Very often, the difficulty is not in making a diagnosis, or carrying out the treatment protocol, but rather in reaching the client. Sometimes, unfortunately, it so happens that one or the other of my patients do not want to be on the same page with me!
The practical stuff, the physical processes on the molecular level in chelation and ozone therapy for example, work pretty much according to their own laws as explained in the textbooks. They are not bound by what anyone might ‘think’ or ‘feel’ about them. They can be easily explained. Plus, they work independently of the patient’s personality or mind-set. They are also verifiable. Some of the effects can be tested, even measured. After all, this part is science.
But the tricky part is, before the science part can work according to its own laws the client has to be reached. This requires some additional, should I say ‘philosophical’, or ‘psychological’, or ‘emotionally intelligent’ insights on the part of the physician, to access and allow the patient’s mind to open just wide enough in order to make the mechanical aspects acceptable. This part takes some old-fashioned sensitivity.
Very simply, I have to get the clients ear and attention above and beyond the level of rational explanations. Otherwise nothing will ever come of it. Once the treatment starts, I have to also playfully engage the patient’s resistance, which can be considerable, sometimes even insurmountable; especially in cases of chronic degenerative diseases when the disease has been lingering on for so long that it has been integrated into the patient’s persona. To put it provocatively, in cases such as these my overcoming my own frustration while communicating with the client often becomes an unavoidable part of the healing. How so?
Let us say, someone comes to see me with an advanced case of rheumatoid arthritis. She asks for my opinion and, after deliberating, for my assistance. First of course, I have to look at and explain the facts and abstain from making unrealistic promises. I have to take into account both the up- and downside of the situation. Then I can foretell the probable duration of the treatment, and how many treatment sessions will be required per week to arrive at a desirable improvement (reduction of pain, reduced swelling, improved flexibility in the afflicted joints) within, let us say a two to three month time frame; which I then communicate to the patient.
But the patient may not agree with my proposal. She may want to have fewer appointments in the course of one week. She may want to reduce the number of treatments. There may be financial constraints. Many factors can interfere.
If despite all of these, the patient wants to continue according to her own insights, I will have to work around these factors, find stopgap measures like (in the case of arthritis) discovering painkillers that appear to have the least side effects; or test for potential negative impacts of some of the medications that are taken and then change the medication and so forth.
In the course of the ensuing interactions over the next few visits some additional information may come to light that indirectly explains the patient’s hesitation, as well as her underlying emotional needs that are somehow woven into the fabric of the disease. Like when the client reveals to me that she had similar treatments done before, in this case a special kind of blood purification with a different doctor, but stopped seeing him the moment a violent detox reaction set in.
From which I gather that this particular patient prefers to keep her symptoms at a manageable level, not outright challenge them. And as it is ultimately the patient as much as the medicine or the doctor that determines the outcome of the treatment, I do have to respect the patient’s wishes. I cannot go against them, no matter how much I would prefer to do so. Thus, my frustration becomes part of the patient’s healing process, as she continues with her treatment and continues to receive the benefits that she is ready to accept.
In the end, my knowledge and conviction that so much more could be achieved does not matter. I am happy that I can be at least of some assistance…
But there are also cases when I have to say, "Sorry, but we would be wasting each other's time."