Friday, December 18, 2009

Professionalism in CAM: Psychology

The art in CAM is not knowing.
It is to make the other understand.

To put yourself in the other's shoes (tx @ankenn) AND to lever your "language" to the world of the other. Speaking frank is easier than speaking understandable.

A basic understanding of psychology will thus be necessary. Thus it needs to be included as early on in any class that claims to be a professional health formation.

Just too often I see it included in courses to teach people how to sell better their product. A way of manipulating the other to your ends.
This is not what it is about!
It is not about applying 7 habits, understanding any number of personality types in order to become richer, more famous, more loved.
It is to do your job as good as you can be.
And in the health sector, this means making the other understand that s/he can act, can change.
Whether to become healthy again, maintain her/his dignity while ill, stay in form, prevent imbalances.
Offering choices and giving back the other the will & responsability to choose.

This will make a significant difference between doing a health profession and being a health professional.


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Location:Rue Guy de Maupassant,Orléans,France

Professionalism in CAM: education

To further my previous blog,
Professionalism in CAM : Image
in order to adapt to the current established system here in the West, professionalism should start in the education of any CAM discipline.
Certainly through the quality and standards in the technique itself.
In order to fit here in the established society in the West, for the practitioner to stay level with his clients and collegues and to enable a flow of communication, a basic understanding of anatomical and medical terms needs to be included in the education of a CAM practitioner.
Thus "extra-disciplinary" subjects like anatomy and physio-pathology need to be rather "inter-disciplinary". Approached and implemented from the disciplinary side, well understood. No need to make it a 2 year training.

CAM carries the term complimentary. Hence in order to be such, touching frontiers between various fields needs to be there. A puzzle works only if the pieces have borders in common. Being a practitioner of a complimentary medicine includes the capability to put the pieces of the puzzle together. A basic knowledge of the biochemistry inside the human body and mind is part of it.
No matter whether we approach the well-being of our client from an Ayurvedic, TCM, or other way: it shall always manifest inside his body & mind, influencing his hormonal / emotional balance as much as flesh & bones.

No, this does not mean to adhere to the same principles.
Yet this allows to communicate in a common language.

All this to build on what makes CAM powerful : the capability to synthesize from a multi-point of view to reach a large picture of the patient without neglectig details. Trying rather to include than to exclude.

Survival of the fittest, not the strongest. Who adapts best, not forces most. From a multilevel perspective.


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Monday, December 14, 2009

Professionalism in CAM: image


If you visit your physician: how many Buddha statues do you see there?
And at your dentist's office: did he ever invite you to hum a mantra before drilling?

In the Westen hemisphere we are accustomed to a certain kind of image of what a professional health practitioner should look like: clean, sober, neutral.

Besides different personal points of view upon that matter: there is nonetheless a reason behind. This setup stands in our culture for cleanness of mind, neutrality with the aim of serving best the well-being of the patient, putting aside at a first stance all products of faith & believe and basing itself on palpable facts / results.

This ain't bad. As a matter of fact this represents the inner state of mind demanded by a professional health practitioner of CAM:
- no judgement
- neutrality
- efficiency (in a harmonious way)

And images are powerful. A first impression given by the place & person him-/herself. Even before opening the door.
Just what we all were doing when grooming our loved one for the very first time.
(a little more colorful so)

So why not representing outwardly what we shall carry inward?

In my life & work as a practitioner of various techniques of CAM I have learned to appreciate the importance of such a state of mind during my sessions.
right intentions

And learned further that indeed they do not end there but rather serve as a starting point to penetrate my whole life.
This centredness gives me the capability to adapt to the situation given by the patient & the moment in order to find the most harmonious approach for her/him.

This has nothing to do with being impersonal in a sense of cold & distant. Being open-minded, charming, compassionate will be the effect of your personality. If it is there, there won't be much need to add more to it.If it ain't, no colorful posters, candles or statues will add it.

Adapt and not compromise. There should be no need for the latter.



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Friday, December 11, 2009

Anger management

I've read several articles on how to "express" your anger, be it via exercising, shouting, dancing and more.
This represents the external, the yang part of this important task. Important as to learn to deal with this feeling of anger. Being aware of the fact that it can, needs to be expressed.
Facing, accepting anger is the first step of changing our behaviour towards it, the others and ourselves.

What's next?

I haven't met anybody yet who felt well after he got angry. It often leaves a bitter taste inside. This "something ain't right" feeling. Being outside ourselves.
Our energy being drained deeply, as TCM explains well.

