The health of all of us has become such an issue over the last year with the COVID pandemic. We are now increasingly looking at ways to improve the quality of our lives. However, with so much health information at our fingertips and philosophies with different approaches it is difficult to know which way to turn. The term “being healthy” now is not just being free of disease but now also looks at the health of the mind and overall spiritual wellbeing. Now are we being judged on how we live our lives: going to the gym, eating the right foods, using coping methods for our busy lives, we can even have a DNA test to determine if we are on the right track to help our bodies. More than ever there is a complex web to navigate when trying to stay healthy. Who should we go to? A medical Doctor? A friend? The internet? An alternative therapist? Who knows the true nature of healing and should we just rely on the bio medical science of today? Melanie Gordon examines this tricky predicament.
Different people class health in different ways, what is important is that you feel that you are doing the right thing for you. There is possibility of no single concept is the right one and a combination of bio medicine and alternative therapies may be what people are looking for.
Bio Medical care is the usual way in which we perceive medicine. We put our trust into doctors, nurses, surgeons and is usually the first port of call when we are ill, to confirm the diagnostic way to move forwards. The advances in bio medicine are now firmly established, but does this kind of medicine just take into account the body but not the mind. Are the practitioners looking at the person as a whole or just looking at making the body disease free? Bio medicine does not consider the inner soul or the moral pain caused. Does this make it a healthy was forwards when the emotional scares are not taken care of too?
Communication is the key for all ways of healing and a healthy relationship between client and practitioner should be a standardized model for all wellness and getting the best care. There should more a biopsychological way and taking into account the emotional factors throughout the treatment of the patient. The more holistic methods are now readily available and are now being seen as part of the more traditional parts of medicine, such as osteopathy, yoga, acupuncture. These can be complementary to traditional bio medical care.
Fortunately, as bio medicine is heavily regulated, holistic medicine is not causing a rinse in individuals playing on the circumstances of others for large amounts of money. When looking a therapy as a culture, a doctor is a professionally trained person and it is the patient who has to rely on the judgement of the ailment and how to proceed to make the person well again. In more patient led therapies the therapist can give guidance and it is up to the client should they wish to follow them but can the therapist be held responsible if the client does not follow the guidelines? Instead of a patient in alternative medicine the person is seen as a client. Therefore, making the onus of health on the person seeking it.
Acting ethically within all medical disciplines means treating people in the correct manner and knowing the fundamental difference between right and wrong. Most professional bodies have a set of obligations and rules laid down by their own code of professional practice. We should be doing all we can to make sure the obligations are followed and safe practice is followed within all complimentary medicine. To make sure that clients are not over paying for a service that they may not be require and that the practitioner has the correct and up to date exam qualifications to provide the right service. People contact alternative health therapies as times they may feel this is a last resort and they need to be tended with care and not exploited from the practitioners’ self-gain. There are many grey areas of the ethics and behaviours in alternative medicine and make sure there is a rigorous, reflective analysis and not based information on flimsy observations such as gut feelings or relying on the subjectivity of the practitioner. Make sure there is an equality and a caring relationship to the therapeutic enterprise and ethical procedures need technical skill, non-judgement and developed listening skills all delivered with caring.
Melanie Gordon is a yoga, Pilates, Meditation teacher and Reiki Master. She is a qualified counselor from UK and is now based in Dubai.
Find out more at www.tocasoholistics.com