence of the clinician to know what to reveal to them. The clinician, at the end of the appointment, must complete the paperwork which includes at least a tentative diagnosis and a treatment plan which satisfies the needs of the client/patient and the insurance company. One cannot simply say the person is worn out or the person’s body is very unhappy, or on overload although that might be said in the narrative.
It is amazing that, at any level, this system ever works. Even when a diagnosis seems evident, one often does not know the reason for those symptoms. Why has the brain, for example, created an alternative world which we might label hallucinations? Why is the body saying that much of the world is dangerous and thus sending out symptoms of anxiety and depression? One might, of course, guess that the etiology is a particular trauma such as addiction, abuse, or combat experience. But still, we do not know the person and why one body survives trauma relatively well and others do not. We have not captured the essence of the person; the foundation or core of what holds them together.
It is an impossible job and, yet some few people get better because of or despite this system.
I was listening to an On Being podcast with host Krista Tippett having a conversation with the Episcopal Priest and public theologian Barbara Brown Taylor. I admire both individuals and do my best to experience what I want to call their wisdom, their sense of the holy. Holy is a word which seems to resonate with both.
It occurs to me that when I use the word essence in reference to a person or some other part of nature that word is synonymous with the word holy. When I think of the word holy, I think of the word whole. When I think of the word whole I think of all the parts of the universe which creates the spring flowers, the trees bursting with new growth, the baby eagles which have recently come forth, the new baby of friends of mine, the plants which provide substance to my body, the oxygen which also feeds my body, the touch of a friend, the artistry of mother natures as well as many movements of humans and other creatures I know; all the parts, big and small, which create this process we know as the life form/the dance of the universe.
When I meet with another person in any of my various roles - so called professional or personal - it is this sense of the holy with which I must allow myself to connect. The holy will dance with me - will speak to and with me – if I am receptive. When we are ill the holy dance may be a bit wobbly or off balance, but it is still there. It may be that the person with whom I am dancing has lost their own sense of the holy. I must invite it to dance once again. It may be that I have lost or misplaced my own holy dance. In the process of meeting with another person or any part of nature I can call forth that holy dance.
Despite all the impediments of our modern health care system in the form of paperwork, threats of not being reimbursed, threats of not covering our legal “asses” it is our privilege - our blessing - to take that leap of faith and dance a holy dance with “each other”. Only then can we formulate a healing plan - physical, emotional, spiritual - for both the patient/client and the clinician/healer. Healing is, after all, always mutual if it is to be effective.
Let’s keep dancing.
Written April 16, 2023
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
Prayer
One day recently I was reviewing clinical charts at a mental health center. Part of my part time job is to review clinical charts from the distance of a fresh perspective to explore whether the assessment and services are capturing the essence of who the person is and what their presenting symptoms are saying. The body always lets one know what is going on. Just as a forensic pathologist might allow the body to speak, the clinical records must give one a hint of who this person is and, thus, what assistance/support/treatment might be helpful.
Unlike in times past when the shaman, the wise healing elder or the physician who was also a neighbor likely knew the history of the individual, their family and all the members of the community, today trained licensed medical individuals meet with someone whose only prior knowledge may be that they are a member of the same human race. They may or may be a member of the same, often disconnected, community. In a few minutes or an hour at best, the clinician is required to arrive at a diagnosis and at least a tentative treatment plan even if that treatment plan is additional tests. In that brief time the clinician needs to absorb the essence of that person while the “client/patient” must absorb enough of the essence of the clinician to know what to reveal to them. The clinician, at the end of the appointment, must complete the paperwork which includes at least a tentative diagnosis and a treatment plan which satisfies the needs of the client/patient and the insurance company. One cannot simply say the person is worn out or the person’s body is very unhappy, or on overload although that might be said in the narrative.
It is amazing that, at any level, this system ever works. Even when a diagnosis seems evident, one often does not know the reason for those symptoms. Why has the brain, for example, created an alternative world which we might label hallucinations? Why is the body saying that much of the world is dangerous and thus sending out symptoms of anxiety and depression? One might, of course, guess that the etiology is a particular trauma such as addiction, abuse, or combat experience. But still, we do not know the person and why one body survives trauma relatively well and others do not. We have not captured the essence of the person; the foundation or core of what holds them together.
It is an impossible job and, yet some few people get better because of or despite this system.
I was listening to an On Being podcast with host Krista Tippett having a conversation with the Episcopal Priest and public theologian Barbara Brown Taylor. I admire both individuals and do my best to experience what I want to call their wisdom, their sense of the holy. Holy is a word which seems to resonate with both.
It occurs to me that when I use the word essence in reference to a person or some other part of nature that word is synonymous with the word holy. When I think of the word holy, I think of the word whole. When I think of the word whole I think of all the parts of the universe which creates the spring flowers, the trees bursting with new growth, the baby eagles which have recently come forth, the new baby of friends of mine, the plants which provide substance to my body, the oxygen which also feeds my body, the touch of a friend, the artistry of mother natures as well as many movements of humans and other creatures I know; all the parts, big and small, which create this process we know as the life form/the dance of the universe.
When I meet with another person in any of my various roles - so called professional or personal - it is this sense of the holy with which I must allow myself to connect. The holy will dance with me - will speak to and with me – if I am receptive. When we are ill the holy dance may be a bit wobbly or off balance, but it is still there. It may be that the person with whom I am dancing has lost their own sense of the holy. I must invite it to dance once again. It may be that I have lost or misplaced my own holy dance. In the process of meeting with another person or any part of nature I can call forth that holy dance.
Despite all the impediments of our modern health care system in the form of paperwork, threats of not being reimbursed, threats of not covering our legal “asses” it is our privilege - our blessing - to take that leap of faith and dance a holy dance with “each other”. Only then can we formulate a healing plan - physical, emotional, spiritual - for both the patient/client and the clinician/healer. Healing is, after all, always mutual if it is to be effective.
Let’s keep dancing.
Written April 16, 2023
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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