Where does it come from, this bitter, acidy taste?
Is there a way to avoid it next time?

Besides the external stimulus, I find often culpability, anger against oneself more than against others, being the steam underneath these volcanos.
A knowledge of not having acted at our best.
Not feeling right in our skin (place).
And if this heat cannot erupt, it will burn inside. Appearing cool from the outside it will "kill" inwards.

Thus learning to look honestly at ourselves, with heart & mind, needs doing. Which apparently is difficult. Our ego giving us ten thousands reasons why not to. Being inside a forest and not seeing it because of so many trees around us.

Sometimes the talk of a person close to our heart will do.
Sometimes we might need to appeal to a professional.

In shiatsu and aromaherapy the practitioner's work is to guide you to a lighting inside this forest and thus to reconcile your conscient and non-conscient parts in such a harmonious ways that indeed no harm be done.
By working with you and the flow of your vital energy Qi in your meridians in a way respectful to you and your surroundings on a large scale. Giving you choices. Making you feeling more comfortable within yourself. Helping to make the inner picture of ourselves becoming clearer. Thus calmer, inside and outside.

Because the fear we are not looking at ALWAYS appears much bigger than it is in reality.
Fear, living in the shadows of our souls, is just that: a shadow itself. And the shadow always appears bigger than that what is actually casting it.

Henceforth be courageous, talk to your good friend, and if that does not bring you further, try a session with a professional shiatsu or aromatherapy practitioner to have a look inside.

Carpe diem
And a resourceful weekend

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Location:Parc Kellermann,Paris,France

Friday, December 04, 2009

Tricks of the Mind

or the ego cannot fail

Having giving in recently into numerous "trick or treat" threads, I am blogging here about a different one: the big voice within.
Let's call it iEgo

Always present it is giving advise, reason, padding our shoulders, unnamed, unasked for.
Impressively clever, cunning, smooth or tough, it carries yet a major flaw:
by design it is giving only egoistical advise & counsel. It is not concerned about the other.
Whether the other is the guy/gal in the car in front, our partner, a group or even the environement doesn't strike any difference to iEgo.
All the same: different from me!
No chance for win-win situations. The other always looses.

Wait a minute: that can't be. No one always wins.
Yes, iEgo does.

At least that's what it wants us to make believe.
Why?
Because by it's very nature, it may not do one thing: admit to have made a mistake.
And believe me, it will do ANYTHING to make you believe that the obvious mistake is actually none. That there is a very good reason why this is much better this way, and not the other. That this little scratch in our heart is not really hurting. The lost blood not so important. It ALWAYS finds a reason.
Even if it has to lie!

Not a good counselor really, is it?

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Location:Rue Guy de Maupassant,Orléans,France

Aroma: immediate response

"a remedy that works needs to taste bitter!",
a German proverb says.

As this might be true with some medications, it it certainly NOT with essential oils.

One of the wonderful facts of using aromatherapy is the possibility to gain a "touchable" response for the patient immediately: it's the smell!

Not just a tickling or warming sensation as might be found within shiatsu for example. Sensations still appearing strange, at least in the beginning.

Nope, here we feel something very concrete and direct (smell being the only of our 5 senses where the nerve receptors are wired directly into our brains).

When in doubt how to approach the energetic imbalance in the patient, I'll just let him take the perfume of the oils pre-chosen. It will be his nose that shows the way. It is his personal preference in this very moment that will build the syntheses of his past experiences and his current state, leading towards a more equally balanced life.

This is true for single essential oils.
Always a pleasure seeing how some people prefer lavander oil over camomille as a lullaby (which one leans more to his feminine/yin, and which one to his masculine/yang side? ).

This is even so more true for mixes of essential oils, as here not only the overall effect is accounted for. I find it surprising how some people immediately smell (prefer) one ingredient over the other, ALTHOUGH it might be a minor part in the mixture. It's like the famous dot had been placed on the "i".

Just that, here, it is YOU who acts, who takes the reins for your health.

Which is not more nor less than any practitioner is wishing for

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Location:Rue de la Pomme de Pin,Saint-Cyr-en-Val,France

Tu as raison

Est-ce qu'on n'utilise pas souvent cette phrase quand justement on n'est pas convaincu. Un peu comme "Oui mais.."?

Il y a un doute.

C'est souvent le cœur qui nous signale il y a quelque chose là qui cloche dans nous.

Peut être seulement qu'on espère bien que ça serait tout à fait pas correcte, plus facile, plus doux, plus romantique, .., pour nous.

Ah, la facilité! C'est quoi qui rend la vie si dure ...


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